1.
Freiherr
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Traditionally it denotes the second-lowest titled rank within the nobility, above Ritter and Edler and below Graf and Herzog. The title superseded the earlier form, Edelherr. It corresponds to baron in rank, a Freiherr sometimes exercised hereditary administrative and judicial prerogatives over those resident in his barony instead of the liege lord, who might be the duke or count. The German-language title of Freiherr is rendered in English as Baron, even in German, a Freiherr is often styled and addressed as Baron in social circumstances, although not the official title. The original distinction from other barons was that a Freiherrs landed property was instead of a fief. Since the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, Reichsfreiherren do not at present belong to the hierarchy of the realm. By a decision of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, their titles were officially recognised. From 1806 the now independent German monarchies, such as Bavaria, Württemberg and Lippe could create their own nobility, the inheritance of titles of nobility in most German-speaking areas was mostly not restricted by primogeniture as is the baronial title in Britain. The wife of a Freiherr is titled Freifrau, and the daughter of a Freiherr is called Freiin, both titles are translated in English as Baroness. In Prussia and some countries in northern Europe, the title of Freiherr was – as long as the monarchy existed – usually used preceding a persons given name. In Austria-Hungary and Bavaria, however, it would by contrast be inserted between the given and the family name, the Republic of Austria abolished hereditary noble titles for its citizens by the Adelsaufhebungsgesetz of 3 April 1919 and the corresponding decree of the state government. The public use of titles was and still is prohibited. Hans Freiherr von Schwarz, as an Austrian citizen, therefore lost his title of Freiherr von, in practice, however, former noble titles are still recognised in Austria, some people consider it a matter of courtesy to use them. The late Otto von Habsburg, in his childhood Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, in 2003, the Constitutional Court ruled that an Austrian woman having been adopted by a German carrying an aristocratic title as part of his name is not allowed to carry this title in her name. The German republic, under Article 109 of the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the former title thus became a part of the family name, and moved in front of the family name. Freiherr Hans von Schwarz, as a German citizen, therefore became Hans Freiherr von Schwarz. As dependent parts of the surnames they are ignored in alphabetical sorting of names, as is a possible nobiliary particle, such as von, and might or might not be used by those bearing them. Female forms of titles have been accepted as a variation in the surname after 1919 by a still valid decision of the former German High Court
2.
German language
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German is a West Germanic language that is mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, South Tyrol, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and it is also one of the three official languages of Luxembourg. Major languages which are most similar to German include other members of the West Germanic language branch, such as Afrikaans, Dutch, English, Luxembourgish and it is the second most widely spoken Germanic language, after English. One of the languages of the world, German is the first language of about 95 million people worldwide. The German speaking countries are ranked fifth in terms of publication of new books. German derives most of its vocabulary from the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, a portion of German words are derived from Latin and Greek, and fewer are borrowed from French and English. With slightly different standardized variants, German is a pluricentric language, like English, German is also notable for its broad spectrum of dialects, with many unique varieties existing in Europe and also other parts of the world. The history of the German language begins with the High German consonant shift during the migration period, when Martin Luther translated the Bible, he based his translation primarily on the standard bureaucratic language used in Saxony, also known as Meißner Deutsch. Copies of Luthers Bible featured a long list of glosses for each region that translated words which were unknown in the region into the regional dialect. Roman Catholics initially rejected Luthers translation, and tried to create their own Catholic standard of the German language – the difference in relation to Protestant German was minimal. It was not until the middle of the 18th century that a widely accepted standard was created, until about 1800, standard German was mainly a written language, in urban northern Germany, the local Low German dialects were spoken. Standard German, which was different, was often learned as a foreign language with uncertain pronunciation. Northern German pronunciation was considered the standard in prescriptive pronunciation guides though, however, German was the language of commerce and government in the Habsburg Empire, which encompassed a large area of Central and Eastern Europe. Until the mid-19th century, it was essentially the language of townspeople throughout most of the Empire and its use indicated that the speaker was a merchant or someone from an urban area, regardless of nationality. Some cities, such as Prague and Budapest, were gradually Germanized in the years after their incorporation into the Habsburg domain, others, such as Pozsony, were originally settled during the Habsburg period, and were primarily German at that time. Prague, Budapest and Bratislava as well as cities like Zagreb, the most comprehensive guide to the vocabulary of the German language is found within the Deutsches Wörterbuch. This dictionary was created by the Brothers Grimm and is composed of 16 parts which were issued between 1852 and 1860, in 1872, grammatical and orthographic rules first appeared in the Duden Handbook. In 1901, the 2nd Orthographical Conference ended with a standardization of the German language in its written form
3.
Habsburg Monarchy
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The Monarchy was a composite state composed of territories within and outside the Holy Roman Empire, united only in the person of the monarch. The dynastic capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, from 1804 to 1867 the Habsburg Monarchy was formally unified as the Austrian Empire, and from 1867 to 1918 as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The two entities were never coterminous, as the Habsburg Monarchy covered many lands beyond the Holy Roman Empire, the monarchy had no official name. The entity had no official name, Austrian Empire, This was the official name. Note that the German version is Kaisertum Österreich, i. e. the English translation empire refers to a territory ruled by an emperor, Austria-Hungary, This was the official name. An unofficial popular name was the Danubian Monarchy also often used was the term Doppel-Monarchie meaning two states under one crowned ruler, Crownlands or crown lands, This is the name of all the individual parts of the Austrian Empire, and then of Austria-Hungary from 1867 on. The Hungarian parts of the Empire were called Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen or Lands of Holy Stephens Crown, the Bohemian Lands were called Lands of the St. Wenceslaus Crown. Burgenland came to Austria in 1921 from Hungary, Salzburg finally became Austrian in 1816 after the Napoleonic wars. Vienna, Austrias capital became a state January 1,1922, after being residence, Upper and Lower Austria, historically, were split into Austria above the Enns and Austria below the Enns. Upper Austria was enlarged after the Treaty of Teschen following the War of the Bavarian Succession by the so-called Innviertel, formerly part of Bavaria. Hereditary Lands or German Hereditary Lands or Austrian Hereditary Lands, In a narrower sense these were the original Habsburg Austrian territories, i. e. basically the Austrian lands, in a wider sense the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were also included in the Hereditary lands. The term was replaced by the term Crownlands in the 1849 March Constitution, within the Habsburg Monarchy, each province was governed according to its own particular customs. Until the mid 17th century, not all of the provinces were even necessarily ruled by the same members of the family often ruled portions of the Hereditary Lands as private apanages. An even greater attempt at centralization began in 1849 following the suppression of the revolutions of 1848. For the first time, ministers tried to transform the monarchy into a bureaucratic state ruled from Vienna. The Kingdom of Hungary, in particular, ceased to exist as a separate entity, in this system, the Kingdom of Hungary was given sovereignty and a parliament, with only a personal union and a joint foreign and military policy connecting it to the other Habsburg lands. When Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed, it was not incorporated into either half of the monarchy, instead, it was governed by the joint Ministry of Finance. Austria-Hungary collapsed under the weight of the various unsolved ethnic problems that came to a head with its defeat in World War I, to these were added in 1779 the Inn Quarter of Bavaria, and in 1803 the Bishoprics of Trent and Brixen
4.
Field marshal
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Field marshal is a very senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually it is the highest rank in an army, and when it is and it is considered as a five-star rank in modern-day armed forces in many countries. The origin of the dates to the early Middle Ages, originally meaning the keeper of the kings horses. Promotion to the rank of marshal in many countries historically required extraordinary military achievement by a general. However, the rank has also used as a divisional command rank. The traditional attribute distinguishing a field marshal is a baton, the baton nowadays is purely ornamental, and as such may be richly decorated. That said, it is not necessary for the insignia to be a baton, the exact wording of the titles used by field marshals varies, examples include marshal and field marshal general. The air force equivalent in Commonwealth and many Middle Eastern air forces is marshal of the air force. Navies, which usually do not use the nomenclature employed by armies or air forces, use titles such as fleet admiral, Field marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim was a politician in Afghanistan who served as Vice President from June 2002 until December 2004 and from November 2009 until his death. Between September 2001 and December 2004, he served as Defense Minister under the Afghan Transitional Administration. As military commander of the Northern Alliance, Fahim captured the Afghan capital Kabul in the fall of 2001 from the Taliban government, in 2004 President Hamid Karzai provided Fahim the honorary title Marshal and a year later he became member of the House of Elders. He later became a recipient of the Ahmad Shah Baba Medal, Fahim was a member of Afghanistans Tajik ethnic group. He was affiliated with the Jamiat Islami party of Afghanistan, Sir Thomas Blamey was the first and is the only Australian-born field marshal. He was promoted to the rank on the insistence of the Australian prime minister, Sir Robert Menzies, Blamey was, at the time of his promotion, seriously ill and mostly bed-ridden in the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. He was presented with his marshals baton at a ceremony held in the sunroom at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital by the Governor-General of Australia. Blameys field marshals baton is on display in the Second World War galleries at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Currently, the only Australian field marshal is HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, during Imperial rule in China, different dynasty gave different titles to generals. A very similar title is 司馬 in Eastern Han dynasty, which means master of horse
5.
Austrian Empire
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The Austrian Empire was an empire in Central Europe created out of the realms of the Habsburgs by proclamation in 1804. It was an empire and one of Europes great powers. Geographically it was the second largest country in Europe after the Russian Empire and it was also the third most populous after Russia and France, as well as the largest and strongest country in the German Confederation. Proclaimed in response to the First French Empire, it overlapped with the Holy Roman Empire until the dissolution in 1806. The Ausgleich of 1867 elevated Hungarys status and it became a separate entity from the Empire entirely, joining with it in the dual monarchy of Austria-Hungary. Changes shaping the nature of the Holy Roman Empire took place during conferences in Rastatt, on 24 March 1803, the Imperial Recess was declared, which reduced the number of ecclesiastical states from 81 to only 3 and the free imperial cities from 51 to 6. This measure was aimed at replacing the old constitution of the Holy Roman Empire, taking this significant change into consideration, the German Emperor Francis II created the title Emperor of Austria, for himself and his successors. In 1804 the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, who was ruler of the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy, founded the Empire of Austria. In doing so he created a formal overarching structure for the Habsburg Monarchy, to safeguard his dynastys imperial status he adopted the additional hereditary title of Emperor of Austria. Hungarys affairs remained administered by its own institutions as they had been beforehand, thus under the new arrangements no Imperial institutions were involved in its internal government. The fall and dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire was accelerated by French intervention in the Empire in September 1805, on 20 October 1805, an Austrian army led by general Karl Mack von Leiberich was defeated by French armies near the town of Ulm. The French victory resulted in the capture of 20,000 Austrian soldiers, Napoleons army won another victory at Austerlitz on 2 December 1805. Francis was forced into negotiations with the French from 4 to 6 December 1805, the French victories encouraged rulers of certain imperial territories to assert their formal independence from the Empire. On 10 December 1805, the prince-elector Duke of Bavaria proclaimed himself King, finally, on 12 December, the Margrave of Baden was given the title of Grand Duke. In addition, each of these new countries signed a treaty with France, the Treaty of Pressburg between France and Austria, signed in Pressburg on 26 December, enlarged the territory of Napoleons German allies at the expense of defeated Austria. Certain Austrian holdings in Germany were passed to French allies—the King of Bavaria, the King of Württemberg, Austrian claims on those German states were renounced without exception. On 12 July 1806, the Confederation of the Rhine was established, comprising 16 sovereigns and this confederation, under French influence, put an end to the Holy Roman Empire. On 6 August 1806, even Francis recognized the new state of things and proclaimed the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, as he did not want Napoleon to succeed him
6.
Hungarians
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Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are a nation and ethnic group who speak Hungarian and are primarily associated with Hungary. There are around 13. 1–14.7 million Hungarians, of whom 8. 5–9.8 million live in todays Hungary, the Hungarians own ethnonym to denote themselves in the Early Middle Ages is uncertain. The Magyars/Hungarians probably belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance, and it is possible that they became its ethnic majority, in the Early Middle Ages the Hungarians had many names, including Ungherese, Ungar, and Hungarus. The H- prefix is an addition of Medieval Latin, another possible explanation comes from the Old Russian Yugra. It may refer to the Hungarians during a time when they dwelt east of the Ural Mountains along the borders of Europe. The Hungarian people refer to themselves by the demonym Magyar rather than Hungarian, Magyar is Finno-Ugric from the Old Hungarian mogyër. Magyar possibly derived from the name of the most prominent Hungarian tribe, the tribal name Megyer became Magyar in reference to the Hungarian people as a whole. Magyar may also derive from the Hunnic Muageris or Mugel, the Greek cognate of Tourkia was used by the scholar and Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus in his De Administrando Imperio of c. AD950, though in his use, Turks always referred to Magyars, the historical Latin phrase Natio Hungarica had a wider meaning because it once referred to all nobles of the Kingdom of Hungary, regardless of their ethnicity. During the 4th millennium BC, the Uralic-speaking peoples who were living in the central, some dispersed towards the west and northwest and came into contact with Iranian speakers who were spreading northwards. From at least 2000 BC onwards, the Ugrian speakers became distinguished from the rest of the Uralic community, judging by evidence from burial mounds and settlement sites, they interacted with the Indo-Iranian Andronovo culture. In the 4th and 5th centuries AD, the Hungarians moved from the west of the Ural Mountains to the area between the southern Ural Mountains and the Volga River known as Bashkiria and Perm Krai. In the early 8th century, some of the Hungarians moved to the Don River to an area between the Volga, Don and the Seversky Donets rivers, meanwhile, the descendants of those Hungarians who stayed in Bashkiria remained there as late as 1241. The Hungarians around the Don River were subordinates of the Khazar khaganate and their neighbours were the archaeological Saltov Culture, i. e. Bulgars and the Alans, from whom they learned gardening, elements of cattle breeding and of agriculture. Tradition holds that the Hungarians were organized in a confederacy of seven tribes, the names of the seven tribes were, Jenő, Kér, Keszi, Kürt-Gyarmat, Megyer, Nyék, and Tarján. Around 830, a rebellion broke out in the Khazar khaganate, as a result, three Kabar tribes of the Khazars joined the Hungarians and moved to what the Hungarians call the Etelköz, the territory between the Carpathians and the Dnieper River. The Hungarians faced their first attack by the Pechenegs around 854, the new neighbours of the Hungarians were the Varangians and the eastern Slavs. In 895/896, under the leadership of Árpád, some Hungarians crossed the Carpathians, the tribe called Magyar was the leading tribe of the Hungarian alliance that conquered the centre of the basin
7.
Transylvania
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Transylvania is a historical region located in what is today the central part of Romania. Bound on the east and south by its borders, the Carpathian mountain range. The term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the regions of Crișana, Maramureș. The region of Transylvania is known for the beauty of its Carpathian landscape. It also contains major cities such as Cluj-Napoca, Brașov, Sibiu, in the English-speaking world it has been commonly associated with vampires, due to the influence of Bram Stokers famous novel Dracula and its many film adaptations. Transylvania was first referred to in a Medieval Latin document in 1075 as ultra silvam, Transylvania, with an alternative Latin prepositional prefix, means on the other side of the woods. Hungarian historians claim that the Medieval Latin form Ultrasylvania, later Transylvania, was a translation from the Hungarian form Erdő-elve. That also was used as an name in German überwald. The German name Siebenbürgen means seven fortresses, after the seven Transylvanian Saxons cities in the region and this is also the origin of the regions name in many other languages, such as the Bulgarian Седмиградско, Polish Siedmiogród and the Ukrainian Семигород. The Hungarian form Erdély was first mentioned in the 12th-century Gesta Hungarorum as Erdeuleu or Erdő-elve, the word Erdő means forest in Hungarian, and the word Elve denotes a region in connection with this, similarly to the Hungarian name for Muntenia. Erdel, Erdil, Erdehstan, the Turkish equivalents, or the Romanian Ardeal were borrowed from this form as well, the first known written occurrence of the Romanian name Ardeal appeared in a document in 1432 as Ardeliu. Transylvania has been dominated by different peoples and countries throughout its history. It was once the nucleus of the Kingdom of Dacia, in 106 AD the Roman Empire conquered the territory, systematically exploiting its resources. After the Roman legions withdrew in 271 AD, it was overrun by a succession of tribes, bringing it under the control of the Carpi, Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars. From 9th to 11th century Bulgarians ruled Transylvania, there is an ongoing scholarly debate over the ethnicity of Transylvanias population before the Hungarian conquest. The Magyars conquered much of Central Europe at the end of the 9th century, according to Gesta Hungarorum, Transylvania was ruled by the Vlach voivode Gelou before the Hungarians arrived. The Kingdom of Hungary established a control over Transylvania in 1003. Between 1003 and 1526, Transylvania was a voivodeship in the Kingdom of Hungary, after the Battle of Mohács in 1526, Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of János Szapolyai
8.
Ferenc Gyulay
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Gyulay was born on 1 September 1799 in Pest, Hungary to parents Ignác Gyulay von Maros-Németh und Nádaska and Maria Freiin von Edelsheim. At the age of seventeen in 1816 he served as a leutnant in the 60th Ignác Gyulay infantry battalion, in 1820 he was transferred to the Hesse-Homburg hussar brigade as an oberleutnant and just a year after he was promoted to hauptmann of the Imperial uhlans. In 1826 he was appointed the head of the Württemberg hussar brigade, in 1831 he was promoted to the rank of oberst and in 1838 to generalmajor. In 1846 he was already the generalleutnant of the 33rd infantry battalion, in 1847 he was the abteilungsführer and military captain of the vicinity of Triest. Gyulays first war-time assignment came in 1848 when the Revolutions of 1848 broke out, first he had to face the Italian states menace at Pola. He had to defend the fleet stationed in Pola of being seized by its insurgent crew. He immediately relieved the Italian-born sailors of their duties and warned the ships already in sail to do the same and he put the cities of Triest and Pola on defense, armed the ships and filled up their missing Italian crew with people from the local commercial ships. He organized an ad hoc boat squadron as well, Gyulay regrouped the troops retreating from Venice at Isonzo. His efforts prevented a joint Napolitan-Sardinian fleet from ambushing the key ports in the Istria, the Battle of Custoza eased the pressure on the Adriatic coast and Gyulays precautionary measures secured the area. He was moved to Milan to take charge of the 5th army division, in 1857, following the resign of Joseph Radetzky, Gyulay was named Governor of Lombardy-Venetia, residing at Milan. In early 1859, the Kingdom of Sardinia/Piedmont, having allied with France, began mobilizing its army, on 23 April, Austria issued an ultimatum to the Sardinians, demanding they demobilize. When the Sardinians refused, the Second Italian War of Independence began, in response, French forces under Patrice MacMahon were dispatched to defend their Sardinian allies. On 20 May, an Austrian force under Count Stadion was defeated at the Battle of Montebello and he then suffered another defeat at the Battle of Palestro. The French army then crossed the Ticino into Austrian territory and captured the village of Boffalora sopra Ticino after a small battle, finally, on 5 June, the main Austrian and French armies met at the Battle of Magenta. The Austrians under Gyulay were defeated, leading to his recall to Vienna, emperor Franz Josef took personal command of the Austrian army in Lombardy-Venetia, and would go on to lose the subsequent Battle of Solferino. In one of his last military engagements he was reduced to a Regimentskommandeur and was sent to defend Mantua from the Piedmontese invasion, unsuccessful in doing so he surrendered the city in 1866 eventually leading to its annexation to the newly formed Italy. Beyond Nationalism, A Social & Political History of the Habsburg Officer Corps 1848-1918, one Hundred Years of Conflict Between the Nations of Europe, The Causes and Issues of the Great War
9.
Hauptmann
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Hauptmann is a German word usually translated as captain when it is used as an officers rank in the German, Austrian and Swiss armies. While haupt in contemporary German means main, it also has the meaning of head, i. e. Hauptmann literally translates to head man and it equates to Captain in the British and US Armies, and is rated OF-2 in NATO. More generally, it can be used to denote the head of any hierarchically structured group of people, for example, a Feuerwehrhauptmann is the captain of a fire brigade, while the word Räuberhauptmann refers to the leader of a gang of robbers. Official Austrian/German titles incorporating the word include Landeshauptmann, Bezirkshauptmann, Burghauptmann and Berghauptmann, in Saxony during the Weimar Republic, the titles of Kreishauptmann and Amtshauptmann were held by senior civil servants. The word may cognate with the Swedish Hövitsman, which has the root meaning Head man or the man at the head and is related to the word hövding, meaning Chieftain. Since medieval times, both titles have used for state administrators rather than military personnel. See also On the shoulder there are three silver pips
10.
Seven Years' War
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The Seven Years War was a war fought between 1754 and 1763, the main conflict occurring in the seven-year period from 1756 to 1763. It involved every European great power of the time except the Ottoman Empire and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, India, and the Philippines. The conflict split Europe into two coalitions, led by the Kingdom of Great Britain on one side and the Kingdom of France on the other. Meanwhile, in India, the Mughal Empire, with the support of the French, faced with this sudden turn of events, Britain aligned herself with Prussia, in a series of political manoeuvres known as the Diplomatic Revolution. Conflict between Great Britain and France broke out in 1754–1756 when the British attacked disputed French positions in North America, meanwhile, rising power Prussia was struggling with Austria for dominance within and outside the Holy Roman Empire in central Europe. In 1756, the major powers switched partners, realizing that war was imminent, Prussia preemptively struck Saxony and quickly overran it. The result caused uproar across Europe, because of Austrias alliance with France to recapture Silesia, which had been lost in a previous war, Prussia formed an alliance with Britain. Reluctantly, by following the diet, most of the states of the empire joined Austrias cause. The Anglo-Prussian alliance was joined by smaller German states, Sweden, seeking to re-gain Pomerania joined the coalition, seeing its chance when virtually all of Europe opposed Prussia. Spain, bound by the Pacte de Famille, intervened on behalf of France, the Russian Empire was originally aligned with Austria, fearing Prussias ambition on the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, but switched sides upon the succession of Tsar Peter III in 1762. Naples, Sicily, and Savoy, although sided with the Franco-Spanish alliance, like Sweden, Russia concluded a separate peace with Prussia. The war ended with the Treaty of Paris between France, Spain and Great Britain and the Treaty of Hubertusburg between Saxony, Austria and Prussia, in 1763. The Native American tribes were excluded from the settlement, a subsequent conflict, Prussia emerged as a new European great power. Although Austria failed to retrieve the territory of Silesia from Prussia its military prowess was noted by the other powers. The involvement of Portugal, Spain and Sweden did not return them to their status as great powers. France was deprived of many of its colonies and had saddled itself with heavy war debts that its inefficient financial system could barely handle. Spain lost Florida but gained French Louisiana and regained control of its colonies, e. g. Cuba and the Philippines, France and Spain avenged their defeat in 1778 when the American Revolutionary War broke out, with hopes of destroying Britains dominance once and for all. The Seven Years War was perhaps the first true world war, having taken place almost 160 years before World War I and it was characterized in Europe by sieges and the arson of towns as well as open battles with heavy losses
11.
Grenadier
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A grenadier was originally a specialized soldier, first established as a distinct role in the mid-to-late 17th century, for the throwing of grenades and sometimes assault operations. At that time grenadiers were chosen from the strongest and largest soldiers, certain countries such as France and Argentina established units of Horse Grenadiers and for a time the British Army had Horse Grenadier Guards. Like their infantry counterparts, these horse-mounted soldiers were chosen for their size. These soldiers operate as part of a fireteam, the concept of throwing grenades may go back to the Ming China, when Chinese soldiers on the Great Wall were reported to be using this weapon. The earliest references to these soldiers in Western armies come from Austria. References also appear in England during the English Civil War, however, it was King Louis XIV of France who made the grenadier an official type of soldier and company during his army reforms late in the 17th century. According to René Chartrand, Lt. Col. Jean Martinet introduced the idea of having men detailed to throw grenades in the Régiment du Roi in 1667 and their clothing being likewise piebald, yellow and red. The first grenades were small iron spheres filled with gunpowder fused with a length of slow-match, understandably, such requirements led to grenadiers being regarded as an elite fighting force. The wide hats with broad brims characteristic of infantry during the late 17th century were discarded and replaced with caps and this was originally to allow the grenadier to sling his musket over his back with greater ease while throwing grenades. Additionally, a brimless hat permitted the greater ease in throwing the grenade overhand. By 1700, grenadiers in the English and other armies had adopted a cap in the shape of a bishops mitre, in addition to grenades, they were equipped with contemporary longarms. The uniform included a tube that held the match for lighting the fuse. Grenade usage declined significantly in the early 18th century, a fact that can be attributed to the effectiveness of massive infantry line tactics. However, the need for assault troops remained, and the existing grenadier companies were used for this purpose. As noted, above average physical size had been considered important for the grenadiers and, in principle, height. In the British regiments of foot during the 18th century the preference was, however, the traditional criterion of size was only resorted to when newly raised regiments required a quick sorting of a mass of new recruits. Transferral to a company generally meant both enhanced status and an increase in subsistence pay. Whether for reasons of appearance or reputation, grenadiers tended to be the showpiece troops of their respective armies, when a regiment was in line formation the grenadiers were always the company which formed on the right flank
12.
Battle of Torgau
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In the Battle of Torgau on 3 November 1760, King Frederick the Greats Prussian army fought a larger Austrian army under the command of Field Marshal Leopold Josef Graf Daun. The Prussians won a victory in one of the bloodiest battles of the Seven Years War. In August, Daun missed an opportunity to destroy the main Prussian army in Silesia, outnumbered three-to-one, Frederick escaped the Austrian trap by smashing the corps of Feldzeugmeister Ernst Gideon Freiherr von Laudon at the Battle of Liegnitz. When the Prussians lingered in Silesia, their more numerous enemies attacked, Feldzeugmeister Franz Moritz Graf von Lacys 18,000 Austrians joined with General Tottlebens Russian force near Berlin, making a total of 35,000 allies. While 13,000 Prussians took refuge in the Spandau fortress, Lacy, in late October, Daun slipped out of Silesia and moved west to Saxony where Lacy joined him with his corps. When his government ordered him to stand and fight the Prussians, the plateau had been used by Prince Henry of Prussia in 1759 and was protected on the west by abatis and on the south by a small stream. The Austrians faced south with Lacys corps nearest Torgau and Dauns army further west, altogether, Daun and Lacy marshalled 42,000 infantry,10,000 cavalry, and 275 cannons. Zietens corps comprised 21 infantry battalions and 54 cavalry squadrons, while Fredericks main army deployed 41 battalions and 48 squadrons, in total, the Prussians had 35,000 infantry,13,500 cavalry, and 309 artillery pieces. Noon found Fredericks main army floundering in the woods to the north of Dauns position, at this time, Zietens advance guard became embroiled with the Croatian light infantry belonging to Lacys corps. Daun alertly detected the Prussian maneuver and he shifted his first line to the side of the heights. Soon an artillery duel erupted between Lacy and Zieten, hearing the cannon fire and fearing that Zieten was being mauled, the Prussian king decided to launch his attack prematurely, with ten battalions of grenadiers. Concentrated Austrian cannon fire and musketry caused the loss of 5,000 Prussians in the span of one half-hour, when the main body of infantry arrived on the scene, it was also sent into the uphill assault. Daun was forced to commit his reserves to defeat the second attack, the Prussian cavalry led by General the Duke of Holstein tried to break the Austrian line, but it also failed. A spent canister round hit Frederick in the chest and he withdrew to the village of Elsnig in considerable distress, the king spent the night sitting on the bottom step of the church altar waiting for news from the battlefield. Daun had been wounded in the foot and around sunset went to Torgau to have his wound dressed, the Austrian commander sent General Charles Flynn to deliver a preliminary victory dispatch to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria in Vienna. The tide of the battle turned at dusk, when Zietens columns, shifting his corps to the west, he found an unguarded causeway between two ponds and threw five battalions into the gap. Zieten followed up the breach with the balance of his infantry. Hearing Zietens battle, Lieutenant General J. D. von Hülsen led the survivors of the army in a final attack
13.
Major
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Major is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated, in conjunction with no other indicators, major is one rank senior to that of an army captain and it is considered the most junior of the field officer ranks. Majors are typically assigned as specialised executive or operations officers for battalion-sized units of 300 to 1,200 soldiers, in some militaries, notably France and Ireland, the rank of major is referred to as commandant, while in others it is known as captain-major. The rank of major is used in some police forces and other paramilitary rank structures, such as the Pennsylvania State Police, New York State Police, New Jersey State Police. As a police rank, major roughly corresponds to the UK rank of superintendent, the term major can also be used with a hyphen to denote the leader of a military band such as in pipe-major or drum-major. Historically, the rank designation develops in English in the 1640s, taken from French majeur, in turn a shortening of sergent-majeur, which at the time designated a higher rank than at present
14.
Franz Moritz von Lacy
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Franz Moritz Graf von Lacy, was the son of Count Peter von Lacy and was a famous Austrian field marshal. He served during the reign of Maria Theresa and was a friend to Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor. Lacy was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire and his father, Count Peter von Lacy, was a Russian Field Marshal who belonged to an Irish family and had followed James II into exile. His mother, Countess Martha Philippina von Loeser, was a Baltic German, franz Moritz was born in St Petersburg, and was educated in Germany for a military career, and entered the Austrian service. He served in Italy, Bohemia, Silesia and the Netherlands during the War of the Austrian Succession, was twice wounded, at the age of twenty-five he became full colonel and chief of an infantry regiment. In 1756 with the opening of the Seven Years War he was again on active service and he received his third wound on this occasion and his fourth at the battle of Prague in 1757. Later in 1757 Lacy bore a part in the great victory of Breslau, and at Leuthen. Lacy, a lieutenant field-marshal at thirty-two, was chief of staff to Daun in the newly created general staff. Thus for some years the life of Lacy, as of Daun, after Hochkirch Lacy received the Grand Cross of the Order of Maria Theresa. He shadowed Frederick the Greats Prussian army during the failed Siege of Dresden in 1760, after the Treaty of Hubertusburg a new sphere of activity was opened, in which Lacys special gifts had the greatest scope. Maria Theresa having placed her son, Emperor Joseph II, at the head of Austrian military affairs, Lacy was made a field marshal and he framed new regulations for each arm, a new code of military law, a good supply system. As the result of his work the Austrian army was more numerous, far better equipped, Joseph soon became very intimate with his military adviser, but this did not prevent his mother, after she became estranged from the young emperor, from giving Lacy her full confidence. His activities were not confined to the army and he was in sympathy with Josephs innovations, and was regarded by Maria Theresa as a prime mover in the scheme for the partition of Poland. But his self-imposed work broke down Lacys health, and in 1773, in spite of the remonstrances of Maria Theresa and of the emperor, he laid down all his offices and went to southern France. On returning he was unable to resume office, though as an unofficial adviser in political. More serious than the War of the Bavarian Succession was the Turkish war which broke out. Lacy was now old and worn out, and his tenure of command therein was not marked by any measure of success than in the case of the other Austrian generals. His active career was at an end, although he continued his effective interest in the affairs of the state and his last years were spent in retirement at his castle of Neuwaldegg near Vienna
15.
Oberst
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Oberst is a military rank in several German-speaking and Scandinavian countries, equivalent to Colonel. It is currently used by both the ground and air forces of Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, and Norway, the Swedish rank överste is a direct translation, as are the Finnish rank eversti and the Icelandic rank ofursti. In the Netherlands the rank overste is used as a synonym for a lieutenant colonel, Oberst is the highest staff officer rank in the German Army, German Air Force. On the shoulder there are three silver pips in silver oak leaves. Spelled with a capital O, Oberst is a noun and defines the military rank of colonel or group captain. Spelled with a lower case o, or oberst, it is an adjective, meaning top, topmost, uppermost, highest, chief, head, first, principal, both usages derive from the superlative of ober, the upper or the uppermost. As a family name, Oberst is common in the southwest of Germany, the name is also concentrated in the north-central cantons of Switzerland. Here the Swiss version of Oberst is spelled Obrist, the name first appeared in the thirteenth century in the German-Swiss border area, and early forms were Zoberist and Oberist. The name most likely refers to the tribe that lives the highest on the mountain or the family that lives the highest in the village, with the emergence of professional armies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an Oberst became the commander of regiment or battalion-sized formations. By the eighteenth century, Obersten were typically afforded aides or lieutenants and this led to formation of the modern German rank of the same name, translated as lieutenant colonel. Oberst was used in the militaries of Germany and Austria during both World Wars, Oberst was also used as the prefix of the now obsolete SS rank of Oberstgruppenführer. The SS Standartenführer was equivalent to an Oberst, a colonel general during the World Wars was called Generaloberst. Again, rather than literally meaning colonel general, its more accurate translation is supreme general as it was normally the highest peacetime military rank, the rank of Oberst is known in American cinema, since several popular movies have featured characters holding the rank. Luftwaffe Colonel Klink of the television series Hogans Heroes was a caricature of such a character
16.
War of the Bavarian Succession
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A Saxon–Prussian alliance fought the War of the Bavarian Succession against the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy to prevent the Habsburgs from acquiring the Electorate of Bavaria. On 30 December 1777, Maximilian Joseph, the last of the line of Wittelsbach, died of smallpox. Charles IV Theodore, a scion of a branch of the House of Wittelsbach, held the closest claim of kinship. His cousin, Charles II August, Duke of Zweibrücken, therefore had a legal claim as Charles Theodores heir presumptive. Across Bavarias southern border, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II coveted the Bavarian territory and had married Maximilian Josephs sister Maria Josepha in 1765 to strengthen any claim he could extend. His agreement with the heir, Charles Theodore, to partition the territory neglected any claims of the heir presumptive, acquiring territory in the German-speaking states was an essential part of Josephs policy to expand his familys influence in Central Europe. For Frederick the Great, Josephs claim threatened the Prussian ascendancy in German politics, Joseph would not drop his claim despite his mothers contrary insistence. Despite his dislike of Prussia, which had been Saxonys enemy in two wars, Charles August sought the support of Frederick, who was happy to challenge the Habsburgs. France became involved to maintain the balance of power, finally, Catherine the Greats threat to intervene on the side of Prussia with fifty thousand Russian troops forced Joseph to reconsider his position. With Catherines assistance, he and Frederick negotiated a solution to the problem of the Bavarian succession with the Treaty of Teschen, the subsequent French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars differed in scope, strategy, organization and tactics. In 1713, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI established a line of succession that gave precedence to his own daughters over the daughters of his brother, to protect the Habsburg inheritance, he coerced, cajoled, and persuaded the crowned heads of Europe to accept the Pragmatic Sanction. In this agreement, they acknowledged any of his daughters as the rightful Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia. Holy Roman Emperors had been elected from the House of Habsburg for most of the three centuries. Charles VI arranged a marriage of his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, Francis relinquished the Duchy of Lorraine near France in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany near Austria to make himself a more appealing candidate for eventual election as Emperor. On paper, many heads of state and, most importantly, the rulers of the German states of the Holy Roman Empire, accepted the Pragmatic Sanction and the idea of Francis as the next Emperor. Two key exceptions, the Duchy of Bavaria and Saxony, held important electoral votes, when Charles died in 1740, Maria Theresa had to fight for her familys entitlements in Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia, and her husband faced competition in his election as the Holy Roman Emperor. If women were going to inherit, he claimed, then he should be first in line, his wife, both Charles VI and his predecessor Joseph I had died without sons. Charles of Bavaria suggested that the succession pass to Josephs female children, rather than to the daughters of the younger brother
17.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
18.
Major general
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Major general is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the rank of sergeant major general. In the Commonwealth, major general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral. In some countries, including much of Eastern Europe, major general is the lowest of the officer ranks. In the old Austro-Hungarian Army, the general was called a Generalmajor. Todays Austrian Federal Army still uses the same term, see also Rank insignias of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces General de Brigade is the lowest rank amongst general officers in the Brazilian Army. AGeneral de Brigada wears two-stars as this is the level for general officers in the Brazilian Army. In tha Brazilian Air Force, the two-star, three-star and four-star rank are known as Brigadeiro, Major-Brigadeiro, see Military ranks of Brazil and Brigadier for more information. In the Canadian Armed Forces, the rank of major-general is both a Canadian Army and Royal Canadian Air Force rank equivalent to the Royal Canadian Navys rank of rear-admiral, a major-general is a general officer, the equivalent of a naval flag officer. The major-general rank is senior to the ranks of brigadier-general and commodore, prior to 1968, the Air Force used the rank of air vice-marshal, instead. In the Canadian Army, the insignia is a wide braid on the cuff. It is worn on the straps of the service dress tunic. On the visor of the cap are two rows of gold oak leaves. Major-generals are initially addressed as general and name, as are all general officers, major-generals are normally entitled to staff cars. In the Estonian military, the general rank is called kindralmajor. The Finnish military equivalent is kenraalimajuri in Finnish, and generalmajor in Swedish and Danish, the French equivalent to the rank of major general is général de division. In the French military, major général is not a rank but an appointment conferred on some generals, usually of général de corps darmée rank, the position of major général can be considered the equivalent of a deputy chief of staff. In the French Army, Major General is a position and the general is normally of the rank of corps general
19.
Military Order of Maria Theresa
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It was specifically given for successful military acts of essential impact to a campaign that were undertaken on own initiative, and might have been omitted by an honorable officer without reproach. This gave rise to a myth that it was awarded for acting against an explicit order. It is considered to be the highest honor for a soldier in the Austrian armed services, originally, the order had two classes, the Knights Cross and the Grand Cross. On October 15,1765, Emperor Joseph II added a Commanders Cross, a prospective awardee was considered only in regards to their military service record, their ethnicity, birth and rank were irrelevant. Knight Cross recipients were automatically ennobled with the title of Ritter in the Austrian nobility for life, upon further petition they could also claim the hereditary title of Baron. They were also entitled to a pension, widows of the orders recipients were entitled to half of their spouses pension during the remainder of their lives. The Chapter then processed applications until its last meeting in 1931, membership of the order has been awarded a total of 1241 times. During World War II only one received the Knightss Cross of the Order of Maria Theresia. Major general Kornél Oszlányi commanding officer of the Royal Hungarian Armys 9th Light Infantry Division for the battles at the river Don near Voronezh, the last surviving knight of the Order was k. u. k. He received the honour in 1917 for his services as an aviator during World War I. He died in 1986, aged ninety-six, the badge of the order was a gilt, white-enameled cross. The central disc is also in enamel, bearing the flag of Austria. The star of the order was a silver faceted cross of the shape as the badge. The central disc is the same as the one on the badge, the ribbon of the order was red-white-red, from the national flag of Austria. Field Marshal H. M. Franz Joseph I, emperor, Count Eduard Clam-Gallas was an Austrian General. Count Leopold Joseph von Daun, later Prince of Thiano, Austrian field marshal, was born at Vienna, andrás Hadik de Futak was a Hungarian Count. He was commander of a Habsburg army corps in the Seven Years War under Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, paul von Hindenburg was a German field marshal, statesman, and politician, and served as the second President of Germany from 1925 to 1934. Anton Ludwig August von Mackensen, born August Mackensen, was a German soldier and he commanded with success during the First World War and became one of the German Empires most prominent military leaders
20.
Ernst Gideon von Laudon
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He served the position of military governorship of Habsburg Serbia from his capture of Belgrade in 1789 until his death, cooperating with the resistance fighters of Koča Anđelković. The Laudohn family, of mixed German and Latgalian origin, had settled in the estate of Tootzen. Laudon himself claimed a kinship with the Scottish Earls of Loudoun and his father Otto Gerhard von Laudohn was a lieutenant-colonel, retired on a meagre pension from the Swedish service. As upon the Great Northern War Livonia had been ceded to Russia according to the 1721 Treaty of Nystad, after the 1739 Treaty of Belgrade he returned to the Russian court at Saint Petersburg. Dissatisfied with his prospects and the conditions in the Russian Army, he resigned in 1741. He applied first to King Frederick the Great, who declined his services. At Vienna he had better fortune, being made a captain in the Freikorps of Franz von der Trenck, during the War of the Austrian Succession, he took part in its forays and marches, though not in its atrocities, until wounded and taken prisoner in Alsace. He was shortly released by the advance of the main Austrian army and his next active service, still under Trenck, was in the Silesian mountains in 1745, in which campaign he greatly distinguished himself as a leader of light troops. He was present also at the Battle of Soor, at Bunić, where he was stationed, he built a church and planted an oak forest now called by his name. He had reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel when the outbreak of the Seven Years War called him again into the field, from this point began his fame as a soldier. At first rejected by General Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, he soon was promoted colonel at the behest of Chancellor Wenzel Anton Kaunitz, Maria Theresa gave him, further, the grand cross of the order she had founded and an estate near Kutná Hora in Bohemia. As a result, Laudon was promoted Feldzeugmeister and made commander-in-chief in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, in 1760 he destroyed a whole corps of Fredericks army under Fouqué at Landshut and stormed the important fortress of Glatz. In 1761 he operated, as usual, in Silesia, but he found his Russian allies as timid as they had been after Kunersdorf and he brilliantly seized his one fleeting opportunity, however, and stormed Schweidnitz on the night of September 30/October 1,1761. His tireless activity continued to the end of the war, in conspicuous contrast with the strategy of Daun. The student of the campaigns of the Seven Years War will probably admit that there was need of more aggressiveness than Daun displayed. But neither recognized this, and the last three years of the war are marked by a friction between the Fabius and the Marcellus, as they were called, of the Austrian army. After the peace, therefore, when Daun became the virtual commander-in-chief of the army, offers were made, by Frederick the Great amongst others, to induce Laudon to transfer his services elsewhere. Laudon did not entertain these proposals, although negotiations went on for some years, dissensions, however, continued between Laudon and Lacy, and on the accession of Joseph II, who was intimate with his rival, Laudon retired to his estate near Kutná Hora
21.
Belgrade
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Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers and its name translates to White city. The urban area of the City of Belgrade has a population of 1.34 million, one of the most important prehistoric cultures of Europe, the Vinča culture, evolved within the Belgrade area in the 6th millennium BC. In antiquity, Thraco-Dacians inhabited the region, and after 279 BC Celts conquered the city and it was conquered by the Romans during the reign of Augustus, and awarded city rights in the mid-2nd century. In 1521, Belgrade was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and became the seat of the Sanjak of Smederevo and it frequently passed from Ottoman to Habsburg rule, which saw the destruction of most of the city during the Austro-Ottoman wars. Belgrade was again named the capital of Serbia in 1841, northern Belgrade remained the southernmost Habsburg post until 1918, when the city was reunited. As a strategic location, the city was battled over in 115 wars, Belgrade was the capital of Yugoslavia from its creation in 1918, to its final dissolution in 2006. Belgrade has an administrative status within Serbia and it is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. Its metropolitan territory is divided into 17 municipalities, each with its own local council, City of Belgrade covers 3. 6% of Serbias territory, and 22. 5% of the countrys population lives within its administrative limits. It is classified as a Beta- global city, chipped stone tools found at Zemun show that the area around Belgrade was inhabited by nomadic foragers in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras. Some of these belong to the Mousterian industry, which are associated with Neanderthals rather than modern humans. Aurignacian and Gravettian tools have also discovered there, indicating occupation between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago. The first farming people to settle in the region are associated with the Neolithic Starčevo culture, there are several Starčevo sites in and around Belgrade, including the eponymous site of Starčevo. The Starčevo culture was succeeded by the Vinča culture, a more sophisticated farming culture that grew out of the earlier Starčevo settlements which is named for a site in the Belgrade region. Evidence of early knowledge about Belgrades geographical location comes from ancient myths, the rock overlooking the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers has been identified as one of the place in the story of Jason and the Argonauts. The Paleo-Balkan tribes of Thracians and Dacians ruled this area prior to the Roman conquest, Belgrade was inhabited by a Thraco-Dacian tribe Singi, after the Celtic invasion in 279 BC, the Scordisci took the city, naming it Singidūn. In 34–33 BC the Roman army led by Silanus reached Belgrade, jovian reestablished Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, ending the brief revival of traditional Roman religions under his predecessor Julian the Apostate. In 395 AD, the passed to the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire
22.
Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor
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Amalie Theresa was born on 6 April 1807 at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Hofburg, Vienna and died the next day. Her mother fell ill after giving birth to her and died less than a week afterwards, as a daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, she was born with the title Archduchess of Austria and the style Imperial and Royal Highness
23.
Lieutenant field marshal
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This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia. Lieutenant field marshal, also frequently historically field marshal lieutenant, was an army rank in certain European armies of the 17th to 20th centuries. It emerged as the rank of field marshal came to be used for the highest army commander in the 17th century, in German-speaking countries the commander-in-chief usually appointed an under marshal or lieutenant field marshal to support and represent the field marshal. Amongst his functions as the deputy to the field marshal, were the supervision of supply depots and routes. The rank was used by the Imperial Army of the Holy Roman Empire from the 17th century until 1806, on the re-introduction of the rank of field marshal, it fell back to third place in terms of seniority. u. k. Army was equivalent to the Generalleutnant of the Prussian Army, the normal assignment of a lieutenant field marshal was command of a division-sized formation. He was addressed by the title of excellency. In Austria the rank continued to be used after 1918 by the commander-in-chief of the so-called Volkswehr until 1919, however, the Bundesheer of the First Republic adopted the designation, structure and sequence of the German ranks in 1920. In 1933, following tradition, Austrian ranks, insignia and uniforms were reintroduced. These ranks remained in use until the Anschluss in 1938, the equivalent of lieutenant field marshal in the Hungarian Army was the rank of altábornagy. Today it is still in use as NATO OF-8, three-star rank corresponding to lieutenant general in English-speaking armed forces, georg von Alten, Handbuch für Heer und Flotte. Vol. III, Berlin,1911 Constantin von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Österreich,60 vols, Vienna, 1856-1891 Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie,56 vols. Munich-Leipzig, 1875-1912 Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950, hitherto 12 volumes, neue Österreichische Biographie, hitherto 21 volumes, Vienna, 1935-1982 Felix Czeike, Historisches Lexikon Wien,5 vols. Vienna, 1992-1997 Antonio Schmidt-Brentano, Kaiserliche und k. k, generale 1618-1815, Austrian State Archives Antonio Schmidt-Brentano, Die k. k. bzw. k. u. k. Generalität 1816-1918, Austrian State Archives Adjustierungsvorschrift für die k. u. k, landwehr, die verbundenen Einrichtungen und das Corps der Militär-Beamten. Complete works Vienna/Bozen,1912 Ranks in the Austro-Hungarian Navy Rank insignias of the Austro-Hungarian armed forces
24.
Austrian Netherlands
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The Austrian Netherlands was the Southern Netherlands between 1714 and 1797. Austria, however, did not relinquish its claim over the province until 1797 in the Treaty of Campo Formio, the Austrian Netherlands was a noncontiguous territory that consisted of what is now western Belgium as well as greater Luxembourg, bisected by the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. The dominant languages were German, Dutch, and French, along with Picard, the result of the Barrier Treaty was that the Holy Roman emperor Charles VI did not have a lot to say about his Austrian Netherlands. This caused quite a lot of frustration with the Austrians, especially because the Dutch troops they had to allow were paid with money raised by the Austrian Netherlands themselves and this would last until empress Maria Theresa refused to pay for those troops any longer. The war of 1740-1748 showed that the fortifications manned with Dutch troops were not highly maintained, when Austria and France entered into an alliance in 1756, there was virtually no use for the barrier treaty anymore. In 1781 Emperor Joseph II of Austria unilaterally abolished the treaty, under the Treaty of Rastatt, following the War of the Spanish Succession, the surviving portions of the Spanish Netherlands were ceded to Austria. The Austrians were unconcerned with the upkeep of their province and the fortresses along the border were, by treaty, the area had, in fact, been given to Austria largely at British and Dutch insistence, as these powers feared potential French domination of the region. Charles VI attempted to use the Austrian Netherlands to compete with British, however, the agreement was later revoked by the Treaty of Versailles of 1758 and Austrian rule continued. However, the Emperors stance was far from militant, and he called off hostilities after the so-called Kettle War, known by that name because its only casualty was a kettle. In the 1780s, opposition emerged to the reforms of Emperor Joseph II, which were perceived as an attack on the Catholic Church. Resistance, focused in the autonomous and wealthy Estates of Brabant and Flanders, in the aftermath of rioting and disruption, known as the Small Revolution, in 1787, many of opponents took refuge in the neighboring Dutch Republic where they formed a rebel army. Soon after the outbreak of the French and Liège revolutions, the army crossed into the Austrian Netherlands. The rebels, supported by uprisings across the territory, soon took control over much of the territory, despite the tacit support of Prussia, the independent United Belgian States, established in January 1790, received no foreign recognition and soon became divided along ideological lines. The Vonckists, led by Jan Frans Vonck, advocated progressive and liberal government, whereas the Statists, led by Hendrik Van der Noot, were staunchly conservative, the Statists, who had a wider base of support, soon drove the Vonckists into exile through a terror. By mid-1790, Habsburg Austria ended its war with the Ottoman Empire, the new Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold II, was also a liberal and proposed an amnesty for the rebels. After defeating a Statist army at the Battle of Falmagne, the territory was soon overrun, the Austrian reestablishment was short-lived, however, and the territory was soon overrun by the French during the French Revolutionary Wars. In 1794, the armies of the French Revolution annexed the Austrian Netherlands and integrated them into the French Republic
25.
United Belgian States
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It existed from January to December 1790 as part of the unsuccessful revolt against the Habsburg Emperor, Joseph II. The Emperors edict of tolerance of 1781 established religious freedom, another edict in 1784 removed from the Catholic clergy responsibility for the civil registry, and civil marriage was introduced. Seigneurial jurisdictions and rights, including the corvée, were abolished, as in Hungary, Joseph II attempted to introduce German as the language of administration for the sake of efficiency. The Sovereign Congress was seated in Brussels and consisted of representatives of each of the eight provinces, the uprising started in Brabant, which in January 1789 declared that it no longer recognized the emperors rule. The leader of the Statisten faction, Hendrik Van der Noot, crossed the border into the Dutch Republic and raised an army in Breda in Staats-Brabant. In October, he invaded Brabant and captured Turnhout, defeating the Austrians in the Battle of Turnhout on 27 October, ghent was taken on 13 November, and on 17 November the governors Albert Casimir and Maria Christina fled Brussels. The remains of the forces withdrew behind the citadel walls of Luxembourg. Van der Noot now declared Brabant independent, and all the provinces of the Austrian Netherlands soon followed suit. On 11 January 1790 they signed a pact, establishing a confederation under the name Verenigde Nederlandse Staten / États-Belgiques-Unis, shortly afterwards, the Articles of Confederation served as a model for the Treaty of the United Belgian States of 11 January 1790. Independently, in 1789, a revolution had broken out in Liège, the revolutionaries established a republic which joined the United Belgian States in a semblance of an alliance. Realizing the fragility of the new state, Van der Noot approached foreign states for support and suggested a unification with the Dutch Republic, furthermore, the Statist and Vonckist factions were in constant conflict, bordering on civil war. On 27 February 1790 Joseph II died and his brother Leopold II succeeded him as emperor, Leopold II quickly moved to recapture the Austrian Netherlands. On 24 October 1790 imperial troops took the city of Namur, two days later, the province of West Flanders followed suit, and by December the entire territory was again in imperial hands. The Austrian restoration and hegemony was short-lived, however, as the region was overrun by French armies in 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars, though short-lived, the United Belgian States had long-lasting repercussions. It had given the Southern Netherlands their first taste of independence, and had sparked a new political idea, in 1830, the inhabitants of the Southern Netherlands successfully revolted against the Netherlands during the Belgian Revolution, creating the modern state of Belgium. Republic of Liège Brabant Revolution Text of the Treaty of Union Text of the Treaty of Union
26.
French Revolutionary Wars
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The French Revolutionary Wars were a series of sweeping military conflicts, lasting from 1792 until 1802, resulting from the French Revolution. They pitted the French First Republic against Britain, Austria and several other monarchies and they are divided in two periods, the War of the First Coalition and the War of the Second Coalition. Initially confined to Europe, the fighting gradually assumed a global dimension as the political ambitions of the Revolution expanded, French success in these conflicts ensured the spread of revolutionary principles over much of Europe. The Revolutionary Wars began from increasing political pressure on King Louis XVI of France to prove his loyalty to the new direction France was taking. In the spring of 1792, France declared war on Prussia and Austria, the victory rejuvenated the French nation and emboldened the National Convention to abolish the monarchy. A series of victories by the new French armies abruptly ended with defeat at Neerwinden in the spring of 1793, by 1795, the French had captured the Austrian Netherlands and knocked Spain and Prussia out of the war with the Peace of Basel. A hitherto unknown general called Napoleon Bonaparte began his first campaign in Italy in April 1796, in less than a year, French armies under Napoleon decimated the Habsburg forces and evicted them from the Italian peninsula, winning almost every battle and capturing 150,000 prisoners. With French forces marching towards Vienna, the Austrians sued for peace and agreed to the Treaty of Campo Formio, the War of the Second Coalition began with the French invasion of Egypt, headed by Napoleon, in 1798. The Allies took the opportunity presented by the French strategic effort in the Middle East to regain territories lost from the First Coalition. The war began well for the Allies in Europe, where they pushed the French out of Italy and invaded Switzerland—racking up victories at Magnano, Cassano. However, their efforts largely unraveled with the French victory at Zurich in September 1799, meanwhile, Napoleons forces annihilated a series of Egyptian and Ottoman armies at the battles of the Pyramids, Mount Tabor, and Abukir. These victories and the conquest of Egypt further enhanced Napoleons popularity back in France, however, the Royal Navy had managed to inflict a humiliating defeat on the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile in 1798, further strengthening British control of the Mediterranean. Napoleons arrival from Egypt led to the fall of the Directory in the Coup of 18 Brumaire, Napoleon then reorganized the French army and launched a new assault against the Austrians in Italy during the spring of 1800. This latest effort culminated in a decisive French victory at the Battle of Marengo in June 1800, another crushing French triumph at Hohenlinden in Bavaria forced the Austrians to seek peace for a second time, leading to the Treaty of Lunéville in 1801. With Austria and Russia out of the war, the United Kingdom found itself increasingly isolated and agreed to the Treaty of Amiens with Napoleons government in 1802, concluding the Revolutionary Wars. The lingering tensions proved too difficult to contain, however, in 1789–1792, the entire governmental structure of France was transformed to fall into line with the Revolutionary principles of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. As a result, one of the first major elements of the French state to be restructured was the army, the transformation of the army was best seen in the officer corps. Before the revolution 90% had been nobility, compared to only 3% in 1794, Revolutionary fervour was high, and was closely monitored by the Committee of Public Safety, which assigned Representatives on Mission to keep watch on generals
27.
Division (military)
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A division is a large military unit or formation, usually consisting of between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. Infantry divisions during the World Wars ranged between 10,000 and 30,000 in nominal strength, in most armies, a division is composed of several regiments or brigades, in turn, several divisions typically make up a corps. In the West, the first general to think of organising an army into smaller units was Maurice de Saxe, Marshal General of France. He died at the age of 54, without having implemented his idea, victor-François de Broglie put the ideas into practice. He conducted successful practical experiments of the system in the Seven Years War. The first war in which the system was used systematically was the French Revolutionary War. It made the more flexible and easy to manoeuvre. Under Napoleon, the divisions were grouped together into corps, because of their increasing size, napoleons military success spread the divisional and corps system all over Europe, by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, all armies in Europe had adopted it. In modern times, most military forces have standardized their divisional structures, the peak use of the division as the primary combat unit occurred during World War II, when the belligerents deployed over a thousand divisions. With technological advances since then, the power of each division has increased. Divisions are often formed to organize units of a particular type together with support units to allow independent operations. In more recent times, divisions have mainly been organized as combined arms units with subordinate units representing various combat arms, in this case, the division often retains the name of a more specialized division, and may still be tasked with a primary role suited to that specialization. For the most part, large cavalry units did not remain after World War II, in general, two new types of cavalry were developed, air cavalry or airmobile, relying on helicopter mobility, and armored cavalry, based on an autonomous armored formation. The former was pioneered by the 11th Air Assault Division, formed on 1 February 1963 at Fort Benning, on 29 June 1965 the division was renamed as the 1st Cavalry Division, before its departure for the Vietnam War. After the end of the Vietnam War, the 1st Cavalry Division was reorganised and re-equipped with tanks, the development of the tank during World War I prompted some nations to experiment with forming them into division-size units. Many did this the way as they did cavalry divisions, by merely replacing cavalry with AFVs. This proved unwieldy in combat, as the units had many tanks, instead, a more balanced approach was taken by adjusting the number of tank, infantry, artillery, and support units. A panzer division was a division of the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS of Germany during World War II
28.
Battle of Neerwinden (1793)
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The Second Battle of Neerwinden saw a Republican French army led by Charles François Dumouriez attack a Coalition army commanded by Prince Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. The French position in the Austrian Netherlands swiftly collapsed, ending the threat to the Dutch Republic, the War of the First Coalition engagement was fought at Neerwinden, located 57 kilometres east of Brussels in present-day Belgium. After Dumouriezs victory at Jemappes in November 1792, the French armies rapidly overran most of the Austrian Netherlands, rather than driving the Austrians to the west bank of the Rhine River, Dumouriez and the French government became preoccupied with a war with the Dutch Republic. During the breathing space offered by her enemy, Austria assembled an army under the Prince of Coburg, after a French covering force was routed by Coburg at Aldenhoven, Dumouriez began gathering his army for a counterstroke. Coburg took up a position at Neerwinden and awaited the confident Dumouriezs attack. The Coalition army was outnumbered in infantry but possessed a superiority in cavalry. After intense fighting, Coburgs troops repulsed the attacks of the French center, when Dumouriez found that his left wing was driven off the battlefield, he began retreating. The defeat led to desertions from the discouraged French volunteers. In the face of the collapse, Dumouriez negotiated a free withdrawal of French troops in return for the surrender of Belgium. Soon, Dumouriez was plotting against his own government and when his plans failed, he defected to the Austrians, on 6 November 1792, a French army under Charles François Dumouriez defeated the Austrian army of Duke Albert of Saxe-Teschen at the Battle of Jemappes. The French enjoyed a numerical superiority with 40,000 infantry,3,000 cavalry and 100 guns against an Austrian army counting 11,628 foot soldiers,2,168 horsemen and 56 guns. Within one month the French armies overran most of the Austrian Netherlands, on the right flank, the Army of the Ardennes led by Jean-Baptiste Cyrus de Valence advanced down the Meuse River toward Huy. On the way, Valence dropped off a force under Louis-Auguste Juvénal des Ursins dHarville to besiege Namur, Dumouriez himself with the Army of Belgium captured Liège. The Army of the North commanded by Francisco de Miranda laid siege to Antwerp and it was joined by a column under Benôit Guérin de Berneron that marched first from Ath northeast to Leuven. On the 27th Stengel with 8,000 soldiers from the Army of Belgium won an action at Voroux-lez-Liers near Liège over Anton Sztáray. Antwerp fell on 29 November to Mirandas 17,600 infantry and 1,245 cavalry, the Austrian garrison of the 1st Battalion of the Hohenlohe Nr. 17, two companies of the Vierset Nr.59 and four companies of the Würzburg Infantry Regiments, the French captured 57 cannons,50 additional 3-pound regimental cannons,3,150 muskets and 1,523 hundredweight of gunpowder. The 2, 599-man garrison of Namur under Johann Dominik von Moitelle surrendered on 2 December to Valence, the Austrian defenders included two battalions of the Kinsky Infantry Regiment Nr
29.
Kingdom of Great Britain
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The Kingdom of Great Britain, officially Great Britain, was a sovereign state in western Europe from 1 May 1707 to 31 December 1800. It did not include Ireland, which remained a separate realm, the unitary state was governed by a single parliament and government that was based in Westminster. Also after the accession of George I to the throne of Great Britain in 1714, the early years of the unified kingdom were marked by Jacobite risings which ended in defeat for the Stuart cause at Culloden in 1746. On 1 January 1801, the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland were merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. In 1922, five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom, the name Britain descends from the Latin name for the island of Great Britain, Britannia or Brittānia, the land of the Britons via the Old French Bretaigne and Middle English Bretayne, Breteyne. The term Great Britain was first used officially in 1474, in the instrument drawing up the proposal for a marriage between Edward IV of Englands daughter Cecily and James III of Scotlands son James. The Treaty of Union and the subsequent Acts of Union state that England and Scotland were to be United into one Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain. However, both the Acts and the Treaty also refer numerous times to the United Kingdom and the longer form, other publications refer to the country as the United Kingdom after 1707 as well. The websites of the UK parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the BBC, additionally, the term United Kingdom was found in informal use during the 18th century to describe the state. The new state created in 1707 included the island of Great Britain, the kingdoms of England and Scotland, both in existence from the 9th century, were separate states until 1707. However, they had come into a union in 1603. Each of the three kingdoms maintained its own parliament and laws and this disposition changed dramatically when the Acts of Union 1707 came into force, with a single unified Crown of Great Britain and a single unified parliament. Ireland remained formally separate, with its own parliament, until the Acts of Union 1800, legislative power was vested in the Parliament of Great Britain, which replaced both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. In practice it was a continuation of the English parliament, sitting at the location in Westminster. Newly created peers in the Peerage of Great Britain were given the right to sit in the Lords. Despite the end of a parliament for Scotland, it retained its own laws. As a result of Poynings Law of 1495, the Parliament of Ireland was subordinate to the Parliament of England, the Act was repealed by the Repeal of Act for Securing Dependence of Ireland Act 1782. The same year, the Irish constitution of 1782 produced a period of legislative freedom, the 18th century saw England, and after 1707 Great Britain, rise to become the worlds dominant colonial power, with France its main rival on the imperial stage
30.
Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany
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The Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany KG GMB GCH, a member of the House of Hanover, was the second son and child of King George III, King of Great Britain and Ireland and Elector of Hanover. However, he died before his brother, Prince Frederick Augustus, or the Duke of York as he became in later life, belonged to the House of Hanover. He was born on 16 August 1763, at St. Jamess Palace and his father was the reigning British monarch, King George III. On 27 February 1764, when Prince Frederick was six months old and he received this title because his father, as Elector of Hanover, was entitled to select every other holder of this. He was invested as Knight of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath on 30 December 1767, George III decided that his second son would pursue an army career and had him gazetted colonel on 4 November 1780. From 1781 to 1787, Prince Frederick lived in Hanover, where he studied at the University of Göttingen and he was appointed colonel of the 2nd Horse Grenadier Guards on 26 March 1782 before being promoted to major-general on 20 November 1782. Promoted to lieutenant general on 27 October 1784, he was appointed colonel of the Coldstream Guards on 28 October 1784 and he was created Duke of York and Albany and Earl of Ulster on 27 November 1784 and became a member of the Privy Council. He retained the bishopric of Osnabrück until 1803, when, in the course of the preceding the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. On 26 May 1789 he took part in a duel with Colonel Charles Lennox, who had insulted him, Lennox missed, on 12 April 1793 Frederick was promoted to full general. That year, he was sent to Flanders in command of the British contingent of Coburgs army destined for the invasion of France, Frederick and his command fought in the Flanders Campaign under extremely trying conditions. He won several engagements, such as the Siege of Valenciennes in July 1793. In the 1794 campaign he was successful at the Battle of Willems in May but was defeated at the Battle of Tourcoing later that month, the British army was evacuated through Bremen in April 1795. After his return to Britain, his father George III promoted him to the rank of field marshal on 18 February 1795, on 3 April 1795, George appointed him effective Commander-in-Chief in succession to Lord Amherst although the title was not confirmed until three years later. He was also colonel of the 60th Regiment of Foot from 19 August 1797 and his second field command was with the army sent for the Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland in August 1799. On 7 September 1799, he was given the title of Captain-General. Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell, in charge of the vanguard, had succeeded in capturing some Dutch warships in Den Helder. However, following the Dukes arrival with the body of the army. On 17 October 1799, the Duke signed the Convention of Alkmaar,1799 also saw Fort Frederick in South Africa named after him
31.
Landrecies
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Landrecies is a commune in the Nord department in northern France. It is the site of a skirmish between the British I Corps under Douglas Haig and the German First Army on 25 August 1914, landrecies is the hometown of former Tour de France director Jean-Marie Leblanc. It is the birthplace of Joseph Francois Dupleix, well known as the conqueror of India for the King Louix XIV, communes of the Nord department INSEE commune file
32.
Battle of Fleurus (1794)
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Both sides had forces in the area of around 80,000 men but the French were able to concentrate their troops and defeat the First Coalition. The Allied defeat led to the permanent loss of the Austrian Netherlands, the battle marked a turning point for the French army, which remained ascendant for the rest of the War of the First Coalition. The French use of the reconnaissance balloon lEntreprenant was the first military use of an aircraft that influenced the result of a battle. After the Battle of Tourcoing on 17–18 May 1794, Jourdan was given the command of the Army of the Ardennes and four divisions of the Army of the North and this new group was then named the Army of the Sambre-et-Meuse. The new army was given the task of capturing Charleroi. On 12 June, the French army, accompanied and supervised by a member of the Committee of Public Safety, on 16 June at Lambusart, an Austrian-Dutch force of about 43,000 men counterattacked in heavy mist. The Allies managed to inflict some 3,000 casualties on the French, on 18 June, however, Jourdan attacked again and managed to retake Charleroi. The city surrendered on 26 June, just as a force under the Prince of Coburg arrived to raise the siege. See Fleurus 1794 Order of Battle, on 26 June, Feldmarschall Coburg manœuvred around Charleroi with a force of 52,000 Austrian and Dutch soldiers. Too late to save the city, which had surrendered, the Austrian commander split his army into five columns, a French reconnaissance balloon, lEntreprenant, operated by the Aerostatic Corps, continuously informed General of Division Jean-Baptiste Jourdan about Austrian movements. The Austrians managed to break through both French wings, pushing back MG François Marceau on the wing and MG Montaigu on the left wing. The French center under MG François Lefebvre held and then counterattacked, colonel Nicolas Soult, then serving as Lefebvres Chief of staff, wrote that it was, fifteen hours of the most desperate fighting I ever saw in my life. Coburg neglected to press on and uncertain of the outcome, the Austrian commander lost his nerve and fell back to Braine-lAlleud and Waterloo and this was the final straw that caused the allies to retire over the Rhine, leaving the French free rein in Belgium and the Netherlands. It is generally agreed that the battle was a one for the French. The Allied losses have always been in dispute, the French claimed significantly higher losses than their own, traditional estimates attribute considerable casualties to Coburgs army, and hover near five thousand Allied killed and wounded. However, according to historian Digby Smith, Austrian-Dutch losses numbered 208 killed,1,017 wounded, in addition, the French captured one mortar, three caissons, and one standard, while the Austrians captured one cannon and one standard. Despite any tactical imbalance, the value of Fleurus was immense for the French. The victory precipitated a full Allied withdrawal from Belgium and allowed French forces to push north into the Netherlands, by the end of 1795, the Dutch Republic was extinguished
33.
Feldzeugmeister
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The term general of the branch or general of the branch of service refers to a rank equivalent to a three-star lieutenant general or four-star general. Several nations divide, or have once divided, their officers by the branch of troops they are qualified to command. In French, the equivalent expression was grand maitre dartillerie, used since the time of Philip VI of France, the English position of Master-General of the Ordnance was similarly derived. The Third Bulgarian State from its inception in 1878 had a highest military rank of general, the rank was replaced after World War II, when Bulgaria fell into the Soviet sphere of influence, with the all-encompassing rank of general. Full generals in the Finnish military were classified as generals of infantry, cavalry, jaeger, the title is now merely honorific, and only one 4-star general is active at any one time in the modern Finnish military. In the German Wehrmacht a general of a branch was linked to service arms of the Heer and Luftwaffe, depending on where the officer served and it was equivalent to the three-star rank of admiral in the Nazi Kriegsmarine, and SS-Obergruppenführer und General der Waffen-SS in the Waffen-SS. A commander-in-chief of a German army corps was usually of this rank, peter the Great created the ranks of general of infantry and general of cavalry in the Imperial Russian Army in 1699. Comparative military ranks of World War I Comparative officer ranks of World War II
34.
William I of the Netherlands
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William I was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. In Germany, he was ruler of the Principality of Nassau-Orange-Fulda from 1803 until 1806 and of the Principality of Orange-Nassau in the year 1806, in 1813 he proclaimed himself Sovereign Prince of the United Netherlands. He proclaimed himself King of the Netherlands and Duke of Luxembourg on 16 March 1815, in the same year on 9 June William I became also the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and after 1839 he was furthermore the Duke of Limburg. After his abdication in 1840 he styled himself King William Frederick, King William Is parents were the last stadtholder William V, Prince of Orange of the Dutch Republic, and his wife Wilhelmina of Prussia. Until 1806, William was formally known as William VI, Prince of Orange-Nassau, in Berlin on 1 October 1791, William married his first cousin Wilhelmina, born in Potsdam. She was the daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia, after Wilhelmina died in 1837, William married Countess Henriette dOultremont de Wégimont, created Countess of Nassau, on 17 February 1841, also in Berlin. Like his younger brother Prince Frederick of Orange-Nassau he was tutored by the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler and they were both tutored in the military arts by general Prince Frederick Stamford. After the Patriot revolt had been suppressed in 1787, he in 1788-89 attended the academy in Brunswick which was considered an excellent military school. In 1790 he visited a number of foreign courts like the one in Nassau and the Prussian capital Berlin, William subsequently studied briefly at the University of Leiden. As such he commanded the troops took part in the Flanders Campaign of 1793-95. He took part in the battles of Veurne, Menin, and Wervik in 1793, the siege of Landrecies, which surrendered to him. In May 1794 he had replaced general Kaunitz as commander of the combined Austro-Dutch forces on the instigation of Emperor Francis II who apparently had an opinion of him. But the French armies proved too strong, and the allied leadership too inept, the French first entered Dutch Brabant which they dominated after the Battle of Boxtel. When in the winter of 1794-95 the rivers in the Rhine delta froze over, the French breached the southern Hollandic Water Line, in many places Dutch revolutionaries took over the local government. After the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam on 18 January 1795 the stadtholder decided to flee to Britain, the next day the Batavian Republic was proclaimed. However, the neutral Prussian government forbade this, in 1799, William landed in the current North Holland as part of an Anglo-Russian invasion of Holland. The local Dutch population, however, was not pleased with the arrival of the prince, one local Orangist was even executed. The hoped-for popular uprising failed to materialise, after several minor battles the Hereditary Prince was forced to leave the country again after the Convention of Alkmaar
35.
Charleroi
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Charleroi is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By January 1,2008, the population of Charleroi was 201,593. The inhabitants are called Carolorégiens or simply Carolos, the municipality of Charleroi straddles both banks of the river Sambre in an area marked by industrial activities, which has been nicknamed the Pays Noir, part of the larger sillon industriel. Even though most of the factories have closed since the 1950s, Charleroi lies around 50 kilometres south of Brussels. Several public buildings, temples and villas were built in the area in the Roman period, burial places, with jewels and weapons, have been found. The first written mention of a place called Charnoy dates from a 9th-century offering in the Lobbes abbey, during the Middle Ages, Charnoy was one of the many small hamlets in the area, with no more than about 50 inhabitants, part of the County of Namur. The history of the city of Charleroi began in 1666, in September of that same year, the name Charnoy was officially replaced by that of the newly founded city of Charles-Roi, so named in honor of Charles II. The chronogram FVNDATVR CAROLOREGIVM can be found in the register of the parish of Charnoy for the year 1666, a year later, Louis XIV’s armies, under the command of the Vicomte de Turenne, besieged the unfinished fortress. Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban completed the work, the future city was granted its privileges, a bridge was built over the river. The French Prince of Conti took the city again in 1745, glass, steel and coal industries, which had already sprung up a century earlier, could now flourish. Trouble began again in 1790, the year of the uprising that eventually led to the United States of Belgium. The Austrians occupied the city, were forced out by the French after the Battle of Jemappes on November 6,1792, and took it back again four months later. On June 12,1794, the French revolutionary Army of Sambre-et-Meuse under the command of Jean-Baptiste Jourdan, invested Charleroi, the city took the revolutionary name of Libre-sur-Sambre until 1800. After Frances defeat in 1814, the area was annexed to the Netherlands. Napoleon stayed in Charleroi for a couple of days in June 1815, after the Industrial Revolution, Charleroi benefited from the increased use of coke in the metallurgical industry. People from across Europe were attracted by the opportunities. Following the Industrial revolution in Wallonia, Charleroi from the 1850s–1860s became one of the most important places where labor strikes broke out, in 1886,12 strikers were killed by the Belgian army in Roux. In the 1880s, miners in Hainaut were recruited by the Dominion Coal Company in Glace Bay and these miners were anxious to flee the repression following bloody strikes and riots in Liège and Charleroi during the Walloon Jacquerie of 1886
36.
Upper Rhine
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The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basle in Switzerland and Bingen in Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometres 170 to 529, the Upper Rhine is one of four sections of the river between Lake Constance and the North Sea. The countries and states along the Upper Rhine are Switzerland, France, the largest cities along the river are Basle, Mulhouse, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Mainz. The Upper Rhine was straightened between 1817 and 1876 by Johann Gottfried Tulla and made navigable between 1928 and 1977, the Treaty of Versailles allows France to use the Upper Rhine for hydroelectricity in the Grand Canal dAlsace. On the left bank are the French region of Alsace and the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, on the bank are the German states of Baden-Württemberg. The first few kilometres are in the Swiss city of Basle, around 35 million years ago, a rift valley of about 300 kilometres long and 50 kilometres wide came into being between the present cities of Basle and Frankfurt. This was due to stresses in the Earths crust and mantle. The moat has been filled up again by sedimentation. On the edges we find mountain ridges, the rift flanks. On the eastern side, they are the Black Forest and Odenwald mountains, in the west the Vosges, during the tertiary, the High Rhine continued west from Basle and flowed via the Doubs and the Saône, into the Rhône. The rift diverted the Rhine into the newly formed Upper Rhine Valley, the two largest tributaries come from the right, the Neckar in Mannheim, the Main across from Mainz. In 1685, Louis XIV started a project to move the Upper Rhine, change its course, by 1840, the river had been moved up to 1.5 kilometres to the east, taking territory away from Baden. Around 1790, large parts of the Rhine Valley were deforested, creating arable land, fields, the length of the Upper Rhine was reduced by 81 kilometres. Some cut-off river arms and ox-bows remain, they are called the Old Rhine or Gießen. The Rhine between Basle and Iffezheim is almost entirely canalised, on a stretch of 180 kilometres, there are 10 dams, provided with hydropower stations and locks. Only when there is a supply of water, then the old river bed will receive more water than the canal. The straightening and channeling reduced the water table by up to 16 metres and thus had an effect on flora. Gravel is also missing from the river, due to the dams and this has caused erosion below the dam at Iffezheim
37.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
38.
Napoleon
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Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the French Revolutionary Wars. As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 until 1814, Napoleon dominated European and global affairs for more than a decade while leading France against a series of coalitions in the Napoleonic Wars. He won most of these wars and the vast majority of his battles, one of the greatest commanders in history, his wars and campaigns are studied at military schools worldwide. Napoleons political and cultural legacy has ensured his status as one of the most celebrated and he was born Napoleone di Buonaparte in Corsica to a relatively modest family from the minor nobility. When the Revolution broke out in 1789, Napoleon was serving as an officer in the French army. Seizing the new opportunities presented by the Revolution, he rose through the ranks of the military. The Directory eventually gave him command of the Army of Italy after he suppressed a revolt against the government from royalist insurgents, in 1798, he led a military expedition to Egypt that served as a springboard to political power. He engineered a coup in November 1799 and became First Consul of the Republic and his ambition and public approval inspired him to go further, and in 1804 he became the first Emperor of the French. Intractable differences with the British meant that the French were facing a Third Coalition by 1805, in 1806, the Fourth Coalition took up arms against him because Prussia became worried about growing French influence on the continent. Napoleon quickly defeated Prussia at the battles of Jena and Auerstedt, then marched the Grand Army deep into Eastern Europe, France then forced the defeated nations of the Fourth Coalition to sign the Treaties of Tilsit in July 1807, bringing an uneasy peace to the continent. Tilsit signified the high watermark of the French Empire, hoping to extend the Continental System and choke off British trade with the European mainland, Napoleon invaded Iberia and declared his brother Joseph the King of Spain in 1808. The Spanish and the Portuguese revolted with British support, the Peninsular War lasted six years, featured extensive guerrilla warfare, and ended in victory for the Allies. The Continental System caused recurring diplomatic conflicts between France and its client states, especially Russia, unwilling to bear the economic consequences of reduced trade, the Russians routinely violated the Continental System and enticed Napoleon into another war. The French launched an invasion of Russia in the summer of 1812. The resulting campaign witnessed the collapse of the Grand Army, the destruction of Russian cities, in 1813, Prussia and Austria joined Russian forces in a Sixth Coalition against France. A lengthy military campaign culminated in a large Allied army defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Leipzig in October 1813, the Allies then invaded France and captured Paris in the spring of 1814, forcing Napoleon to abdicate in April. He was exiled to the island of Elba near Rome and the Bourbons were restored to power, however, Napoleon escaped from Elba in February 1815 and took control of France once again. The Allies responded by forming a Seventh Coalition, which defeated Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in June, the British exiled him to the remote island of Saint Helena in the South Atlantic, where he died six years later at the age of 51
39.
Italian Peninsula
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The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is the central and the smallest of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe. It extends 1,000 km from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south, the peninsulas shape gives it the nickname lo Stivale. Three smaller peninsulas contribute to this shape, namely Calabria, Salento. Geographically, the Italian peninsula consists of the south of a line extending from the Magra to the Rubicon rivers. It excludes the Po Valley and the slopes of the Alps. All of the lies within the territory of the Italian Republic except for the microstates of San Marino. Additionally, Sicily, Elba and other islands, such as Palagruža, are usually considered as islands off the peninsula. The peninsula lies between the Tyrrhenian Sea on the west, the Ionian Sea on the south, and the Adriatic Sea on the east, the backbone of the Italian peninsula consists of the Apennine Mountains, from which it takes one of its names. Most of its coast is lined with cliffs, the Italian Peninsulas location between the centre of Europe and the Mediterranean Sea made it the target of many conquests. The peninsula has mainly a Mediterranean climate, though in the parts the climate is much cooler. Its natural vegetation includes macchia along the coasts and deciduous and mixed coniferous forests in the interior. Political divisions of the peninsula sorted by area, Apennine Mountains Roman Republic Roman Italy Insular Italy Media related to Italian Peninsula at Wikimedia Commons
40.
County of Tyrol
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The Princely County of Tyrol, until 1493, County of Tyrol, was a State of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. Originally a jurisdiction under the sovereignty of the Counts of Tyrol, it was inherited by the Counts of Gorizia in 1253, today the territory of the historic crown land is divided between the Italian autonomous region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and the Austrian state of Tyrol. Both parts are today associated again in the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion, the German monarchs regularly travelled across Brenner or Reschen Pass on their Italian expeditions aiming at papal coronation or the consolidation of Imperial rule. In 1004 King Henry II of Germany separated the estates of Trent from the North Italian March of Verona, especially the Brixen bishops remained loyal supporters of the Salian rulers in the Investiture Controversy and in 1091 also received the Puster Valley from the hands of Emperor Henry IV. Documented from about 1140 onwards, the comital dynasty residing in Tyrol Castle near Meran held the office of Vogts in the Trent diocese and they extended their territory over much of the region and came to surpass the power of the bishops, who were nominally their feudal lords. After the deposition of the Welf duke Henry X of Bavaria in 1138, when Henry the Lion was again enfeoffed with the Bavarian duchy by Emperor Frederick Barbarossa at the 1154 Imperial Diet in Goslar, his possessions no longer comprised the Tyrolean lands. The Counts maintained that independence under the rising Bavarian Wittelsbach dynasty, in 1210, Count Albert IV of Tyrol also took over the Vogt office in the Bishopric of Brixen, prevailing against the rivalling Counts of Andechs. In 1253 Count Meinhard of Gorizia inherited the Tyrolean lands by his marriage to Adelheid, when their sons divided their estate in 1271, the elder Meinhard II took Tyrol, for which he was recognized as an immediate lordship. He supported the German king Rudolph of Habsburg against his rival King Ottokar II of Bohemia, in reward, he received the Duchy of Carinthia with the Carniolan march in 1286. In 1307 Meinhards son Henry was elected King of Bohemia, After his death, he had one surviving daughter, Margaret Maultasch, in 1342 she married Louis V of Wittelsbach, then Margrave of Brandenburg. Louis V died in 1361, followed by Margarets son Meinhard III two years later, lacking any descendants to succeed her, she bequeathed the county to Rudolph IV of Habsburg, Duke of Austria in 1363. He was recognized by the House of Wittelsbach in 1369, from that time onward, Tyrol was ruled by various lines of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty, who held the title of Count. After the Habsburg hereditary lands had been divided by the 1379 Treaty of Neuberg, after a second division within the Leopoldinian line in 1406, Duke Frederick IV of the Empty Pockets ruled them. In 1420 he made Innsbruck the Tyrolean residence, in 1490 his son and heir Sigismund renounced Tyrol and Further Austria in favour of his cousin German king Maximilian I of Habsburg. By then Maximilian I had re-united all Habsburg lands under his rule, in 1500 he also acquired the remaining Gorizia territories around Lienz and the Puster Valley. When Emperor Ferdinand I of Habsburg died in 1564, he bequeathed the rule over Tyrol, both territories thereafter fell to the younger sons of the Habsburg Emperors, Archduke Matthias in 1608 and Maximilian III in 1612. After the death of Archduke Sigismund Francis in 1665, all Habsburg lands were again under the rule of the Emperor Leopold I. From the time of Maria Theresa of Austria onward, Tyrol was governed by a government of the Habsburg Monarchy at Vienna in all matters of major importance
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Second Battle of Bassano
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The Second Battle of Bassano on 6 November 1796, saw a Habsburg Austrian army commanded by Jozsef Alvinczi fight Napoleon Bonapartes French Army of Italy. The Austrians repulsed persistent French attacks in a struggle in both sides suffered heavy losses. The action was part of the relief of the Siege of Mantua during the War of the First Coalition. See the Arcola 1796 Campaign Order of Battle for a list of the units of both armies. After the battle Würmser elected to dash for Mantua and he reached the place safely only to have his 12,000 remaining soldiers driven into the fortress by the French on 15 September. Within six weeks 4,000 Austrians died of disease or wounds in the overcrowded city, kaiser Francis II of Austria appointed Feldzeugmeister Alvinczi to assemble a new field army and mount the third relief of Mantua. Alvinczi, Feldmarschall-Leutnant Paul Davidovich, General-Major Johann Rudolph Sporck, and Major Franz von Weyrother planned the new operation, Alvinczi accompanied the 28, 000-strong Friaul Corps, led by Feldmarschall-Leutnant Peter Vitus von Quosdanovich, as it advanced from the Piave River toward the west. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Paul Davidovich led the 19, 000-man Tyrol Corps, which was in the upper Adige River valley, davidovichs column began moving at the end of October. On 2 November, his corps clashed with Vaubois outnumbered division near Cembra in the north, by 5 November Davidovich pushed the French out of Trento. On 1 November, the Friaul Corps began crossing the Piave, in the face of Alvinczis westward advance, Massena pulled out of Bassano early on 4 November. General-Major Friedrich of Hohenzollern-Hechingens advance guard occupied the town. Feldmarschall-Leutnant Giovanni Provera with two brigades reached the Brenta farther south near Fontaniva to form Alvinczis left flank, Bonaparte determined to attack the Austrians and called for Augereau and Macquard to join Masséna in resisting Alvinczi on the Brenta. Bonaparte accompanied Augereaus division as it advanced north-east from Vicenza to Bassano, Masséna took a more southerly road and clashed with the Austrian left wing at Fontaniva late on 5 November. General-major Anton Lipthay pulled his troops back to the east side of the river and this set the stage for the battle, which began on 6 November. Masséna attacked Lipthays brigade at Fontaniva, from morning until 6 p. m. the French mounted as many as ten assaults on the Austrian generals four battalions, with heavy losses on both sides. Injured when his horse fell on him, Lipthay resolutely remained at his post. Early in the morning Hohenzollern crossed the Brenta, followed by Quasdanovichs right wing and this wing included General-Major Anton Ferdinand Mittrowskys brigade, which recently joined the army by descending the Brenta valley. The Austrians anchored their right flank in the Alpine foothills while their left flank curved back to touch the Brenta, Augereaus division began to arrive in the area in mid-morning and attacked Bassano in the early afternoon before all the Austrians crossed the river
