that ancient kingdom rather than to assist the Czarina (who demanded
of Austria 10,000 horse and 20,000 foot), Charles sent 8000 Saxon
infantry, under Field-Marshal Seckendorf and General Count Brown, with
whom the Duke of Lorraine went as a volunteer. By the peculation of
the commissaries and contractors, these forces suffered incredible
hardships, and their leaders found Gradisca, Bioc, even Belgrade,
and all the Hungarian frontier fortresses dilapidated, and incapable
of being defended. More troops and 600,000 florins were promised to
them from Vienna, but neither came. Thus Seckendorf and Brown found
themselves before the Turks with a small army of recruits, destitute
of horses, caissons, and all the munitions of war. On receiving
10,000 florins, they raised 26,000 infantry, 15,000 horse, and 4000
irregulars; but the indecision of the Emperor, who interfered with all
their arrangements, the nature of their forces, clamours among their
soldiers, cabals among their officers, the severities they encountered,
and the pressing ardour of the Osmanli, gave to the Imperial arms but
a succession of humiliating defeats; and though Brown's fiery energy
captured many small fortresses, others of greater importance were lost
by Seckendorf, and at last Belgrade, the scene of our hero's earlier
service, was besieged.
Banjaluca, a strongly fortified town, which has two castles to defend
it, and which stands on the frontier of Bosnia, at the confluence of
the Verbas with the Save, was skilfully invested by the Austrians under
the Prince of Hildburghausen, but he was compelled to raise the siege,
and after a bloody conflict, was driven towards the Save by the Turks.
Charles, alarmed for the safety of Austria, ordered Seckendorf and
Brown to march through Servia, and form a junction with the prince,
which they immediately did, after dispatching a reinforcement to
Marshal Kevenhüller. With only 20,000 men they fought a way through
Servia, and made themselves masters of Utzitza, after a short siege,
and would have taken Zwornick, but for an inundation of the Drina.
On the 16th of October they encamped on the southern bank of the
Save. Thus, they arrived in time to share some of the fighting near
Banjaluca, and on the retreat from thence the Austrian baggage, sick,
and wounded, were only saved from the barbarous Mussulmans by the
personal exertions of Count Brown, who secured that movement by his
valour and example.
Discouraged by the misfortunes of his army, Charles VI. resolved
to end a strife in which his troops gathered nothing but disgrace;
and, leaving the quarrel to the mediation of France, he bequeathed
to the Czarina the whole brunt of the war. The ill-success of the
Austrians was attributed to the unfortunate Seckendorf, the victim of
circumstances and the cabals of the Jesuits; thus he was committed,
for an unlimited time, to the gloomy Castle of Glatz, an old fortress
on the mountains of Silesia. On the peace of Belgrade being signed,
Marshal Wallace was also sent prisoner to Zigieth, and Count Neuperg
was placed in the Castle of Holitz; and as these three generals were
ordered to remain captive during the lifetime of the Emperor, no part
of the stigma of their ill-success fell on their Irish compatriot,
Brown, who, on his return to Vienna, in 1735, was created Field
Marshal-lieutenant, and a member of the Aulic Council of War.
In the following year, his friend and master, Charles VI. (having
unfortunately surfeited himself with mushrooms), died. He was the
_last_ prince of the ancient House of Hapsburg, sixteenth Emperor of
Germany, and eleventh King of Bohemia; and the grave had scarcely
closed over him, ere the disputed succession to his hereditary
dominions kindled another war in Europe.
By the Pragmatic Sanction his ancient possessions were guaranteed to
his daughter, the Archduchess Maria Theresa (Queen of Hungary and
Bohemia, and wife of Francis Stephen, Duke of Tuscany), by Britain,
Russia, Holland, France, Spain, and Prussia; but the three last-named
powers fell--as an old writer says--"upon the poor distressed orphan
queen, like three wolves, without mercy or equity;" and in defiance
of their solemn league, the Bavarian Elector laid claim to Bohemia;
the sovereigns of France, Poland, and Saxony demanded all the vast
inheritance of Austria each for themselves; and all prepared for open
war, while Maria Theresa quietly took possession of her father's throne.
At this startling crisis Count Brown was in command at Breslau. The
first blow of this new and general contest was struck by Frederick
III. of Prussia, who, having at his disposal all the immense treasure
which had been accumulated by the rigid economy of his politic father,
together with 76,000 idle troops, for whom he had been left to find
employment, now revived an ancient claim to Silesia, based upon such
pretensions as the English kings of old advanced to the thrones of
Scotland and France; and suddenly marching twenty battalions of
infantry and thirty-six squadrons of horse into the duchy, he took
possession of Breslau, its capital, from which Count Brown was forced
to retire, having only 3000 men, with whom he retreated towards
Moravia, leaving small garrisons in Glogau and Breig, which Frederick
blockaded with six battalions. This was in the January of 1741.
Frederick now offered to supply the Queen of Hungary (as Maria Theresa
was styled) with money and troops to support her claims against _the
other_ violators of the Pragmatic Sanction, provided she would cede
to him the Silesian province. Aware of the danger of yielding to one
pretender, she sent Count Neuperg (who, since the Peace of Belgrade,
had been a captive) with an army to the assistance of the faithful
Brown, who, after disputing every inch of Frederick's progress, had
maintained the contest with him single-handed for two months.
The King of Prussia sent a detachment of infantry across the Oder to
attack Brown's garrison of 300 men in Namslau, where they surrendered
in a fortnight. Leaving one regiment in Breslau, he marched against
Brown's next garrison, consisting of 400 men, in Ohlau, under
Colonel Formentini, who finding the place ruinous, and the Prussians
overwhelming, capitulated. Then General Kleist invested Breig with five
battalions and four squadrons.
Count Neuperg, one of Austria's best generals, being a senior officer,
assumed the command of the whole force, which he had first assembled
in the environs of Olmutz, and sent General Lentulus to occupy the
narrow defiles of Glatz in Silesia, and thus protect Bohemia. Neuperg,
meanwhile, meditated operations on the Neiss, and his hussars cut off
the King of Prussia's convoys and outposts in every direction. The
skirmishes around Neiss were incessant, and in one cavalry encounter
Frederick was nearly taken prisoner--a stroke which would have ended
the war at once. After many manoeuvres and encounters, the armies of
Neuperg and Frederick drew near each other, on the 10th of April, 1741,
at Molowitz, a village in the neighbourhood of Neiss, where a desperate
battle was fought.
On this inauspicious day--inauspicious for the Austrian cause--General
Count Brown (or _Braün_, as the King of Prussia names him in his
works) commanded the infantry. The scene of the encounter was within
a league of the river Neiss, and the ground was mantled with snow to
the depth of two feet. The Prussian army consisted of twenty-seven
battalions of infantry, twenty-nine squadrons of cavalry, and three of
hussars.
The Prussian infantry were, at that time, says Frederick, who had
brought their discipline to perfection, "walking batteries! The
rapidity of loading tripled their fire, and made a Prussian equal
to three adversaries." They came on with such ardour, that Marshal
Neuperg had to form his troops in order of battle under a cannonade
from Frederick's artillery; but the right wing of his cavalry (thirty
squadrons), under Roemer, fell headlong on the Prussian left, and drove
back their blue-coated dragoons. On they continued to press, with
swords uplifted, until the steady fire of two grenadier battalions
routed them, and slew the brave Roemer as he led them to the charge for
the third time.
At this critical moment, the infantry under Brown rushed on, and,
though unsupported by cavalry, made incredible efforts to break through
Frederick's serried ranks; and in this struggle the first battalion of
his guards lost half its officers, and no less than 800 men. For five
hours the firing continued; and, as ammunition failed, the dead were
all turned on their faces, and their pouches emptied, to carry on the
strife, which was only ended by Marshal Schwerin making a motion with
his left, which threatened the Austrian flank. "This," says Frederick,
in the _History of his Own Times_, "was the signal of victory, and the
Austrian defeat--their rout was total." This was at six, P.M.
Count Brown was severely wounded, and Maria Theresa had 180 officers,
7000 horse and foot, killed, and three standards, seven cannon, and
1200 prisoners taken, with 3000 wounded. Brown, though faint with loss
of blood, never left his saddle; but, by his efforts at the head of the
infantry, covered the retreat of the whole army, which Neuperg, who
was also wounded, ordered to retire under the cannon of Neiss, leaving
Frederick victorious on the field, where he remained for three weeks.
Availing himself of this success, the victor, after a short siege, took
Breig, removed his head-quarters to Strehlen, and, on driving 4000
Austrian hussars from the important pass of Fryewalde, began to recruit
his army among the conquered Silesians. Re-establishing himself in
Breslau, on being joined by the Duke of Holstein, his army, consisting
of forty-three battalions and seventy squadrons, would soon have cut
off all communication between the troops of Neuperg and his supplies;
and moreover, would have formed a junction with the armies of France
and Bavaria, which had now taken the field in his favour--the former
under the famous marshal, Duke de Belleisle, and the latter under their
Elector. The outposts of their allied enemies were now within eight
German miles of Vienna, and the cause of the young and beautiful Maria
Theresa seemed almost desperate. She retired to Presburg, where her
appearance before the assembled Palatines, with an infant son in her
arms, kindled such an enthusiasm that, as one man, they drew their
sabres, exclaiming "We will die for our sovereign, Maria Theresa!"
She sent for Count Brown in 1743, to be present at her coronation, and,
as a reward for his past services, made him a privy councillor of the
kingdom of Bohemia.
The brave Hungarian nobles now rose in arms, and old Count Palfy
marched at the head of 30,000 men to relieve Vienna, the Governor of
which, Marshal Kevenhüller, had only 12,000 men to resist the three
armies of France, Prussia, and Bavaria, while the Marshals Neuperg and
Brown covered the roads to Bohemia with 20,000 men, as a protection
against the kingdom of Bavaria. In all the operations of the Austrians,
during the many encounters and severe campaigns of 1742-3, Count Brown
commanded the vanguard or first division, and always with honour.
Prince Charles of Lorraine having succeeded Marshal Neuperg in command
of the army, encountered the enemy near Braunau, and a desperate, but
drawn battle (in which his forces suffered most) was fought, while
Prince Lobcowitz, on marching from Bohemia, drove the French from all
their posts and garrisons in the Upper Palatinate. Then the combined
forces of the Prince, Brown, and Lobcowitz, forced those of Marshal
Broglio to abandon their strongly intrenched camp at Pladling, on the
Danube, and to fall back in confusion on the Rhine, while the irregular
horse, Croats, Pandours, and Foot Talpaches, harassed their rear-guard,
and exterminated the stragglers.
In this expedition Count Brown seized Deckendorf at the head of the
vanguard, captured a vast quantity of baggage, and obliged the French,
after immense slaughter, to abandon the banks of the Danube, which the
whole Austrian army, under the Prince of Lorraine, passed in security
on the 6th of June.
On this spot a pillar was afterwards erected, bearing, in the following
inscription, an honourable testimony to the valour of the Irish hero:--
"Theresiæ Austriacæ Augustæ Duce Exercitus,
Carlo Alexandro Lothairingico,
Septemdecim, superatis hostilibus villis,
Captoque Deckendorfio, renitendibus undis,
Resistentibus, Gallis,
Duce exercitus Ludovico Borbonio Contio
Transivit hic Danubium,
Ulysses Maximilianus Brown, Campi Marashalus,
Die 5o Junii," A.D. 1743.
When Marshal Broglio reached Donawert, in the Swabian circle, he
was joined by 12,000 men, under the warlike Maurice Count de Saxe,
afterwards Marshal General of France and Duke of Courland; but finding
his main body almost destroyed, instead of hazarding a battle, he
retreated before Prince Charles and Brown to Heilbron, and there
abandoning to them his artillery and baggage, retired with greater
precipitation to Prague.
Lorraine followed, and encamped in sight of them, along the hills of
Girisnitz. The French marshals offered to surrender Prague, Egra, and
all their captures in Bohemia, provided they were permitted to march
home with the honours of war. These offers were rejected with disdain;
Prague was invested on all sides, and though the Marshal de Maillebois
marched to its relief, he achieved nothing, for the Austrians possessed
all the passes of the mountains, and he was compelled to retreat as a
fugitive, harassed and galled by the troops of Prince Charles, who left
Prince Lobcowitz to watch the motions of the Dukes of Belleisle and
Broglio in the beleaguered city.
The latter of these marshals fled from his command in the disguise
of a courier; the former abandoned the city in a dark and cold
December night, and, with 14,000 men and 30 guns, made his way towards
Alsace, enduring unheard-of miseries; 900 men whom he left behind
him surrendered at discretion; and thus again the ancient capital of
Bohemia reverted to the House of Austria, which, however, lost the
Duchy of Silesia by the treaty of Breslau, which ceded it for ever to
the kingdom of Prussia.
In the year 1743 Count Brown was sent by his Imperial Mistress to Worms
as her plenipotentiary to George II. of Great Britain, with whose
ministers he spared no pains to arrange the important alliance between
the Courts of London, Vienna, and Turin. On this service he acquitted
himself with an ability no way inferior to the courage he had displayed
in so many fields.
The arena of his next service was again in Italy, where the Austrian
forces were still fighting against the Spaniards, and pursuing the old
war between the houses of Bourbon and Hapsburg.
The Count Gages, who commanded the Spaniards in Bologna, having
received instructions from his imperious queen to fight the enemy
within _three_ days, or resign, and to fight whether he was prepared or
not, passed the Parano in the beginning of February, and, on the 18th,
attacked the Austrians under Count Traun, at Campo Santo, a town of
Modena, where another _drawn_ battle was fought, and both sides claimed
the victory. Count Gages found himself obliged to repass the river,
and retire into Romagna, where he intrenched himself, and remained
undisturbed till October, when Prince Lobcowitz, having assumed command
of the Austrian army, boldly advanced, and drove him back on Fano. It
was at this crisis that Count Brown was sent by Maria Theresa to join
her Austrians, whose ultimate object was the conquest of the Bourbonic
kingdom of Naples, to punish its king for violating a _forced_
neutrality, and having joined Count Gages with 25,000 men.
At this time the Empress-Queen engaged to maintain 30,000 men in Italy,
provided the King of Sardinia would pay another force of 45,000, while
Britain was to send a naval squadron to co-operate by sea. Lobcowitz
and Count Brown had established their head-quarters at Monte Rotondo,
near Rome, when their final orders arrived to invade the kingdom of
Naples. Breaking up the camp, and marching towards Viletri, the prince
dispatched Count Brown, with a division of German infantry and another
of Hungarian hussars, to pursue the Spaniards (who began to retreat) as
far as the river Tronto, with the double purpose of harassing them and
endeavouring to excite an insurrection among the wild mountaineers of
the Abruzzo. In fulfilment of his orders, Brown distributed everywhere
manifestos in the name of Maria Theresa, urging them to throw off the
Spanish yoke, and place themselves under her protection, promising,
at the same time, to banish for ever the obnoxious Jews from Naples;
but these proclamations were unheeded by the Abruzzesi, who evinced no
inclination to revolt.
Meanwhile his commander, Prince Lobcowitz, had halted in the marquisate
of Ancona, being somewhat uncertain in which direction to march.
Pushing on, Count Brown crossed the Tronto, which separates the
kingdom of Naples from the Papal territory. Entering, he gave all to
fire and sword as he advanced. His route lay along the shore of the
Adriatic by the high road to Naples, which crosses the river Potenza
near its mouth, and lies on the confines of Ascoli. He laid most of
the small towns in the Abruzzo under contribution. Some were fined in
money--others in a certain quantity of barley bread; but his necessary
severity was greatly tempered by mercy. His advanced guard of hussars
had daily skirmishes with the Spanish cavalry.
The passes being deep with snow, so as to be almost impassable for
artillery and baggage, Lobcowitz gave up all thought of entering Naples
by the coast road, which was the only clear one, and very unwisely
recalled Count Brown with his forces; and as soon as they joined,
began his march by the way of Umbria and the Campagna di Roma, with
6000 horse and 20,000 foot. Among the former were 2000 hussars; among
the latter were some irregulars, or free companies of what Buonamici,
in his _Commentaries_, styles "Condemned persons and deserters, who,
despairing of pardon, and urged by the prospect of plunder, panted for
an opportunity of coming to blows with the enemy." This small army
advanced in three columns, two days' march apart, that the people might
not be oppressed. Brown commanded the first. Advancing by Spoleto,
Terni, and Narni, they reached Castellana, and held a council of war,
at which Brown, the Cardinal Alessandro Albani, and the Bishop of Gurck
assisted. A stormy debate ensued, and nothing was decided upon.
Meanwhile the alarmed King of Naples, with the combined armies of
Naples and Spain, was encamped on the hill of Anagni, in the Campagna
di Roma. The Spaniards under Count Gages consisted of eleven battalions
of infantry, three regiments of cavalry, under the Duke of Atri, five
hundred horse-archers, and three hundred of the Duke of Modena's
archer-guards (archers, of course, but by name); with the _Irish
Brigade_, and a regiment of hussar deserters. The Neapolitan army
consisted of eighteen battalions of foot and five regiments of horse.
The vanguard was composed of light-armed mountaineers. The artillery
was commanded by the veteran Conte di Gazola.
Lobcowitz and Brown now began their march towards Rome; crossed
the Tiber at Teverone, and halted at Marino, where of old stood
the villa of Caius Marius. After a great deal of severe marching,
counter-marching, and skirmishing, the prince resolved on assailing
the chiefs of the allies in their head-quarters, which they had
established in Viletri; and this daring enterprise he committed to
Brown, his most active and able general.
In Viletri, the King of Naples and the Duke of Modena, with most of
the nobles and officers of their troops, had quartered themselves,
and taken every measure to secure and fortify the town, which is
situated upon a high mountain, surrounded by deep valleys, all
difficult of access, but beautifully planted with vineyards and
groves of olive-trees. It had several gates, a Minorite convent, and
a town-house, which crowned the summit of the hill. Charles of Naples
occupied the noble palace of the Ginnetti family; adjacent to which
were spacious gardens, a lane, and a bridge, all guarded by soldiers,
and barricaded, and planted with brass cannon. The gardens communicated
with the Valmonte road, and thereon were posted two battalions of the
Walloon Guard. The custody of the Roman gate was committed to the
Royal Regiment of Horse, and the Duke of Modena's Life Guards, while
at the foot of the eminence, to sweep all approaches, the most of the
artillery were posted near the Capuchin convent. The right flank of
the town was occupied by Spanish and Italian infantry; the left by the
cavalry, the Irish Brigade, and four battalions of the Walloon Guard.
The Austrians had intrenched themselves on a hill, only a mile distant;
and there, by means of spies and deserters, Count Brown had accurately
informed himself of all the arrangements which had been made in
Viletri; but, brave as he was, on Prince Lobcowitz first proposing this
hazardous duty to him, he was struck by the too evident desperation of
the service.
"The Austrian forces," said he, "are insufficient for attempting
so daring an enterprise; it is impossible to reach the Neapolitan
cantonment undiscovered, and I do not think we could force it without
imminent danger, and a warm reception. In my opinion, the easier and
the safer way would be to make a general attack with all our strength
upon the enemy's works."
Brown afterwards adopted the general's opinion, that a night attack
was best; and the time and manner he proposed met with the consent of
all who were present at their conference.
Selecting 6000 men, he chose the 10th of August for this desperate
expedition; and Lobcowitz, to conceal all knowledge of the route
chosen by the count in attacking Viletri, threw a chain of picquets
and videttes over a vast extent of country. In silence, and without
the sound of drum or bugle, he marched from the camp; and none of
his troops, save the Marquis de Novati, his second in command, were
informed of the object until they reached a valley at the foot of the
mountain, near a church dedicated to St. Mary. The darkness of the
night (says Castruccio Buonamici) was rendered more dense by the shade
of the overhanging vines.
At this moment, during a temporary halt, it was reported to the count
that a soldier had deserted, and perhaps to the enemy. The Marquis
de Novati fearing they were betrayed, urged a retreat, but Brown
exclaimed:--
"No; I am determined to advance. The die of war has been thrown!"