Prince Josias of Coburg
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Prince Frederick Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld (b. December 26, 1737 - d. February 26, 1815), was a famous general of the Holy Roman Empire.
Born at Schloß Ehrenburg, Coburg, he was the youngest son of Duke Franz Josias of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and Anna Sophie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt.
Josias joined the Habsburg military as Colonel in 1759, participated in the Seven Years' War, and rose to the rank of Lieutenant Field Marshal by 1773. In the Russo-Turkish-Austrian war of 1788, he commanded an army corps under Freiherr von Laudon, occupying Moldavia, capturing Khotyn in Bessarabia and sharing in Aleksandr Suvorov's victory at Focşani (August 1, 1789). Having completely beaten the main Ottoman army under Grand Vizier Koca Yusuf Pasha in the Battle of Rymnik, he captured the greater part of Wallachia, including Bucharest (see History of Bucharest), being welcomed by the population after the flight of Prince Nicholas Mavrogenes, and soon after becoming a Field Marshal.
During the ocupation of Moldavia, Josias met Therese Stroffeck, a common woman. She bore him a son, called Frederick, in Roman, Moldavia, on September 24 of the same year. Josias married Therese when they came back to Coburg, in December 24. Immediately, he recognized his son, who was ennobled in Austria on August 25, 1808, and created Freiherr von Rohmann by his kinsman, the duke Ernst II of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on February 17, 1853. Because the marriage of his parents was unequal, Frederick and his descendants, the Freiherren von Rohmann, were barren of the succession of the duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld.
In 1793 and 1794 he commanded the army in the Austrian Netherlands. Due to his victories in the French Revolutionary Wars, in the Battle of Neerwinden (1793) and the Battle of Aldenhoven (1794), he returned the region to Austrian control. Entering France, he took Condé, Valenciennes, Quesnoy and Landrecies. However, due to unfortunate positioning, partly due to disunity amongst the Allied powers and their forces, he suffered a string of minor setbacks in front of the Revolutionary Army on the Sambre, followed by a decisive defeat in the Battle of Fleurus (June 26).
He thereupon abandoned the Netherlands, which Habsburg diplomats had already decided to give up. Angered by this, and openly criticising the policies of the Baron Thugut, Josias resigned as Field Marshal (the Count of Clerfayt assumed command in his place) and retired to Coburg, where he later died.
[edit] References
- Meyers Konversations-Lexikon of 1888-1889. In turn, it cites:
- A. von Witzleben, Prinz Friedrich J. von Koburg-Saalfeld, Herzog zu Sachsen, Berlin, 1859
