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Auction: 14035 - Postal History, Autographs and Historical Documents
Lot: 3090

(x) Historical Documents
Passports
1720 (c.) Austrian pass issued in Palermo, headed "george oliver/des heyl. rom. reichs/graf von wallis", in a mixture of Italian, Latin and German, with wafer seal in lower corner and signed by Leopold von Trell and another; usual folding creases

George Olivier, Count of Wallis (1671-1743)
A field marshal of Irish descent in the service of the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies and last regent of the Habsburg Kingdom of Serbia (1738–1739). Born into an Irish family, he distinguished himself in Sicily by his capture of Messina. He then commanded on the Rhine (1733), then in Italy and Hungary. He lost the decisive Battle of Grocka against the Ottoman Empire in 1739, thus leading to the peace of Belgrade, which was unfavourable to Austria and thus led to his disgrace. In the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–20) he fought in the Austrian army on Sicily, being wounded in the struggle for Messina but later becoming governor of that city's fortress until 1727, when he returned to Austria.

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Sold for
£120