Archduke Albrecht , Duke of Teschen Archduke Albrecht Friedrich Rudolf Dominik of Austria , Duke of Teschen ( 3 August 1817 – 18 February 1895 ) was an Austrian Habsburg general . Inspector General for 36 years , he was honored with the rank of Field Marshal in the armies of Austria - Hungary ( 1888 ) and Germany ( 1893 ) . Early life . A grandson of the Emperor Leopold II , he was the eldest son of Archduke Charles of Austria , who defeated Napoleon Bonaparte at Aspern ( 1809 ) , and Princess Henrietta of Nassau - Weilburg . He was the nephew of the Emperor Francis II , and cousin to Emperor Franz Joseph ' s father Archduke Franz Karl of Austria , and served under Franz Joseph . Born in Vienna , from an early age he had a military disposition , which his father encouraged . Albrecht was subject to a mild form of epilepsy , according to report , but this did not visibly interfere with his military career . He entered the Austrian army in 1837 with Feldmarshal Joseph Radetzky as his military governor . Having received a thorough military education , Albrecht was named a " Generalmajor " in 1840 and promoted to " Feldmarschall - Leutnant " in 1843 . Military campaigns . Promoted to " General der Kavallerie " in 1845 , Albert was given command of Upper Austria , Lower Austria , and Salzburg . Upon the death of his father in 1847 , he inherited the Palais Weilburg in Baden bei Wien , which became the family ' s summer home . In the winter the family lived in Vienna in the Palais Erzherzog Albrecht ( the modern Albertina museum ) . As the commandant of Vienna , Albrecht was wounded in the street fighting on 13 March 1848 at the start of the revolutionary disturbances . He issued live ammunition to his soldiers and secured the inner city , but was unable to suppress the disorder in the outlying districts . With the fall of Metternich and the formation of a city guard led by students , Albrecht pulled his troops into barracks . Radicals resented his attempt to quell the revolution while some fellow officers thought he showed a lack of resolve . Unsatisfactory to both factions and under pressure from city authorities , Albrecht was replaced by Count Auersperg . Albrecht was sent south to command a division under Radetzky , who faced a coalition of states of the Italian peninsula led by King Charles Albert of Sardinia . Albrecht personally supervised the crossing of the Ticino and by the handling of his division ensuring victory at Novara on 23 March 1849 . He became civil and military governor of Hungary in 1851 , serving until his recall in 1860 . When Archduchess Hildegard went to Munich in March 1864 for the funeral of her brother , King Maximilian II , she became ill with a lung inflammation and pleurisy . She died in Vienna on 2 April 1864 , two months short of her 38th birthday . At the outbreak of the Seven Weeks ' War in June 1866 , Albrecht was named commander of the southern army facing the Italian forces of King Victor Emmanuel II . Albrecht was decisively victorious in the battle of Custoza ( 24 June 1866 ) , but failed to exploit his victory when he neglected to pursue the beaten Italian " Army of the Mincio " . Any advantages for the Austrians however were canceled out by the crushing defeat on 3 July at Königgrätz , where Ludwig von Benedek was surprised by the speed of Helmuth von Moltke ' s concentric advance into Bohemia . Albrecht was named " Oberkommandeur " ( Commander - in - Chief ) on 10 July 1866 . Benedek ' s defeat made any further action against Prussia impossible , however , and peace was shortly concluded with both Prussia and Italy . Besides the loss of Holstein to Prussia and Venetia to Italy in 1866 , the war resulted in the transformation of the Austrian realm in 1867 as the Dual Monarchy – the Austro - Hungarian Empire . Inspector General . Albrecht remained " Oberkommandeur " until 1869 ; when Kaiser Franz Josef I assumed the title that year , Albrecht became " Generalinspekteur " ( Inspector General ) , the post he occupied until his death . In 1869 he published " Über die Verantwortlichkeit im Kriege " ( " On Responsibility in War " ) . His reform of the Austro - Hungarian Army was based on the Prussian model : development of railways and manufacturing , adoption of short - service conscription , procurement of modern weapons and reform of the General Staff . Albrecht ' s program gave Austria - Hungary the best army that a multinational empire could field at the time ; his later clashes with liberals ( including Crown Prince Rudolf ) may have resulted at least in part from his ability to see all too clearly the limitations imposed by the empire ' s finite resources . In public affairs , he was leader of the conservative Court Party , and opposed the ministry of Ferdinand Graf Beust at every point , expressing the most inexorably reactionary views . As such he was an absolutist and opposed any liberal ideas and any weakening of the imperial power . He was somewhat more courteous to Beust ' s successors , though he remained given to bombastic pronouncements that may not have reflected his actual sentiments . He was widely thought , for instance , to be antipathetic toward Prussia after 1866 , yet he modeled his military reforms on those of Prussia and even attended a parade of the Prussian Royal Guard in Berlin at the invitation of Kaiser Wilhelm I . In December 1876 Albrecht advocated a preventive war against Italy on the grounds that of all Austria ' s neighbors , Italy was the most hostile , could be beaten most easily , and be forced to pay compensation to Austria - Hungary , whose victory would establish it as a Great Power . At the Congress of Berlin in 1878 , the Austro - Hungarian Foreign Minister Gyula Andrássy , in addition to the Austro - Hungarian occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina , also obtained the right to station garrisons in the Sanjak of Novi Pazar , which remained under Ottoman administration . The Sanjak preserved the separation of Serbia and Montenegro , and the Austro - Hungarian garrisons there would open the way for a dash to Salonika , supported by Albrecht , that " would bring the western half of the Balkans under permanent Austrian influence . " " High [ Austro - Hungarian ] military authorities desired [ an . . . ] immediate major expedition with Salonika as its objective . " On 28 September 1878 the Finance Minister , Koloman von Zell , threatened to resign if the army , behind which stood the Archduke Albert , were allowed to advance to Salonika . In the session of the Hungarian Parliament of 5 November 1878 the Opposition proposed that the Foreign Minister should be impeached for violating the constitution by his policy during the Near East Crisis and by the occupation of Bosnia - Herzegovina . The motion was lost by 179 to 95 . By the Opposition rank and file the gravest accusations were raised against Andrassy . Reputed to be the wealthiest of the Habsburgs , Albrecht owned some in Hungary . He also owned a fine collection of paintings and engravings , later the nucleus of the Albertina museum . His popularity was profound , for his generosity to the poor was genuine and unfeigned ; he was widely known as " Engelsherz " ( Angel ' s - heart ) . When Albrecht was made a " Feldmarschall " in March 1888 , Crown Prince Rudolf was appointed his subordinate as " Generalinspekteur der Infanterie " ( Inspector General of Infantry ) . The new Inspector found any move toward liberal reform blocked by the War Minister , " Feldzeugmeister " Ferdinand Freiherr von Bauer , the Chief of the General Staff , " Feldzeugmeister " Friedrich Graf Beck - Rzikowsky – and by Albrecht himself . Senior officers deferred to Albrecht who , after all , had laboriously modernized the Army after the disaster of 1866 . However , the anomalous situation in the military administration was undoubtedly only one of many factors that contributed to Rudolf ' s suicide at Mayerling on 30 January 1889 . Later life . Having been made a " Feldmarschall " in his own army in 1888 , Albrecht was the recipient of the equivalent rank of " Generalfeldmarschall " in the German Army in 1893 , Kaiser Wilhelm II sending General Walther von Loë to deliver the baton to Albrecht . Archduke Albrecht continued to serve as " Generalinspekteur " even into advanced age - a situation not uncommon in Austria - Hungary where many commanders retained posts and commissions into old age . By 1895 , though still holding his office , he was partially blind and his horse had to be led by an adjutant . When he died in Arco on 18 February 1895 , Archduke Albrecht received a state funeral and was buried in tomb 128 of the Imperial crypt in Vienna . His fortune and his title of Duke of Teschen were inherited by his nephew , Archduke Friedrich , who served as " Oberkommandeur " in 1914 – 17 . Today , an equestrian statue of Archduke Albrecht stands near the entrance to the Albertina museum , his former city residence in Vienna . Family and children . On 1 May 1844 Albrecht married in Munich Princess Hildegard of Bavaria , daughter of King Louis I and Therese of Saxe - Hildburghausen . Albrecht and Hildegard had 3 children : Namesake . Albrecht ' s name was given to a " Panzerschiff " ( armorclad , later battleship ) launched in 1872 as " Erzherzog Albrecht " . Renamed " Feuerspeier " in 1908 , she was ceded to Italy in 1920 and renamed " Buttafuoco " . The old ironclad survived as a hulk until she was scrapped in 1947 .