Count Ignác Gyulay de Marosnémeti et Nádaska, Ignácz Gyulay, Ignaz Gyulai (11 September 1763 – 11 November 1831) was a Hungarian military officer, joined the army of the Habsburg monarchy, fought against Ottoman Turkey, and became a general officer during the French Revolutionary Wars.
During the Napoleonic Wars, Gyulay fought in the 1805 campaign against the First French Empire and later served his emperor as a negotiator in the peace talks.
Born in Nagyszeben (Hermannstadt) in the region of Transylvania in modern-day Sibiu, Romania on 11 September 1763, Gyulay was the oldest son of the Austrian Feldmarschallleutnant Count Sámuel Gyulay de Maros-Németh und Nádaska (1723–1802) and his wife, Baroness Anna Bornemisza de Kászon et Impérfalva (1734–1814).
In 1796, he served under Michael von Fröhlich in Maximilian Baillet de Latour's Army of the Upper Rhine.
After the Battle of Ettlingen, Gyulay led Fröhlich's rearguard, earning praise from his superior as a skillful commander of outposts.
These successes led to Gyulay being awarded the Commander's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa and promoted to Feldmarschallleutnant on 29 October.
[3] When the truce ended that fall, Gyulay found himself leading a division in Johann Riesch's corps, which was part of Archduke John's main army.
Instead of attacking with crushing strength, Riesch erred by breaking up his two divisions into five small task forces while retaining three battalions and 17 squadrons in reserve.
[7] Gyulay fought well, but he had too few troops under his orders to influence the outcome of the battle, which ended in a decisive French victory.
[3] In 1805, Gyulay fought in the Ulm Campaign, commanding the Danube army's grenadier reserve in Franz von Werneck's corps.
Ordered to rebuild a bridge across the Danube, he did so but was surprised when a French infantry regiment suddenly appeared and seized the span.
[9] On 4 November, Gyulai served on a council of war convened by Emperor Francis II to determine how to save Vienna.
[10] On 25 November, Gyulay accompanied Johann Philipp Stadion, Count von Warthausen on a mission to negotiate a treaty with Emperor Napoleon I of France.
A frustrated Napoleon wrote to Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord that Gyulay, "talked to me of the Teutonic Order, of the Diet in Ratisbonne, and I don't know what else".
[11] After the disaster at the Battle of Austerlitz, at which Gyulay was not present, he and Johann I Josef, Prince of Liechtenstein negotiated the Peace of Pressburg with the First French Empire.
[3] At the outset of the War of the Fifth Coalition, Gyulay led the IX Armeekorps in Archduke John's army in Italy.
During the fighting, the surprise intervention of the IX Armeekorps on the right flank was important in securing the Austrian victory over the Franco-Italian army of Eugène de Beauharnais.
[19] Before the battle, Gyulay's corps reached a position to the west of Napoleon's Grand Army, potentially cutting off the retreat of the French and their allies.
On the 16th, he attacked the suburb of Lindenau and had success at first, forcing Marshal Michel Ney to divert Henri Gatien Bertrand's IV Corps to hold the position.
He participated in the Battle of Paris when the Allied armies captured the French capital, compelling Napoleon to abdicate in the Treaty of Fontainebleau on 11 April.