Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)
LUND, Erik: The generation of 1683: Habsburg General Officers and the military technical Corps, 1686–1723
Erik Lund the Field Acts shows that eight had Francophone names, nine Italian, and fifteen German/Czechs, indicating that the trends established above also held true for lesser ranked engineers in Habsburg service, at least through 1709. By the time of the 1737-39 war, all the engineers attached to the field army were listed in army staff returns by “brigade“. From these it can be established that the field engineer corps for the campaign of 1739 contained 33 Germans (including Czechs and Flemings), 13 French (including all those not identified as ethnic French), eight ethnic French, seven Italians, and five unidentified; in 1739 the apparently rather smaller corps included 32 Germans (including Czechs and Flemings), six Italians, six French (including all those not identified as ethnic French), four ethnic French, one Swiss, and five unidentified24. Here we see a clear numerical predominance by Germans, followed by French, who were predominantly members of the “Netherlands Brigade“ of engineers, and a continuing large contingent of Italians. We are left to wonder why the numerous fortresses of the Milanese did not provide an Italian Engineers Brigade, when such a brigade existed alongside the Netherlands Brigade by 174925. Still, at all ranks we are consistently left with a substantial Italian cadre within the technical arms. Even more impressive is the very high proportion of Germans, which decisively rules out the claim that the Imperial engineer corps was foreign, Atlantic, Francophone, Western, Protestant, or indeed, anything but predominantly native to the German, Italian, and French Habsburg and Lorraine lands at every level. Conclusion Above all, the generals of the Habsburg service were members of the social élite, but they were not obscurantists. The Imperial officer corps contained substantial numbers of native magnates, but was not yet dominated by Austrians, Bohemians, and Hungarians. The numerous French and Italian officers were not “international soldiers of fortune“. Rather, almost all the Francophones can be traced back to Savoy, Lorraine, and the modern Belgium, and some can be traced quite specifically to the clientage of the Dukes of Savoy and Lorraine, and the Habsburg king of Spain. Among the Italians, there are regional concentrations in the Milanese and Naples, again presumably showing Spanish Habsburg patronage, and a substantial Este clientage. However, the role of Romance speakers can be overemphasized, for the larger part of the technical corps was French. There is evidence for technical diffusion into central Europe, however, just not from France. Instead the Obedient Netherlands and Lombardy continue to fill this ancient role. The presumption that a divide between “technical“ and nontechnical officers is echoed by an aristocratic/bourgeois divide in the officer corps also has no merit. On the question of whether an educational divide between better educated bourgeois and dilettante nobles existed, all that may be said here is that there is no evidence for one. Finally, the evidence indicates that technical officers, at least once promoted general, enjoyed a better chance of reaching the 24 Browne: Türkenkrieg, Feldzüge 1738, Appendix C and Feldzüge 1739, Appendix K. 25 See K W M 12/130, the famous „Theresian Reglement“ establishing an Engineers Corps. 202
