Christoph Martin von Degenfeld

Christoph Martin Freiherr von Degenfeld (1599–1653) was a German military commander who served the Habsburgs, France, and Sweden during the Thirty Years War, and the Republic of Venice during the Cretan War against the Ottoman Empire.

Engraving of Christoph Martin von Degenfeld as the Venetian commander-in-chief in Dalmatia, by Bartholomäus Kilian

Life

Christoph Martin von Degenfeld was born in 1599 at his family's Hoheneybach Castle near Geislingen an der Steige in the Duchy of Württemberg, where his grandfather Christoph (d. 1600) held the office of Oberstlandhofmeister (master of the court). Christoph Martin had two older brothers. When their father, Konrad, died in 1600, their custodians ensured that they received an excellent education at various universities and through extensive travels.

Service in the Thirty Years' War

Although the Degenfeld family had been Protestant since the mid-16th century, Christoph Martin and his brother Christoph Wolfgang entered service with the Habsburg Imperial Army in 1621, during the ongoing Thirty Years' War. Christoph Martin served under the Imperial general Albrecht von Wallenstein against the Prince of Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlen, and then as a Rittmeister (cavalry captain) under Tilly against the Protestant-aligned military commander Ernst von Mansfeld. Degenfeld particularly distinguished himself for his bravery at the battles of Wimpfen and Höchst in 1622, for which he received the rank of Obristwachtmeister (major) and the restoration of his family's ancient, but in the meantime lost, title of Freiherr. His subsequent career in Habsburg service saw him fighting against the Dutch Republic under Ambrogio Spinola, and in Jutland against Christian IV of Denmark.

When both of his brothers died without offspring, and his regiment was disbanded, in 1630 Degenfeld withdrew to his family's estates, whose sole heir he now was. He did not rest for long, however: by 1632 he had raised two regiments of cavalry, and entered Swedish service as a colonel. Fighting now for the Protestant cause, he distinguished himself at the Siege of Nuremberg, the Battle of Lützen, the siege of Villingen, and independent operations across Swabia. For his services he was granted large estates in Swabia by the Swedes, which were however lost after the crushing Habsburg victory at the Battle of Nördlingen.

Degenfeld however had abandoned the Swedish camp before Nördlingen, after having come into conflict with senior Swedish generals over the conduct of the war. Degenfeld and his family were forced to flee to Strasbourg, where he received proposals to enter French service. He agreed, and raised two cavalry regiments, mostly recruited from his former German soldiers. In 1635 he was promoted to colonel général de la cavallerie étrangère (colonel-general of the foreign cavalry) and thus commander-in-chief over 16 cavalry regiments. He carried out his duties with distinction, but after court intrigues and friction between him and Cardinal Richelieu, he left French service in 1642. While negotiating to reconcile himself with the Habsburg Emperor in the hopes to recover his ancestral estates, Degenfeld accepted a lucrative offer from the Republic of Venice to enter its service for seven years.

Service in Dalmatia

Christoph Martin von Degenfeld's tombstone at the Church of St. Cyriakus, Dürnau

The war with the Ottoman Empire that broke out in 1645 allowed Degenfeld to show his skill and cement his military reputation: placed in command of Dalmatia and Venetian Albania, starved of resources and men and confounded by the suspicious and parsimonious Venetian administration, his command of guerrilla warfare allowed him to check the numerically superior Ottoman forces. Accompanied by his eldest son, Ferdinand, he landed at Zara (Zadar) in August 1645. He relieved the pressure in Zara and Sebenico (Šibenik), captured the fortresses of Vrana—where Ferdinand suffered a wound to his eyes that left him blind—Zemonico (Zemunik Donji) and Scardona (Skradin), and repulsed an attack on Sebenico. He returned to Venice in 1648 amidst much acclamation, but the unfamiliar climate and hardships had taken their toll; when his contract ran out in the next year, he asked to be dismissed, and returned to tend to tend to his war-torn Swabian estates. There he died at Eybach on 13 October 1653.

Family

Christoph Martin von Degenfeld married his cousin, Anna Maria Adelmann von Adelmannsfelden (died 26 August 1651), at Dürnau on 22 April 1628. They had ten children, six boys and four girls:

• Ferdinand (1629–1710), who despite his blindness became the head and custodian of the family after his father's death.
• Gustav, entered Swedish service, reached the rank of colonel and was killed at the Assault on Copenhagen in 1659.
• Adolf, entered Venetian service, reached the rank of colonel and died of his wounds during the Siege of Candia in 1668.
• Christoph, entered Venetian service and succeeded Adolf in command at Candia, later served in the Saxon and Palatinate armies.
• Maximilian (1645–1697), entered Palatinate service and became colonel and ambassador.
• Hannibal, served in the Venetian, Dutch and Danish armies, organized the standing Bavarian Army and led it during the Battle of Vienna, died as Venetian commander-in-chief in the Morean War in 1691.
• Loysa, married Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine and received the title of Raugravine.

Loysa's granddaughter Maria von Schomburg (1692–1762) married in 1717 her cousin, Maximilian's grandson, Christoph Martin Count von Degenfeld (1689–1762), giving rise to the Degenfeld-Schonburg line.

Sources

• Eickhoff, Ekkehard (2009). Venedig, Wien und die Osmanen: Umbruch in Südosteuropa 1645–1700 (in German) (Fifth ed.). Klett-Cotta. ISBN 978-3-608-94511-9.
• Fuchs, Peter (1957). "Degenfeld, Loysa Freifrau von". Neue Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 3. pp. 559–560.
• Pfister, Albert; von Landmann, Carl (1877). "Degenfeld, Christoph Martin Freiherr von". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, herausgegeben von der Historischen Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (in German). Vol. 5. pp. 23–26.
• Setton, Kenneth Meyer (1991). Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. ISBN 0-87169-192-2.
• Thürheim, Andreas (1881). Christoph Martin, Freiherr von Degenfeld, General der Venezianer, General-Gouverneur von Dalmazien und Albanien, und dessen Söhne (1600—1733) (in German). Vienna: Wilhelm Braumüller.
• Uhland, Robert (1957). "Degenfeld, Christoph Martin Freiherr von". Neue Deutsche Biographie (in German). Vol. 3. pp. 558–559.