In 1799 he was appointed commander of the Austrian forces in Italy and Colonel-Proprietor of the Infantry Regiment N.34, a ceremonial position he held until his death.

In the 1800 campaign, Kray commanded the Austrian force on the Upper Rhine, charged with the defense of all approaches to Vienna through the German states.

On 10 May 1788, he defeated a superior Turkish force of 5,000 men commanded by Osman Pazvantoğlu and Kara Mustapha Pasha on the borders of Transylvania.

He later led the capture of the Krajova fortress; for this, he was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa on 21 December 1789, in May of the following year, Kray was promoted Generalmajor and subsequently ennobled by Emperor Joseph II with the title of Freiherr "von Krajow und Topolya".

[3] Promoted major general in 1790, three years later Kray commanded the advance guard of the Allies under Prince Coburg, operating in Flanders and the Austrian Netherlands.

He distinguished himself at Famars, Menin, Wissembourg, Charleroi, Fleurus, and, indeed, at almost every encounter in the Flanders Campaign with the armies of the French Republic.

While the field army won two more major battles, Kray conducted the successful sieges of Peschiera del Garda and Mantua.

When the Habsburg officer corps shunned him, he was left almost friendless, the memories of his fine service during the Seven Years' War vanished.

Later Archduke Charles would write Kray a flattering letter explaining that the boorish behavior directed toward him stemmed from envy over his previous victories.

Tied to an obsolete system, and unable, from habit, to realize the changed conditions of warfare, he failed, but his enemies held him in the highest respect as a brave, skillful, and chivalrous opponent.

It was he who, at Altenkirchen, cared for the dying Marceau (1796), and the white uniforms of Kray and his staff mingled with the blue of the French in the funeral procession of the young general of the Republic.