Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 46. (1998)

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

The Generation of 1683

generals, who include only two identified Protestants, the German Neipperg and the Swiss Bürkli, entirely ruling out the working of a “Protestant ethic“. In contrast, Protestants were strong in the artillery, with two North Germans and one Nuremberger of the Evangelical, but none of the Reformed denomination. De Beauffe and St. Amour could conceivably have been the children of Huguenots, but there is strong evidence that St. Amour was a Savoyard, while de Beauffe was probably a Lorrai- ner22. Neither Lorraine nor Savoy received significant Huguenot emigrations. Finally, four Germans/Czechs, Gschwind, Rappach, Harsch, and Steinberg, cannot be identified by religion from biographic sources. The Harsches were from rural Alsace, a region of mixed religion, while. Gschwind was perhaps a Mecklenburger, and thus Protestant. The only Steinbergs or Steinbergers known to German history were Genevans and Silesians. Thus, what evidence there is suggests that Steinberg at least was a Protestant, one of, at most, eight German Protestants, two Huguenots, one French Catholic, one Austro-German Catholic, one Italian Catholic, and one unknown, leaving open the possibility that the artillery was dominated by Protestants.

Although we have not enquired into individuals of colonel or major-general’s rank, the relatively small number of engineers and artillerists suggests that in this case it might be a fruitful line of inquiry. Does the pattern established for technical officers of higher rank perhaps reflect an atypical distribution? They do not. Major Generals of the technical services included the engineers Melchior Auguste Comte de la Venerie (fl. 1708-12), Luigi Ferdinando Count Marsigli (1658-1741), the specialist miner Charles-Louis de Goulon (b. 1640), and the artillerist Christoph Ernst von Weilern (fl. 1707)23. Colonels included the engineers Moranda Count Visconti (fl. 1690-1714), Colonel Fontani (fl. 1686-1701), the artillerist Bugnetti (fl. 1732), and an officer known only as a miner, St. Martin (fl. 1714). This sample shows a definite lack of Germans, about the same proportion of French as the larger sample, and a large number of Italians. It also includes the single Huguenot identified by any source as an Imperial officer, Major-General Charles-Louis de Goulon. As with Beauffe and St. Amour, St. Martin and Venerie could conceivably have been the children of Huguenots, but even if they were, the technical corps at this level would still be evenly divided between Italian Catholics and French and German Protestants.

There are other ways of taking the (ethnic) measure of the Imperial or Reich engineer service in this period. For instance, a random sample of 32 individuals cited in

22 St. Amour see AFA 1705-ltalien 12/84; De Beauffe or La Bauffe see Regele; Generalstabschefs, pp. 21-24.

23 Information on Goulon comes from two sources Vauban, Sebastien le Prestre de: Vauban. Sa famille et ses écrits, ses oisivetés et sa correspondance, analyse et extráit. Ed. par D ’ A i g 1 u n, Albert de Rochas. Vol. 1. 2. Paris 1910, reprinted Génévé 1972, Vol. 1, p. 268 which notes him as Charles and clearly mistakes his final rank; and Goulon’s own book, noted as by Goulon (b. 1640), Louis de: Mémoires pour l’attaque et pour la défense d’une place. Wesel 1706. The inference that the general was christened Char- les-Louis or Louis-Charles is strong, but scarcely certain; Marsigli is the subject of a interesting recent biography by Stoye, John: Marsigli’s Europe 1680-1730. The Life and Times of Luigi Ferdinando Marsigli, Soldier and Virtuoso. New Haven 1994.

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