Austerlitz: Napoleon and the Eagles of Europe by Ian Castle

freiherr (baron).
    After his exertions Mack became ill and took a period of leave from the army, but in December 1790 he returned, as commander of 3. Chevaulegers. However, he spent much of that winter in Vienna lecturing on military matters to the nineteen-year-old Archduke Charles, marking the start of a friendship that was to end bitterly eight years later.
    In 1793, with Austria now at war with Revolutionary France, Feldmarschall Prince Coburg-Saalfield requested Mack’s services as his chief of staff in the Austrian Netherlands. Through Mack’s encouragement of an offensive strategy the Austrian army won a victory at Aldenhoven and again at Neerwinden, where even though struck down by ill health, he persuaded Coburg to abandon plans for a retreat and to fight on.
    Wounded later in the year, Mack went on leave to recuperate, returning to Coburg’s staff in 1794. He continued to advocate an offensive strategy, but the campaign went badly and with his ill health returning and intrigues building against him in Vienna, he retired from the army. He returned again in 1796 with the rank of feldmarschalleutnant , and although the British were keen for him to command in Portugal, he accepted instead the post of chief of staff to the Army of the Interior. Here, in 1798, he clashed for the first time with Archduke Charles over proposed war plans, leading to animosity that brought their friendship to an end. Later that year, with Kaiser Francis’ approval, Mack wasoffered the command of the Neapolitan army, which he accepted. What started as a promising campaign against the French in Rome descended into chaos as his poorly trained army collapsed and was thrown into disarray. Disgusted by the performance of the army and threatened by an angry populace, Mack surrendered himself to the French in January 1799. Taken to France as a prisoner, Mack eventually broke his parole and returned to Austria in 1800 to settle into retirement, preparing documents expounding his views on offensive warfare and the state of the army. He had served the army for thirty years and had risen from a lowly cavalry trooper to the command of a foreign army. It was a remarkable career and one that now appeared to be over: until intrigues in the Viennese court thrust him into the spotlight once more. Championed by the joint foreign ministers, Cobenzl and Colloredo, Mack became the weapon in their war to undermine the position of the Archduke Charles.
    Mack was intelligent, energetic, dogged and brave, while also possessing great skills as a persuasive speaker. He was well respected by those who served with him in 1793–94, particularly the British, but he was also pedantic and became bogged down in creating complex and over ambitious strategies that were often beyond the skills of those serving under him to carry out. His enigmatic character has been described as fluctuating between ‘extreme rashness and curious irresolution’. 2
    Having gained support for the advance of the army into Bavaria, Mack, unwilling to delegate, wasted no time in setting the wheels in motion. In-between the meetings at Hetzendorf he journeyed the 100 miles to Wels, the main camp of the assembling army. On 2 September he issued orders for the move to the Bavarian border to commence two days later. On 3 September the Austrian government broke off diplomatic relations with France and despatched Prince Schwarzenberg to Munich to inform the Bavarian elector, Maximilian-Joseph, of the Third Coalition’s decision to open war against France, and to seek his adherence to their cause. Austria, of course, knew nothing of a treaty Bavaria signed with France in August and confidently expected that the Bavarian army would soon join her own forces.
    Maximilian found himself in a difficult position. He felt well disposed towards France, for Bavaria gained new territory in 1803 in compensation for that lost in the Treaty of Luneville in 1800. In this his powerful chief minister, Maximilian