Peter Lacy

Count Peter von Lacy, or Pyotr Petrovich Lacy ( _ru. Пётр Петрович Ласси), as he was known in Russia (1678–1751), was one of the most successful Russian imperial commanders before Rumyantsev and Suvorov. During a military career that spanned half a century, he professed to have been present at a total of 31 campaigns, 18 battles, and 18 sieges.

Early career in Western Europe

Peter Lacy was born on 26 September, 1678 in Killeady near Limerick into a noble Irish family of Norman origin, originally hailing from Lassy, Calvados. At the age of 13, during the Williamite war in Ireland he was attached to the Jacobite defence of Limerick against the Williamites with the rank of lieutenant. The Flight of the Wild Geese followed, with Peter, his father and brother joining the Irish Brigade in France. After his relatives lost their lives fighting for Louis XIV in Italy, Peter was induced to seek his fortune elsewhere. After two years of service in the Austrian army, Lacy followed his commander, Charles Eugène de Croy, into the Russian service.

Service under Peter the Great

His first taste of land battle in Russia was the disastrous defeat at Narva, in which Lacy commanded a unit of musketeers, holding the rank of poruchik. During the Great Northern War he was seriously wounded on two occasions, gaining the rank of colonel in 1706. The following year he led a brigade at Poltava, in which battle he greatly distinguished himself. From this point began his fame as a soldier. His next active service, still under Prince Repnin, was the siege of Riga. Lacy was reputedly the first Russian officer to enter the capital of Livland and he was appointed the first Russian chatelain of the Riga Castle in the aftermath.

In 1719 Apraksin's fleet landed Lacy with 5,000 infantry and 370 cavalry near Umeå in Sweden, where they proceeded to devastate a dozen iron founderies and a number of mills. Soon promoted general, he entered the Military Collegium — as the Russian Ministry of Defense was then known — in 1723. Three years later, Lacy succeeded Repnin in command of the Russian forces quartered in Livland, and in 1729 he was appointed Governor of Riga. These positions brought him in contact with the Duchess of Courland, who before long ascended the Russian throne as Empress Anna. During her reign, Lacy's capacity for supreme command would never be doubted.

Service under Empress Anna

The War of the Polish Succession again called him into the field. In 1733, Lacy and Munnich expelled the Polish king, Stanisław Leszczyński, from Warsaw to Danzig, which was besieged by them in 1734. Thereupon the Irishman was commanded to march towards the Rhine and join his 13,500-strong contingent with the forces of Eugene of Savoy. To that end his corps advanced into Germany and, meeting the Austrians on 16 August, returned to winter quarters in Moravia with exemplary discipline.

Lacy had reached the rank of Field Marshal with the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War, in which his success exceeded even the most unreasonable expectations. In 1736 he was in charge of the Don Army which took the key citadel of Azov, and in the next year his corps crossed the Syvash marshes into Crimea, where he fell upon the 15,000-strong Crimean army and routed them in two battles, on June 12 and June 14. In 1738, Lacy's corps again landed in Crimea and took the fortress of Çufut Qale near the Khan's capital, Bakhchisaray.

As soon as peace had been restored, Lacy was reinstated as the Governor of Livland, while Emperor Charles VI conferred on him the title of imperial count. His indifference to politics prevented his downfall following Anna's death, when other foreign commanders fell into disgrace and were expelled from active service.

Service under Empress Elizabeth

When the Russo-Swedish War broke out in 1741, the government of Anna Leopoldovna appointed him Commander-in-Chief as the most experienced among Russian generals. Lacy quickly struck against Finland and won his last brilliant victory at Vilmanstrand (August 1741). The following year he rallied his forces and proceeded to capture Frederikshamn, Porvoo and Hämeenlinna, by August encircling more than 17,000 Swedes near Helsingfors and effectively bringing the hostilities to an end.

The war over, Lacy withdrew to Riga and resumed the command of the Russian forces stationed in Livland. He administered what is now Northern Latvia and Southern Estonia until his death on 19 April, 1751 in Riga. His son Franz Moritz von Lacy had entered the Austrian service in 1743 and became one of the most successful imperial commanders of the 18th century.

Further reading

* [http://ideashistory.org.ru/almanacs/alm15/omeara.htm Article by Patrick J. O’Meara]

See also:
*Irish military diaspora
*Irish regiments