James Keith

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James Keith in 1724
Signature James Keith.PNG

James Francis Edward Keith (also Jakob von Keith ; born June 11/16, 1696 in Peterhead , Scotland, † October 14, 1758 in Hochkirch ) was Field Marshal General and one of the most important confidants of Frederick the Great during the Seven Years' War .

Live and act

Antoine Pesne : Portrait of James Keith, around 1755

James Francis Edward Keith was the second and youngest son of William Keith, 8th Earl Marischal (around 1665-1712) and Mary Drummond (1675-1729), daughter of James Drummond, 4th Earl of Perth , at Inverugie Castle near Peterhead , Scotland , born. It was named after James Francis Edward Stuart (1688–1766), called "the Old Pretender", the son of James II and his second wife Maria Beatrice d'Este . His brother was George Keith, 9th Earl Marischal .

Traditionally closely associated with the Stuarts , James and his older brother took part in the Jacobite uprisings that took place in Scotland in 1715 and 1719, after which they lost all titles and possessions and had to leave Scotland.

After some time in exile in Italy, France and Spain, Keith entered the service of the Russian army , since as a Protestant he was denied a position in the Spanish army. In Russia , Keith served from 1728 to 1747 under Generals Münnich and Lacy , an Irishman who had also left his homeland as a Jacobite. He proved himself in the storming of Ochakov in the Turkish War , where he was wounded, and in the "War of the Hats" against the Swedes in the battle of Villmanstrand (also: Wilmanstrand) on September 3, 1741. 1740, after Russia the peace of After Belgrade had acceded, Tsarina Anna Ivanovna named Keith governor of Ukraine.

Keith enjoyed the favor of Tsarina Anna Ivanovna , who distinguished him several times and made him general of the infantry. After the death of his patroness in 1740, his luck turned. In order to avoid the stalking of her successor Elisabeth and the intrigues of her Chancellor Bestuschew , he finally asked for his departure, which he was granted in July 1747.

He left Russia immediately and asked Frederick the Great to enter Prussian service. Friedrich welcomed the highly educated and experienced general and appointed him General Field Marshal of the Prussian Army on September 18, 1747 . In 1749 he became governor of Berlin . In October of the same year the king awarded him the Order of the Black Eagle .

Keith was one of the king's most valued generals and was therefore immediately entrusted with important tasks when the Seven Years War broke out:

So he led the containment and siege of the Saxon army at Pirna and distinguished himself a. a. in the Battle of Lobositz on October 1, 1756. In 1757, during the Battle of Prague , he commanded part of the Prussian army, managed to encircle the enemy, and later successfully defended Leipzig against overwhelming odds.

In 1758, after a few failures, such as the siege of Olomouc , he gave up his command due to his poor health, but returned to the army in the autumn. Together with Prince Moritz von Anhalt and other generals, he tried in vain to prevent the king from setting up a field camp in the tactically highly endangered town of Hochkirch in mid-October . During the subsequent attack by the Austrians (the Battle of Hochkirch ) on the night of October 14, Keith was fatally wounded (shot in the mouth).

Initially buried in Hochkirch (a memorial stone still reminds of him here), he was transferred six months later to the crypt of the Berlin garrison church. There his body was identified and drawn by Adolph Menzel in 1873 . After the destruction of the garrison church in World War II, the approx. 200 dead were transferred to the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf in 1949 , where they were buried in a communal grave, the so-called garrison grave.

Keith was also active in German Freemasonry : for example, in 1756 he set up the Philadelphia Lodge as Provincial Master to the three golden arms in Halle ad Saale.

Monuments

Monument on Zietenplatz in Berlin-Mitte

After his death, Friedrich II erected a memorial for him on Wilhelmplatz (Berlin-Mitte) . A street in Berlin-Schöneberg was named after Keith (which gained a certain fame as the setting for Theodor Fontane's novel Effi Briest ). Prince Heinrich of Prussia dedicated a plaque on his Rheinsberg obelisk to him .

literature

Web links

Commons : James Francis Edward Keith  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense: Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith , 1844, p. 59.
  2. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense: Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith , 1844, pp. 75-77.
  3. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense: Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith , 1844, p. 69.
  4. ↑ List of the Knights of the Kgl. Prussian High Order of the Black Eagle, Awards 1749, Decker, Berlin, 1851
  5. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense: Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith , 1844, p. 128.
  6. ^ Karl August Varnhagen von Ense: Life of Field Marshal Jakob Keith , 1844, pp. 253 and 257.
  7. ↑ Friedrich August Eckstein History of the Masonic Lodge in the Orient from Halle , Halle 1844, 32–35.
personal data
SURNAME Keith, James
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Keith, James Francis Edward (full name); Keith, Jacob from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian general, Prussian field marshal
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1696 or June 16, 1696
PLACE OF BIRTH Inverugie Castle near Peterhead , Scotland
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1758
Place of death Hochkirch , Saxony