Radetzky, Count Johann Josef Wenzel

(1766–1858).

   The most distinguished of the Habsburg generals in the first half of the 19th century, Marshall Radetzky entered the dynasty’s service as a cadet during the reign of Emperor Joseph II. He received his marshal’s title in 1836. He distinguished himself as the head of the quartermaster’s office in the battle of Leipzig (1813), in which the European Grand Coalition defeated Napoleon.

   Radetzky’s renown, however, came from his accomplishments in Italy during the Revolutions of 1848. Under his command, Habsburg forces recaptured control of Lombardy–Venetia from Italian nationalist opposition under the leadership of King Charles Albert of Sardinia–Piedmont. Radetzky is memorialized in one of the poetdramatist Franz Grillparzer’s most famous poems, “An Radetzky” (“To Radetzky”) and in Austria’s widely played Radetzky March, by Johann Strauss the Elder (1804–1849).