Georges de Pimodan

Georges de Rarecourt de La Vallée, Marquis de Pimodan (January 29, 1822, Échenay - September 18, 1860, Castelfidardo), was a French legitimist émigré officer, who served Austria and the Papal States. Biography Pimodan was the son of Camille de Pimodan, a cavalry captain and gentleman of the King's Chamber, and his wife, born Claire Fauveau de Frénilly. He studied at the Jesuit college in Fribourg. Admitted to Saint-Cyr, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to Louis-Philippe, whose reign was too liberal for his taste and continued his military studies in Austria, where in 1847 he became a sub-lieutenant in the lancers of the Habsburg emperor. He was sent to garrison in Verona, then in the Austrian Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia. During the revolutions of 1848 in Lombardy, Veneto and in the duchies of Parma and Modena and Reggio, which were supported by Charles Albert of Piedmont-Sardinia, he served with the Austrian troops sent to suppress the rebellions, during which he demonstrated bravery. He was appointed captain and aide-de-camp to Field Marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz, commander-in-chief of the Austrian troops in Italy. He then left, under the orders of General Josip Jelačić, to suppress the Hungarian Revolution of 1848 led by Lajos Kossuth. During the battle of Moor (Komorn), Pimodan, together with a handful of men, took an enemy battery. Having left on reconnaissance, he was taken prisoner by the revolutionaries in Peterwardein, by whom he was condemned to death. He owed his survival to the defeat of the Hungarian army of Artúr Görgey on August 23, 1849. He was named major and count.