Antonio of Caraffa

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Antonio of Caraffa

Antonio Graf von Caraffa (* 1646 ; † March 6, 1693 ) was an Imperial Habsburg field marshal and general war commissioner .

Life

He came from the old Carafa family in Naples . With the help of his cousin, Cardinal Carlo Carafa della Spina , he came to the imperial court in Vienna. In 1655 he is named as a chamberlain. He later entered the military and received a regiment of cuirassiers as a colonel in 1672 . With this he took part in the war against the Ottomans in Hungary. At the time of the second siege of Vienna , Caraffa was sent by Leopold I to Warsaw to relieve the city by the Polish King John III. Sobieski to speed up. In 1685 he captured Eperjes from the Ottomans . After the conquest of Upper Hungary in 1686, he became the commandant there. There he was also in front of a court that proceeded with extreme severity against alleged conspirators and the followers of Emmerich Thököly . Among other things, 13 people were executed. Other accused were tortured and later executed. (Since it was mainly the Protestant community of Eperies that was affected and Caraffa's counter-Reformation motives are suspected, the executed people are known as martyrs of Eperies .) After numerous requests from the Hungarian side, this procedure was finally ended by Emperor Leopold. The supreme command in Upper Hungary was withdrawn from him. However, Caraffa was not held responsible. Rather, he was appointed field marshal. He remained in the imperial service and after three years of siege conquered that of Jelena Zrinski (ung. Ilona Zrínyi) , Thököly's wife, defended Munkács . With that he took over the supreme command in Transylvania . Now he acted more prudently and brought Michael Teleky and the relevant nobles on his side. He also conquered Lippa and Lugos . He was also instrumental in the conquest of Buda . For this he was named a Knight of the Golden Fleece . Furthermore, he received the important rule Wucsin (In the Middle Ages Atyina) in Veröce County (today Voćin , Virovitica-Podravina County in Slavonia, today Croatia).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Caraffa, Antonio of
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Caraffa, Antonio Count of; Carafa, Antonio
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Habsburg field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH 1646
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1693