French under General Jean-Baptiste Jourdan at Fleurus
(26 June 1793).
The French defeat of Austria led to Charles being
named commander of the Army of the Rhine in 1796.
Immediately, he marched his troops into action, win-
ning battles at Rastadt (5 July), Amberg (24 August),
and Würzburg (3 September). During what was called
the War of the Second Coalition, Charles again took
on Jourdan and defeated him at Stockach (25 March
1799). However, when his efforts to work in an alliance
with the Russian marshal Aleksandr Vasilyevich Suvorov
ended in failure, Charles was relieved of his command
in February 1800. After the calamitous Allied defeat at
Hohenlinden on 3 December 1800, when the Austrians
lost 7,000 killed and wounded and 12,000 were taken
prisoner, he was reinstated. The defeat was so horrific,
however, that the Austrians soon sued for peace.
In the following years, Charles was named minister
of war and later governor of Bohemia, after which he
headed up the Austrian military in its attempt to reform
itself structurally. He helped form the brigade of soldiers
called Jäger, or light infantry corps.
When Austria joined Russia in a second war against
France in 1805, Charles opposed the conflict but fought
anyway. Sent to Italy, he led the Austrians to victory at
Caldiero on 29–31 October 1805. Another period of
peace allowed him several years to implement reforms
of the military, and when Austria went to war against
France for a third time in 1809, he was placed in com-
mand of his country’s forces. He was defeated by na-
Poleon at Eckmuhl (22 April), but at Aspern-Essling
(21–22 May), he commanded some 80,000 troops
against 90,000 French and Bavarians, handing the
French leader his first major defeat. Napoleon avenged
his loss by defeating Charles at Wagram on 5–6 July
- This final defeat led to Charles’s resignation from
command, and he never saw military action again.
Despite being an invalid for most of his life, Charles
lived to be 67, dying in 1847. Many historians cite him
not for his military victories and defeats on the field of
battle but for his reforms of the Austrian army and his
numerous writings on military strategy.
References: “Charles, Archduke,” in Command: From Al-
exander the Great to Zhukov—The Greatest Commanders of
World History, edited by James Lucas (London: Blooms-
bury Publishing, 1988), 70; Rothenberg, Gunther Erich,
Napoleon’s Great Adversaries: The Archduke Charles and the
Austrian Army, 1792–1814 (London: Batsford, 1982);
Petre, Francis Loraine, Napoleon & the Archduke Charles:
A History of the Franco-Austrian Campaign in the Valley of
the Danube in 1809 (New York: J. Lane, 1909); Eysturlid,
Lee, The Formative Influences, Theories, and Campaigns of
the Archduke Carl of Austria (Westport, Conn.: Green-
wood Press, 2000).Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer) (686–
741) military leader of the Franks
Charles Martel was born on 26 August 686 in Herstal
(today’s Wallonia, Belgium), the illegitimate son of Pip-
pin the Middle, mayor of the palace of Austrasia, and
his concubine Alpaida. As a result of the invasion of Eu-
rope by the Goths and Vandals from Asia in the third
and fourth centuries, the Roman Empire had rapidly
declined, and the area now called France was under the
control of the Franks. Over time, their tribal rulers had
consolidated their authority into four regions: Austrasia
(northeast France and Belgium), Neustria (northwest
and central France), Aquitaine (southwest France), and
Burgundy (southeast France). Although the four regions
were ruled by a king, his authority had been so weak-
ened that he had become a nominal figurehead, and the
real power was exercised by his mayors of the palace.
This post was similar to that of vizier in the Islamic ca-
liphates or chancellor in medieval England—that is, an
official who was responsible for administration and gov-
ernment. In the four Frankish territories, the post had
become hereditary, and the family of Pippin the Middle
had been hereditary mayors of the palace of Austrasia
from 615 onward. A man of immense wealth and in-
fluence, Pippin had defended Austrasia’s eastern border
against the Frisians, the Alammani, and the Bavarians
and had secured a position of such importance that the
title of king was well within his grasp, if he had sought
to obtain it.
At the insistence of his wife Plectrude, Pippin had
nominated his grandson Grimoald as his heir, but be-
cause Grimoald was only eight years old when Pippin
died in 714, there was protest against his accession.
Plectrude imprisoned Charles, the obvious rival to Gri-
moald, and although this served to prevent an uprising
in Austrasia, neighboring Neustria, which Pippin had
brought under Austrasian control, saw its opportunity
and made preparations to seek revenge. Charles escaped
from prison and was promptly installed as mayor of thechARleS mARtel