François Sébastien Charles Joseph de Croix, Count of Clerfayt (French pronunciation: [fʁɑ̃swa sebastjɛ̃ ʃaʁl ʒozɛf də kʁwa]; 14 October 1733 – 21 July 1798),[1] a Walloon, joined the army of the Habsburg monarchy and soon fought in the Seven Years' War.

[3] In 1792, as one of the most distinguished of the emperor's generals, he received the command of the Austrian contingent in army of the duke of Brunswick, and at La Croix-aux-Bois his corps inflicted a reverse on the troops of the French Revolution.

He opened the campaign of 1793 with the victory of Aldenhoven and the relief of Maastricht, and on 18 March 1793 proved instrumental in causing the complete defeat of Charles Dumouriez at the Battle of Neerwinden.

But the Austrian Foreign Minister Johann Thugut did not approve Clerfayt's action in concluding an armistice with the French, so the field marshal resigned his command and became a member of the Aulic Council in Vienna.

A brave and skillful soldier, Clerfayt perhaps achieved more than any other Austrian commander (except the Archduke Charles of Austria) in the hopeless struggle of small dynastic armies against a French "nation in arms".