Name and title are binding
12 failures of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was two years younger than the French emperor, born in 1771. And he died a year earlier than Napoleon - in 1820. If your surname is Schwarzenberg, then you simply have to take a worthy place in life and make a brilliant career. In the diplomatic, and better in the military field.
The pedigree of the Bohemian, that is, Czech, but in fact the Germanic Schwarzenbergs, is possibly older than that of the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns, and even more so than that of the Romanovs. One of them, Prince Karl Philip, had to fight repeatedly against Napoleon, the greatest commander of the era, and once, in the Russian campaign, to stand under his banner. But this circumstance did not in the least prevent the appointment of Schwarzenberg as commander-in-chief of the allied armies in the campaigns of 1813-1814.
Moreover, the appointment with the assignment of the title of Generalissimo, for which for some reason the Austrian monarchs were surprisingly generous. It is noteworthy that for a long time Schwarzenberg did not even have the title of field marshal, but none other than Napoleon insisted on its assignment. Evil tongues said that this was done in gratitude for the prince's merits in the match of the French emperor to Princess Marie-Louise.
A military career was actually intended for him from the cradle, and the upbringing of the young man was appropriate - with physical exercises and a special selection of subjects in training. Young Schwarzenberg was lucky with educators, among whom were Field Marshals Laudon and Lassi, as well as with friends, primarily with Jozef Poniatowski.
This nephew of the last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stanislav, better known as one of the lovers of Catherine II, turned out to be a subject of the Habsburg crown as a result of three partitions of Poland. But he spent most of his military career under the command of the French emperor. However, two comrades received their first military experiments in battles with the Turks.
This was one of the last acts of confrontation between Western Europe and the great empire of the East in the Balkans. Further, the Ottomans were finished off mainly by Russians. In one of the battles on the territory of Slavonia (now this is an area in the east of Croatia), Poniatowski and Schwarzenberg took part in the capture of a Turkish convoy. Schwarzenberg managed to disarm one of the Spagi natives, bringing the prisoner to Field Marshal Lassi.
On another occasion, only the help of the gamekeepers rescued two comrades who entered into an unequal battle with the Albanian robbers. Both young men managed to distinguish themselves during the assault on Sabac, and Schwarzenberg, who received a post at the headquarters, fought valiantly in the battle of Bebir and the assault on Belgrade.
Schwarzenberg was only 19 years old when he received the rank of major, and the first sergeant in the ranks of the Life Guards took part in the coronation of Leopold II. This emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had a chance to rule it for only a year and a half, but he managed to get involved in a war with revolutionary France.
Almost the entire further career of Prince Karl Philip Schwarzenberg was in one way or another associated with the opposition of the Habsburgs to the French republic and empire.
Against France and … together with France
He was on the field of the battle of Jemapp, lost by the Austrians, where for the first time he was able to get acquainted with the power of deep French shock columns directly in battle. Subsequently, this experience helped Schwarzenberg in a number of battles, when he had to double, sometimes up to three times, thin Austrian lines, just to withstand the pressure of the French.
However, even before Schwarzenberg, Archduke Karl wrote deep constructions in the Austrian statutes, who only after the war of 1809 ceded to the prince the vacant post of commander-in-chief. But under the leadership of the most talented Austrian commander, Schwarzenberg did not fight as often, surprisingly.
It is no less surprising that Schwarzenberg earned his reputation as a "master of retreats" only in his recent campaigns, and before that he was condemned by many for his tendency to take unnecessary risks. Falling from a horse in one of the first French campaigns almost made the prince an invalid, and it is possible that it was precisely because of the injury that Schwarzenberg became very fat early and strongly. Is this why some memoirists considered Schwarzenberg too slow for a cavalry commander?
However, the Prussian general Blucher, who was a quarter of a century older than Schwarzenberg, who first encountered him on French soil, for a long time generally mistook him for one of the upstart aristocrats. At the same time, at first there was no question of any enmity or personal enmity, which was so characteristic of their relationship afterwards. They just knew about each other, nothing more.
The prince showed his personal courage shortly after he almost gave up his career as a cavalryman. In the case at Kato on the Sambre River on April 26, Schwarzenberg, who was supported by British squadrons, rushed at the head of his cuirassiers to the enemy column, bypassing the left flank of the allies. A horse attack decided the outcome of the battle, and the 23-year-old hero on the battlefield received the Cross of St. Theresa from the hands of the Kaiser.
Schwarzenberg's role in the 1796 campaign, when General Bonaparte marched victoriously across Italy and Archduke Charles drove two French armies across the Rhine, was modest. He, however, managed to distinguish himself as part of the Archduke's troops near Amberg, and almost out of the blue to receive the first general rank.
A major general from a noble family soon married, and for some time was busy with family affairs. He successfully launched the next campaign in 1799, capturing the first French prisoners on the Rhine. The 28-year-old Schwarzenberg had already become a field marshal-lieutenant, but he could not help the army of Archduke Karl in the battle of Hohenlinden.
Its right flank was nearly cut off by General Moreau, but managed to get out of the attack. During the retreat, Schwarzenberg first showed his best qualities at the head of the rearguard, literally knocked together from scattered parts.
The Austrian commander-in-chief wrote about the actions of the prince to Emperor Franz: "he turned a wild disorderly flight into an organized retreat and provided the main army with a possible rest until, through his efforts, the enemy's goal was only to conclude an armistice."
A few more years of peace, received by Austria through the Peace of Luneville, allowed Schwarzenberg to prove himself in the diplomatic field. He went to St. Petersburg for the coronation of the young Russian Emperor Alexander. It is believed that it was he who managed to initiate the restoration of friendly relations between the two powers, which were almost ended by Emperor Paul I.
A few years later, Schwarzenberg's diplomatic talents will be in demand twice more - when he had to act as a peacemaker after the war of 1809, and when Austria returned to the ranks of the anti-Napoleonic coalition after the collapse of the Russian campaign. Before the campaign in Russia, Schwarzenberg took part in the wars of 1805 and 1809, but both general battles - at Austerlitz and Wagram - did without the direct participation of the prince.
Schwarzenberg's regiments did not hit the Austerlitz field due to the fact that, breaking out of the encirclement near Ulm, he took his division to Moravia, from where Murat never released it. Schwarzenberg himself arrived at the main apartment of the Allies, ardently opposed the battle, for which he paid, not even getting a regiment under command.
Four years later, from St. Petersburg, where he was again ambassador, Schwarzenberg with great difficulty made it to the blood-drenched Bisamberg heights near Wagram. But he managed only by the beginning of the retreat of the army of Archduke Charles, which suffered a heavy defeat. The prince, who took command of the rearguard, again had to prove himself a "master of retreat".
He still got the opportunity to fight the French - at Znaim, but this half-victory could no longer change anything, since Austria was actually turning into a vassal of Napoleonic France. Moreover, the Habsburgs finally lost the title of emperors of the Holy Roman Empire, formally liquidated by Napoleon and the Pope three years earlier.
After 1809, Schwarzenberg still had a continuation of his diplomatic career - already in Paris, and there was a terrible fire on his estate at a celebration in honor of Marie-Louise, which took the life of his brother's wife.
They were not expected in Russia
In the 1812 campaign, fate, paradoxically, finally brought two old comrades - Schwarzenberg and Poniatowski - together under the Napoleonic banners. The Poles of Poniatowski made up the 5th corps of the Great Army, the Austrians of Schwarzenberg - the 12th.
But at least somehow they practically did not have to interact, except for the most recent battles associated with the crossing of the Berezina. But by that time, the Polish troops could only be considered a real force with a stretch.
Napoleon in the Russian campaign assigned General Rainier with a French division to Schwarzenberg, but the prince succeeded almost impossible - first of all, to keep his corps almost at full strength. But not only - the prince was able to conduct military operations in such a way as not to antagonize Napoleon and, by and large, the Russians.
If you follow the chess terminology, something like the exchange of minor pieces took place, but the confrontation with the army of Tormasov, who later gave up his place to Admiral Chichagov, was by no means bloodless. There were even several almost battles, although at the walls of Kobrin the Russians split by no means the Austrians, but only the Saxons.
However, in reality the Austrian army, that is, the 12th corps, could not prevent the Russians from practically driving Napoleon into a trap on the banks of the Berezina. Volumes have been written about how Napoleon managed to escape, volumes have been written about it more than once in Voennoye Obozreniye (Berezina-1812: the last "victory" of the French in Russia ").
Surprisingly, it was precisely as a result of the Russian campaign that the French emperor literally demanded from his father-in-law, Franz I, a field marshal's baton for Prince Schwarzenberg. It is possible that, acting in this way, he seriously hoped that his Austrian subordinate would not dare to do anything to return Austria to the ranks of the old allies.
But the beginning of all this was laid by the Appeal of the Commander-in-Chief, Prince Schwarzenberg, to the Austrian army on the eve of the campaign in Russia. The text itself, how pretentious, so meaningless, seemed to suggest the course of action that the commander of the 12th corps of the Great Army chose for himself in the 1812 campaign.
“The unceasing desire of the monarch to take care of the welfare of his subjects prompted him to order you and me to fight in the name of a common goal with other powers. These powers are our allies, we fight with them, but not for them. We are fighting for ourselves. This chosen corps, entrusted wholly and exclusively to our generals, remains inseparable, I, your commander-in-chief, vouch for this.
The best of all military virtues - loyalty to the sovereign and homeland - can be tested by unconditional self-sacrifice in the name of what, according to the circumstances of the time, the monarch considers best to undertake. We can compete with all peoples in courage, courage, endurance and endurance in any struggle. Even where the treachery of the allies inflicted grievous wounds on us, we performed with dignity and recovered our strength. In this commitment "to the emperor and the fatherland, we have always surpassed all our contemporaries and even in misfortune inspired them with respect."
Well, the Russians that year did not expect such conquerors as the Austrians, Hungarians, Czechs and other subjects of the Habsburgs on their land. As, however, they did not expect the Prussians and the Saxons, and many others …
… But it seems they were waiting in Paris
The troops of Schwarzenberg, one of the few that retained the combat effectiveness of the formations of the former Great Army, had to cover Warsaw when the Russians nevertheless decided to continue the campaign against Napoleon. A friend of the prince, General Poniatowski, received time to form fresh Polish units, and Schwarzenberg, having withdrawn the corps to Krakow, surrendered command to General Freemon and departed for Paris.
Prince Karl-Philip really wanted to persuade Napoleon to peace, but in the end everything turned upside down and after the Pleiswitz armistice, Austria was already an enemy of France. The allied monarchs did not dare to appoint any of the Russian generals commander-in-chief, they looked across the ocean, from where they discharged General Moreau, the old enemy and Schwarzenberg and Napoleon.
However, Moreau fell near Dresden from the French core and, quite unexpectedly, the post of commander-in-chief went to Schwarzenberg. However, initially he led only the largest of the allied armies - the Bohemian one, which later became the Main.
At the same time, the prince received seniority over the Prussian general Blucher, and over the Russian Barclay and Bennigsen, and even over the Swedish crown prince, the former Napoleonic marshal Bernadotte. But Schwarzenberg lost his first battle to Napoleon as commander.
Near Dresden, where Moreau fell, Schwarzenberg could not oppose the fire of the French batteries with anything but massive, but extremely sluggish and scattered attacks by infantry and cavalry. After the defeat, the Bohemian army retreated to Bohemia along the passes of the Ore Mountains, but an attempt to bypass it from the flank ended for the French with the defeat of General Vandamm's detachment near Kulm.
After that, Napoleon chose not to press against Schwarzenberg's army, trying to lure it out of the narrow mountain defile with maneuvers. All the efforts of the emperor were directed to the Silesian army of Blucher, which deftly escaped from him, but regularly snarled against individual French corps. As a result, the same Blucher and the Russian Tsar Alexander eventually pushed out of the Ore Mountains of Schwarzenberg.
The campaign of 1813 ended with the grandiose Battle of the Nations near Leipzig, for which Schwarzenberg developed a very intricate plan to bypass the French positions, but in the end everything was decided by a series of grandiose clashes, and after the approach of all allied armies, by a heavy retreat of the French. During it, Schwarzenberg's old friend, Jozef Poniatowski, who had just received the marshal's baton from Napoleon, died in the waters of Elster.
The next campaign (1814), the prince and generalissimo Schwarzenberg actually conducted in the same spirit as the previous one, but this did not deprive him of the glory of the winner of Napoleon. Although he won, by and large, only one battle - at Arcy-sur-Aube. When the allies entered Paris, the commander-in-chief was in the background after the august persons.
By the end of the wars with Napoleon, Schwarzenberg was still quite young, but not too healthy. He still managed to head the Gofkriegsrat (Supreme Military Council of Austria), but soon suffered a stroke, and after visiting Dresden, Kulm and Leipzig, he died. The monument to the Generalissimo in Vienna is certainly beautiful and elegant, but still slightly distant from the center of the capital and other monuments of military glory.
