Charles Eugene of Lorraine
Prince of Lambesc
post 1815: Duke of Elbeuf
Names
(in French) Charles Eugène de Lorraine
(in German) Karl Eugen von Lothringen
FatherLouis de Lorraine
MotherLouise de Rohan

Karl Eugen von Lothringen (25 September 1751 –2 November 1825) was a member of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine, he was an officer in the French and Habsburg military during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.Charles Eugène de Lorraine (25 September 1751 –2 November 1825) was a member of the House of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine, he was an officer in the French and Habsburg military during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars.

Military Career edit

Charles Eugène
Allegiance  House of Bourbon
  Habsburg Monarchy
Service/branchColonel-Proprietor – 5th Chevauxleger Regiment: 20 February 1804 – 10 June 1819
Rank• Grand Equerry for Louis XVI, 1775–1791
• General of Cavalry
• Colonel and Proprietor 21st/7th Cuirassier Regiment 22 June 1794 – 21 November 1825
• Captain of the First Arcièren Life Guard: 31 December 1806 – 21 November 1825
Battles/warsFrench Revolutionary Wars
AwardsOrder of the Holy Spirit 1776
• Commanders Cross, Order of Saint Louis <1791
• Commander's Cross, Military Order of Maria Theresa
Order of the Golden Fleece 1808

French military service edit

The eldest of House of Lothringen-Lambesc served as the King of France's grand equerry.[2] Charles Eugène became Colonel and Proprietor (Chief) of the Royal Allemand-Dragoons in 1778 and was promoted to Marshal of the Camp in the French Army on 9 March 1788. He received the Commanders Cross of the Order of Saint Louis before 1790,[3] In the early days of the French Revolution, Charles Eugène'Ss Allemand Dragoons were an important element in the protection of the Louis' Court. On 12 July 1789, Charles Eugène rode at the head of his dragoons across the Place of Louis XV into the Tuileries Gardens, against a mob that had gathered there and forced the group out of the garden. In the course of the attack, many were injured, and Charles Eugène was held popularly responsible, although no charges were filed.[4]

When hostilities between France and the Habsburgs reached a crisis point in 1791, he left his Allemand Dragoons and followed the Bourbon cause with his younger brother, Joseph Maria, Prince von Lothringen-Vaudémont.[5]

Habsburg military service edit

On 18 June 1791, the prince was appointed major general in the Austrian army. In October 1791, he was given command of a brigade comprised of the Freikorps (volunteers) "Degelmann" and 37th Dragoon Regiment in Flanders.[6]

On 1 February 1793, his regiment, the 37th Dragoons, was taken into Habsburg service and in 1798, it was united with the 10th Cuirassier Regiment. At the Battle of Tournai on 22 May 1794, he charged the French infantry on the heights of Templeuve with four squadrons (approximately 1,000 men) of the 18th Chevauxleger Regiment "Karaiczay", cutting down 500 men and taking three guns. On 22 June 1794, he was appointed Colonel and Proprietor of the 12st of Cuirassier Regiment in recognition of his actions. In the Battle of Fleurus, on 26 June 1794, he charged with four squadrons of 5th Carabiners Albert to rescue part of Campaign Marshal Count von Kaunitz's infantry, which had been surrounded by three French cavalry regiments.[7] This unlikely charge against another cavalry force more than five times its size took the French by surprise; the French cavalry scattered, giving Kaunitz to organize an orderly withdrawal of his own force from the field.[8]

On 4 March 1796, Charles Eugène was promoted to Lieutenant Field Marshal . In 1796 he served in Germany under Field Marshal Dagobert Sigmund von Wurmser in the Army of the Upper Rhine; on 11 May of that year, he was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa Order. He fought with distinction at the Battle of Amberg on 24 August and in the Battle of Würzburg on 2 September, commanding a brigade of cavalry.[9]

In the War of the Second Coalition, the Prince fought in Swabia at the Battle of Engen. After this campaign, the prince was posted to the Habsburg province Galicia, where he was governor general. On 3 December 1806, he was promoted to General of Cavalry and a few weeks later, captain of the First Arcièren Life Guard in Vienna; he was also awarded the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1808.[10]

After the restoration of Louis XVIII, he was created again Peer of France, and his dignities further enhanced by the title Duke of Elbeuf.[11] Louis XVIII furthermore appointed him as a Marshal of France. Because of the popular hostility against him in France, relating to the incident in the Tuilleries in July 1789, he never exercised these privileges and he died at the age of 74 in Vienna on 21 November 1825. He had briefly been married to the widow of Count von Colloreedo, but they were divorced after a few months. He had no children, and with his death, and his brother's, the male line of old Lothringen lines of Erbouf, Harecourt, and Armagnac ended.[12]

Ancestry edit

Sources edit

Notes and citations edit

  1. ^ van de Pas, Leo. "Charles de Lorraine, Prince of Lambesc". Genealogics .org. Retrieved 2010-03-21.
  2. ^ Antony Spawforth, Versailles: a biography of a palace. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008, ISBN 9780312357856 p. 157.
  3. ^ Sources are unclear when this was awarded, but logically it was before the rupture between the Bourbons and the revolutionaries.
  4. ^ (in German) Jens Ebert. "Lothringen". Die Österreichischen Generäle 1792–1815. Napoleon Online.DE. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  5. ^ (in German) Ebert. "Lothringen".
  6. ^ Digby Smith, Lothringen-Lambesc. Leopold Kudrna and Digby Smith (compilers). A biographical dictionary of all Austrian Generals in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815. The Napoleon Series, Robert Burnham, editor in chief. April 2008 version. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  7. ^ (in German) Ebert. "Lothringen".
  8. ^ Smith, Lothringen-Lambesc. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  9. ^ Smith, Lothringen-Lambesc. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  10. ^ Smith, Lothringen-Lambesc. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  11. ^ (in German) Ebert. "Lothringen".
  12. ^ Smith, Lothringen-Lambesc. Accessed 23 January 2010.

Bibliography edit

  • (in German) Ebert, Jens-Florian. "Lothringen". Die Österreichischen Generäle 1792–1815. Napoleon Online.DE. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  • Smith, Digby. Lothringen-Lambesc. Leopold Kudrna and Digby Smith (compilers). A biographical dictionary of all Austrian Generals in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1792–1815. The Napoleon Series, Robert Burnham, editor in chief. April 2008 version. Accessed 23 January 2010.
  • Spawforth, Antony. Versailles: a biography of a palace. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2008, ISBN9780312357856

[[Category:Austrian Empire military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars]] [[Category: Military leaders of the French Revolutionary Wars]] [[Category:1751 births]] [[Category:1825 deaths]] [[Category:Knights of the Golden Fleece]] [[Category:Order of Saint Louis recipients]] [[Category:Austrian military personnel by war]] [[Category:Austrian Empire commanders of the Napoleonic Wars]] [[Category:House of Guise]] [[Category:House of Lorraine]] [[Category:Dukes of Elbeuf]] [[Category:18th-century French people]] [[Category:19th-century French people]] [[Category:French generals]] [[Category:French nobility]] [[Category:French military personnel]] [[fr:Charles-Eugène de Lorraine]]

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Combatants of the Third Coalition
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