Empire marshal Murat

Joachim rose in the French army to the rank of a general. He married Napoleon Bonaparte's sister
Caroline Bonaparte in 1800, and was made a Marshal of France on  May 18, 1804.  Napoleon also granted him the title of "First Horseman of Europe". He was appointed duke of Berg and in 1808 to king of  Naples.

A brilliant and dashing cavalry leader, Murat played an important part in Napoleon's victories.
During Napoleon's defence of Tuileries (1795), Murat was successful in stealing forty cannon from the French National Guard. Without these cannon, Tuileries would have fallen, and the French Directory would not have become the official government of France.  Murat was equally
useful in the Russian campaign (1812), and in the Battle of Leipzig (1813). After Leipzig, however, he reached (1814) an agreement with Austria in order to save his own throne. During the Hundred Days he deserted his new allies and re-joined Napoleon. Defeated by the Austrians at Battle of Tolentino, he fled to Corsica after Napoleon's fall. In an attempt to regain Naples he was arrested and executed.

When the fatal moment arrived, Murat walked with a firm step to the place of execution,  as calm, as unmoved, as if he had been going to an ordinary review. He would not accept a chair, nor suffer his eyes to be bound. "I have braved death (said he) too often to fear it." He stood upright, proudly and undauntedly, with his countenance towards the soldiers; and when all was ready, he kissed a cornelian on which the head of his wife was engraved, and gave the word  thus, "Save my
face -- aim at my heart -- fire!""