Raimondo Montecuccoli | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1609-02-21)21 February 1609 |
| Died | 16 October 1680(1680-10-16) (aged 71) |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance |  Holy Roman Empire |
| Branch | Imperial Army |
| Years of service | 1625–1675 |
| Rank | Generalfeldmarschall |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Order of the Golden Fleece |
Raimondo Montecuccoli (Italian pronunciation:[raiˈmondomonteˈkukkoli]; 21 February 1609 – 16 October 1680) was an Italian-born professional soldier, military theorist, and diplomat, who served theHabsburg monarchy. His military exploits over his five-decade career earned him a reputation as one of the greatest military commanders in history. He is also regarded as the most distinguished military thinker of the early modern period.[1]
Experiencing theThirty Years' War from scratch as a simple footsoldier, he rose through the ranks into a regiment holder and became an important cavalry commander in the late stages. Serving the Habsburgs as war counsellor and envoy, he commanded their troops in theSecond Northern War and theAustro-Turkish War of 1663–64 where he scored an impressive victory in theBattle of Saint Gotthard. Afterwards, he became president of theHofkriegsrat and briefly returned as supreme commander of the Imperial forces during theFranco-Dutch War.
Montecuccoli was considered the only commander able to compete with the French generalTurenne (1611–1675), and like him, was closely associated with the post-1648 development oflinear infantry tactics.[2]
Montecuccoli was born on 21 February 1609 in theCastello di Montecuccolo inPavullo nel Frignano, nearModena.[3]
At the age of sixteen, Montecuccoli began as a private soldier under his uncle, CountErnesto Montecuccoli (died 1633), a distinguished Austrian general. Four years later, after much active service in Germany and the Low Countries, he became a captain ofinfantry. He was severely wounded at the storming ofNew Brandenburg, and again in the same year (1631) at the firstbattle of Breitenfeld, where he fell into the hands of theSwedes.[4]
He was again wounded atLützen in 1632, and on his recovery was made a major in his uncle's regiment. Shortly afterwards he became a lieutenant-colonel ofcavalry. He did good service at the firstbattle of Nordlingen (1634), and at the storming ofKaiserslautern in the following year won his colonelcy by a feat of arms of unusual brilliance, a charge through the breach at the head of his heavy cavalry.[4]
He fought inPomerania,Bohemia andSaxony (surprise ofWolmirstedt, battles ofWittstock andChemnitz), and in 1639 he was taken prisoner atMelnik and detained for two and a half years inStettin andWeimar. In captivity he studied military science, and also geometry by the way ofEuclid, the history ofTacitus, andVitruvius'architecture, all the while planning his great work on war.[4]
Returning to the field in 1642, Montecuccoli fought underArchduke Leopold Wilhelm inSilesia where he defeated a Swedish corps under Erik Slang atTroppau. This forced the Swedish commanderLennart Torstensson to relieve the siege ofBrieg. Montecuccoli was appointed toGeneralfeldwachtmeister[5] and allowed to temporarily leave the Imperial army in Winter 1642 to fight in theFirst War of Castro as cavalry commander for theDuke of Modena.[5][6][7][3]
After his return from Italy in 1644, he was promoted to lieutenant field marshal and nominated as a member of theHofkriegsrat, the Imperial War council.[5] First substituting the diseasedMelchior von Hatzfeldt inFranconia, he reinforced the main army underMatthias Gallas in late 1644 that was encircled by the Swedes atBernburg after retreating fromHolstein. Trying to break through the Swedish blockade, he escaped Swedish attacks in thebattle of Jüterbog and evacuated parts of the imperial cavalry to Bohemia.[8][9]
In early 1645, he rallied 5000 men in Silesia which he brought to the main army at the Danube in June. Under Leopold Wilhelm, he operated againstGeorge I Rákóczi who tried to conquer Hungary and to support the Swedish advance following theirvictory at Jankau. After Rákóczi's retreat and the Swedish defeat atBrno, Montecuccoli was sent back to Silesia which he defended over the course of the year 1646 against a larger Swedish force underArvid Wittenberg. In 1647, victory at thebattle of Triebl in Bohemia won him the rank ofGeneral of Cavalry, and at thebattle of Zusmarshausen in 1648 his stubborn rearguard fighting rescued the imperials from annihilation.[5][4]
For some years after thePeace of Westphalia, Montecuccoli was chiefly concerned with the business of the Hofkriegsrat, though he went toFlanders andEngland as the representative of the emperor, and to Sweden as the envoy of thepope toQueen Christina, and atModena his lance was victorious in a greattourney.[4]
In 1657, he took part in the Habsburg expedition to supportPoland–Lithuania againstGeorge Rákóczy II,Charles X Gustav of Sweden and theCossacks in the war known in Poland asThe Deluge or elsewhere as theSecond Northern War. During the conflict, he was promoted tofield marshal and succeeded Hatzfeldt as commander of the Habsburg troops.[4][5]
His army participated in the struggle inDenmark against the invading Swedes, along with Polish troops underStefan Czarniecki,Frederick William of Brandenburg's army and Danish forces. He led alanding on Funen on 26 June 1659, which ended in failure and him being wounded.[10] Eventually, the war ended with thePeace of Oliva in 1660 and Montecuccoli returned to hissovereign.[4]
From 1661 to 1664, Montecuccolidefended Austria against theOttoman Empire with inferior numbers.[4] His actions were not only hindered by lack of supplies or the overwhelming numbers of the Ottomans but also by the Emperor's orders to only risk battle if there was the possibility that Vienna could get in danger. Therefore he did not try to relieve thebesieged Novi Zrin in 1664 whose defensive capabilities he underestimated.[11] But in the major battle ofSt. Gotthard Abbey on theRába, he defeated the Turks so comprehensively that they entered into a twenty-year truce. He was given theOrder of the Golden Fleece, and he became president of the Hofkriegsrat and director ofartillery in 1668. He also devoted much time to compiling his various works on military history and science. He opposed the progress of the French arms underLouis XIV, and when theinevitable war broke out he received command of the Imperial forces. In the campaign of 1673, he completely outmanoeuvred his rivalTurenne on the Neckar and theRhine and joined his army with that ofWilliam III, theprince of Orange on the lower Rhine. Together theycaptured Bonn, which caused the French to retreat from theDutch Republic[4][5]
He retired from the army when, in 1674, theGreat Elector was named commander in chief, but the brilliant successes of Turenne in the winter of 1674 and 1675 brought him back. For months the two famous commanders manoeuvred against each other in the Rhine valley, but on the eve of a decisivebattle at Salzbach, Turenne was killed and Montecuccoli promptly invadedAlsace, where he engaged in another war of manoeuvre with theGreat Condé.[4] At the end of the year 1675, Montecuccoli retired from active command due to his health and was succeeded byCharles of Lorraine.[5][8]
The rest of Montecuccoli's life was spent in military administration and literary and scientific work atVienna.[4] In 1678, he received the title of a Spanish Prince from KingCharles II. However, he was not made Duke of Amalfi or Melfi as often is attributed to him. Neither did he obtain the titlePrince of the Holy Roman Empire until his death, first his sonLeopold Philip Montecuccoli was made Prince in 1689.[8][12]
Montecuccoli died in an accident atLinz in October 1680.[4]
Usually, it is evaluated that as a general, Montecuccoli shared with Turenne and Condé the first place amongEuropean soldiers of his time. For his success in halting the Turkish advance, he had been hailed the saviour of Europe.[4] He was also influential as a military theorist, revered - as much asClausewitz has been in the last two centuries - as the most distinguished modern military thinker. His works were translated into all the major European languages, and were published, within about a hundred years, in seven Italian, twoLatin, twoSpanish, sixFrench, oneRussian, and threeGerman editions.[13] HisMemorie della guerra profoundly influenced the following period of warfare.[4] TheBritannica names him "unequalled as a master of 17th-century warfare" because he "excelled in the art of fortification and siege, march and countermarch, and cutting his enemy's lines of communications. In advocating standing armies, he clearly foresaw future trends in the military field".[14]
InCroatian historiography, however, Montecuccoli is mainly seen in a rather negative light for his roles inAustro-Turkish War (1663–1664). CroatianFerdo Šišić described him as: "brave, prudent and educated man, but at the same time too meticulous and slow, which brought him in confrontation withCroatians andHungarians."[15] He was known for his rivalry to theZrinski family, especiallyNikola Zrinski. According to Šišić, Montecuccoli is also seen as the main culprit for the loss of Novi Zrin in 1664, when he reinforced the defenders to delay the enemy but refused to use the Habsburg army under his command to relieve the fortress and attack the large Ottoman siege army.[15][16]
In 1657, Montecuccoli married Countess Margarethe vonDietrichstein.[4] With the death of his only son Leopold Philip in 1698 the lineage became extinct, but the title of count descended through his daughters to two branches, Austrian andModenese.[4]
TheMemorie della guerra was published atVenice in 1703 and atCologne in 1704. AFrench edition was issued inParis in 1712 and aLatin edition appeared in 1718 at Vienna, and theGermanKriegsnachrichten des Fürsten Raymundi Montecuccoli was issued atLeipzig in 1736. Of this work, there are manuscripts in various libraries, and many memoirs on military history, tactics, and fortification, written inItalian, Latin and German, remain still unedited in the archives ofVienna. The collectedOpere di Raimondo Montecuccoli was published atMilan (1807),Turin (1821) and Venice (1840), and included political essays and poetry.[4]
Since 1909, theMontecuccoliplatz in the districtHietzing in Vienna has commemorated the general in Habsburg service.[17]
In 1934, the Italian navy launched theRaimondo Montecuccoli, aCondottiericlasslight cruiser named in his honour which served with theRegia Marina duringWorld War II.[18]
Montecuccoli bijaše hrabar, razborit i znanstveno obrazovan muž, no suviše pedantan i spor u svojim zaključcima i odlukama. Poradi toga prekomjernog opreza njegova došao je u sukob s Magjarima i Hrvatima, a naročito sa Zrinskima, koje je iz dna duše mrzio želeći im propast; vazda je govorio, da se nad Magjarima i Hrvatima može i mora samo željeznom batinom vladati.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Montecucculi, Raimondo, Count of".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 764–765.
