Everything about Friedrich Heinrich Von Seckendorff totally explained
Friedrich Heinrich Reichsgraf von Seckendorff (
5 July 1673 –
23 November 1763) was a
German field marshal and
diplomat in the service of the
imperial Habsburg monarchy of
Austria.
Family
Seckendorff was born in
Königsberg,
Bavaria, into the
Seckendorff family of nobility. His father was an official of
Saxe-Gotha and his nephew was
Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff. He studied
law in
Jena,
Leipzig, and
Leyden.
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. 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
War of the Spanish Succession called him into the field again as lieutenant-colonel of an Ansbach regiment, which was taken into the
Dutch service. During the
War of the Spanish Succession, Seckendorff led Ansbach's regiment and, at the head of his
dragoons, conquered 16
standards in the
Battle of Blenheim. Promoted to
Oberst, Seckendorff participated in the battles of
Ramillies and
Oudenaarde and the
siege of Lille.
Disappointed with his lack of promotion in the Netherlands and Austria, Seckendorff entered the service of King
Augustus II of Poland as a
Generalmajor and commanded the king's auxiliary
Saxon troops in
Flanders, fighting in the
siege of Tournai and the
battle of Malplaquet. As the
Polish envoy to
the Hague, he participated in the negotiations of the 1713
Treaty of Utrecht; in the same year he suppressed an insurrection in Poland. As a lieutenant general, Seckendorff commanded Saxon troops in the 1715
siege of Stralsund against King
Charles XII of Sweden.
Seckendorff reentered imperial service as a
Feldmarschallleutnant in 1717. Under the command of Eugene of Savoy, Seckendorff led two Ansbach regiments against the
Ottoman Turks at
Belgrade. In 1718 he successfully fought against
Spain in
Sicily. Granted the title of
Reichsgraf in 1719, Seckendorff was named
Feldzeugmeister two years later.
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
Joachim Ernst von Grumbkow, with an Austrian pension. In order to avoid a potential marriage between Crown Prince
Frederick and a princess of the
House of Hanover that would have allied Prussia and
Great Britain, Seckendorff manipulated Frederick William and his son so that the crown prince instead married
Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Bevern, a marriage more favorable to Austria.
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 on
20 October 1735. In 1737 Emperor
Charles VI made Seckendorf commander-in-chief and
Generalfeldmarschall in Hungary, at the same time giving him the baton of
Generalfeldmarschall. Although initially successful in the Austrian-Russian
campaign against the Ottomans, he was eventually forced to retreat across the
Save River. His numerous enemies in
Vienna brought about his recall, trial and imprisonment at
Graz as punishment for the unsuccessful war.
Empress
Maria Theresa released Seckendorff from prison in 1740, but, denied his arrears of pay, he laid down all his Austrian and imperial offices and accepted from the new Bavarian emperor,
Charles VII, the rank of field marshal in the Bavarian service. As commander of the Bavarian army, Seckendorff relieved
Munich in the
War of the Austrian Succession and, by a series of battles in 1743 and 1744, forced the Austrians back into
Bohemia, after which he resigned.
Following the death of Charles VII, Seckendorff negotiated a reconciliation between Austria and Bavaria in the
Treaty of Füssen on
22 April 1745. Emperor
Francis I reaffirmed all of Seckendorff's honors, and the diplomat retired to his estate at
Meuselwitz in
Thuringia. In 1757 the death of his wife, for whom, harsh and unamiable as he was, he'd a deep and abiding affection, broke down his already failing health. Frederick the Great directed Prussian
hussars to abduct Seckendorff from Meuselwitz in December 1758 during the
Seven Years' War. After spending half a year in detention in
Magdeburg, he was exchanged for
Moritz of Anhalt-Dessau, who had been captured by Austrians at
Hochkirch. Returning to Meuselwitz, Seckendorff died at his estate in 1763.
Quotes
Frederick the Great despised Seckendorff, resenting the military diplomant for gaining the trust of Frederick William I and his involvement in the Prussian wedding plans. Regarding Seckendorff, Frederick wrote, "He was sordidly scheming; his manners were crude and rustic; lying had become so much second nature to him that he'd lost the use of the truth. He was a usurer who sometimes appeared in the guise of a soldier, and sometimes in that of a diplomat".
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