Archduke of Austria Charles

Charles, Archduke of Austria (1771-1847), dynamic military leader and reformer and a reminder of how the Habsburgs came to be great in the first place. The third son of Emperor Leopold II, his first battle was Jemappes (1792). As governor of the Austrian Netherlands he enjoyed some military success against the French at first, but then suffered defeats at Wattignies (1793) and Fleurus. Commanding on the Rhine in 1796, he defeated Moreau and Jourdan, and again defeated the latter and Masséna during the Second Coalition, only to see Moreau advance on Vienna after the Austrian defeat at Höhenlinden (1800).

During the truce that followed, Charles became the president of a council of war that began scrapping the old Habsburg military system and replacing it with one intelligently modelled on the best aspects of the French. Charles advocated an appeal to popular nationalism, previously anathema in the multinational Habsburg empire. The need for reform was brutally underlined at Austerlitz in 1805 and Charles's efforts began to bear fruit in 1809, when he fought Napoleon twice on the Danube. He defeated him at Aspern-Essling, but two months later lost at Wagram, not before inflicting heavy casualties. He took no further part in the war and published his Principles of Strategy in 1814, based on his successful 1796 campaign. Although his own generalship was characterized by almost Napoleonic opportunism, he emphasized the importance of strategic positioning to force the enemy to give battle at a disadvantage.

Bibliography

• Rothenberg, Gunter E., Napoleon's Greatest Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the Austrian Army 1792-1814 (London, 1982)

— John M. Bourne