Le Comte de Mercy: Godfather of the Danube Swabians

Le Comte de Mercy: Godfather of the Danube Swabians There are numerous historical personalities who played a major role in the genesis of the people who would later become known as the Danube Swabians. The three Habsburg rulers, Emperor Charles VI, Empress Maria Theresia and Emperor Joseph II have given their names and made their imprint on the three major phases of the Great Swabian Migration, the so-­called Schwabenzug that took place in the Eighteenth Century. Their Imperial imprimatur is solidly stamped upon the development of the communities that were established by the settlers who responded to their invitation to make a new home for themselves and their descendants in the recently Maria Theresia liberated totally devastated and nearly depopulated Kingdom of Hungary. But just as importantly alongside the Habsburg rulers there were numerous military commanders and heroes of the wars against the Turks who also played an important role after the Turks met their 911 in 1683 when Kara Mustapha and his vast Turkish host were routed and decimated in the fabled Vienna Woods on that memorable September day. The once battered beleaguered frontier fortress town of Vienna after having withstood several months' siege witnessed the chaotic flight of the Turkish army which would result in their full retreat across Hungary paving the way for its eventual liberation and reclamation. At the head of the Imperial forces in the continuing wars against the Turks were famed military commanders including Charles the Duke of Lorraine, Louis the Margrave of Baden, Maximilian Emanuel the Elector of Bavaria, Jan Sobieski III the Lithuanian King of Poland and the stalwart Austrian Commander, Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg the defender of Vienna with 20,000 troops under his command facing the 300,000 Turks. He was left Ludwig Wilhelm,
Charles, Duke of
Margrave of
in charge after the near hysterical Habsburg Lorraine Baden Emperor Leopold I and his entire Royal entourage fled for their lives from the city. But none of them matched the military accomplishments or reached the stature or fame of Prince Eugene of Savoy who became a living legend in his own time. Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter. He was portrayed as the Jan Sobieski III of Habsburg's "Great White Knight" due to his Poland heroic exploits in vanquishing the Turks at the Ernst Rüdiger von
gates of Belgrade, harrying them to the Starhemberg
battlements of Peterwardein and surrendering to him without a fight at Temesvár. In the folklore of the times and in the future the fact that he was French born and of Italian origin was either ignored or forgotten so that during the Second World War his name was given to the SS Volunteer Mountain Schwabenzug Division Prinz Eugen made up of men from the Danube Swabian communities in the Yugoslavian Banat who would be engaged in the Partisan War under that banner. This young French officer, was born in Paris and grew up in the Court of Louis XIV, the so-­called "Sun King" of France. Eugene's Italian mother was one of a string of mistresses of the King and Eugene's own paternity was held suspect in Court circles. Because of his poor physique and bearing he was destined for a career in the church but at the age of nineteen he was determined to seek a military career but was rejected by King Louis as unsuited for service in the French Army. He in response left for Austria to serve Louis XIV's archenemies, the Habsburgs. That in itself indicates something of the state of affairs of the relationship between the two men. While serving the Habsburgs, Prince Eugene would be surrounded by a circle of young French-­speaking officers who were all united in their loyalty to the House of Habsburg and their antipathy for Louis XIV of France for various personal reasons and in most cases they were of a family nature. What we must remember is that serving the House of Habsburg was a matter of loyalty to a dynasty, not a nation. Their commitment was neither to Austria or Hungary but to the Emperor. This is precisely the way that the Habsburg saw it too. They were not nationalists. In fact, in the future, the Habsburgs would see that nationalism was their ultimate enemy. That is next to Louis XIV of France at the moment. Following the uncontested liberation of the fortress of Temesvár in August of 1716 Prince Eugene of Savoy returned to Vienna to gain support for his plan to take Belgrade which was on the direct invasion route into Hungary. Before he left he entrusted the administration of the city and fortress of Temesvár and the surrounding area, the Banat, in the hands of one of his most competent officers and closest friends, le Comte de Mercy of Lorraine, who would one day attain the rank of General Field Marshall in the Royal Imperial Army. But at this point in his career de Mercy became the Military Governor of the Banat which had been declared a Crown Land. Le Comte Claudius Florimund de Mercy was born in Longwy in Lorraine in 1666. He came from a family of warrior lords who were prominent in the Thirty Years War but little if anything is known of their actual involvements. His grandfather, Baron Francoise de Mercy, served as a Bavarian general who drove the French out of Bavaria and Baden but later died in battle at Alerheim in 1645 once again facing a French Army. His son Pierre followed in his father's footsteps in a military career and in his family's hostility towards the French throne and was ennobled receiving the title of le Comte that he passed on to his heirs. He Claudius Florimund de
became an officer in the Habsburg Royal Imperial Army Mercy and fell at the Battle of Budapest in 1686. When his son Claudius had become sixteen years of age he had secured a place for him in the military. Young Claudius rose in the ranks along with other young French-­speaking officers and became a close friend of Prince Eugene of Savoy. Like him, Claudius lacked the kind of physical bearing associated with the military and was blind in one eye and short sighted in the other. He received his commission as an officer for his role in the Battle for Vienna in 1683 at the age of seventeen! Seven years of campaigning against the Turks in Hungary followed and he rose to the rank of Commander of Cavalry. He served in the Italian campaigns during the War of the Spanish Succession over a period of five years after which he was called back to Hungary by Prince Eugene of Savoy to serve as one of his officers and advisers in a new campaign against the Ottoman Turks. He participated in the remarkable victory at Zenta in present day Serbia on September 11, 1697 under the leadership of Prince Eugene of Savoy, where de Mercy demonstrated his talents as a warrior, strategist, leader of men and a keen administrator. The battle was fought on the east side of the Tisa River where the smaller Austrian forces ambushed the much larger Turkish army as they attempted to cross the river. The Turks suffered 30,000 casualties while the Imperial forces lost slightly more than four hundred men. The Battle of Zenta proved to be one of the most decisive defeats the Ottoman Turks ever suffered resulting in their loss of control of the Banat. Le Comte de Mercy was once again promoted and reassigned to serve in Italy in the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession and still later served in the Rhine campaign where he was recognized for his success as an intrepid leader of raids and forays against the French. He distinguished himself as a commander during these ten years and his fiery courage would become legendary in military circles. Then once again Prince Eugene sought his services and de Mercy's leadership of the forces assigned to him would become more than conspicuous at the Battle of Peterwardein in 1716. During the crucial Battle of Belgrade in 1717 he led the cavalry in a brilliant and decisive charge which drove the Turks into their trenches which eventually led to their wholesale retreat resulting in the capture of the city. This followed the capitulation of the fortress of Temesvár and later his subsequent appointment as Military Governor of the Banat when the course of his life and career changed. He was now about to become the Godfather of the Danube Swabians. The scene for this was set at the meeting of the Hungarian Estates at the Landtag (a kind of parliament) held in Pressburg, present-­day Bratislava, in 1722/1723. The assembly passed a series of Statutory Articles to promote trade and industry and above all sought to repopulate the Kingdom of Hungary with colonists from the Holy Roman Empire. Article 103 of the Landtag of 1723 can be looked upon as the basic constitutional law that formed the basis for the Danube Swabian colonization operations which followed. The Emperor Charles VI was called upon to undertake the resettlement of his Hungarian Kingdom with the assumption that it would be done with settlers from his Austrian hereditary lands and his extensive far flung Empire, the patch work quilt of principalities, duchies, bishoprics, free cities, states and fiefdoms that made up the Holy Roman Empire focusing primarily on the area of what is now south western Germany. He wrote to the various German princes requesting their full cooperation and support and established the Neoacquistica Commissio (Newly Acquired Territories Commission) to carry Charles VI
out the colonization programme with le Comte de Mercy carrying out the major responsibilities as it pertained to the Banat which had been declared a Crown Land. This the first and earliest stage of the Danube Swabian colonization effort proved to be overwhelmingly focussed on the private estates and domains of the nobles in Hungary and was carried out in a rather random if not chaotic fashion while the settlement of the Banat would become secondary due to several mitigating factors which we will explore but primarily as the result of the ongoing threats of Turkish incursions. In many ways this phase of colonization would resemble a land rush down the Danube in contrast to the next major colonization efforts which were State sponsored, subsidized, supervised and organized by Maria Theresia and Joseph II. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 persons were settled in this first phase of the colonization effort. Unlike the settlers who would follow in the next two phases of the colonization the prospective settler in this first phase had to a have a personal "stake" of at least Joseph II
200 Gulden in order to emigrate and assume some of the transportation costs. Le Comte de Mercy's administrative skills would come to the fore as he undertook the task to re-­populate the Banat. His foresight and planning were exemplary both in terms of the recruitment of would-­be settlers and the initial canalizing of vast areas of swampland in the Banat, developing communications systems and a postal service over a vast territory, and constructing roads, building bridges and digging canals. As a precaution he rebuilt the fortifications of Temesvár in the face of the continued presence of the Turks in the area. Between 1723 and 1725 the first land survey of the Banat was conducted under his initiative preparing the way for the coming of the settlers and the establishment of new communities and preparing for the arrival, support and housing of the settler families. The canalization made vast stretches of land arable once more and the drainage of the swamps cut back the dangers and threat of disease and epidemics. But the first step to be addressed was the recruitment of German settlers which Le Comte de Mercy undertook in 1722. For that purpose, a recruitment office was established in Worms under the supervision of Johann Franz Krauss an appointee of the Emperor. Handbills were distributed and offers were made to lure land hungry would-­be colonists to emigrate down the Danube to the Banat. At Worms his agents interviewed emigrants and arranged for their transportation, provided information and above all told the emigrants of the "wonders" of the Banat. Of course they would also emphasize the generous terms that the Imperial Government offered to those who would settle on Crown Land. In addition to writing to the princes and other nobles for their support and assistance in providing settlers, Charles VI also wrote to the leading Roman Catholic prelates in the cities of Würzburg, Fulda, Mainz, Speyer and Trier to encourage any would-­be settlers to leave for Hungary and settle in the Banat. For Charles VI was determined to build a "bulwark of Christendom" in the Banat with Roman Catholic settlers to ward off the ongoing threat of the Turks. This aspect of the Schwabenzug is repeatedly emphasized by many noted Danube Swabian historians. What is either not so well known or often not acknowledged in their histories is the fact that the Emperor also wrote to the Lutheran and Reformed princes and church officials in Hessen-­Darmstadt and Hessen-­Kassel requesting their support for those of their subjects who desired to leave for Hungary promising them the freedom to practice their faith by a Royal Patent that he was prepared to personally issue to them. Recruitment agents spread across south western Germany publicizing the benefits of emigrating to the Banat. They were often veterans who had served in the Turkish wars who spoke first hand of the fertile land just waiting to be ploughed. The agents targeted the Rhineland, Hessen and Franconia as well as Lorraine, the homeland of le Comte de Mercy, a region which would play a much greater role in terms of providing settlers for the Banat during the Theresian settlement which would follow decades later. In addition there were also agents of private landlords and Hungarian nobles who sought to recruit settlers for their devastated and undeveloped estates. They were often in open competition with one another and with the Imperial agents not only in south western Germany but also in Hungary itself. Some rather large groups of settlers bound for the Banat were lured off the ships by agents of the nobles at the river ports along the Danube at Harta, Dunafӧldvár, Paks or Tolna making promises that went far beyond what had attracted the settlers to Hungary in the first place. Promises by and large that were never kept. What often began as large convoys of ships and barges heading down the Danube for the Banat from Ulm and Regensburg often ended up as either half-­
filled or nearly empty vessels on their arrival in Temesvár. In some cases the convoys never arrived. Despite these setbacks and the resulting limitations there were numerous settlements that were established in the Banat under le Comte de Mercy's initiative and supervision. The major ones were at Werschetz, Weisskirchen and Pantschowa along with numerous satellite villages in their vicinity one of which was named Mercydorf in his honour. He travelled extensively throughout the Banat and was in touch with the various situations and difficulties that the settlers faced. He developed close relationships with his local officials who were carrying out the work of settlement as well as with the colonists themselves to whom he became a paternal figure much loved and respected in his own time and later by future generations. He promoted the mining industry in the Bergland, recruiting miners from Alpine Austria primarily from the Tirol and the Steirmark and introduced mulberry trees to establish silk as a secondary and cash crop for the settlers as well as promoting the cultivation of rice. He set the foundations for what would become the future granary of Europe. But all of this was only one aspect of his colonizing efforts and his God-­fatherly role in the life and future of the Danube Swabians. On April 24, 1722 le Comte de Mercy purchased the Zinzendorf Domain of Hӧgyész in Hungary at the cost of 15,000 Gulden. It consisted of a handful of scattered newly settled villages and massive thick forests and undeveloped prairies that covered vast tracts of land with deep valleys and steep hills which pass through western Tolna County making him the largest private landowner in the entire County. Later in 1723 he received the title of Indigenat for his military services in the wars against the Turks and was given all of the rights and privileges of a Hungarian noble with the full approval Emperor Charles VI. He now set out to develop his own private estate by recruiting settlers and found himself caught up in a conflict of interests. He was now wearing two hats. He needed colonists for the Banat as well as for his own undeveloped estate and those who were most readily available were those heading for the Banat. His future recruiting activities among them would earn le Comte de Mercy the title of "systematic settler stealer" by one disgruntled Hungarian historian of the period and raised the ire of Viennese Court officials and eventually his activities in this regard came to the attention of the Emperor Charles VI himself. De Mercy secured his settlers from the convoys heading for the Banat. For that purpose he stationed his personal adjutant, Captain Tobias Vátzy, in Vienna where he contacted colonists who were on the ships bound for the Banat and counselled or persuaded many of them to settle on the Tolna estate of le Comte de Mercy instead. As a result of his activities large numbers of settlers passing through Vienna disembarked from the ships along their way down the Danube when passing by Tolna County and joined the waiting wagon trains that took them into the interior and settled on the lands of the Count's estate. This aroused great hostility among Viennese officials who pointed out that the settlers in question had been recruited at the expense of the Imperial government. Their animosity towards the young Capitan's activities only grew worse when they stumbled on to the fact that he went out of his way to discover if there were Lutherans in the convoys heading for the Banat for the purpose of recruiting them for settlement on the Count's Tolna estate. In fact, it appeared that he showed a preference for Lutherans. Although the stated official policy of the Emperor prohibited the settlement of Protestants in the Banat several hundred families had already arrived and settled there and were also being encouraged to leave and come to le Comte de Mercy's estate in Hungary. Some of these Lutherans bound for the Banat brought their own pastors and teachers with them and one such group left the ships at Paks-­on-­the Danube and were picked up by a wagon train and settled on the prairie which in future would become the village of Kistormás. The group also carried a Royal Patent with them ensuring them of the freedom to practice their faith unhindered on their arrival in Hungary. When it came to settlers, it was simply a matter of supply and demand. The nobles in particular paid no attention to such niceties as religion when it became a matter of their economic interests and welcomed both Lutherans and Reformed (Calvinists) to sign contracts with them and settled them on their undeveloped estates. From 1721 to 1724 there was a massive immigration into Tolna County as more and more Protestants took up land on le Comte de Mercy's estate along with those of his neighbours. Six hundred Lutheran families from Hesse arrived in Tolna in that time frame and settled primarily on Comte de Mercy's estate founding over twenty villages. This led to protests by both civil and religious authorities that were eventually came to the attention of the Emperor. The Count received an order to appear in Vienna for an audience before Charles VI and his Royal Court to answer charges made against him. The Emperor reprimanded him for his manipulation of the Banat-­bound settlers by enticing them to settle on his estate and setting a bad example to the Hungarian landlords and nobles. He also charged him with deliberately disobeying his directive and official policy of excluding Protestants from settling in Hungary including the Banat while knowing full well that he had granted many Royal Patents for them to do so. Le Comte de Mercy was not in the least ruffled by this royal reproof nor did he take it seriously nor allow it to effect his ongoing settlement project on his estate in Tolna County. He knew full well the Emperor was only providing window dressing and was relieved that the Protestant settlers were not going on to the Banat where he sought to build a Roman Catholic bulwark of Christendom against the Turks and would therefore not have to deal with the problem had they arrived and settled there. Unlike the other private estate owners and nobles in Hungary, le Comte de Mercy's settlement policies differed from theirs in several aspects. He did not require Robot (forced work levies) of his tenants and subjects which often led to discontent, uprisings and strife on other estates. He strictly enforced the right of his tenants to migrate as free peasants and sell their holdings and property when they left if they desired to do so. It was a right that was denied to all Hungarian peasants and the nobles attempted to impose that upon the German settlers on their estates who had been promised otherwise in their settlement contracts. While the others gave lip service to their guarantee with regard to religious freedom, only le Comte de Mercy lived up to it. In his settlement agreement and contract with the Hessian Lutherans in Kismányok, Point Three stipulates: "You may worship according to your conscience and freely exercise your religion as much as it is possible under the protection of your landlord." That meant that at times le Comte de Mercy would have to use all of his prestige and authority to protect their religious rights in the face of pressure from both the religious authorities and County officials. The most unique feature of his settlement policy was the proviso that only settlers from the same region, who spoke the same language and shared the same faith would be settled in one community. As a result on his estate in Tolna County there were German Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed settlements and Hungarian Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed villages. In addition there were also several Slovak Roman Catholic and Lutheran communities. It was a matter of separate development. This was the Count's strategy to avoid conflict between nationalities and confessions. He appears to have had a deep understanding of his tenants' situation and had a deep appreciation for their traditions and values as well as the issues and problems that beset them in the settlement phase. In the years when there was famine and a poor harvest the Count would not only provide grain to his own tenants but also those of other landlords. He had the foresight to build silos to store grain for the years when crops failed. He built mills to grind the grain, delivered lumber to his tenants to build their first houses, dug canals, built Bethauser and churches and provided work and wages for the landless and tradesmen. He was very much an enigma to his Magyar contemporaries. The nobles could not comprehend or fathom his approach to settlement or his relationship with his "peasants" who in their eyes were simply brute beasts of burden. During his thirteen years of activity as a colonizer in Tolna County he established twenty-­
three communities with over one thousand five hundred family homesteads and over seven hundred smaller cottage plots for tradesmen and artisans. His tenants honoured him as their "father" and held him in great respect in succeeding generations and his heirs who followed him were very much in the same mould and tradition and were the most powerful and wealthiest landowners in Tolna County and like the Count were revered by their tenants for their support during the very difficult times that they passed through. But there is still another fascinating aspect to le Comte de Mercy's role in the life of the emerging Danube Swabians in the Banat that has taken a long time in coming to light. Johann Karl Reichard served as the pastor of the Lutheran parish of Ober-­
Ramstadt in the Odenwald region when emigration fever first hit Hessen-­
Darmstadt. Some time in 1716 agents of the Emperor flooded the village with Hessen Darmstadt / Hessen Kassel handbills with a promise of free passage to the Banat, which was in some remote corner of Hungary. There was land for the taking and freedom from paying taxes. There were all kinds of new opportunities for the young and adventurous. And the promise of a Royal Patent to guarantee the freedom to practice their faith in the new land. The entire Odenwald was in an uproar and the pastor found it hard to know how to counsel his people as was also the case for most people who were in authority. The first emigrants from there left in the Spring of 1718 and over the next few years some five hundred families from the Odenwald settled in the faraway, unheard of Banat. They boarded ships and barges of all kinds at Marxheim, the port of Donauwirth and began the long journey down the Danube River. Eventually they arrived at Neu Palanka just south of Weisskirchen. But as always, unknown to their families back home, some of them had jumped ship while passing through Hungary and settled on the private estates of Hungarian nobles and landlords. The vast majority, however, settled in the Banat. The first settlement they established was at Langenfeld just shortly after the Turks had been expelled from the area. By 1719 a sister settlement was founded in Petrilowa. They formed twin Lutheran congregations with their own Levite Lehrer named Bay who would serve the steady stream of Hessians who continued to arrive establishing communities at Orawitza, Russowa, Haversdorf and Saalhausen. Some of the new arriving settler groups were accompanied by Levite Lehrers as well and soon regular worship services were held and congregations were organized in all of the communities. On being made aware of the situation the Jesuits in Neu Palanka had the Imperial Administration in Temesvár place the Lutherans under their "spiritual care" and assumed all priestly functions of baptism, marriage and burial that the Lutherans ignored in terms of practice. Ober Ramstadt The Church Chronicle in Ober-­Ramstadt reports that thirty-­eight families numbering eighty-­two persons left for Hungary in October of 1723. Other families followed later and they all settled in Langenfeld in what the pastor referred to as the Military Frontier District of the Banat which indicates how tenuous the situation was in terms of the continuing threats of Turkish raids in the area. These colonists from Ober-­Ramstadt became part of the fledgling congregation in Langenfeld which issued an official call to Johann Karl Reichard the son of their former pastor to come and serve them. There are now some gaps in the story. Or perhaps it would be better to say some silences. Despite the pressures exerted by the Jesuits it appears that not only did the Lutheran congregations continue to exist but they also "officially" called a pastor. There were always legal ramifications involved in such a process that required governmental and administrative approval. Inadvertently we discover that such approval was given to these "Illegal" congregations. The permission to proceed was given by none other than le Comte de Mercy, the Governor of the Banat. The next part of the story is preserved for us in the Church Chronicle in Ober-­
Ramstadt in this entry written by Pastor Johann Karl Reichard: "In the Spring of 1724, the eldest son of the present resident pastor, Johann Karl Reichard, who after prayerful consideration before the Lord, has accepted a call to serve as pastor among the Evangelical Lutherans in the market town of Langenfeld in the Banat. At the congregation's expense he undertook the six weeks long journey and has arrived there safely. He has received the validation of his call as their pastor from the Imperial Administration of Langenfeld and now also serves the filial congregation in Petrilowa and the newly formed congregation made up of Austrian construction workers and miners and their families in the Bergland into whose pastoral care they were now all placed. Langenfeld is located in the Banat of Temesvár, twelve miles from Belgrade and four miles from Temesvár. As he labours in God's name and upholds and comforts poor souls, I have placed my trust in God that He will protect, defend and preserve him as long as he is engaged in this ministry to which his father heartily commends his son." In his memoirs which were later published in Germany, his son Johann Karl Reichard indicates that he travelled alone on his journey to the Banat. His first destination was beyond Vienna, the Royal Free City of Pressburg on the Danube, modern day Bratislava. There he was met by a pre-­
arranged contact at the Red Ox Inn. He was taken Hungarian Landtag Pressburg by night to Myjawa. There on May 1, 1724 he was ordained into the ministry of the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession in Hungary by Superintendent Daniel Krmann. This Slovak "bishop" was all of what remained of the leadership of the Lutheran church organization that had now gone underground along with its congregations and pastors. No explanation is offered for why his ordination did not take place prior to leaving for the Banat. It appears that it was simply a well known fact in Lutheran circles that all of Hungary was under the jurisdiction of the sole surviving "bishop" to whom all pastors and congregations were responsible. Throughout his memoir we discover that the young pastor was always in touch with some kind of underground network. He always knew where to go and whom to see. He travelled in disguise. This was probably done at the suggestion of Bishop Krmann or one of his contacts as he made his way into Hungary. A simple government clerk would not be questioned. Their official garb would identify them as such. He would easily pass the scrutiny of the Hungarian customs officials and Imperial authorities as he made his way down the Danube to Temesvár the next station on the Lutheran Underground Railway into the Banat. On his arrival in Temesvár some time in June the first thing he did was make his next contact. He was then soon ushered into the presence of le Comte de Mercy. He received his Instuktionen personally from Le Comte to prepare him for the situation into which he was heading in light of the control the Jesuits held in religious affairs and was then sent on his way with an escort. On June 24th, 1724 on St. John's Day over six hundred Lutheran colonists from around the area gathered in the Turkish cemetery on the outskirts of Langenfeld to participate in an open air service. The opening hymn was "O Gott, du frommer Gott" sung to the tune Darmstadt which was familiar to all of the Hessians. Their twenty-­three year old pastor preached on a text from the prophet Jeremiah: "I answered, Sovereign Lord, I don't know how to speak;; I am too young." But the Lord said to me, "Do not say that you are too young, but go to the people I send you to, and tell them everything I command you to say. Do not be afraid of them, for I will be with you to protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken." Following the sermon infants and little children were baptized and then the celebration of holy communion began. For this occasion, Johann Karl had brought a chalice with him, a gift from the parish of Ober-­Ramstadt the home parish of many of the settlers in Langenfeld. That is how his ministry began. It would soon end. The threat of the emergence and spread of Lutheran Church life in the Banat was not something to be tolerated by the Jesuits in the neighbourhood. They immediately lodged an official complaint against the presence of a Lutheran preacher in their territory. It would take them nine months before they would succeed in having him removed. Their numerous complaints to Governor de Mercy were without any results. In turn they turned over the matter to one of the Jesuits at their headquarters in Temesvár. He used his own personal influence with the confessor of young Princess Maria Theresia in Vienna resulting in receiving Imperial authority to have the young Lutheran pastor expelled. Not even le Comte de Mercy could stand in the way of such a decree. Pastor Reichard was declared a fugitive and an outlaw and was forced to flee. A despatch rider from Temesvár sent by le Comte de Mercy warned him to do so. Johann Karl Reichard had entered the Banat in the disguise of as clerk. In the Spring of 1725 under the cover of darkness after a tearful farewell he fled to Belgrade dressed in a military uniform that the Comte had sent with the messenger. He wore the Ruba Veste Indutus, the red uniform of an adjutant of the Governor. From Belgrade he travelled through what in future would be known as the Batschka by the later arriving Danube Swabians. Once again he was in constant contact with a network of underground connections all of which had been orchestrated by le Comte de Mercy eventually taking him to the Governor's Tolna estate in Hungary where he was eagerly awaited by the congregations in Varsád and Kalaznó where he would serve as their pastor from 1725 to 1731 before returning home to Hesse and later writing his memoir. With his expulsion from the Banat attempts were made by the congregations to maintain church life as best as they could under the leadership of their Levite Lehrers but they too were expelled within a year and all contact was lost with the congregations in the future. On February 5, 1727 the Imperial Administration in Temesvár issued a decree to punish all heretics who entered the Banat which appears to have written a final chapter to Lutheran church life in the Banat. In 1737 to 1739 the entire area where the Lutherans had been settled was entirely devastated by the Turks and the population fled north or were massacred or enslaved. The Lutheran Church Records in Varsád on the de Mercy estate in Tolna County offer an additional glimpse into the activities of le Comte de Mercy. Several months after the arrival of Pastor Reichard in Varsád over eighty persons from the Lutheran settlements in the Banat who had fled from there with the assistance of le Comte de Mercy arrived and settled in both Varsád and Kalaznó. Some of them have managed to find a place in the family Tolna County histories of numerous families in Swabian Turkey including my own. So in response to the question raised to me Varsád at last year's event as to why I had attended since I had no connection to the Banat I submit that my Banat connection is perhaps older than that of many of you here today, with my heartfelt thanks to le Comte de Mercy, Godfather par excellence! A Postscript In 1733 the military beckoned him once more. He was made a General Field Marshall and placed at the head of 50,000 men stationed in Mantua in Italy. He was tasked with reclaiming all that had been lost in the previous year when the Habsburg forces had been driven out of Italy by a combined Spanish and French Army. Le Comte de Mercy was killed in action on June 29th at the Battle of Parma while personally leading his troops. He had never married and adopted his nephew who was also his Godson, Florimund de Mercy d'Argenteau as he his heir. The younger de Mercy served as a military aid to his uncle at Temesvár. At his Battle of Parma uncle's request he left his position in 1726 and took over the management of the family holdings in Tolna County and eventually became known as the "King of Tolna County." His major task was to continue the work of settlement and colonization. He did so with a deep understanding of his tenants, and a rare sensitivity towards the issues and problems they faced and won their hearts and affections as had his predecessor in whose footsteps he followed.