George Oliver Walsh, Count of Wallis (German: Georg Olivier Graf von Wallis, Freiherr von Carrighmain; 1671, in Vienna – 19 December 1743, in Vienna) was a field marshal of Irish descent in the service of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and last regent of the Habsburg Kingdom of Serbia (1738–1739). Born into an exiled Irish family, he distinguished himself in Sicily by his capture of Messina. He then commanded on the Rhine (1733), then in Italy and Hungary. He lost the decisive Battle of Grocka against the Ottoman Empire in 1739, thus leading to the peace of Belgrade, which was unfavourable to Austria and thus led to his disgrace.
George Oliver Walsh, count of Wallis | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1671 Vienna |
| Died | 19 December 1743 (aged 71 or 72) Vienna |
| Allegiance | Holy Roman Empire |
| Service | Army |
| Years of service | 1690–1740 |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Commands | Mainz (1731–34) |
| Battles / wars | |
Family
editAncestry
editGeorge Oliver's ancestor was Richard Walsh of Carrickmines, County Dublin, who became one of the first Irish officers in imperial service in 1632. He died later that year after being wounded in the Battle of Lützen. Richard's eldest son Theobald returned to Ireland, reverting to the ancestral name Walsh, (too difficult for Europeans to pronounce, hence transliterated as 'Wallis') whilst his youngest son, Olivier remained in the imperial Austrian army and became the founder of the Austrian branch of the Walshes, known as Wallis, before dying in 1667 as a major general in Hungary. Theobald's son, Feldzeugmeister Ernst Georg von Wallis (died 1689) and his wife, Countess Maria Magdalena Elisabeth von Attems (1655-1712) were parents of Franz Paul von Wallis (died 1737) and George Olivier, his younger brother.
Marriage and issue
editGeorge Olivier of Wallis married firstly Countess Maria Antonia von Götzen. After her death he married Countess Maria Theresia Kinsky von Wchinitz and Tettau (1721–1751). His only son and heir was Georg Stephan (19 July 1744 – 5 February 1832).
Life
editAfter the death in 1689 of Ernst Georg Wallis's in the Nine Years' War during the Siege of Mainz, George Olivier became a page at the court in Vienna and one year later became a lieutenant in the imperial army. In 1697 he fought as hauptmann at the battle of Zenta. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) he served first in northern Italy (rising to command a regiment as oberst in 1703), then from 1707 took part in the conquest of Naples. He also served in Spain until 1713 and by the end of the war had reached the rank of Leutnant-Feldmarschall.
He fought again in the Ottoman–Venetian War (1714–1718), under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy at the Battle of Petrovaradin on 5 August 1716 and at the sieges of Temesvár and Belgrade. The following year he commanded three regiments and was posted to operations in Naples. In the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–20) he fought in the Austrian army in Sicily. He was wounded in the battle of Messina. He was later governor of that city's fortress until 1727, before returning to Austria. When the Anglo-Spanish War (1727–1729) threatened to escalate, the Holy Roman Emperor ordered Olivier back to Sicily to ready the island's defences. When the attack on Sicily failed to materialise, Wallis was stood down in 1731 and from then until 1734 commanded the fortress at Mainz. In the War of the Polish Succession (1733–1735/38) he served against France in northern Italy, from 1733 in the rank of Feldzeugmeister. He was in overall command of the whole Austrian force there for a time and gained ground.
Governor of Serbia
editIn the Austro-Russian–Turkish War (1735–1739) Wallis commanded the Austrian corps and was shortly afterwards promoted to field marshal. In the last year of the war he was the Austrian army's supreme commander but lost the decisive battle of Grocka on 22 July 1739. Only a week after the battle, Austria was forced to sign the Peace of Belgrade, losing large swathes of territory to the Ottoman Empire. Wallis was the last governor of the Kingdom of Serbia, from November 1738 until its ceding back to the Ottoman Empire in late 1739 as part of the Treaty of Belgrade. With the Treaty of Passarowitz of 1717, Serbia had returned to the Habsburg empire having been previously part of the Ottoman Empire between 1689 and 1691, after the great defeat at Vienna during the Great Turkish War. A further short-lived restoration of the Serbian Kingdom would follow during the Austro-Turkish war in 1788.
Wallis bore a large part of the responsibility for the defeat. He was tried with other generals before a war tribunal and on 22 February 1740 was sentenced to imprisonment at the fortress at Spielberg. On the death of Charles VI he was pardoned by Maria Theresa of Austria in November the same year.
The Wallis estates
editHe spent his final years on his estates, and was frequently consulted on military matters, by the Viennese government. However, the war against the Turks had caused lasting damage to his brilliant military reputation, as is reflected in the assessment by later historians. In addition to the Bohemian estates of Kolešovice, Petrowice and Hochlibin, Wallis acquired or inherited several properties in the County of Glatz. He was lord of Wallisfurth (Polish: Wolany), Seitenberg and Trzebieszowice. On his brother Franz Paul's death in 1737 he inherited Plomnitz, Kieslingswalde, Glasegrund, Weißbrod, Altwaltersdorf, Kaiserswalde and Friedrichswald in Bohemia. On his death in 1744 his estates were inherited by his son Stephan (died 1832), although he sold Hassitz and Stolz to Friedrich Wilhelm, count of Schlabrendorf.
Bibliography
edit- Oscar Criste (1896), "Wallis, Georg Olivier Graf von", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (in German), vol. 40, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp. 749–751
- Brennan: Paintings in a Military Academy
- Murtagh: Irish Soldiers in Central Europe 1600 - 1800, in: Irish Sword, Jg. 1990.
- Bernhard von Poten (Hrsg.): Handwörterbuch der gesamten Militärwissenschaften, Bd. 5, Bielefeld/Leipzig 1878.
- Joseph Kögler: Die Chroniken der Grafschaft Glatz. Newly edited by Dieter Pohl. Band 3, ISBN 3-927830-15-1, S. 369–370