LACY, FRANZ MORITZ, COUNT (1725-1801), Austrian field marshal, was born at St. Petersburg on Oct. 21, 1725. His father, Peter, Count Lacy, was a distinguished Russian soldier, who belonged to an Irish family, and had followed the fortunes of the exiled James II. Franz Moritz was educated in Germany for a military career, and entered the Austrian service. He served in Italy, Bohemia, Silesia and the Netherlands during the War of the Austrian Succession, was twice wounded, and by the end of the war was a lieut.-colonel. At the age of twenty-five he became full colonel and chief of an infantry regiment. From 1756 1763 he was engaged in the Seven Years' War. He was thrice wounded, but rose very rapidly to the rank of Feldzeugmeister, and received the grand cross of the Maria Theresa order. After early victories, however, he developed an external caution ; in 1759 he fell into some disfavour, and his capacity for supreme command was doubted by his own colleague Daun.
After the peace of Hubertusburg, Lacy was made a field marshal, and given the task of reforming and administering the army (1766), which he carried out very efficiently, framing new regulations for each arm, a new code of military law, a good supply system. Joseph, whom Maria Theresa had placed in charge
of Austrian military affairs, soon became very intimate with his military adviser, while at the same time Lacy also enjoyed Maria Theresa's full confidence. In the War of the Bavarian Succession, Lacy and Loudon were the chief Austrian commanders against the king of Prussia, and when Joseph II. succeeded his mother, Lacy remained his most trusted friend. In the Turkish war of 1787-91 Lacy, who was old and ailing, commanded with ill-success. His active career was at an end, although he con tinued his effective interest in state and military affairs throughout the reign of Joseph's successor, Leopold I. His last years were spent in retirement at his castle of Neuwaldegg near Vienna. He died at Vienna, Nov. 24, 1801.
See memoir by A. v. Arneth in Allgemeine deutsche Biographie (Leipzig, 1883) .