Alfonso Montecuccoli a Habsburg család szolgálatában
Alfonso Montecuccoli in the service of the Habsburg dynasty

Summary/Abstract: In his work on the history of the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), Peter Hamish Wilson points out that several military generals, who participated in the first phase of the biggest and most significant European armed conflict of the 17th century, had gathered their first military experiences or had established their military reputation in the Fifteen Years War (1593–1606) against the Ottoman Empire, which prepared them for commanding larger armies later. Examples include Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius Valdštein/Wallenstein, Jean T’Serclaes de Tilly or the famous-notorious commander of the Protestant Union, Peter Ernst II von Mansfeld. Raimondo Montecuccoli, who was undoubtedly one of the most famous generals of the Thirty Years War, cannot belong to this group, given that he was born in 1609. But I must note that he was not the first member of the family who decided to serve the Habsburg dynasty instead of the Modena princes. In my paper, I follow those four-decades from the life of one of the famed 17th-century general's distant relative, called Alfonso Montecuccoli, during which he was serving the Habsburg dynasty, with special emphasis on his role in the Fifteen Years War.

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