Count Lavall Nugent

Nugent, Lavall, Count, Field-Marshal in the Austrian service, descended from the 1st Earl of Westmeath, was born in Ireland in 1777. At an early age he became heir to his uncle Oliver Count Nugent, went to Austria in 1789, and entered the Imperial army in 1794. His abilities soon attracted notice. After the battle of Varaggio in 1799, he was elected a Knight of the military order of Maria Theresa, and after Marengo received his commission as major. In 1805 he became a lieutenant-colonel; 1809, major-general; and in the same year he was a plenipotentiary to the congress which preceded Napoleon's marriage to Maria Louisa. Refusing to sign the conditions forced upon the exhausted Austrians by Napoleon, he retired to England and was made a lieutenant-general in the British army. In 1811 he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Austria, and returned with important communications relative to the coalition organizing against France.

In the winter of 1812-'13 he was sent by the British Government to Spain; and in 1813 he resumed the sword for Austria, drove the French out of Illyria; and next year bore a leading part in the successful campaign in Italy. He was gazetted a British K.C.B. In 1815 he led the force in Tuscany that defeated Murat, and in the summer of the same year commanded in the south of France. He next became Captain-General of the Neapolitan army; but in 1820 returned to the Austrian service. Although commanding in Italy and Hungary in 1848, he took no very active part in the field. In 1849 he was presented with the baton of a Field-Marshal, and honours of all kinds were showered upon him. He was present with his old companion Radetsky in Italy during the war with Sardinia, and accompanied the Emperor of Austria in his unfortunate campaign against the French and Italians in 1859. Field-Marshal Nugent married the Duchess of Riario Sforza, a descendant of Augustus III., King of Poland. He died on his estate in Croatia in August 1862, aged 84.

Sources

7. Annual Register. London, 1756-1877.

54. Burke, Sir Bernard: Peerage and Baronetage.