IR 3 Archduke Carl

Archduke Charles-Louis was the first prince of the Teschen branch of the Habsburg family. He was born in Florence in 1771 and died in Vienna in 1847. He was a son of Lopold II. emperor of the holy German-Roman empire. He was a general, one of the major commanders of the Napoleonic Wars, a victorious leader in the Battle of Aspern against Napoleon. His elder brother, Franz I, was Kaiser the  Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, his younger brother, Archduke Joseph, was the palatine of Hungary. As can be seen, the person and family of Archduke Charles were closely involved in the political and military leadership of the Habsburg Monarchy. It is not surprising, therefore, that he, a successful commander against Napoleon, was chosen as the owner to one of the regiments.

The 3rd Infantry Regiment was founded in 1716, Carl was an elected owner from 1860. Originally it was an imperial regiment, its first owners were the princes of Lorraine. From the end of the 1700s, however, it received its personnel from the Austrian provinces, and it also had its command there. t was stationed first in Lower Austria, then before and during the Great War in Moravia, in the district of Magyarhradis. Why the district was called “Magyar” is not clear to me, because there was no permanent Hungarian population. The regiment was accordingly almost entirely Czech (Moravian). The headquarters were located in Teschen.

In the first half of the Great War, with the 12th Division in the VI. corps the regiment was deployed in various sections of the Russian front. After the reorganization of the 7th Army, which suffered heavy losses in the Brussilow offensive, it was assigned to the XI corps. In May 1917, the division was transferred to the XXIII Corps on the Italian front, to the Karst Plateau. Later, in July 1918, they joined the VII. corps.

The badge attached to the post is the only badge of the regiment. The painting depicting the Archduke may have been a pattern for the badge maker. As certainly the letter seal was also modeled after the painting.