Charles Eugène de Croÿ

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Charles Eugène de Croÿ, Duc de Croÿ (* 1651 in Roeulx , Hainaut , Belgium , † January 30, 1702 in Tallinn , Estonia ) was an Imperial German and Russian field marshal .

family

Charles Eugène came from the old, originally from County Ponthieu in the Picardie coming noble family de Croy , which is first mentioned in the 12th century. He was the son of Jacques Philippe de Croÿ, Prince de Croÿ (1614–1685), Lord of Roeulx, and Johanna Countess von Bronckhorst-Batenburg (1627–?), Daughter of Johann Jakob von Bronckhorst-Batenburg (1582–1630) .

Croÿ married in 1681 Juliana Countess von dem Bergh (born January 20, 1638 in Zutphen , Gelderland , Netherlands ; † October 1714), the daughter of Heinrich Graf von dem Bergh (1573-1638) and his second wife Hieronyma Katharina Countess von Spaur (1600-1683).

Life

The mummy Charles Eugène de Croÿs in the Tallinn Niguliste church . 19th century drawing.
His body was still completely preserved 100 years after his death and was released for viewing in the chapel in 1818. Croy became a Reval relic. The mummified corpse, which had become an attraction, was soon tapped. It wasn't until 1879 that Croy was given a proper funeral.

He began his service in the Danish army with the rank of colonel and as a regiment commander, Croy took part in the Battle of Lund on the Danish-Norwegian side in 1676 . In 1677 he was promoted to major general and in 1678 to lieutenant general. From 1682 he successfully fought in the Imperial Army against the Turks and took part in the liberation of Vienna in 1683 and the attack on Belgrade in 1690. He was promoted to Imperial Field Marshal for his services. After the Peace of Karlowitz , Croy was unemployed and in 1699 was initially transferred to Saxon services. On the recommendation of Augustus the Strong , he and another group of foreign officers entered the service of Russian Tsar Peter the Great in 1699 . Croy did not reach Russia until the middle of 1700 and received the rank of field marshal directly from the hands of Peter I (the second in the history of the Russian army after Fyodor Alexejewitsch Golovin ). He became the commander of the Russian army in Livonia. This decision turned out to be momentous: Croÿ did not speak Russian, did not know the Russian officers under his command and therefore had difficulties giving orders. In addition, he did not agree to the formation of Russian troops. On November 20, 1700, he commanded the Russian troops in the battle of Narva , which was lost to the Swedes. Peter did not blame him for the defeat. He is said to have said that if he had given Croy command of the army in front of Narva two weeks earlier, then there would have been no defeat.

Croÿ died in Tallinn in 1702 as a prisoner of war.

His life story was written by the German writer Werner Bergengruen in his volume of short stories The Death of Reval. Curious stories from an old city (1939) processed into literature.

literature

Web links

Commons : Charles Eugène de Croÿ  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karsten Brüggemann, Ralph Tuchtenhagen: Tallinn . Böhlau Verlag, Cologne / Weimar 2011, p. 171
  2. ↑ Paul Bushkovitch: Peter the Great: The Struggle for Power, 1671-1725, Cambridge University Press, 2001, p 227
personal data
SURNAME Croÿ, Charles Eugène de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Croy, Charles Eugène de Croy duc de; De Croy, Charles Eugène; Croy, Carl Eugen; Croi, Carl Eugen
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Imperial-Austrian and Imperial-Russian field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH 1651
PLACE OF BIRTH Roeulx , Hainaut, Belgium
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1702
Place of death Tallinn , Estonia