Birthday Greetings #17

It's been a busy few weeks for Habsburg military heroes. This time its happy birthday to Field Marshal Johan Josef Wenzel Anton Franz Karl Radetzky von Radetz. More commonly known as Josef Radetzky. Unlike Prince Eugene Radetzky was a home grown military hero born in the then Habsburg province of Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic). A member of the minor nobility (the village that provided his predicate was apparently destroyed in the Hussite Wars) Radetzky was raised by his grandfather after the early death of his parents.

He was sent to the Theresianum an academy set up by Maria Theresa but it was dissolved after his first year and Radetzky went as a cadet to the army. As a junior officer he fought in the Turkish War and then served on the Rhine at the beginning of the series of wars which followed the French revolution. This ushered in a period of time when Radetzky chafed under the direction of officers considerably less talented than himself but despite this and the generally dreadful way the wars went for the Habsburg empire Radetzky managed to distinguish himself and gained constant promotions and imperial recognition.

Between 1809 and 1812 he was chief of the general staff of the army but he resigned the position in protest at treasury obstruction to his attempts at reform. Apparently the treasury insisted that there should actually be money to pay for these. Radetzky became chief of staff to Prince Karl Schwarzenburg who commanded the Austrian forces during the campaigns against Napoleon in Germany in 1813 and in Germany and France in 1814. Schwarzenburg received much criticism for his apparent timidity and reluctance to face Napoleon but he was being guided by Habsburg political imperatives orchestrated by the imperial Chancellor, Metternich. Since Metternich feared and distrusted his allies at least as much as he disliked Napoleon Schwarzenburg had a delicate balancing act to perform. Nevertheless again Radetzky came out of the campaign with his reputation enhanced and a promotion to Lieutenant Field Marshal.

The sudden outbreak of peace at the end of the Napoleonic Wars led to stagnation for Radetzky, he was made chief of the general staff again but the treasury was no more inclined to fund in peace what it had refused to fund in war and it looked like Radetzky was headed for the shelf. Instead he was promoted field marshal and sent to command the army of Italy (much of northern Italy then being under Habsburg rule). In this position Radetzky made up for the lack of modern equipment and organisation with relentless training and strict discipline. By this time he was seventy years old but his greatest years were ahead of him.

In 1848 the King of Piedmont sensed that the time was right to unite at least northern Italy under his sceptre and launched an attack on Habsburg held territory. Back in the imperial heartland discontent, disorder and outright revolution had reduced the situation to chaos but as the empire seemed on the point of falling to bits one part of it still functioned and functioned well. The army of Italy under the command of the now octogenarian Radetzky rose to the occasion and defeated the Piedmontese at the battle of Novara crushing Italian hopes of independence and giving new heart to a desperate imperial family. With the Italians well and truly thumped Radetzky turned his army towards the empire itself, a potent threat to any revolutionary who might try to overthrow the monarchy.

With new laurels crowning his aged head Radetzky was made Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia and attempted to rule with a reasonable amount of commonsense. Rebels in arms and deserters were hung but peaceful opponents were given travel passes and advised to leave the territory. He died at the age of ninety one, still serving but perhaps now past his prime. We have a piece of music by Johan Strauss the Elder to remember him by. The Radetzky March was written in honour of his Italian victories and is still played each year at the Vienna New Year concert.

Radetzky served his emperor (and he saw five of them) for more than seventy years and during the revolutions of 1848-49 was one of the few solid supports the monarch could count on. Something Franz Grillparzer, no great lover of Habsburg absolutism, wrote during that time encapsulated his importance "in your camp is Austria". When everything else failed there was still Radetzky and that was enough.