Antonio von Caraffa (1646 – 6 March 1693) was a General Commissary (Generalkriegskommissär) of the Imperial-Habsburg Army—the highest rank in the Austrian military hierarchy at the time. He also held various other high-ranking offices, including military governor of Upper Hungary and later royal commissioner of Transylvania.

Biography

He was born in the Neapolitan

House of Carafa The House of Carafa or Caraffa is the name of an old and influential Neapolitan aristocratic family of Italian nobles, clergy, and men of arts, known from the 12th century. History The House of Carafa is a cadet branch of the noble House of C ...

. He was introduced at the Imperial Court (''Kaiserhof'') in Vienna in 1655 by his cousin Cardinal

Carlo Carafa della Spina Carlo Carafa della Spina (1611–1680) was a Roman Catholic cardinal. Biography On 1 Jan 1645, he was consecrated bishop by Ciriaco Rocci, Cardinal-Priest of San Salvatore in Lauro, with Fabio Lagonissa, Titular Patriarch of Antioch, and Alfonso ...

. Later he entered the Imperial Army, and became a Colonel in 1672, when he participated in the War against the Turks in Hungary. During the Siege of Vienna (1683), he was sent by

Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (Leopold Ignaz Joseph Balthasar Franz Felician; hu, I. Lipót; 9 June 1640 – 5 May 1705) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia, and Bohemia. The second son of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, by his first wife, Maria An ...

to Warsaw, to urge Polish King

John III Sobieski John III Sobieski ( pl, Jan III Sobieski; lt, Jonas III Sobieskis; la, Ioannes III Sobiscius; 17 August 1629 – 17 June 1696) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1674 until his death in 1696. Born into Polish nobility, Sobie ...

to come to the help of the city. In 1685, he took

Prešov Prešov (, hu, Eperjes, Rusyn language, Rusyn and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian: Пряшів) is a city in Eastern Slovakia. It is the seat of administrative Prešov Region ( sk, Prešovský kraj) and Šariš, as well as the historic Sáros Cou ...

from the Turks. After the conquest of Upper Hungary, he was appointed its military governor. He set up the

Executive Court of Prešov The Executive Court of Prešov ( Slovak: ''Prešovský krvavý súd'' or ''Prešovské jatky'', hu, eperjesi vésztörvényszék), also known as ''Caraffa's slaughter'', was an extraordinary cruel political court founded by the Neapolitan count an ...

, by which he ruthlessly persecuted followers of Imre Thököly; the Court, whose proceedings remained secret, made widespread use of torture and executed seventeen supposed conspirators. For this event, Caraffa developed a reputation for cruelty among Hungarians. The Hungarian nobility complained to the Emperor and Caraffa was given another position as General Commissary of the army. He remained in Imperial service and conquered Palanok Castle in Mukachevo, defended by Ilona Zrínyi after a siege of three years. In this way, he was appointed royal commissioner of Transylvania, and managed to persuade Mihály Teleki and an important part of the nobility to switch to the Austrian side. He also conquered Lipova and Lugoj. His administration of Transylvania was also remembered as heavy-handed, for he extracted more taxes than the Ottomans had collected tribute. He played a very important role in the conquest of Belgrade in 1688, and was for this rewarded with the

Order of the Golden Fleece The Distinguished Order of the Golden Fleece ( es, Insigne Orden del Toisón de Oro, german: Orden vom Goldenen Vlies) is a Catholic order of chivalry founded in Bruges by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in 1430, to celebrate his marriage ...

and lands in

Voćin Voćin is a village and municipality in western Slavonia, Croatia, located southwest of Slatina and east of Daruvar. The population of the municipality is 1,911, with 956 people living in Voćin itself (census 2021). Geography Voćin, a pilgrima ...

, Slavonia. In 1691, he commanded the Austrian troops in the

Nine Years' War The Nine Years' War (1688–1697), often called the War of the Grand Alliance or the War of the League of Augsburg, was a conflict between France and a European coalition which mainly included the Holy Roman Empire (led by the Habsburg monarch ...

in Italy. His deeds were chronicled by Giambattista Vico in ''De rebus gestis Antonj Caraphaei'', first published in 1716 at the commission of Adriano Antonio Carafa (1696–1765).

Biography

References

Further reading