He was chief of staff to André Masséna during the Italian campaign, governor of the Basilicata province,[1] aide-de-camp to Joseph Bonaparte, Baron of the First French Empire, Member of Parliament, and Pair de France.
The reigning Prince-Bishop Franz Joseph Sigismund von Roggenbach asked for and received a contingent of Austrian troops to deal with the situation, while his auxiliary bishop Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Gobel secretly supported the revolutionaries.
[8] As a cavalryman of the French Revolutionary Army during the War of the First Coalition campaigns of 1793 and 1794, Strolz served with the 1st Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval, who at that time were garrisoned in Metz.
[17] On 26 December 1795, Strolz was given a regular commission as a lieutenant in the 16th Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval, and having been described by Kléber as a "patriotic, capable and courageous citizen", was recommended for further promotion.
On 1 June 1796, a division of Kléber's troops led by François Joseph Lefebvre seized a bridge over the Sieg from Michael von Kienmayer's Austrians at Siegburg.
Even though momentum was initially on the French side, the Army of Sambre and Meuse was defeated by Archduke Charles at the Battle of Wetzlar on 15 June 1796, and Jourdan lost no time in recrossing to the safety of the west shore of the Rhine at Neuwied.
[30][31] Strolz was transferred to the staff of Jean Victor Marie Moreau,[17][32][30] general commanding the French Army of the Rhine on 16 December 1799, and was promoted to major (chef d’escadron ) on 21 January 1799.
[30] Archduke John ordered his demoralized army to a retreat, where Moreau pursued cautiously until 8 December where, after 15 days, his forces advanced 300 km and captured 20,000 Austrians.
[34] This success was only temporary, in a series of swift French actions at Neumarkt am Wallersee, Frankenmarkt, Schwanenstadt, Vöcklabruck, Lambach and Kremsmünster during the following week, the retreating Austrian army lost cohesion.
When peace was declared, Strolz asked for, and received on 24 August 1801, a transfer as major (chef d’escadron) to the 16th Régiment de Chasseurs à Cheval, the regiment he was nominally a part of since 1798.
[40] Arriving just in time to deliver the news and recover, Strolz fought in the Battle of Austerlitz on 2 December 1805, where he received thirteen lance wounds in a charge but survived.
[44] Having returned from Germany with a renewed reputation for endurance, robustness, and luck,[45] in December 1805, Strolz was appointed adjutant general in the French Army in Italy by Joseph Bonaparte, King of Naples.
The members of those legislative bodies, all good Catholics and all at that time in Murat's hands, eagerly expressed their wish to choose the excommunicated Freemason[59] Joseph Bonaparte as their new king, and sent a delegation of distinguished men to convey this wish to the Emperor.
Interestingly, Joseph Bonaparte, member in good standing of a Masonic lodge and originally a trained lawyer,[64][65][1] brought with him a large number of officers with republican leanings.
Made premier equerry of the royal household of Spain (primer escudero del rey), gazetted 5 December 1809,[68][69] Strolz gained a reputation for leading the Caballerizas reales efficiently, with absolute punctuality and a complete intolerance for intrigues and nepotism.
Marching up the Tagus valley to Talavera de la Reina, c. 120 km southwest of Madrid, they encountered 46,000 French troops, nominally led by the French King of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, but with his military adviser Field Marshal Jean-Baptiste Jourdan effectively exercising command over Field Marshal Claude Victor's I Corps and Major-General Horace Sebastiani's IV Corps.
[80] On 30 August 1809, King Joseph wrote to Napoleon: (...) General Strolz, my aide-de-camp had the good fortune to command the brigade which captured the 23d regiment of English cavalry.
In 1812, having suffered huge losses in Russia, Napoleon withdrew some 20,000 troops from the ongoing Peninsular War to reinforce his position in Central Europe, which left his Iberian forces weakened and vulnerable to Anglo–Spanish–Portuguese attacks.
Strolz remained at Joseph's side as his aide-de-camp and on 1 July 1813, was theoretically reverted to his last French rank i.e. colonel, but was permitted to wear the uniform of a brigadier general.
[91] Departing Paris to fight it out with the Allies, Napoleon left his brother to govern the capital, with the title Regent and Lieutenant General of the Empire, Commandant en Chef de la Garde Nationale.
With the prospects looking bleak, on 13 February 1814, Joseph sent Strolz on a reconnaissance mission along the Loing and Moret canals to gain information for a decision as to whether to send troops to Fontainebleau.
[96] Interestingly, it was only on 21 February 1814 (backdated to 1 July 1813) that Strolz was officially re-appointed aide de camp of Joseph Bonaparte in France, being named brigadier general at that date.
[97][98] Joseph evidently considered Paris as good as lost[99] and sent Strolz to deliver orders to Field Marshals Marmont and Mortier that they should retreat to the Loire, with authorisation to parley with the Allies, namely the Russian Tsar and the Prince Schwarzenberg.
[99] On 20 April 1814,[106] Strolz was present at the abdication of Emperor Napoleon in Fontainebleau; Joseph fled to Switzerland and bought Prangins Castle near Lake Geneva where he moved his wife and family to.
He was called to the throne by Napoleon's senate on condition that he would accept a constitution that entailed recognition of the Republic and the Empire, a bicameral parliament elected every year, and the tri-colour flag of the aforementioned regimes.
The appointment was recommended by Lieutenant General, later Marshal Jacques Lauriston, who had been called to serve as Ministre de la Maison du Roi while holding command in Brest and had nominated Strolz as his successor.
[127] It was there that Strolz was visited in May 1822[128] by Hercule de Serre who had been appointed Ambassador of France to the Kingdom of Naples in January of the same year and who was to be present at the Congress of Verona to negotiate among other issues, the French intervention in Spain that led to the general's reactivation.
[129] Evidently, he returned to France in good grace, because even though he didn't receive a command, he was rated as "à la suite", remained on the full pay list, was advanced to Commandeur de la Légion d' Honneur on 23 May 1825,[38] and was invited to the King's Table on occasion of Charles X and the Dauphin's visit to Nancy on 15 September 1828[130] After the July Revolution of 1830, the new king Louis-Philippe who ruled in an unpretentious fashion, avoiding the pomp and lavish spending of his predecessors, needed reliable men.
[136] He had a keen interest in historic and social topics and was selected a Corresponding Member of the Historic Institute of France, Second Class, for History of Languages and Literature (Membre Correspondant de la 2e Classe - Histoire des Langues et des Littératures of the Institut Historique of France), and on 15 January 1833 was named a Member of the Royal French Society of Universal Statistics (Socièté Francaise de Statistique Universelle-Le Roi Protecteur).
Being less pretentious and vain than many of his contemporaries, he never made a show of his past deeds, resulting being forgotten on the widely published first list of names of generals for the Arc de Triomphe.