Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff

thumb|right|200-px|Friedrich Heinrich von SeckendorffFriedrich Heinrich Reichsgraf von Seckendorff (5 July 1673 – 23 November 1763) was a Franconian field marshal and diplomat, in the service of the imperial Habsburg monarchy of Austria. Later he served as commander of the Bavarian army and fought Austria.

Family

Seckendorff was born in Königsberg, Franconia, into the Seckendorff family of nobility. His father was an official of Saxe-Gotha and his nephew was Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff. He studied law in Jena, Leipzig, and Leyden.

Early military career

In 1693 Seckendorff served in the allied army commanded by William III of England, and in 1694 became a cornet in a Gotha cavalry regiment in Austrian pay. Leaving the cavalry, he became an infantry officer in the service of Venice, and in 1697 in that of the Margrave of Ansbach, who in 1698 transferred the regiment in which Seckendorff was serving to the Imperial army. He served under Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Great Turkish War.

In 1699 Seckendorff married and returned to Ansbach as a court officer, but the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession called him into the field again as lieutenant-colonel of an...
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