Johann Josef Wenzel Anton Franz Karl, Graf Radetzky von Radetz (2 November 1766 – 5 January 1858) was a Czech nobleman and Austrian field marshal.

He served as chief of the general staff in the Habsburg monarchy during the later period of the Napoleonic Wars and proved instrumental in the allied victory as one of the primary architects of the Trachenberg Plan and the Leipzig Campaign.

[1] Radetzky, a titled Graf ('Count'), was born into a noble Bohemian military family of Czech origin at Chateau Třebnice (German: Trebnitz) near Sedlčany in Bohemia (now part of the town).

The following year he served with Johann Beaulieu against Napoleon in Italy, but disliked the indecisive "cordon" system of warfare which Count von Lacy had instituted and other Austrian generals imitated.

As lieutenant-colonel and colonel, his unit was expanded and he displayed bravery and skill[citation needed] in the battles of Trebbia and Novi (1799),[9] winning praise from his superiors for his inspiring leadership and quick thinking when leading decisive attacks.

At the Battle of Marengo, as colonel on the staff of Melas, he was hit by five bullets, after endeavouring on the previous evening to bring about modifications in the plan suggested by the "scientific" Anton von Zach.

[6] From 1809 to 1812, as chief of the general staff, he was active in reorganizing the army and its tactical system, but, unable to carry out the reforms he desired owing to the opposition of the Treasury, he resigned his position.

He was involved in directing the operations that led to the crushing defeat of an entire French corps at the Battle of Kulm and had a considerable share in planning the Leipzig campaign.

He entered Paris with the allied sovereigns in March 1814, and returned with them to the Congress of Vienna, where he appears to have acted as an intermediary between Metternich and Tsar Alexander I of Russia, when the two were not on speaking terms.

Thus the events of 1848 in Italy, which gave the old field marshal his place in history among the great commanders, found him, in the beginning, not unprepared but seriously handicapped in the struggle with Charles Albert's army, and the insurgents in Milan and elsewhere.

By falling back to the Quadrilatero and there, rebuffing one opponent after another, he was able to buy time until reinforcements arrived, and thenceforward up to the final triumph at the Battle of Novara on 23 March 1849, he and his army carried all before them.

[citation needed] His well-disciplined sense of duty towards officers of higher rank had become more intense in the long years of peace, and, after keeping his army loyal midst the confusion of 1848, he made no attempt to play the part of Wallenstein or even to assume Wellington's role of "family adviser to the nation".

[citation needed] In military history Radetzky is highly regarded as a brilliant field marshal, while some social historians consider his role as a viceroy as the point of no return in the troubled relationship between Austria and the Italian population.