In 1808, Marshall Herman Willem Daendels, who was 46 at the time, arrived in Batavia as the governor-general of the Dutch East Indies. A native of the small town of Hattem in the Netherlands, he was known as a powerful figure who was enamored by the French Revolution. He was a commander in the French Foreign Legion which took part in overthrowing William V of Orange and annexed Holland to France. When Louis Napoleon, the younger brother of French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte occupied the Netherlands, Daendels was commissioned off to Java. His primary duty was to secure Java from British attack. At that time, there were hostilities between the French and the British. Java was a Dutch-French colonial area which had not fallen into British hands. Mauritius, which had been colonized by the French, had fallen to the British in 1807.