Count Heinrich von Bellegarde, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia (German: Heinrich Joseph Johannes, Graf von Bellegarde[Note 1] or sometimes Heinrich von Bellegarde; 29 August 1756 – 22 July 1845), of a noble Savoyard family, was born in Saxony, joined the Saxon army and later entered Habsburg military service, where he became a general officer serving in the Habsburg border wars, the French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars.

Transferring his services to Austria in 1771, Bellegarde and distinguished himself leading the dragoon regiment Zweibrück in the War of the Bavarian Succession.

[1] At Batajnica (in German sources called Bexania), a village on the outskirts of Belgrade, at 09:00 on 9 September 1788, Bellegarde engaged in his first feat of arms (the War of Bavarian Succession had no battles): with four squadron of his regiment, he led an attack against the Ottomans entrenched in a line between Batajnica and Semlin; and in the enthusiasm of the attack brought with him a squadron of the Division Zeschwitz Cuirassiers, the Joseph Toscana Dragoons, part of a division of Zelschwit cuirassiers and a squadron of Wurmser Hussars, securing control of a dam and earthenworks on a Danube tributary.

[5] After being appointed a General-Major in at the end of 1792, he fought in the War of the First Coalition in the Netherlands campaigns of 1793–1794, attached to the command of Feldzeugmeister Prince Hohenlohe, in the main headquarters of Trier.

He commanded a defensive line between the Mosel and the Saar rivers, in the Eifel and at the border of the Liège; on his right stood Feldmarshal Lieutenant Beaulieu, and on his left, the Prussian general Kohler.

On 17 August 1793, he was in the nearby forest with his command, and led a bayonette charge against 6,000 French positioned in the trees, chased them out, and occupied the wood.

[8] In 1799, Bellegarde commanded a corps in eastern Switzerland, connecting the armies of Archduke Charles and Aleksandr Suvorov, and finally joined the latter in north Italy.

In 1805, when Archduke Charles left to take command in Italy, Bellegarde became president ad interim of the council of war.

His successes in these campaigns were diplomatic as well as military, and he ended them by crushing the last attempt of Joachim Murat to regain the Kingdom of Naples in 1815.