page_title: Joseph Radetzky von Radetz
section_title: Italian campaigns
hierarchical_section_title: Joseph Radetzky von Radetz / Italian campaigns
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: San Martino della Battaglia ( Italien ). Turm - Eingangshalle: Fresko mit Darstellung eines Treffens von König Viktor Emmanuel II von Italien mit dem österreichischen Feldmarschall Radetzky. English: Fresco by Vittorio Emanuele Bressanin (1860-1941) in the Museum of the Tower of San Martino della Battaglia (Italy) showing the meeting of Vignale of March 24, 1849 between Radetzky and the new king of Sardinia Vittorio Emanuele II. - detail
context_page_description: Johann Josef Wenzel Anton Franz Karl, Graf Radetzky von Radetz was a Bohemian nobleman and Austrian field marshal. He served as chief of the general staff in the Habsburg Monarchy during the later period of the Napoleonic Wars and afterwards began military reforms. A disciplined but fair man, he was so beloved by his troops that he was known as Vater Radetzky. He is best known for the victories at the Battles of Custoza and Novara during the First Italian War of Independence.
context_section_description: During the succeeding years of peace he disappeared from public view. He resumed his functions as chief of staff, but his ardent ideas for reforming the army came to nothing in the face of the general war-weariness and desire to "let well enough alone." His zeal added to the number of his enemies, and in 1829, after twenty years as lieutenant field marshal, it was proposed to place him on the retired list. The emperor, unwilling to go as far as that, promoted him general of cavalry and shelved him by making him governor of a fortress. But very soon afterwards, the Restoration settlement of Europe was shaken by fresh upheavals, and Radetzky was brought back into the field of war again. He took part under Frimont in the campaign against the Papal States insurgents, and succeeded that general in the chief command of the Austrian army in Italy in 1834.
  In 1836, Radetzky was promoted to full field marshal. He was then seventy, but still displayed the vigor and zeal of his youth in the training and discipline of the army he commanded. But there too he was in advance of his time, and the government not only disregarded his suggestions and warnings but also refused the military the money that would have enabled the finest army it possessed to take the field at a moment's notice. Thus the events of 1848 in Italy, which gave the old field marshal his place in history among the great commanders, found him, in the beginning, not unprepared but seriously handicapped in the struggle with Charles Albert's army, and the insurgents in Milan and elsewhere. By falling back to the Quadrilatero and there, rebuffing one opponent after another, he was able to buy time until reinforcements arrived, and thenceforward up to the final triumph at the Battle of Novara on 23 March 1849, he and his army carried all before them. He also commanded the Austrian troops who reconquered Venice after the year-long siege of the rebellious city in May 1848 – August 1849. He became a Knight of the Order of the Golden Fleece in 1848.
  His well-disciplined sense of duty towards officers of higher rank had become more intense in the long years of peace, and, after keeping his army loyal midst the confusion of 1848, he made no attempt to play the part of Wallenstein or even to assume Wellington's role of 'family adviser to the nation'. While as a patriot he dreamed a little of a united Germany, he remained to the end simply the commander of one of the emperor's armies.
  After his triumph in Italy, he was made Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia from 1848 to 1857 - being the only one not of royal Habsburg blood. 
  Repression in Lombardy-Venetia was severe: the Austrians could act with impunity and little denunciation from the exiled patriots in the rest of Italy, and masking their action as "repression of banditry," there was little danger of it acquiring international resonance. From 1848 Radetzky introduced public caning as a form of punishment, the death penalty for conspirators and life sentences for failing to denounce revolutionary activities. Belfiore martyrs, Luigi Dottesio and Amatore Sciesa were among the many who were executed for political activities.
  While effective in preventing rebellions, these brutal acts marked the failure of all re-pacification policies between Austria and the Italian population; 1848 had dug too deep a chasm between the Italians and the Austrian government, and - as events in 1859 showed - it was only the power of Austrian military might that kept Austria and her client states in Italy. It was part of Radetzky's good fortune that he died one year before his whole work dissolved.
caption: Fresco showing the meeting between Radetzky and the new king of Sardinia Victor Emmanuel II, 24 March 1849
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