Windischgrätz, Alfred, prince zu

Windischgrätz, Alfred, prince zu

(born , May 11, 1787, Brussels, Austrian Netherlands—died March 21, 1862, Vienna, Austria) Austrian field marshal. He entered the Habsburg imperial army as an officer (1804) and rose through the ranks to become military commander for Bohemia (1840). In the Revolutions of 1848, he suppressed the Czech rebels in Prague and crushed the insurrection in Vienna, where he was noted for his harsh military rule. Appointed field marshal (1848), he occupied Budapest in 1849 and drove the Hungarian rebels beyond the Tisza River. Although he was given supreme command of all imperial troops outside Italy, his gifts as a commander were mediocre, and differences with his brother-in-law, the Habsburg prime minister, prince zu Schwarzenberg, resulted in his recall (1849). Thereafter Windischgrätz retired to Bohemia.