François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt

François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfait and Carbonne, also Clerfayt or Clair Fait, (* October 14, 1733 at Castle Bruille in Hainaut (Austrian Netherlands); † July 21, 1798 in Vienna ) was an Austrian field marshal.

Life

Clerfait became the Seven Years War to colonel, fought in 1788 and 1789 during the Turkish War as a field marshal lieutenant and in 1790, after he had defeated the Turks at Kalafat (July 27 ), promoted to field -marshal. In 1792, he threw the French out of the Netherlands Beaulieu back, took part in the capture of Longwy and Verdun, took possession on September 1 of the important post at Stenay, covered the retreat of the Duke of Brunswick to Koblenz and then received in the Netherlands takes the Duke Albert of Saxe -Teschen, the command against Dumouriez.

On March 1, 1793, he attacked the French at Aldenhoven, forcing them to raise the siege of Maastricht and decided on 18 March at the Battle of Neerwinden victory. The Battle of Wattignies on 15 and 16 October 1793, he lost. In 1794 he came to Flanders back several attacks of the enemy, but was after the battle of Fleurus, the lost prince of Coburg, the enemy no longer hold. In Coburg point engaged, he led the army back in order over the Rhine.

In 1795, he was the kingdom Feldzeugmeister the command of the Austrian Empire and the army on the Middle and Lower Rhine. In the autumn of Jourdan and Pichegru invaded in Dusseldorf at Mannheim on the Rhine, to Clerfait threw on former, struck him on 10 October at maximum am Main and threw it back over the Rhine. Then he hurried to Mainz, which was surrounded by 70,000 French, captured the deemed insurmountable Mainz lines and drove the enemy over Ingelheim against Bingen and Oppenheim back to Alzey. On a winter campaign not established, he concluded an armistice on 21 December and returned in January 1796 to Vienna.

On the way he took on January 5, 1796 in Frankfurt am Main to his quarters in the inn Roman Emperor. His victory at peak had saved the city from being conquered by French troops, so they gave him an honor ceremony at the Municipal Theater, in which a specially sealed for the occasion prologue of Johann Jakob Ihlee was presented. The Senate, under the leadership of the elders mayor Adolph Carl von Humbracht appointed him on 7 January 1796 an honorary citizen of Frankfurt. For this honor, which gave the city only the second time, Emperor Francis II of the Senate express his Allergnädigstes pleasure.

Due to disagreements with the Prime Thugut because of the armistice and the allegation that he has taken much too little rapid initiative, he did not get the command again and entered the Hofkriegsrat, but died universally respected on 21 July 1798 by the City through a honorary dedicated grave ( group OK, number 1), honored on the Hernalser cemetery.

Reception

By the imperial resolution of Franz Joseph I of February 28, 1863 Clerfait was " famous, to the everlasting emulation worthy warlords and generals of Austria" in the list of added, in whose honor and remembrance also a life-size statue in the Feldherrenhalle of the then newly established kk Hofwaffenmuseums (now the Military History Museum Vienna) was built. The statue was created in 1867 by sculptor Thomas Seidan ( 1830-1890 ) in Carrara marble, it was dedicated by Emperor Franz Joseph himself

1894 named to the Clerfaytgasse in Vienna Hernals after him. 1908 Clerfait was appointed as "perpetual owner of the Imperial and Royal Galician Infantry Regiment No. 9".