Culloden. While he does not give the Christian name of this midshipman Lockhart, James was in fact eighteen years old when this was written. What is more, his career at sea would help account for his presence some months later in Persia, since the trip overland from Scotland to Persia was exceedingly arduous in 1746. What immediately followed is not known in detail. Lockhart traveled Europe enlisting in various armies and learning the military arts. Towards the end of the war of the Austrian Succession he enlisted in the Austrian service to fight in the armies of the Empress Maria Theresa. In 1752 he was commissioned a captain of the Grenadier Company of the 33rd Regiment, but it is likely that he served as a common soldier before that. Lockhart fought, often brilliantly, in a series of battles against the Prussians during the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), including the battle of Prague in 1757. At the battle of Kunersdorf (1759) he was instrumental in turning the tide against the Prussians, securing an Austrian victory. He received promotion after the battle from the commanding officer, Field Marshal Freiherr von Laudon. He was again cited for signal bravery at the battle of Landshut (1761). Lockhart rose rapidly through the ranks of the Austrian army, and became a general in the Austrian service. Return to Scotland In 1761 Lockhart resigned his commission and returned to Scotland to deal with problems of succession in the family. His father was ailing, and the Lockhart estates were entailed upon his brother George, still living in exile in Paris. George, however, was attainted with treason for his role in the '45, and the family estates would therefore revert to the Crown upon the death of their father, the elder George Lockhart. Staging the death of the younger George Lockhart in Paris solved the problem. At his "funeral" a casket full of stones served as his mortal remains. As a result of this successful strategem, the Lockhart estates at Carnwath in Lanark shire thereafter passed to James Lockhart upon the death of his father. Military service and honours The Empress Maria Theresa ennobled James Lockhart in 1782, after a campaign in Lombardy in the service of her grandson, the Grand Duke of Tuscany. As Count Lockhart-Wischeart of the Holy Roman Empire he thereafter became a favourite of Maria Theresa's successor, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, and an