The Wild Goose and the Eagle: A Life of Marshal von Browne 1705-1757
by Christopher Duffy
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Maximilian von Browne is counted among the finest soldiers of the old Imperial Austrian Army. As the present biography sets out to show, he was outstanding in his time for his vigorous conduct of war, and his extremely advanced idea of leadership and responsibility. Few commanders have taken so literally the phrase 'to share the hardships of his men'.A son of that generation of Irishmen who fled from a penal regime to take service in Catholic Europe, Browne rose in the Army of the Empress show more Maria Theresa. In 1746, he could take the greater part of the credit for driving the French and Spanish forces from Italy, and in the next year he carried the war onto French soil by a celebrated invasion of Provence. Following an interval of peacetime, though far from uneventful, administration in the Imperial provinces, Browne checked and outwitted Frederick of Prussia in the first campaign of the Seven Years War. Already in the grip of a mortal illness, Browne was taken unawares when the Prussians resumed the attack in 1757, and of May 6 of that year he received a last wound, among his grenadiers on the field of Prague. The Wild Goose and the Eagle is founded on a thorough investigation of the Viennese archives and of the terrain of the Marshal's battles. It explores not just the life of a single commander, but the warfare of an age which holds many lessons for the present century. show lessTags
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1816 The Wild Goose and the Eagle: A Life of Marshal von Browne 1705-1757, by Christopher Duffy (read 28 Nov 1983) Maximilien von Browne was born 23 Oct (or Dec) 1705 at Basle to Ulysses Browne and his wife Annabella Fitzgerald. Ulysses Browne left Ireland in 1690. Maximilien attained the highest rank in the Austrian Army, and died of wounds suffered in the battle of Prague on 6 May 1757--his death occurred on 25 June 1757. He was buried at the Capuchin Church in Prague "where it (his body) still rests under a monument of grey and red marble." This book tells a very adequate story of its subject's battles, but tells little about the man as a human being. It is a good book, and tells much of the War of the Austrian Succession, which show more began when Frederick the Great invaded Silesia and ended in 1748. show less
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21 Works 1,418 Members
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- History, Biography & Memoir, Nonfiction
- DDC/MDS
- 923.5436 — History & geography Biography & genealogy People in social sciences Administration: army and navy, civil service Europe
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- DB69.5 .B7 .D8 — History of Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania Austria – Liechtenstein – Hungary – Czechoslovakia History of Austria. Liechtenstein. Hungary. Czechoslovakia History By period 1521- 1648-1740
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