Sigbert Graf Heister ( Kirchberg an der Raab, 1 January 1646 – Kirchberg an der Raab in

Steiermark Styria (german: Steiermark ; Serbo-Croatian and sl, ; hu, Stájerország) is a state (''Bundesland'') in the southeast of Austria. With an area of , Styria is the second largest state of Austria, after Lower Austria. Styria is bordered to ...

, 22 February 1718) was an Imperial

Field marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

. His father was Gottfried Heister (1609–1679), vice president of the Hofkriegsrat. Sigbert fought in 1665 against the Turks, and later against the French. Because of his bravery and insight in combat, he reached the rank of General. He participated in the

Battle of Vienna The Battle of Vienna; pl, odsiecz wiedeńska, lit=Relief of Vienna or ''bitwa pod Wiedniem''; ota, Beç Ḳalʿası Muḥāṣarası, lit=siege of Beç; tr, İkinci Viyana Kuşatması, lit=second siege of Vienna took place at Kahlenberg Mou ...

in 1683 and fought in the following

Great Turkish War The Great Turkish War (german: Großer Türkenkrieg), also called the Wars of the Holy League ( tr, Kutsal İttifak Savaşları), was a series of conflicts between the Ottoman Empire and the Holy League consisting of the Holy Roman Empire, Pola ...

in Transylvania. He became General Major in 1686. In 1689, Heister commanded the entire Infantry under

Louis of Baden Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden (german: links=no, Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden; 8 April 1655 – 4 January 1707) was the ruling Margrave of Baden-Baden in Germany and chief commander of the Imperial army. He was also known as ''Türkenl ...

in the Battles of Batočina and Niš, and in 1693 he led his own army corps against the insurgents in Hungary. In 1697, Heister was one of the commanders under Eugene of Savoy, who defeated the Turks in the Battle of Zenta. In the beginning of the War of Spanish Succession, he was deployed in 1703 in Bayern and Tirol. After the outbreak of Rákóczi's War for Independence in Hungary, and Prince Eugene fighting the French and Bavarians in the West, Heister was put at the head of an improvised army to defend Vienna against Rákóczi's Kurucs. Heister became

Field Marshal Field marshal (or field-marshal, abbreviated as FM) is the most senior military rank, ordinarily senior to the general officer ranks. Usually, it is the highest rank in an army and as such few persons are appointed to it. It is considered as ...

and crushed in May 1704 a Kuruc army under Sándor Károlyi near St. Niclas. He fought many more battles against the insurgents, winning victories at Győr (22 June 1704) and Trnava (26 December 1704) and pushed ruthlessly the fighting back into Hungary. His harshness was not appreciated in Vienna, where the Court still hoped to come to a negotiated peace with Rákóczi. He was replaced by General d´Erbeville and sent to Italy in 1706. In 1708 the situation in Hungary was still not under control, and Heister was reappointed at the head of the army. Here he won the decisive

Battle of Trenčín The Battle of Trenčín or Battle of Trencsén (german: Schlacht bei Trentschin, hu, Trencséni csata, sk, Bitka pri Trenčíne) was a battle between the Hungarian Kuruc forces of Francis II Rákóczi and the Imperial Army of the Habsburgs. ...

, but was again replaced by the more diplomatic Johann Pálffy, who finally negotiated the end of the war in 1711. Heister served one more time in the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 and played an important role in the capture of Belgrad on 22 August 1717, in which his son was killed. The next year, Heister died in his palace in Kirchberg.

Literature

* Gertrude Hopfinger: ''Biographie des Feldmarschalls Heister.'' Dissertation, Wien 1939. {{DEFAULTSORT:Heister, Sigbert 1646 births 1718 deaths 17th-century Austrian people 18th-century Austrian people Field marshals of Austria Rákóczi's War of Independence