Jean Baptist, Comte d'Arco

Johann Baptist Graf von Arco (* 1650, † March 21, 1715 in Munich) was a diplomat and general field marshal in the service of the Electorate of Bavaria during the Spanish War of Succession.

Life

Was born Johann Baptist von Arco, the son of the Imperial General Feldzeugmeister Prosper of Arco and his wife Ursula Franz von Ketteler Elina. In 1680 he married Ursula von Berndorff.

Already in 1672 he had joined the Bavarian Army, but switched just three years later with his disgraced father in Austrian service. In 1683 he was again present on the Bavarian side; as colonel of the so-called Arco Cuirassiers. Military, who did much in the subsequent period, among others in 1683 in the German - Polish relief army that freed Vienna from the second Turkish siege, and in the recapture of Belgrade in 1688. Graf von Arco participated in the campaigns of the Upper Rhine region, in northern Italy and the Netherlands, where he led the Bavarian cavalry 1693 at Neerwinden. In 1696 he was therefore appointed by the Elector Maximilian II Emanuel to his Hofkriegsratspräsidenten, but dismissed again at the outbreak of the Spanish War of Succession, and in 1702 raised to the rank of Field Marshal. While the Elector tried to ward off the imperial troops in eastern Bavaria, Arco was in command in Swabia and intended in a fixed bearing at Donauwörth to go together with the hurrying from the Rhine French. 1704 Arco was defeated by the Duke of Marlborough and the Margrave of Baden. In the Battle of Blenheim, he made the attacks of Prince Eugene on the left wing of the line-up resistor, but then followed his Lord in the Netherlands. After he had taken part in the Battle of Ramillies, he returned to Bavaria.

The Count was one of the most important representatives of a Bavarian france friendly policies and, therefore, received the honorary title of Marshal of France. Also, he had been repeatedly sent on a diplomatic mission to England.