157 



TRENCK, BARON FRANZ VON. 



TRENCK, BARON FREDERIC VON DER. 



158 



lias fallen into the error of making him the son of Sir John Tren- 

 chard, to whom he was but distantly related. The actual degree of 

 relationship may be seen iu Burke's ' History of the Commoners,' vol. 

 iv., pp. 78, 79. This error has led to others. For instance, the 

 writer represents him as having been born in 1669, instead of 

 1662, Sir John Trenchard himself having been born in 1650. These 

 mistakes have been copied in Chalmers's ' Biographical Dictionary ' and 

 the ' Biographic Universelle." 



Mr. Trenchard was educated for the law, and was called to the bar. 

 But his fortune not requiring that he should follow a profession, he 

 left the bar for what was to him the more congenial pursuit of 

 politics. The author of the Life in the 'Biographia Britanuica' says, 

 " By tho decease of an uncle, and a marriage to a gentlewoman with a 

 considerable fortune, he came into the possession of a good estate, and 

 the prospect of a much better, which also fell into his hands on the 

 demise of his father in 1695, whom he succeeded likewise in the 

 House of Commons, being elected a burgess for Taunton in 1695." A 

 great deal of this is inc Direct. Sir John Treuchard died in 1695, but 

 Mr. Trenchard's father did not die till 1710. Mr. Treuchard was 

 elected for the parliament that met in 1695, but sat, not for Taunton, 

 but for Wareham. And it is probable that the account of the fortune 

 acquired by marriage, and by the death of an uncle, is a mistake 

 arising out of Mr. Trenchard's inheriting, after his father's death, 

 from his maternal grandfather, Sir George Norton. 



In 1698 Mr. Treuchard published, in conjunction with Mr. Moyle, a 

 pamphlet entitled ' An Argument showing that a Standing Army is 

 inconsistent with a Free Government, and absolutely destructive to 

 the Constitution of the English Monarchy.' The question of a standing 

 army being at that time seriously agitated, this pamphlet is said to 

 have produced a considerable effect. It was followed almost im- 

 mediately by 'A Short History of Standing Armies iu England.' In 

 1692 Mr. Trenchard was chosen by the House of Commons one of 

 seven commissioners for taking an account of the forfeited estates in 

 Ireland; and he was one of the four who signed the report including 

 the private estate, or that which had belonged to James II. in right 

 of the crown, which William had granted to his mistress, Lady 

 Orkney. A warm debate arose out of this report in the House of 

 Commons, which is to be read in the ' Parliamentary History.' The 

 report was approved of by the House, but gave great offence to the 

 king. 



In 1709 Mr. Treuchard published 'A Natural History of Supersti- 

 tion;' 'Considerations on the Public Debts ;' and ' A Comparison of 

 the Proposals of the Bank and South Sea Company.' He published, 

 in 1719, two additional pamphlets entitled ' Thoughts on the Peerage 

 Bill,' aad ' Reflections on the Old Whig.' In 1720 he began, iu con- 

 junction with Mr. Thomas Gordon, a Scotchman, whom he had taken 

 some time before into his house, and employed as an amanuensis, a 

 series of letters oh political questions, under the signatures of Cato 

 and Diogenes, which appeared first in the London, and then in the 

 British, Journal; and in the same year; in conjunction with the same 

 gentleman, he began a paper called tho ' Independent Whig,' which 

 was devoted to the subjects of religion and church government. 

 [GoiiDON, THOMAS.] These two series of letters went on till 1723, on 

 the 17th of December iu which year, Mr. Treuchard died. 



After Mr. Trenchard's death, Mr. Gordon collected Cato's letters, 

 and published them in 4 vols. 12mo. In the preface to the work, he 

 has sketched the character of his friend and benefactor, justifying his 

 eulogy by saying "that he has set him no higher than his own great 

 abilities and many virtues set him ; that his failings were small, his 

 talents extraordinary, his probity equal to his talents, and that he was 

 one of the ablest and one of the most useful men that ever any country 

 was blessed withal." Mr. Gordon also published, after Mr. Tren- 

 chard's death, the papers which had appeared of the ' Independent 

 Whig,' in 2 vols. 12mo; and at the end of the second volume is 

 printed a long Latin inscription on Mr. Trenchard's tomb, which had 

 proceeded from Mr. Gordon's pen. This inscription is printed also in 

 the notes to the life in the ' Biographia Britannica.' Mr. Gordon con- 

 tinued the ' Independent Whig' after the death of his coadjutor, and 

 made two additional volumes. The four volumes of the ' Independent 

 Whig,' and ' Cato's Letters,' have both passed through several editions. 

 They both excited much interest when they were first published and 

 for some time after; but are now little read or known. 



Mr. Trenchard had married a daughter of Sir William Blackett, of 

 Northumberland, but had no children. Of his widow we are told, 

 that, " finding Mr. Gordon very xiseful in managing her affairs, she 

 continued him in her service, was much pleased with his company, 

 and, having paid a decent tribute of tears to the memory of her 

 deceased husband, entered some time after into a second marriage 

 with this ingenious friend and companion, who had several children 

 by her." (Biographia Britannica.) 



TllENCK, BARON FRANZ VON, was born at Reggio in Calabria, 

 "on the 1st of January 1711. His father was a general in the Austrian 

 service, and took him when only eleven years old to serve in the war 

 against Spain. At this tender age he was present and actually fought 

 at the battle of Melazio. He was afterwards sent to the military 

 academy at Vienna, and having passed his examination with great 

 distinction, he was appointed corne't iu the regiment, Palfy. His extra- 

 ordinary physical strength, united with an uncommon degree of ferocity, 



manifested itself very early, and brought him into many difficulties. 

 When only seventeen, his father having refused to supply him with more 

 money for his extravagances, he applied to a farmer in the neighbour- 

 hood, and upon receiving a refusal there also, he cut the man's head 

 off. This affair was hushed up with great difficulty, and he was sent 

 to Russia, where by his military talents and dauntless courage he soon 

 gained the friendship of Marshal Miinnich, and was made captain of 

 hussars. A short time after he had received his commission, ho 

 attacked a whole Turkish regiment near Bucharest, contrary to the 

 express orders of his colonel, with his small troop, and gained a 

 decided victory. Upon his return the colonel reprimanded him for 

 his disobedience ; he answered by a blow, which felled his superior 

 officer to the ground. For this offence he was sentenced by a court- 

 martial to be whipped out of the regiment, a punishment at that 

 period still inflicted in Russia upon commissioned officers. While he 

 was awaiting the execution of this sentence in his tent, he heard that 

 a brisk engagement with the Turks was taking place, and Marshal 

 Munuich being near, he called out to the marshal, and asked him if 

 he would pardon him, provided he brought back within an hour three 

 Turks' heads. The marshal- assented, and Trenck immediately leaped 

 upon the first horse he saw, galloped into the midst of the enemy, and 

 returned to the camp within half an hour with four Turks' heads 

 suspended from the pommel of his saddle. But shortly after he was 

 sentenced to death for a still greater violation of discipline, and it was 

 only through Miinnich 's influence that his sentence was commuted 

 first into banishment t o^Siberia, and at last to six mouths' hard labour. 

 This punishment he had to undergo at Kiew, and immediately after 

 he retired to his estates in Croatia. The Austrian provinces on the 

 Turkish frontiers being, after the war, infested with numerous a;id 

 well-organised bands of robbers, Trenck voluntarily levied a force of 

 a thousand men among his own tenants, and succeeded in a very short 

 time in clearing the country of these dangerous enemies. A short 

 time afterwards disturbances breaking out in Hungary on the occasion 

 of Maria Theresa's succession to the throne, Trenck offered his own 

 and the services of his men, his regiment of Pandours, as he called 

 them, to the young empress. This offer was accepted, and Trenck 

 went to Vienna. The disturbances were however soon pacified by 

 Maria Theresa's heroic conduct at Presburg, and he was sent to tho 

 army on the Rhine and in the Netherlands under the command of 

 Prince Charles. Here he again distinguished himself by his bravery 

 and military skill, but at the same time by his rapacity and brutal 

 ferocity. It was principally Trenck who covered Prince Charles's 

 celebrated retreat into Bohemia, and on his march through Bavaria 

 he took five fortified places in less than three weeks. It would lead 

 too far here to relate the well-authenticated acts of plunder and 

 cruelty which he committed, but he and his Pandoms were as much 

 dreaded over tho whole empire, as Tilly and his men in the Thirty 

 Years' War. In the following year he joined the army against 

 Frederic the Great, and after the battle of Sorau (September 14, 

 1745) he undertook to take the king by surprise at Colliu, and to 

 carry him off prisoner. In this he failed with great loss of men ; but 

 he got a largo booty, as he captured Frederic's tent and all that it 

 contained. Upon his return to Vienna a court-martial was held over 

 him, some of his own officers accusing him of having received bribes 

 from the enemy, besides unexampled cruelty and avarice. At his first 

 examination one of the judges used some disrespectful expressions 

 towards Princo Charles; Trenck, with the fury and strength of a tiger, 

 jumped at him, nearly throttled him, and would have thrown him out 

 of a high window if the guard had not hastened to interfere. He was 

 confined at Vienna for upwards of a year, when Baroness Lestock, a 

 lady to whom he was betrothed, effected his escape by large bribes to 

 his jailers, who connived at his feigning to be dead. He was carried 

 in a coffin to be buried, but as soon as the funeral procession had got 

 outside the town gates, he jumped out of it, covered himself with a 

 cloak, mounted a horse which stood prepared, and made his way to 

 Bruges in the Netherlands, where he was however soon arrested again, 

 and was taken, heavily loaded with chains, to Graetz. Here in a fit of 

 despondency he took poison, and died October 4, 1747, leaving his 

 great wealth to his cousin Frederic, who however did not derive much 

 banefit from the bequest. 



(Memoires du Baron Franz dc Trenck, dcrits par F. de Trenck, 1 

 vol. 8vo, Paris, 1787 ; Leben und Thaten der Trencke, von Watermann, 

 2 vols. 8vo, Leipzig, 1837; Memoires du Prince de Ligne, 2 vols. 8vo, 

 Vienne, 1816.) 



TRENCK, BARON FREDERIC VON DER, born at Konigsberg, 

 February 16, 1726. His mother was a vonDershau, and both parents 

 belonged to the most ancient and wealthy houses in East Prussia. 

 His father had served with distinction as major-general in the Prussian 

 army. The young baron distinguished himself very early by extra- 

 ordinary precocity ; in his thirteenth year he was entered as a student 

 of law and belles lettres at the university of his native place, and 

 passed the usual examination with great distinction. One year later he 

 fought a duel with one of the most celebrated swordsmen at Koniga- 

 berg, whom he wounded and disarmed. In his sixteenth year Count 

 Lotturn, one of his relations, and adjutant-general to Frederic (after- 

 wards the Great), took him to Berlin, where the king immediately 

 appointed him cadet, and soon afterwards, having himself upon one 

 occasion been surprised at the young man's talents, he promoted him 



