Baron Munchausen

The man whose deeds were immortalised first by Rudolph Eric Raspe and later by Terry Gilliam. A soldier in Prussia, a slave in Turkey and a hero always, Munchausen demonstrates all the necessary traits of a true gentleman.

An soldier in the Austrio-Hungarian empire who had always chafed under the direction of unskilled officers. Munchausen got his revenge after the war by telling everyone that he was an officer (of noble birth) inventing a series of exploits which became more outrageous over time, including a series of servants who did whatever he was physically incapable of doing. These were eventually collected, written into a book, and later a movie. See Munchausen's syndrome.