Pasquale Paoli

Pasquale Paoli (1725–1807) was the son of the Corsican patriot Giacinto Paoli and grew up exiled in Naples after 1739. Returning in 1755, he was elected general of the Corsicans and built the Corsican Republic, ruling from Corte with an elected diet and a written constitution while Genoa held the coast.

After Genoa transferred its rights over Corsica to France, his forces were beaten at Ponte Novu in 1769 and he fled to Britain. He returned with the French Revolution, then broke with France and helped found the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom of 1794–1796, dying in London in 1807.