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Count Joseph Cornelius O'Rourke (Russian: Иосиф Корнилович Орурк (О’Рурк), or Ioseph Kornilovich O'Rourke) (1772-1849) was a Russian nobleman of Irish ancestry. He was a military leader who fought in the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of lieutenant general. He is noted in present-day Serbia, where he led a combined Russian and Serb army to defeat the Turks at Varvarin in 1810. O'Rourke was awarded the orders of Saint George, Alexander Nevsky, and Saint Anne for his military feats. His portrait was included in the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace, now part of the Hermitage Museum. A monument commemorating O'Rourke and his men was erected in Varvarin in 1910 on the centenary of their victory against the Turks. ==Background== The O'Rourke family were originally members of the Jacobite Irish Nobility; they fled Ireland following defeat by the Protestant Williamites at the Battle of the Boyne in 1691. The majority of the family moved at the time as refugees to France. The O’Rourkes were a prominent Gaelic aristocratic family who lost lands in the Elizabethan and Cromwellian conquests, and several family members emigrated to Russia. The family were descended from the ninth-century kings of Connacht and ruled the ancient kingdom of Breifne in the north-west of the country until they were unseated during the Elizabethan conquest in the sixteenth century. During the reign of Elizabeth in Russia in the eighteenth century, one branch of the O'Rourkes moved to Livonia, then a province of the Russian Empire. O'Rourke was born at Dorpat in 1772. By this time the family had intermarried and been completely absorbed into Russian high society. According to custom, O'Rourke was immediately enrolled at birth into the Russian Imperial Guard. His father was Count Cornelius O'Rouke, who retired in 1788 with the rank of major-general.〔(Slavonic Studies, Issue 5, Irish Slavists' Association, 1984 )〕 After education in a military school and training, he first saw action as a young man in Zürich against the French Revolutionary Army. He served under General Kutuzov in 1805 at the Battle of Austerlitz and was awarded the Order of Saint George.〔 After Napoleon invaded Russia and reached Moscow, O'Rourke took part in the defense and defeat of the French at Leipzig, awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky.〔("Lt General Count Ioseph (Joseph) Kornilovich O�Rourke, 1770-1849 (1845?)" ), from the Hermitage, at Ancestry.com, accessed 3 September 2013〕 For his exploits in the 1813–14 campaign, O’Rourke was awarded the Prussian Iron Cross, the Order of the Red Eagle and the Swedish Order of the Sword. His portrait hangs in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg and in 1910 a monument was erected to him in Serbia. During his illustrious career he received two golden swords for bravery, one of which was encrusted with diamonds.〔(S., ''Irish Brigades Abroad.'' (Dublin, 2013) p. 265 )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joseph Cornelius O'Rourke」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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