The company was founded by Richard Hennessy who was born in 1724 to a family of Irish aristocrats in a village in the County of Cork. In 1745, he enlisted in King Louis XV’s Irish Brigade and discovered the Charente France region shortly after the Battle of Fontenoy. In 1756 Captain Hennessy left the army and traveled to the Belgian city of Ostend, a place where some of his family lived and where he began trading in eaux-de-vie. In 1765, Richard returned to Charente and established his own Maison in Cognac. He settled the Founder’s Cellar along the Charente river and aged eaux-de-vie for more than ten years to create exceptional cognacs. Today Hennessy is owned by Louis Vuitton.