Franz Andreas von Favrat

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Franz Andreas Jacquier de Bernay from Favrat.png

Franz Andreas von Favrat (born as: François André de Favrat, Jaquier de Bernay , the secondary title maybe also - as in the contemporary engraving: Jaquin de Bernay , born September 4, 1730 in Savoy ; † September 5, 1804 in Glatz ) was a Prussian General of the Infantry , Governor von Glatz and Knight of the Black Eagle Order . It is reported that he was unusually strong.

Life

He comes from Savoy and was probably brought up in Chambéry . In 1745 he went from there to Paris with a letter of recommendation for the Marshal of Saxony . This took him on the campaign against the Netherlands. And so he fought in numerous sieges and battles of this war. At Lauffeldt he received a dangerous head injury, which he survived well. He should then get a good position in the Dragoon Regiment of Septimania . However, this was dissolved after the Peace of Aachen . So he traveled to Spain in 1755 to go into service there. But in 1756 he left the country again to go to Naples via Toulouse. There he was supposed to become a lieutenant in the artillery, when he heard of the omens of the Seven Years' War , he traveled via Rome to Vienna to offer his services. Thanks to the Sardinian ambassador, the Count of Canale , he got an audience. Although he was referred to Lieutenant General Field Marshal Browne , he was allowed to go to war as a volunteer. He fought for the Austrians in front of Prague and Olomouc and distinguished himself in the battles of Lobositz , Reichenberg , Prague , Leuthen and Hochkirch . However, since he received neither a permanent job nor a promotion, he quit his job in Hochkirch and went to the Prussians.

He was introduced to Frederick the Great through Major General Wobersnow . He took over as captain à la suite .

With the Prussians

In 1759 he went to war with the Prussians. He achieved his first success on June 10, 1759. The Austrians had overrun a Prussian outpost near Liebau and while the king was retaking it, Favrat was collecting the scattered soldiers. He used it to drive a battalion of panduros from a nearby ridge. In the meantime the king had noticed the absence of his captain and asked Major General Angelelli about his whereabouts, who initially suspected him dead or captured. But when Favrat reached the camp with numerous prisoners, he was embraced by the King and appointed commander of a company in the Salenmon Free Battalion . He came to the corps of Prince Heinrich in Saxony and took part in the battles at Torgau, Eilenburg, Leipzig, Hoyerswerda, Pretsch and Sorau.

His luck seemed to run out of luck in the battle of Maxen , because although he was able to defend his post near Falkenhain, the commanding General Fink had to capitulate on November 20, 1759 in Maxen. And while the captured generals fell out of favor with the king, he even wrote letters of encouragement to Favrat. Favrat was interned in Krems, where he met the Montecuccoli family. There he was able to conquer the heart of Maria Antonia von Montecuccoli. He was also fortunate that an Austrian major - whose sister was the Empress's lady-in-waiting - was to be replaced. So he was able to return in 1761 while the generals von Maxen had to wait until the end of the war.

Favrat initially traveled alone to the king, but he allowed the countess to come (the countess died a little later). The king even handed over command of the free battalion "Salenmon" to the returnees. When the Prussian army gathered near Bunzelwitz in the summer of 1761 , he was commissioned to secure the height of Jauernick (today: Jaworów) with a battery. On September 1, 1761, Colonel Devins appeared on behalf of Field Marshal Lieutenant Laudon and requested the surrender “otherwise the crew would jump over the edge”. Favrat refused and fired at the Austrian positions near the Arnsdorf windmill, then attacked them with infantry and drove the Austrians out. For this act he was promoted to major .

On July 21, 1762 he was able to distinguish himself again during the storm on the Leutmannsdorfer heights. He got his own troop, which consisted of the free battalion, 200 hunters and four squadrons of hussars. He was stationed in the village of Wallenburg. With the small unit he fought against General Brentano, during this time he made over 600 prisoners, including 13 officers. After the end of the war he stayed with the army. On July 14, 1767, he was transferred to Garrison Regiment No. 8 - still a major . In 1769 he asked for his departure, which was granted after difficulties.

After the war

He then traveled to Vienna, where he was introduced to the Empress. The latter wanted to include him in their army, but with the help of the Prussian ambassador von Rohde he was able to avoid it and preferred to go to Constantinople, as the war between the Turks and the Russians was raging. With the help of the Prussian ambassador von Zegelin, he actually wanted to join the Turkish army as a volunteer. When the project failed, the envoy gave him a passport for the return journey. Instead, he went on a Venetian ship and traveled via Smyrna to Alexandria , from where he toured Egypt. Via Thessaloniki he drove to Venice , where he received a letter from Prussia in quarantine, in which the king asked him to return to the army. He left Venice in November 1771 and traveled to Vienna, where this time Emperor Joseph II received him and had him tell him about his adventures in the Mediterranean. In January 1772 he came to Potsdam, where the king received him. He became a wing adjutant à la suite with a salary of 1,000 thalers. He held this post until he was transferred to the infantry regiment "von Hessen-Philippsthal" as a lieutenant colonel in May 1774 and became commander of the 2nd battalion.

War of the Bavarian Succession

During the War of the Bavarian Succession he was stationed in Schatzlar to protect the magazines in Landeshut . On November 29, 1778 he was promoted to colonel. In the winter of 1779 he was sent to Hirschberg , where he built a redoubt . This was then taken over by the city and was given the name "Favratsberg".

After the war

On March 6, 1786 he was appointed major general and took over the infantry regiment "von Raumer" . In the same year his patron King Friedrich II died. From his successor Friedrich Wilhelm II he received the order Pour le Mérite in July 1789 . In the meantime, however, he was suffering from cataracts and was lucky. The ophthalmologist Ritter Tadini , a friend of Giacomo Casanova , was able to operate on him successfully. In 1792 he became lieutenant general with a salary bonus of 2000 thalers.

The Polish uprising

When the Kościuszko uprising broke out in Poland in 1794 , Favrat became the commander of 50,000 Prussian soldiers. They formed the main armed forces, the army led by King Friedrich Wilhelm II. It advanced from Silesia towards Cracow , as did a Russian corps under General Denisoff. When this was defeated by the Poles at Racławice , the Prussians advanced and in the Battle of Rawka the Poles were thrown back to Warsaw . For this, the king personally put the Order of the Red Eagle on the Lieutenant General . Krakow surrendered to General von Elsner on June 15th . Progress in front of Warsaw was prevented by a lack of artillery that was only brought up from Gaudenz . When the siege began on July 27, Warsaw was already entrenched. The Prussian general Wilhelm von Schwerin waited in vain for Russian support, so he gave up the siege on September 6th. Schwerin was later held responsible for this and for the problems that followed and was sentenced to one year in prison by the court martial. Schwerin blamed Favrat in a pamphlet, who also responded with a publication.

Favrat occupied Warsaw on January 9, 1796, and received the Order of the Black Eagle . The general left Warsaw again in February and became governor of Kłodzko Fortress . On April 20, 1801 he was appointed general of the infantry . He died there on September 5, 1804.

Anecdotes

The general astonished his contemporaries with his strength during his lifetime. He is said to have drilled with a three-pounder cannon (weight approx. 120 kg) like a rifle. He is said to have split the head to the shoulders of a hussar and lifted horses with their rider. He is also said to have raised a cannon in the Danzig arsenal. Only August the Strong should have moved them by then.

family

He was married to Maria Antonia of Montecuccoli. She was the daughter of the imperial privy councilor and chamberlain Franz Raimund von Montecuccoli and his wife Maria Josepha von der Rath.

He later married Caroline Wilhelmine Cabrit (* 1743), the widow of the war and domain council Carl Gottlieb Vorhof (1732–1783). He had no natural children with her, so he adopted her son Friedrich Leopold Vorhof († 1841). On June 12, 1793, this was raised to the Prussian nobility as the forecourt of Favrat. He was married to Amalie Luise Walther von Cronegk and had three sons and a daughter. Likewise, the daughter Franziska Friederike Karoline (1785-1868) was legitimized by Favrat. On November 16, 1802, she married Major General Karl Friedrich Heinrich von Massow (1770-1851)

On September 8, 1798, Friedrich Leopold von Favrat died on the way from Glatz to Potsdam.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Schwerin (Count of): True and documented representation of the occasion, on which I after 43 years of service from the Konigl. Preuss. Military service . 2nd Edition. Baumgärtner, 1799 ( digitized version ).
  2. ^ François André von Favrat: Contributions to the history of the Polish campaigns from 1794–1796 as a response to the reports from Lieutenant General Count v. Public accusations made to him by Schwerin . Christian Friedrich Himburg, 1799 ( digitized in the Google book search).
  3. ^ Kurpfalzbaierische Münchner Staats-Zeitung p. 988. Digitized
  4. ^ Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 1054 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ Friedrich Bülau : Secret stories and enigmatic people. Volume 7, p. 357, digitized.
  6. ^ Yearbook of the German Nobility . Third volume, 1899, p. 242, digitized.
  7. ^ To: Neues Prussisches Adelslexicon , Volume 4, p. 473, digitized version .
  8. ↑ Silesian Provincial Papers . Volume 28, p. 316, obituary notice.
personal data
SURNAME Favrat, Franz Andreas von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Favrat, Franz Andreas Jacquier de Bernay von; Favrat, François André de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian general of the infantry
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH Savoy
DATE OF DEATH September 5, 1804
Place of death Bald