Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff
Friedrich Heinrich Reichsgraf von Seckendorff[1] (5 July 1673 – 23 November 1763, aged 90) was a Franconian field marshal and diplomat, in the service of the imperial Habsburg monarchy of Austria. Later he served as commander of the Bavarian army and fought Austria.
Family
Seckendorff was born in
Early military career
In 1693, Seckendorff served in the allied army commanded by William III of England, and in 1694 became a cornet in a Gotha cavalry regiment in Austrian pay. Leaving the cavalry, he became an infantry officer in the service of Venice, and in 1697 in that of the Margrave of Ansbach, who in 1698 transferred the regiment in which Seckendorff was serving to the Imperial army.[2] He served under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Great Turkish War.
In 1699, Seckendorff married and returned to Ansbach as a court officer, but the outbreak of the
Disappointed with his lack of promotion in the Netherlands and Austria, Seckendorff entered the service of King
Seckendorff reentered imperial service as a Feldmarschallleutnant in 1717. Under the command of Eugene of Savoy, Seckendorff led two Ansbach regiments against the
Diplomacy
In 1726, at the instance of Eugene of Savoy, Seckendorff became the imperial ambassador at the Prussian court in Berlin. He gained the trust of King Frederick William I of Prussia; king and diplomat had fought alongside one another in the War of the Spanish Succession. Seckendorff also bribed the minister of state, the influential Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, with an Austrian pension.[3] In order to avoid a potential marriage between Crown Prince
Seckendorff's diplomatic skill also led to recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction by the courts of numerous German principalities, Denmark, and the Dutch Republic.
Later military career
In 1734, Seckendorff returned to the imperial army and became Governor of Mainz. As imperial general of cavalry during the War of the Polish Succession, he led 30,000 troops against the French at Clausen on 20 October 1735. In 1737, Emperor Charles VI made Seckendorff commander-in-chief in Hungary, at the same time giving him the baton of Feldmarschall. Although initially successful in the Austrian-Russian
Empress
Following the death of Charles VII, Seckendorff negotiated a reconciliation between Austria and Bavaria in the
Quotes
Notes
- Reichsgraf was a title before 1919, but now is regarded as part of the surname. It is translated as Count of the Empire. Before the August 1919 abolition of nobility as a legal class, titles preceded the full name when given (Graf Helmuth James von Moltke). Since 1919, these titles, along with any nobiliary prefix (von, zu, etc.), can be used, but are regarded as a dependent part of the surname, and thus come after any given names (Helmuth James Graf von Moltke). Titles and all dependent parts of surnames are ignored in alphabetical sorting. The feminine form is Reichsgräfin. Titles using the prefix Reichs- were those created before the fall of the Holy Roman Empire.
- ^ a b c d e Chisholm 1911.
- ^ Ritter, p. 34
- ^ MacDonogh, p. 45
Attribution:
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Seckendorf, Friedrich Heinrich, Count von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 569. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
References
- MacDonogh, Giles (2001). Frederick the Great: A Life in Deed and Letters. New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 436. ISBN 0-312-27266-9.
- ISBN 0-520-02775-2.
- Würzbach's Biogr. Lexikon, pt. 33, "Versuch einer Lebensr beschreibung des F. M. Seckendorf" (Leipzig, 1792–1794); Seelander, Graf Seckendorf und der Friede v. Passau (Gotha, 1883); Carlyle, Frederick the Great, vols. i.-v. passim; and memoir in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie.
External links
- Heinrich Kematmüller (1891), "Friedrich Heinrich Reichsgraf von Seckendorff-Gudent", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 33, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 514–517