Where military leaders grew up and lived

Alexander the Great

📍 Royal Palace of Pella, Pella, Central Macedonia 59035, Greece

I grew up in the royal palace at Pella, a city my father Philip II transformed from a modest settlement into the greatest capital in Greece. The palace was vast — its mosaic floors…

Attila the Hun406–453

📍 Pannonian Plain, Hungary

My palace — if you can call it that — was a great compound on the Pannonian plain, in the heart of what is now Hungary. The Roman diplomat Priscus visited me there in 448 and wrote about it…

Charles de Gaulle1958–1970

📍 1 Rue du Général de Gaulle, 52330 Colombey-les-Deux-Églises, France

I was born Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle on the 22nd of November 1890 in Lille, but I built my retirement home — La Boisserie — at Colombey-les-Deux-Églises in the Haute-Marne, and…

Francisco Franco1892–1975

📍 El Ferrol, Galicia, Spain

I was born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde on the 4th of December 1892 in El Ferrol, a naval garrison town in Galicia, the son of a naval paymaster. El Ferrol gave…

Hannibal Barca

📍 Carthage, Tunis, Tunisia

I grew up in Carthage — the great city my people built on the coast of North Africa, its harbours the finest in the Mediterranean world. My father Hamilcar brought me to the army's…

Henri d'Orléans, Duke of Aumale1844–1897

📍 Château de Chantilly, 60500 Chantilly, Oise, France

I inherited Chantilly and found it in ruins — the palace had been destroyed in the Revolution. I spent forty years and a significant portion of my fortune rebuilding the Grand Château and…

Hồ Chí Minh1890–1969

📍 Kim Lien, Nghe An, Vietnam

I was born Nguyễn Sinh Cung on the 19th of May 1890 in Kim Liên village, Nghệ An province, in central Vietnam. I took the name Hồ Chí Minh — He Who Enlightens — and spent thirty years in…

I Gusti Ketut Jelantik1800–1849

📍 Monumen Perang Puputan Jagaraga, Desa Jagaraga, Kecamatan Sawan, Kabupaten Buleleng, Bali 81171, Indonesia

When the Dutch fleet first appeared off Buleleng's coast in 1846, the Raja sent me to negotiate. I negotiated nothing — I refused to accept their terms because their terms were our…

I Gusti Ngurah Rai1917–1946

📍 Taman Pujaan Bangsa Margarana, Desa Kelaci, Kecamatan Marga, Kabupaten Tabanan, Bali 82181, Indonesia

I knew by the autumn of 1946 that the Dutch intended to restore colonial control over Bali regardless of what Sukarno had proclaimed in August 1945. When they surrounded my Ciung Wanara…

James Stewart1908–1928

📍 Indiana, PA 15701, USA

I was born in May 1908 in Indiana, Pennsylvania, a small town in the coal and farming hills east of Pittsburgh, the eldest child and only son of Alexander and Bessie Stewart. My father ran…

Jan Smuts1870–1950

📍 Boplaas, Malmesbury, Western Cape, South Africa

I was born Jan Christiaan Smuts on the 24th of May 1870 on the farm Boplaas near Malmesbury in the Cape Colony — now the Western Cape of South Africa. I studied law at Cambridge, fought…

Joan of Arc1412–1431

📍 2 Rue de la Basilique, 88630 Domrémy-la-Pucelle, Vosges, France

I was born in Domremy, a small village on the Meuse river in the duchy of Bar, in a stone farmhouse that still stands. I grew up spinning wool and tending cattle, a girl of the fields and…

Julius Caesar

📍 Domus Publica, Roman Forum, Rome, Italy

As Pontifex Maximus I lived in the Domus Publica — the official residence that stood at the edge of the Roman Forum, between the temple of Vesta and the Sacred Way. To walk out my front…

King Kamehameha I1812–1819

📍 Kamakahonu, Kailua-Kona, HI 96740, USA

I was born on the island of Hawaiʻi on a stormy night, it is said, when a bright light crossed the sky, and I was raised in secret for my safety. As a young warrior and chief I fought for…

Mao Zedong1893–1913

📍 Shaoshan Village, Shaoshan, Xiangtan, Hunan 411300, China

I was born in 1893 in Shaoshan, a village in Hunan province in central China, the son of a peasant farmer who had made himself prosperous through frugality and hard work. Shaoshan was a…

Napoleon Bonaparte1799–1815

📍 Chateau de Malmaison, Rueil-Malmaison, France

Of all the places I lived — the Tuileries, the Elysee, the palaces of conquered Europe — it was Malmaison that felt most like home. Josephine found it first, a modest chateau west of Paris…

Pericles

📍 Agora of Athens, Monastiraki, Athens, Attica 105 55, Greece

I led Athens during its golden age in the fifth century BC, and the city I served was also the city that formed me. I was born around 495 BC into the Alcmaeonid family — one of Athens' most…

Prince Philip1921–1922

📍 Mon Repos, Corfu, Greece

I was born on the dining-room table at Mon Repos, a neoclassical villa set in woods on the edge of Corfu town, in June 1921 — a prince of Greece and Denmark, the youngest child and only son…

Rewi Maniapoto1807–1894

📍 Kihikihi, Waikato, New Zealand

Ko au ko Rewi Maniapoto. I was born around 1807 of Ngāti Maniapoto descent, and my name is most remembered for the words spoken at Ōrākau in April 1864, when the Crown's forces besieged our…

Simón Bolívar1783–1830

📍 Casa Natal de Simón Bolívar, La Pastora, Caracas 1010, Venezuela

I was born Simón Bolívar in Caracas, Venezuela in 1783, into one of the wealthiest creole families in South America. The Bolívar house in Caracas was a mansion — we owned cacao plantations…

Sitting Bull1831–1890

📍 Grand River, Mobridge, South Dakota, USA

I was born on the Grand River in what is now South Dakota, in the country of the Hunkpapa Lakota, and the land along that river was my home in the deepest sense — not a place I owned, but a…

Tāmati Wāka Nene1780–1871

📍 Hokianga, Northland, New Zealand

Ko au ko Tāmati Wāka Nene. I was born in the 1780s in the Hokianga, of Ngāti Hao and Ngāpuhi descent, and I spent my life navigating the most complex political moment in Māori history — the…

Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki1832–1893

📍 Poverty Bay, Gisborne, New Zealand

Ko au ko Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki. I was born around 1832 of Rongowhakaata descent in the Poverty Bay region, and I was deported without trial to the Chatham Islands in 1866, accused…

Tokugawa Ieyasu1600–1603

📍 68 Honmachi, Himeji, Hyogo 670-0012, Japan

Before I unified Japan at Sekigahara, Himeji was my staging post. I gave it to my son-in-law Ikeda Terumasa to rebuild in the new style — white plaster walls and curving rooflines rising…

Toussaint Louverture1743–1803

📍 Bréda Plantation, Haut-du-Cap, Cap-Haïtien, Haiti

I was born François-Dominique Toussaint around 1743 on the Bréda plantation in Saint-Domingue — the colony that became Haiti — enslaved from birth. I taught myself to read, rose to a…

Vlad the Impaler1431–1436

📍 Casa Vlad Dracul, Piața Cetății 5, Sighișoara 545400, Romania

I was born around 1431, it is said, in the yellow-walled house on Citadel Square in Sighișoara, a Saxon merchant town on a hill in Transylvania, its walls studded with guild towers. My…

William Wallace1270–1290

📍 Elderslie, Renfrewshire PA5, UK

Tradition says I was born around 1270 at Elderslie, a village near Paisley in Renfrewshire, the son of a minor landowner — the old poem about me names my father Sir Malcolm of Elderslie…

Winston Churchill1874–1892

📍 Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1PP, United Kingdom

I was born prematurely at Blenheim on the thirtieth of November 1874, in a ground-floor room during a party — which is precisely the kind of entrance my father would have approved of…