The Wild Geese in Austria

While “The Wild Geese” usually refers to Irish Catholics serving in the French service in the 18th century some served in the Austrian service. Captain John Bellew was one and Karen Harvey writes interestingly, I think, about him and other Irishmen serving the Habsburgs in The Journal of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland in 1988. Two of John Bellew’s brothers also served.

A notable part of the experience of the Catholic gentry in the eighteenth century was the emigration of large numbers of their class who felt that, as a result of the restrictions placed upon them by the Penal Laws, opportunities for advancement lay elsewhere. One such avenue was foreign military service: Irish Catholic gentry emigres were soldiers and regimental officers in almost all the armies of Catholic Europe. While the great majority were in the service of the Bourbons, in France and Spain, significant numbers found employment in the Imperial Habsburg forces.
The tradition of Irish service to the Austrian Habsburgs was not wholly a result of the Jacobite defeat, so prominent in filling the ranks of Bourbon armies. Taaffes and Butlers were in the Imperial army before the end of the seventeenth century, and, although the father of Austrian field-marshal Maximilian Browne had served in James’s army, his great-uncle had been in the Habsburg service a generation before. In 1689, several Irish regiments that had been raised by the Duke of Tyrconnell were disbanded for want of arms and entered into the armies of central and eastern Europe and, after James’s defeat a year later, increasing numbers of Irishmen filled the Habsburg officer ranks. Some, like Maximilian Browne’s father, whose regiment in the French army had been disbanded, owed their appointments to the recommendation of the Duke of Marlborough, who preferred the exiled Irish officers in the employ of Austria, then an ally, rather than with the French enemy.
By the third quarter of the eighteenth century, the Irish families of Brown, Maguire, Lacy, Nugent, and Plunkett had all contributed members as prominent generals, who participated in campaigns against the Bourbons, Prussians, and Turks. The O’Donnells of Leitrim and Mayo had three members in Austrian service; all achieved the rank of general and became counts of the Holy Roman Empire. Field Marshal Franz Moritz Lacy not only took part in Austrian campaigns from the War of the Austrian Succession to the Austro-Turkish War of 1788-1790, but also held the presidency of the Hofkriegsrat and, with Joseph II, continued the re-organisation of the military begun under Maria Theresa.
However, there were never as many Irish rank-and-file with the Habsburgs as with the Bourbons; hence, there were never any Austrian Irish brigades. Moreover, Austrian military tradition militated against the establishment of an Irish tradition of service within a particular regiment. Each regiment had two colonels, a colonel proprietor, to whom the Hofkriegsrat granted ownership, and a colonel commandant, installed by the colonel proprietor, who was responsible for its day-to-day operation. If an Irishman were appointed colonel of a regiment, other Irish could, and did, gather under him, but with the end of his tenure the appointment of the proprietorship went back to the Hofkriegsrat, and another colonel proprietor, not necessarily an Irishman, would replace him. There would no longer be any particular incentive for other Irish to join the regiment, and with normal rates of attrition, the Irish contingent would shrink and any continuity of membership be broken.
Nonetheless, for Irish Catholic gentry seeking positions of command, there were definite attractions in Imperial service. The first, common to employment in any of the Catholic continental armies, was expressed in a petition to Maria Theresa and Francis I by Nicholas Taaffe:
‘Because he was afraid that his descendants pressed by the Penal Laws would not resist the temptation of becoming Protestants … He therefore took refuge to a Catholic country … He had abandoned his relations and his estate and the rank and liberty he had in his country to prevent his descendants from deserting a religion to which their Imperial Majesties so fervently adhered . . . .’ Moreover, the Austrian army, more multinational and polyglot than any other in Europe, stressed loyalty to the sovereign over national origin, and had a long tradition of employing capable foreigners. (This tradition was in part born of necessity since the Austrian lower nobility and gentry, unlike their continental counterparts, were loath, despite Imperial pressure and incentives, to enter military service for most of the eighteenth century). The Irish were particularly welcomed and soon established a reputation for bravery, if not discipline. The Emperor Francis stated:
“The more Irish in the Austrian service the better; our troops will always be disciplined; an Irish coward is an uncommon character; and what the natives of Ireland even dislike from principle, they generally perform through a desire of glory”.
Perhaps one of the strongest appeals of Imperial service was its attitude toward appointment and promotions, a slightly different one from that encountered in the Bourbon armies. The selling of positions and commands was officially frowned upon in the Austrian army. Although reality often fell short of the ideal, the purchase of military place was regarded as corruption rather than standard practice, and officials tried at least to limit it – advancement could proceed by only one rank at a time, and the rights of others were to be protected. Likewise, although promotions, to be awarded solely for seniority or excellent service, were often helped along by cash and gifts presented to colonel proprietors, frequent periods of war afforded opportunities to advance if an officer were capable, but lacking in funds. Thus, for an Irishman of ability, but little patrimony, opportunities for advancement were, or could be, slightly more favourable in the Imperial army.
Moreover, because of the official attitude toward the sale of military positions, Irish generals, colonel proprietors, and high officers might have felt less constraint in both recruiting and preferring their generally less wealthy countrymen. An Irish officer writing to a relative in Ireland whose son had expressed an interest in the Austrian army, recommended as “the best means,” going through General D’Alton. With his protection, and the boy’s own good behaviour, he could rise in the service (Bellew Papers, 12 September, 1788).

As for the advantage of Irish connections in securing position and preferment, the entourage of Field-Marshal Browne in mid-century included his sons Philip and Joseph, his cousin Major O’Neillan, his adjutant-general Colonel Thomas Plunkett, Major Franz Lacy, General Macguire, cavalry general O’Donnell, and Colonel MacEligot. Nonetheless such preferment was dependent on at least a modicum of ability and good behaviour as the officer’s letter indicates, particularly in the lower echelons of service. In 1788, the death of an Irishman in battle whose “breakfast daily was a quart of brandy” and who was “continually drunk and in bad company” was regarded by a fellow Irish officer and relative with sorrow but resignation. Because of his behaviour, he had had little hope of promotion in his military career, “his Proprietor couldn’t advance him” (Bellew Papers, 10 December 1788).

In summary, clusters of Irishmen could be found in regiments and staffs, and close ties existed between them. However, because of the factors mentioned previously -the smaller number of Irish in Imperial service and the organisation of the Austrian regiment – the history of the Irish in the Habsburg army is reflected more in the careers of individual officers than in regimental tradition. All told, the Irish supplied the Imperial army with thirteen field marshals, dozens of generals, and hundreds of junior officers. In this regard, the correspondence of John Bellew, a member of a prominent gentry family of counties Louth and Galway, provides an interesting view of the life and experiences of one such Irish junior officer in Imperial service in the last quarter of the eighteenth century.

The Journal of The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, Karen Harvey, 1988.

(to be continued)