Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)
LUND, Erik: The generation of 1683: Habsburg General Officers and the military technical Corps, 1686–1723
Erik Lund in 1660-65. Once in, the forty years of almost continuous warfare which followed gave these men ample opportunity to reach general officer’s rank, with a minimum of peaceful periods to slow down promotions and cut down on opportunities for active employment7. It would be more speculative, but probably true, to say that the 1683 buildup, with its spirit of crusading enthusiasm, attracted a high caliber of volunteers, who prospered accordingly. Knowing the number of generals does not, however, tell us how many were employed at any given time. Included in this sample are officers who spent war years as ambassadors and bureaucrats, ones who were unemployed, under arrest, even some who were fugitives. How many active positions were there for general officers in this period? The number of active appointments in the field rose from 32 in 1683, to 63 in January 1708, and finally to 67 in July 1717. Given the number of generals out of favor or otherwise employed, one would expect that the number of generals would be much smaller than the number of positions, and this is certainly true in 1717, when there were 137 general officers promoted since 1683 still alive. In marked contrast, in 1708 there were only 87 surviving general officers promoted between 1686 and 1723. The pre-1686 generals, never numerous in any case, had by this time dwindled away, leaving the post 1686 officers to constitute the large majority of likely candidates for field duties in 1708. If convalescent officers, retirements, and officers in other employment are taken into account, it would appear that in 1708 the Imperial general officer corps was experiencing something close to full employment. Such circumstances would have made the career of general officer very popular indeed. By the same token, the much more normal condition of a considerable surplus of generals to field appointments which prevailed from 1717 was probably a severe shock to men brought up in the expectation of ready employment8. To speak of a normal Old Regime demographic profile for the Habsburg general officer corps for this period would, however, be a mistake. The Habsburg army had become a standing army by necessity without yet fully evolving institutions appropriate to that status. As late as 1648 Habsburg officials had responded to the new financial demands of peace by simply dismissing a large proportion of the general officers corps, and it would hardly have been unreasonable for those responsible for building up the army in the 1680s to assume that the same would be possible when peace was restored. While it became clear during these years that the Habsburgs would be required to maintain very large army under peace time conditions, the existing and somewhat top-heavy command corps was necessarily retained. Because of the common and probably unavoidable Old Regime system of promotion by se7 Patents for new regiments, see AFA 1683-Türkenkrieg 13, passim. In total, 26 new regiments, requiring some thousand officers, were raised in 1681-83. See Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen. Nach den Feld-Acten und anderen authentischen Quellen hrsg. von der Abtheilung für Kriegsgeschichte des k. k. Knegs-Archives. Vol. 1-20. Vienna 1876-1891, Vol. 1, endtables A and B. Work is hereafter cited as Feldzüge. 8 Totals of employed officers from AFA 1683-Türkenkrieg !4, 5/13; AFA 1708-Niederlande 13/la-g,h; AFA 1717-Türkenkrieg 6/132, for Belgrade only. Feldzüge, Vol. 17, pp. 198-242 for detachments; total officers available, compiled from data presented in Appendix. 194
