Notes

1. Schmidt-Brentano, Dr. Antonio, Kaiserliche und k.k. Generale (1618-1815), Munich 2006 © Österreichisches Staatsarchiv

2. MacLysaght, Dr. Edward, (Chief Herald of Ireland), Irish Families, Dublin 1972, p: 241

3. Logan, Dr. Patrick, ‘Some Irishmen in the Imperial Service’, The Irish Sword, Vol 19, p: 79

4. The French Lacassin/Laffont Edition of Histoire de ma Vie, by Giacomo Casanova, p: 104

5. von Wrede, Baron Alphons, Die Geschichte der k. und k. Wehrmacht, pp: 516, 517, 518

6. Altes Generalsprotokoll [bis 1815], sub N. - Bestallungen no. 4619 of 31/5/1717; 5747 of 15/1/1731; 6079 of 11/11/1733. Kriegsarchiv.

7. Amadei, F, Cronica Universale della citta di Mantova, 1754, Vol IV of version pbl. 1957, pp: 507/8

8. There were no less than thirty Irish generals in the Imperial Army of Austria at one time. Fourteen of them rose to the rank of Field Marshall. The Emperor Francis I once wrote “The more Irish officers in the Austrian service the better our troops will be disciplined. An Irish coward is an uncommon character. Even what the natives of Ireland dislike they generally perform through a desire for glory.”

9. Officers in the Imperial Army were required to prove their nobility before being granted a commission.

10. This George Browne was married to O’Neylan’s aunt Katherine O’Neylan. George’s older brother, Ulysses, was the father of O’Neylan’s wife, Barbara. The Browne brothers had a long and close friendship with John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, who was largely responsible for their establishment in the Austrian Imperial Service.

11. Prot. Reg. 1727, 612 to Visconti 30 May, Kriegsarchiv

12. Prot. Exp. 1711, 941 from Prince Eugene of Savoy November. Prot. Exp. 1712, 227 from Guido Starhemberg March, Kriegsarchiv; Duffy, Dr. Christopher, ‘The Irish in the Imperial Service’, The Irish Sword, Vol. V (19) p: 70

13. Prot. Reg. 1715, 1605 to George Browne 16 November. Prot. Reg. 1715, 1744 to Steinville 11 December. Prot. Exp. 1715, 1356 from Steinville December, Kriegsarchiv.

14. The Encyclopedia of Military History, 2nd Revised Edition, Dupuy & Dupuy, Harper & Row, New York 1817, p: 642 provides the following account: “1716, August 5 – Battle of Peterwardein. Prince Eugene, with 60,000 men met and (after a fierce fight) routed a Turkish army of nearly 150,000. The Turks lost 6,000 killed, an unknown number of wounded, and all of their 164 guns. The Austrians lost 3,000 killed and 2,000 wounded.”

15. Prot. Reg. 1722, 350 to George Browne and O’Neylan April, Kriegsarchiv.

16. Prot. Reg. 1731, 52 to O’Neylan and Maximillian Browne 15 January, Kriegsarchiv.

17. Prot. Exp. 1734, 374 from Mercy February, Kriegsarchiv

18. Duffy, Dr. Christopher, The Wild Goose and The Eagle, A Life of Marshal von Browne 1705-1757, pp: 21, London 1964

19. See F. Amadei’s “Cronica Universale della citta di Mantova”of 1754,.Vol. IV, [in the version published 1957] pp: 507-508, Archivo di Stato di Mantova

20. The actual inscription was in Latin and read “FRANSICUS EX BARONIBUS ONEILANE, IN CAESARIS LEGIONIBUS COLONELUS ET GENERALIS, HIC SITUS EST. QUALEM IN MILITES, QUALEM IN CAETEROS SEMPER ANIMUM GESSIT, SECUTA EIUS MORS, OMNIUM COMPLORATIO DECLARAVIT. DEISER IN COMITATU CLARAE HIBERNIAE EI CUNAS, MANTUA LOMBARDIAE EI TUMULUM PRAESTITIT. OBIIT IV (+) OCTOBRIS, EODEM SCILICET DIE QUO IN LUCEM AEDITUS, ANNO AERRAE CHRISTIANAE ( I ) – I) CCXXXIIII. AETAT. SUAE LXIII, MILITARIS QUAM SECUTUS EST VITAE XXXIII. PRAECLARISSIMI VIRI MEMORIAE SEPULCRALE HOC SAXUM, SUI TESTEM AMORIS, TESTEM DOLORIS, POSUIT AFFLICTISSIMA AFFINIS – M. A. B. D. T. N. C. D. B.

21. Duffy, Dr. Christopher, The Wild Goose and the Eagle, A Life of Marshal von Browne 1705-1757, London, 1964, p: 1

22. For further information on this illustrious Irish military family refer to Vera copia deductionis historico-genealogico-heraldico illustrissima, ac pervetusta familia Brownorum in Hibernia and S. R. Impery Comitis dignitas pro Georgio et Ulysse Brown, Vienna, March 13, 1716 (both in the Allemeines Verwaltungarchiv, Vienna); von Dobra Voda, Adalbert Ritter Kral, Genealogisch heraldisches Repertorium, Prague, 1908; Ferrar’s History of Limerick; Howard deWalden’s Complete Peerage; Ruvigny & Raineval, The Jacobite Peerage, 1904; The Dictionary of National Biography (Ireland); Pedigrees VI, pp: 106-108, February 26, 1725. Genealogical Office, Dublin; McLysaght, Dr. Edward (Chief Herald of Ireland), A Short Study of a Transplanted Family in the 17th Century, Dublin 1935

23. Her sister Maria Anna Browne de Camus (*1712 Vienna +19 Apr 1746 Vienna?) m. Josef Carl Anton Terzi (6 Nov 1720 + 1802 Gorz). Barbara’s daughter, Barbara, also married a Count Terzi.

24. Farrer’s History of Limerick, pp: 349; Hennessy, Maurice N., The Wild Geese, pbl. The Devin-Adair Co., Old Grenwich, CT, USA, 1973 pp: 109

25. This Field Marshall was perhaps the greatest of the great soldiers Ireland gave to Austria. Born in 1705 (in Basel or Limerick) and educated in Limerick he was sent as a boy to his uncle Count George Browne who was commanding an infantry regiment in Hungary. He was present at the Siege of Belgrade and was made a colonel at the age of twenty. In 1739 he was raised by the Emperor Charles VI to the rank of Field Marshal and made a member of the Council of War. On the accession of Maria Theresa he was appointed one of her Privy Counselors and in 1752 she put him in command of all her forces. The King of Poland, Elector of Saxony invested him with the Order of the White Eagle in 1753. He was wounded at the battle of Prague in 1757 and succumbed two months later. His name has been borne, since 1888, by the 36th Austrian infantry. For further biographical information refer to Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Leipzig 1876, iii, pp: 369-73, the particulars in which are taken from Zuverlassige Lebensbeschreibung von U. M. Count von Browne, Leipzig and Frankfort, 1757; Baron O’Cahill’s Geschichte der grossten Heerfuhrer der neueren Zeit, Rastadt, 1785, ii, pp: 264-316.

26. This George Browne (b. Castle Mahon, Co. Limerick 15 June 1698 d. Riga 18 Feb 1792) was a son of Thomas Browne of Camus. Went to Russia in 1730. Took part in all the campaigns of the Empresses Anne and Elizabeth. General in Chief of the Russian Army in 1752. Created Field Marshal by Peter III. Created Count of the Holy Roman Empire (with his sons George and John) by Joseph II (26 October 1779). Inscribed in the Registers of Nobility of Estonia (5 March 1756), Livonia and Kurland (15 September 1784). Governor of Riga and Livonia. He m. 1stly in 1740 Helena, 4th dau of the Irish-born Russian Field Marshal Count Peter deLacy, Governor of Riga, by whom he had with 3 sons who dvp (1) John George, 2nd Count Browne, Field Marshal Lieutenant and Quarter Master General of the Austrian Imperial Army, b. 1742 who d. unm 14 Oct 1794 and (2) Countess Martha (b. 1739 d. 1806) who m. John Taddaus von Tieberg. He m. 2ndly 7 Nov 1765 Baroness Christina Eleanora Altanwoga von Mengden (b. St. Petersburg 16 May 1729 d. Riga 1 Sept 1787) and had further issue (3) John George, 3rd Count Browne, K.M. Brig-Gen., employed by Empress Catherine II in the Russian Imperial Service. b. 1767, m. on 22 Aug 1790 Annetta Margarethe (b. Riga 12 Jan 1769 d. Vienna 13 May 1803) [dau of Geheimrat Otto von Vietinghoff Scheel (1722-92) and his wife Anna Ulrika, nee Countess Munnich], a patron of Beethoven, d. 1827 when all his honours became extinct, his only son, Count Maurice, having dvp in 1819 (4) Countess Eleanor Christiana (b. Riga 14 March 1765 d. St. Petersburg 11 Feb 1844) m. at Riga 9 Nov 1783 Gen. Count Michael von Borch-Lubeschutz, Governor of Witebsk (b. Warkland 18 or 20 June 1753 d. Warkland 28 Dec 1810); and (5) Countess Christine Charlotte Wilhelmina Elizabeth (b. 20 Oct 1770 d. 1821) m. Count Karl (Charles) Johann Fredrich von Modern.

27. This was due solely to his physical inabilty to sign a codicil to his will while on his deathbed. Therefore, his entire legacy went to his nephew, Field Marshal Count Ulysses Maximillian Browne.

28.Duffy, Dr. Christopher, The Wild Goose and The Eagle, A Life of Marshal von Browne 1705-1757, London 1964 pp: 22

29. Dated 6/11/1755 in Kriegsarchiv

30. See the French Lacassin/Laffont edition of Histoire de ma Vie, by Giacomo Casanova pp: 104 for further biographical details

31. See the French Lacassin/Laffont edition of Histoire de ma Vie, by Giacomo Casanova

32. The account of this battle, and of Count Francis O’Neylan’s death, as given in Hubka, Geschichte des Infanterieregiments No. 22, Zara 1902 pp:84 , reads as follows:
“Gemass dem vom General Furst Lowenstein entworfenen Plane hatten in der Nacht zum 20 February 1757 verschiedene Abteilungen die preussischen Postierungen bei Zittau, Hirschfelde und Ostriz uberraschend anzugreifen; die Kolonne des Obrislieutenants Fursten Karl zu Lichtenstein, bei welcher die Grenadier-Kompagine des Hauptmanns Graf O’Neillan eingeteilt war, ruckte in grosster Stille uber dgefrorene Neisse und wandte sich zum Sturme auf das Brucken-Tor, indes sich Obristlieutenant Loudon mit seinen Kroaten auf die vorliegende Redoute geworfen und die Preussen daraus vertrieben hatte.
Die Besatzung von Hirschfelde war rasch genug zur Hand, um den Sturm auf die Stadt-Tore durch einen Ausfall abzuwehren, der anfangliche Erfolg der kaiserlichen Truppen konnte somit nicht mehr ausgenutzt werden und da sie zu schrach waren, um einen Kampf in freiem Felde anzunehmen, so zogen sie mit zwei in der Redoute erbeuteten Geschutzen wieder uber die Neisse zuruck. Dar offizielle preussische Bericht uber diesen Uberfall sagt:
“Die Stadt ist nicht vollig e,portiert worden, denn die Hauptwache hat siche durch andere Posten souteniert. Es hatte nicht viel zu sagen, wenn nur die Kanonen nicht weg und die Schantz nicht uberstiegen werden ware. Dies macht den Fiend sehr hochmutig und die Zeitungsschreiber werden sich lange Zeit daran divertieren.”
Hauptmann Graf O’Neillan busste bei dieser Unternehmmung sein Leben ein; in dem Augenblicke, als er mit einer Axt auf das Stadt-Tor einhieb, hatt eine Musketkungel ihn niedergestreckt. Mehere Grenadiere wurden verwundet, desgleichen Obrislieutenant Graf zu Pappenheim welcher an dem Unternehman freiwillig teilgenommen hatte.”

33. Brinton, Selwyn, The Gonzagas, Lords of Mantua, Methuen & Co., London, 1927 tells us that after Duke Vicenzo’s death Duke Carlo de Nevers undertook the government of Mantua in January 1628 and “he rewarded the loyal servant of the Mantovan government, Striggi, by making him a Marquis and giving him a yearly pension of 15,000 scudi.”

34. D’Arco, Carlo, “Famiglie nobili mantovane.”, vol. II pp: 204 & 204A, Archivo di Stato di Mantova.

35. As mentioned previously, her aunt Countess Maria Anna Browne von Camus (*Vienna 1712 +19 Apr 1746) had previously m. into the Terzi family when she m. Count Josef Carl Anton Terzi (*Gorz 6 Nov 1720 +1802).

36. See Lloyd’s Tour of Clare, 1780, “Distinguished sons, Characteristics and Inhabitants” (in which Lloyd incorrectly gives his date of death as 1758).