Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)

LUND, Erik: The generation of 1683: Habsburg General Officers and the military technical Corps, 1686–1723

Erik Lund

Spanish, 5 Swiss, 3 Polish, 1 Dutch, and 1 Portuguese, and 7 of indeterminate national origin. (No count of Field-Marshals is provided for these smaller groups as it would not be statistically significant.) The figure of 37 “French“ generals is at first glance striking, but no less than 16 of the 19 individuals so identified have proven to be Lorrainers, Walloons, Savoyards, or Swiss. The greater part of the “Frenchmen“ in Imperial service were Francophones rather than French, from regions at least nominally subject to the Habsburg emperor rather than the French king. It is well to recall that even at this date French remained an “Imperial“ language with a place in Vienna. The Italians were primarily from the Milanese and Naples, but there was also a very active Modenese clientage. Given the influence of the Montecuccolis, it is not surprising that other clients of the Estenses, like the Bolognan Caraffas were well represented at higher ranks.

By birth the total sample includes 47 of the high nobility, including three dukes, 18 margraves, two landgraves, 10 ruling princes [Fürsten], and 14 princes, 185 of the middle nobility, including 116 Counts of the Empire [Reichsgrafen], counts [Grafen, Comtes, Conti] three Dons, 67 barons, including 49 Freiherren, and lesser nobility including three knights, 34 untitled nobles, and four carrying neither title nor particle. 96 of 271 generals can be identified as pre-1600 nobility, three were clearly ennobled after 1600, and 135 have titles of unknown age and provenance. Even without venturing into speculation about how many of these latter are old titles, it is clear enough that the established nobility dominated the Habsburg officer corps, as they did the French corps, if perhaps not to the same extent. Only 12 of the sample received noble title during the 1686-1723 without any prior claim to noble status, so that they may be said to have been “raised“ to the nobility, and from 271 officers, for only one (Artillery General Christoph Freiherr von Börner [d. 1710]) does a biographical tradition of bourgeois birth survive5.

5 Where not specifically noted otherwise, all biographic data cited below comes from Dictionnaire de bio- graphie franjaise. Sous la dir. de J. Balteau, M. Barroux, M. Prevost, M. T. 1. Paris 1933; Bayle, Pierre: Dictionnaire historique et critique. 5th ed. Vol. 1-4. Amsterdam 1740; Neue deutsche Biographie. Hrsg, von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. Vol. 1-18. Berlin 1953-1996; Biographie Nationale. Publiée par lAcadémie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique. Tom. 1-44. Bruxelles 1866-1985; Calvi, Felice: Famiglie Notabili Milanesi. Vol. 1-4. Milano 1875-1885, reprinted Bologna 1969; Aubert de la Chenaye-Desbois, Franfois Alexandre: Dictionnaire de la Noblesse. 2nde ed. Tom. 1-12. Paris 1770-1778; Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. 1-49. Roma 1960-1997; Dizionario enciclo- pedico italiano. Red. Umberto Bosco. Vol. 1-12. Suppi. A-Z. Roma 1955-1974; Godet, Marcel: Historisch-biographisches Lexikon der Schweiz. Dictionnaire historique et biographique de la Suisse. Hrsg, unter der Leitung von Heinrich Türler [et als.] Tom. 1-7. Suppi. 1. 2. Neuchätel 1921-1934; Gozzadini, Giovanni: Delle torri gentilizie di Bologna e delle famiglie alle quali prima appartennero. Bologna 1965; Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Hrsg, durch die Historische Commission bei der Königl. Akademie der Wissenschaften. Vol. 1-56. Leipzig 1875-1912; Manno, Barone Antonio: II patriziato subalpino. Vol. 1. 2. Firenze 1895-1906, reprint Bologna 1972; Michaud, J. Fr.: Biographie universelle ancienne et moderne. Tom. 1-80. Paris 1811-1847, reprint Graz 1966-1970; Nagy, Iván: Magyarország családai. Czi- merekkel és nemzékrendi táblákkal. Vol. 1-7. Budapest 1857-1868; Pelletier, Dom. Ambroise: Nobi- liaire de la Lorraine et du Barrois. Paris 1974; Procházka, Roman Freiherr von: Genealogisches Handbuch erloschener bömischer Herrenstandsfamilien. Neustadt an der Aisch 1973 and: Genealogisches Handbuch erloschener bömischer Herrenstandsfamilien. Ergbd. Munich 1990; T r u c c o, Giovanni (Ed.):

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