Filippo Antonio Pasquale di Paoli (Pascal Paoli, April 6, 1725 – February 5, 1807), is a Corsican patriot and leader, the president of the Executive Council of the General Diet of the People of Corsica.
Paoli designs and writes the Constitution of the state.
The Corsican Republic is a representative democracy asserting that the elected Diet of Corsican representatives has no master.
Paoli holds his office by election and not by appointment.
It makes him commander-in-chief of the armed forces as well as chief magistrate.
Paoli's government claims the same jurisdiction as the Republic of Genoa.
In terms of de facto exercise of power, the Genoese hold the coastal cities, which they can defend from their citadels, but the Corsican republic controls the rest of the island from Corte, its capital.
Following the French conquest of Corsica in 1768, Paoli oversees the Corsican resistance.
Following the defeat of Corsican forces at the Battle of Ponte Novu, he is forced into exile in Britain where he is a celebrated figure.
He returns after the French Revolution, of which he is initially supportive.
He later breaks with the revolutionaries and helps to create the Anglo-Corsican Kingdom which lasts between 1794 and 1796.
After the island is reoccupied by France, he again goes into exile in Britain, where he dies in 1807.
