An Irish life in Austrian service: General Thomas von Plunket 1716-1779.

There were numerous officers of Irish descent serving in the Imperial Austrian Army during the 18th century and beyond and among these was Thomas von Plunket who was born in 1716 at Castle Plunket, County Roscommon, a son of John Plunket and Bridget Fitzgerald. (2) He entered the service of the Imperial Austrian Army in 1728 when he was only twelve years old and remained in its service until his death in 1779 at Liege in present-day Belgium.

What is known of his military career:

Very little could be ascertained about Thomas von Plunket's early military career but it is known that he fought against the Turks and in the war of the Spanish Succession and that in March 1743 he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and Adjutant-General to the Army in the (Austrian) Netherlands. (3)

In 1846/47 he took part in the invasion of Provence as Field Marshall von Browne's Adjutant-General and on 28 December 1746 he was promoted to Colonel while serving in Italy. At that time an unnamed contemporary described him as one who possessed "a particular talent for setting off things in a plausible light!" (4) When, as a result of political events during this campaign, there arose the question of 2,500 Austrian prisoners held in Genoa, Plunket was sent under a flag of truce to the city in October to negotiate their release, not very successfully, again due to political maneuverings. Because of the withdrawal from Italy of many of Browne's units Plunket was later sent to London to see whether funds could be made available for the fitting out of an artillery train to help bolster Browne's forces. (5) Plunket was promoted to Major General (Obrist-Feldwachtmeister) on 16 March 1753.

During the Seven Years War (1756-1763) (6), on 18 June 1757 in a battle near Kolin, (7) he commanded a Brigade consisting of Infantry Regiments Deutschmeister (later No.4), Botta d'Adorono (later No. 12) and Ludwig Markgraf yon Baden Baden (later No. 23). During the battle the Regiments Deutschmeister and Baden were forced to retire. Plunket remained at the head of Regiment Botta which, however, had run out of ammunition. He then distinguished himself by standing fast against the enemy with bayonets drawn until the other two regiments were able to return to the line. With the aid of a further detachment of cavalry he was then able to decisively rout the enemy resulting in the withdrawal of Prussian forces from Bohemia. For this feat of arms he was rewarded with the Knights Cross of the Order of Maria Theresia, an Order that had only been instituted on 13 May of that year (8). The award was dated 4 December 1758.

During the further course of the Seven Years War, Plunket, who was promoted to Field Marshall-Lieutenant on 9 February 1759, continued to perform keen and valiant service. June, July, August and September 1760 found Plunket in Russian General Soltikoff's Headquarters at or near Posen (now called Poznan in Poland). He fulfilled the role of Austrian emissary and his role was to urge Soltikoff into action against the Prussians, something the latter was most disinclined to undertake despite acknowledging that he had received Orders to do so from the Russian court. (9)

On a number of occasions during this war Plunker also commanded detached Corps whereby, particularly in July 1762, he gained much honour when, due to his strategic position on the hills near Humdorf in Bohemia, he prevented the Prussian General Kleist from any further advances. The latter had entered Bohemia with superior forces, via Einsiedl and Dux and Plunket was able to save large areas of the countryside from extortion and plunder. (10)

On 12 March 1763 Field Marshall-Lieutenant Plunket became proprietor of Infantry Regiment Friedrich Markgraf von Bayreuth (later No.41), as well as being engaged in service in the (Austrian) Netherlands. The regiment recruited mainly in Bavaria and Franconia but there was a significant Irish element amongst its officers. This is also the year in which he was promoted to he rank of Master of the Ordnance (Feldzeugmeister).

On 17 March 1766, Plunket and his regiment were stationed at or near Brussels but early in June he and his regiment set out for Bohemia where he was to be "employed" and it was then not expected that his regiment would return to that city. (11)

March 1768 found Plunket stationed in Linz in Upper Austria and he was promised a command in Antwerp should a vacancy occur. In the following year Plunket was in Vienna where he remained until May 1770.

In the meantime on 27 November 1769 approval was given for Plunket's appointment from 1 May 1770 as Commander of the Citadel of Antwerp (without the title of Governor as long as the incumbent Governor, General Baron von Salm-Salm was living). However Baron von Salm-Salm died early in February of that year so that on 9 May 1770 Plunket's appointment as both Governor and Commander of the Citadel at Antwerp and its subsidiary fortifications was confirmed. In consequence of this appointment he had to relinquish both his income as proprietor of a regiment and the position of proprietor itself.

Plunket arrived in Antwerp on or about 29 June 1770 and as was the custom, he was greeted at the posting station by a procession of coaches carrying the Mayor of the city and its aldermen who were preceded by ushers carrying jugs of wine. The next day, at the Citadel, he was met by the officers of the garrison with torches alight and by the most prominent inhabitants, who accompanied him to the parish church where the Te Deum was sang during repeated salvos from a cannon. (12)

Thomas von Plunket served as Governor and Commander at Antwerp, dealing with a restive population, until his death. He died at Liege on 20 January 1779.

Personal Life

Thomas von Plunket was married to Mary D'Alton, a sister of General Count Edward D'Alton, also in the Austrian service. When and where the marriage took place is not known but Mary is believed to have been born at Grenanstown, county Tipperary, a daughter of Peter D'Alton.

As far as it has been possible to discover the couple had 9 children, 4 sons and 5 daughters. The eldest son became a Dominican while the three others followed military pursuits. One, whose godmother had been Empress Maria Theresia herself (13), was to die of wounds received during the storming of Belgrade in 1789, another was killed by a sniper's bullet in 1799 during the second battle for Zurich.

Mary died on 19 October 1778. An entry in the records of the Parish of St. Phillipe says that "having taken all the last rites and sacraments of the church, (she) died in this citadel on the 19th day of October (1778) and on the 22nd of that month was buried in the mausoleum of the English monastery in this town" (14)

There is more detail about her death in the Chronicles of Antwerp from 1776 to 1819. Here we are told that "her body was on 22 inst. (October 1778) transferred to the Church of the English Carmelites in Hopland here where she wished to be buried and where one can read the following epitaph, in the English language, beneath the armorial bearings, engraved in silver, fastened on black velvet and hanging next to the altar, ad com Epistolae, it reads thus:

   Near this place lies the body of Dame
   Mary Plunkett born Dalton Lady.
   Of the starry cross, wife to his
   Excellency Tomas Plunkett Chamberlain
   to their imperial majesties knight
   of the military order of Marie Therese
   Lieutenant General of their imperial
   Majesties armies and gouvernour of the
   Citadel of Antwerp and so on.
   She exchanged this life for a better the 19th October 1778

On 26 October the Chronicles tell us that her funeral rites had been held in the church of the Citadel. (15)

Plunket himself died only three months later, on 20 January 1779. He died at Liege, apparently while visiting some of his children who were at school in that city. His death is recorded in the Parish of St Christophe in the city of Liege and merely says that "he was interred with the English nuns on the payment for this right of 18 florins (aged) 66 years". (16).

At the time of his death the ages of his children ranged from 19 years down to only 9 and he appointed their uncle, Count Edward D'Alton as their guardian. He had left an estate of 5770 florins which was to be divided equally among them. (17)

Almost a year to the day his replacement arrived from Brussels to be similarly greeted by a procession consisting of the mayor and aldermen, etc. etc.

There is still a street called Hopland in Antwerp but the Citadel that had been built in 1568. has long since gone, only Kasteel (Castle) Street indicates the area in the south of the city where the Citadel once stood.

With reference to the nobility of Thomas yon Plunket, it would seem that as a Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresia and in accordance with the statutes of the Order. He was entitled to apply for the issue of a Patent of Nobility as Baron at no cost to himself. However, he did not apply and for this reason his name does not appear in the k.u.k. Austrian Register of Nobles, Without such an application and in accordance with the statutes he was only entitled to a Knighthood. Neither he himself, nor contemporary documents refer to him as Count but only as "von". His sons, however, called themselves Counts and were referred to as such in documentation. (18)

Some observations:

The 18th century is likely to have been the high point of Irish officers in the service of Imperial Austria. The best known is probably Count Franz Moritz Lacy (1725-1801) who had a brilliant career in the Austrian service and who received the Grand Cross of the Order of Maria Theresia in 1758.

To show the great esteem in which Irishmen were held, when on St. Patrick's Day, 1766. The Spanish Ambassador to the court (himself of Irish descent) gave "'a grand entertainment in honour of the day". All who attended are said to have worn a cross in honour of St. Patrick and "so did the whole of the court". Not surprisingly among the principal officers of State and "persons of condition" who attended, were the Irish officers Count Lacy, by then a Field-Marshall and President of the Council of War, and Generals O'Donnell, McGuire. O'Kelly. Browne, Plunker and McEligot. (19)

Thomas yon Plunket's life illustrates well the opportunities then open to Irish-born officers in the military service of Imperial Austria.

It is well-known that other Irishmen served in other armies on the continent. Most readers probably best know of those who followed the exiled James II to France, but they could be found almost everywhere and as early as the 1500s. However, after the Napoleonic Wars the hire of foreign soldiers faded away--Europe had become a different place.

(1) In correspondence of the day, mostly carried out in French, he is sometimes referred to as "General Blonquet".

(2) The peerage of Ireland: or a genalogical history of the present nobility of that Kingdom, etc, by John Lodge, revised, enlarged and continued by Mervyn Archdall, James Moore, Dublin, 1789, Vol. VI, p. 165..

(3) Direktionsakt No.529 of 1890, Kriegsarchiv, Vienna, Austria.

(4) The wild Goose and the Eagle: the Life of Field Marshall von Browne, 1706-1767 by Christopher Duffy, London, 1964.

(5) The wild Goose and the Eagle: the Life of Field Marshall yon Browne, 1706-1767 op.cit.

(6) This war was fought between Austria. Russia and France on the one hand and an expansionist Prussia led by Frederick the Great on the other. It ended with the Peace of Hubertusburg in 1763.

(7) More or less west of Prague in what is now the Czech Republic.

(8) Die Militaer-Maria-Theresien Orden und seine Mitglieder by Dr. Jaromir Hirtenfeld, Vienna, 1857, pp.62-63.

(9) Geschichte Maria Theresia's by Alfred Ritter yon Arneth, Braumueller, Vienna, 1863-1876, Vol.IV.

(10) Direktionsakt No.529 of 1890, op.cit.

(11) Collectanea Hibernica: sources for Irish History, Vol. XI, p. 56.

(12) De Kronijk van Antwerpen Van 1770-1819, Vol. I, by van der Straelen.

(13) Collectanea Hibernica: sources for Irish history, Vol. X, 1967.

(14) Ville Anvers, Paroisse St. Phillipe, entry of death.

(15) De Kronijk van Antwerpen van 1770-1819, op.cit.

(16) Ville de Liege, Paroisse St. Christophe, entry of death, 20 January 1779.

(17) Direktionsakt No. 460 of 1931, Kriegsarchiv, Vienna, Austria.

(18) Direktionsact No. 529 of 1890, op.cit

(19) History of the Irish Brigades in the service of France: from the revolution in Great Britain and Ireland under James 11, to the revolution in France under Louis XVI by John Cornelius O'Callaghan, Cameron and Ferguson, Glasgow, 1870.