The first Wild Geese, about 16,000 Irish soldiers, sailed for France in 1691, under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick, after their defeat at the battles of the Boyne and Aughrim.
About 120,000 more followed them during the next 40 years. And their numbers soon swelled into such an exodus that in the 18th century nearly 450,000 Irish soldiers fought for France alone. Thousands more joined other European armies, some of them serving as far away as Mexico and India, where Count Thomas Lally, hero of Fontenoy, commanded the French forces. Three men named Lacy led armies of three countries: General Francis Lacy in Austria, General William Lacy in Spain and Marshal Peter Lacy in Russia.
But perhaps the greatest of all the Wild Geese is hardly known at all at home, though highly honoured in Austria. Count Marshal Maximilian von Browne died while commanding the Austrian army in a battle at Prague, the Czech capital, 250 years ago next Thursday, on June 26th, 1757.
His father, Ulysses Browne, and his mother, Annabella Fitzgerald, were both from Limerick. Ulysses, the eldest of eight brothers, and George, another, first served in a regiment of 1,800 Irishmen in the French army before they transferred en masse to the service of Austria. "The more Irish in the Austrian army the better, said the Austrian Emperor Franz Stefan. (A century later there was another Irish marshal in the Austrian army, Andrew O'Reilly from Co Westmeath, who fought at Austerlitz in 1805 and later became Governor of Vienna.)
Maximilian, Ulysses's only son, was born in Basle, Switzerland, in 1705, but was sent to Limerick to be educated. At 11 he was brought back and enrolled in an Austrian military academy in Hungary, where his uncle George was on the staff. Soon after graduating, he married Maria von Martinitz, daughter of the Austrian Viceroy of Sicily, when both were 19. They had two sons, Philip and Joseph.
A great deal is known about Maximilian's military career, but little of his private life. There is only one biography of him in English, The Wild Goose and the Eagle, written over 40 years ago by Dr Christopher Duffy, former professor of military history at Sandhurst, Britain's military academy.
Following his father into the Austrian army, Maximilian was a major-general at the age of 30 and a full general at 40. He fought in many parts of Europe, east and west, starting in 1735 in Austria's war against France, Spain and Italy. Four years later he was fighting the Turks in Hungary and the following year against the Prussians in Poland. He fought the French on the Danube and the Rhine in 1743 and against the Spaniards in Italy a year later. In 1746 he drove both the French and Spaniards from northern Italy and invaded southern France.
The military historian Major O'Cahill, another of the Wild Geese, writing in Vienna in 1785, described von Browne: "He was tall and lean. Accustomed to hardship and sharing the lot of his soldiers, he had a profound knowledge of men. He was a lovable companion, a staunch friend and practised his [ Catholic] religion from his whole heart. He loved the Austrian army he commanded." He spoke English with a brogue.
Marshal von Browne's last campaign was during the Seven Years War. In a drawn battle at Lobositz on the River Elbe he outwitted King Frederick the Great of Prussia, who was regarded by Napoleon as one of the greatest generals of all time. The Irish marshal's last victory was in the battle fought in June 1757 at Prague, where he was seriously wounded. He was taken to the nearby home of Prince Mansfield, another of the Wild Geese. His wife was sent for and was with him when he died on June 26th. He was buried under a marble monument in Prague's Capuchin church.
His son Joseph also died from wounds received in battle, in 1759, while his other son, Philip, died in retirement as a general in 1803; having no children, he was the last of the "Austrian" Brownes from Limerick.
Dr Christopher Duffy, the marshals biographer, wrote of him: "One of the finest soldiers in the Austrian Imperial army, Maximilian von Browne was clearly in advance of his contemporaries in the speed and boldness with which he could move his men, and still more in his enlightened notions of leadership. No commander of the time so fully deserved the love and trust of his men."