Charles, Archduke of Austria

(1771–1847)

   Archduke Charles (Karl) of Austria, Duke of Teschen, was born in September 1771 in Florence, the capital of Tuscany. The third son of the Grand-Duke of Tuscany and Emperor Leopold II made a career in the Austrian army. As Generalgovernor of the Austrian Netherlands in 1793–1794 and as field-commander of Austrian armies operating in southern Germany, northern Italy and Switzerland from 1796 to 1800, he took part in Austria’s warfare against revolutionary France.

   In 1801, Charles became president of the Aulic War Council, Hofkriegsrat, and started to modernize the Austrian forces. In the war against France in 1805, Charles led the Austrian troops in Italy. With the army reform still in its infancy, Charles opposed another war against Napoleon in 1809. But when war had broken out, Charles commanded the Austrian field army and achieved the first victory over Napoleon in the Battle of Aspern-Essling in May 1809. Nevertheless, Austria lost the war and Charles his command. He became Austria’s most influential military writer and died in Vienna in April 1847.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Bérenger, Jean. A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1780-1918 . London: Longman, 1997;

    Bridge, Francis R. The Habsburg Monarchy Among the Great Powers, 1815-1918 . New York: St. Martin’s, 1990;

    Kann, Robert A. A History of the Habsburg Empire, 1526-1918 . Berkeley: University of California Press, 1974.

   GUENTHER KRONENBITTER