Joseph Canto d'Irles

Joseph Canto d'Irles (* 1731 in Vienna ; † April 10, 1797 in Warasdin ) was an Austrian Lieutenant Field Marshal of Scottish descent. He is still considered to be the defender of the Mantua fortress against Napoléon I during the siege of 1796/97 .

Life

Canto d'Irles was born in Vienna and joined the 15th Austrian Infantry Regiment as an ensign at the age of 14 . In 1754 he was promoted to first lieutenant and took part in the Seven Years' War in this rank . As an officer of the infantry, Canto d'Irles fought in the Battle of Prague on May 6, 1757, in the Battle of Breslau on November 22, 1757, as well as in the battles of Neisse , Strehlen and Wittenberg . In the battle near Teplitz in 1762 he was able to produce himself personally. Because of his hard work he was made captain during the war in 1758, in 1768 he was promoted to major and in 1773 he became a lieutenant colonel and thus for the first time commander of a grenadier battalion .

After successfully fighting against Prussia in the Seven Years' War , despite Austria's defeat in the end, he went to war again in 1778/79, this time in the War of the Bavarian Succession . Here he became a colonel . He was not granted much breather, however, because as early as 1787 he had to go to the Turkish War , which occupied him until 1792. Here, too, he was able to stage himself and his regiment. He fought in Bukovina and in April 1788 at the Rohatyn pass in Galicia . His appointment as major general took place in 1789 during the siege of Chotym .

Canto d'Irles was withdrawn from Galicia to Italy , because there a new general named Napoléon Bonaparte had particularly distinguished himself and now dealt the European powers one blow after the other. Canto d'Irles was supposed to stop this in 1793. To motivate him, he was promoted to field marshal lieutenant in 1795 and appointed commander of the strategically important fortress of Mantua . General Napoléon Bonaparte tried to take it several times in June and July of 1796, but Canto d'Irles repeatedly managed to put down the attacks of the French troops. On August 10, 1796, he received the Commander's Cross of the Maria Theresa Order .

But the danger was not completely over, because after the Austrian relief army under Field Marshal Graf von Wurmser was defeated at Castiglione delle Stiviere on August 5, 1796 , the fortress of Mantua was again blocked by the French troops. Wurmser gathered his troops and tried again several attempts at liberation on September 8, 1796 near Bassano and on September 15, 1796 near San Giorgio . But he was defeated both times by Napoleon, so that he had to retreat to the fortress of Mantua . Canto d'Irles and Count Wurmser now united their armies and tried again from January 14th to 15th, 1797 a liberation strike in the battle of Rivoli . But this attempt also failed. Joseph Canto d'Irles also began to fall ill during the renewed siege of the French. After three months they had to give up the Mantua fortress. That was on February 2, 1797.

Joseph Canto d'Irles was now so physically battered that he wanted to look after his retirement at the Viennese court, but before he reached it, he died on April 10, 1797 in Warasdin (Varaždin), Croatia .

literature

• Entry in the Biographical Lexicon of the Empire of Austria