(A master of the field of battle in his own words
Anyone...)
A master of the field of battle in his own words
Anyone who knows of the military genius of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, can't fail to have learnt also of the exploits his close personal ally, Prince Eugene of Savoy. Despite a physical frailty, Eugene had an incredible talent for waging war and became, indisputably, one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history. His career spanned six decades and he served three emperors of the Holy Roman Empire. His first battle was fought against the Turks at the Siege of Vienna in 1689 and he subsequently took part in the War of the Holy League, the Nine Years War, against the Turks at Zenta and, most notably, as an ally of Marlborough's during the War of Spanish Succession against the French at Blenheim, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. Eugene's later career included the Austro-Turkish War and the War of Polish Succession. This special Leonaur edition combines Eugene's own account of his career with an overview of the man and his achievements by Alexander Innes Shand.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.
Prince Eugene of Savoy was a general of the Imperial Army and statesman of the Holy Roman Empire and the Archduchy of Austria.
Background
Prince Eugene was born in the Hotel de Soissonsin Paris on 18 October 1663 in Paris, France. His mother, Olympia Mancini, was one of Cardinal Mazarin's nieces whom he had brought to Paris from Rome in 1647. The Mancinis were raised at the Palais-Royal along with the young Louis XIV, with whom Olympia formed an intimate relationship. In 1657 Olympia married Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons, Count of Dreux and Prince of Savoy. Eugene was the youngest of their five sons and three daughters, but neither parent spent much time with the children: his father spent much of his time away campaigning, while Olympia's passion for court intrigue meant the children received little attention from her. Olympia later fell out of favor at court, and after some suspicious acquaintance Olympia was accused in 1679 in the Affaire des Poisons, threatening the King himself, and suspected of poisoning her own husband, and also on 12 February 1689 Queen Maria Luisa of Spain, which made her fly France for Brussels, leaving Eugene in the care of his father's mother, Marie de Bourbon, and her daughter, Hereditary Princess of Baden, mother of Prince Louis of Baden.
Education
Based on his poor physique and bearing, from the age of 10 the Prince was initially prepared for a career in the church.
Career
At the age of 19 Eugene entered Austrian military service. He distinguished himself at the siege of Vienna in 1683 and earned commendation from Lorraine and the Emperor and later received the nomination for the colonelcy of the Dragoon Regiment Kufstein. By the end of 1885, at the age of 22 Eugene was made a Major-General. Commanding a cavarly brigate, Eugene made an important contribution to the victory at the Battle of Mohács on 12 August 1687. His courage earned him recognition from his superiors, who granted him the honour of personally conveying the news of victory to the Emperor in Vienna. In November 1687 he was promoted to Lieutenant-General. His cousin, Victor Amadeus, provided him with money and two profitable abbeys in Piedmont. In 1688 on 6 September Eugene suffered a severe wound to his knee by a musket ball during the Siege of Belgrade. He fully recovered only in January 1689. In 1689 Eugene received a slight head wound at the Siege of Mainz. He subsequently transferred himself to Piedmont after Victor Amadeus joined the Alliance against France in 1690. Promoted to general of cavalry, he arrived in Turin with his friend the Prince of Commercy. Against Eugene's advice, Amadeus insisted on engaging the French at Staffarda and suffered a serious defeat - only Eugene's handling of the Savoyard cavalry in retreat saved his cousin from disaster. He won further acclaim in Italy against the French (1689 - 1693). In 1693 the Emperor promoted him to Field-Marshal. Eugene, as the one Allied general determined on action and decisive results, enhanced his reputation during the Nine Years' War. In April 1697 Eugene was offered supreme command of Imperial forces, which was his first truly independent command. The Prince was warned to act cautiously, but as the news of Sultan Mustafa II marching on Transylvania came, he decided to intercept the Turks immediately as they crossed the River Tisza and Zenta on 11 September 1697. Imperial army attacked suddenly and by nightfall, the battle was won. Eugene returned to Vienna in November to a triumphal reception. His victory had turned him into a European hero, and in reward he got land in Hungary which yielded a good income. The victory in the Great battle of Zenta led to the Peace of Karlowitz (1699). During the War of Spanish Succession Eugene crossed the Alps with some 30, 000 men in May or June 1701, and on 9 July, after a series of brilliant manoeuvres the Imperial commander defeated Catinat at the Battle of Carpi. "I have warned you that you are dealing with an enterprising young prince, " wrote Louis XIV to his commander, "he does not tie himself down to the rules of war. " During a night reid on Cremona on 31 January/1 February 1702 Eugene captured Marshal Villeroi, the French commander-in-chief. Though Cremona still remained in French hands, Villeroi's capture caused a sensation in Europe. The following battles were inconclusive, and in January 1703 Eugene returned to Vienna. At the end of June 1703 Prince Eugene became the new President of the Imperial War Council. He then immediately improved effiency within the army: encouragement and, where possible, money, was sent to the commanders in the field; promotion and honours were distributed according to service rather than influence; and discipline improved. By early 1704 the English Captain-General, the Duke of Marlborough had resolved to march south and rescue the situation in southern Germany and on the Danube, personally requesting the presence of Eugene on campaign. On 13 August 1704 the Battle of Blenheim took place. The battle proved decisive: Vienna was saved and Bavaria was knocked out of the war. Eugene returned to Italy in April 1705, but his attempts to move west towards Turin were thwarted by Vendôme's skilful manoeuvres. Lacking support from Leopold I and recieving criticism from Vienne and desperate appeals from Amadeus, the Prince was goaded into action, resulting in the Imperialists' bloody defeat at the Battle of Cassano on 16 August. After Leopold I's death and the accession of Joseph I to the Imperial throne in May 1705, however, Eugene at last began to receive the personal backing he desired. The siege of Turin on September 7, 1706, demonstrated Eugene's skill and opened Italy to the imperial forces. 1707 was a year of disappointment for the Prince and Grand Alliance as a whole; the attack on Toulon was a failure. In 1708 Eugene took command of the Imperial army on the Moselle and again united with Marlborough in the Spanish Netherlands. Yet for all the difficulties of the Lille siege (Eugene was badly wounded above his left eye by a musket ball, and even survived an attempt to poison him), the campaign of this year had been a remarkable success. The subsequent Battle of Malplaquet, fought on 11 September 1709, was the bloodiest engagement of the war. In June the Allied commanders captured Douai. This success was followed by a series of minor sieges, and by the close of 1710 the Allies had cleared much of France's protective ring of fortresses. In January 1712 Eugene arrived in England with intention to divert the government away from its peace policy, but Queen Anne and her ministers remained determined to end the war regardless of the Allies. Eugene had also arrived too late to save Marlborough who had already been dismissed on charges of embezzlement. Although Eugene would have preferred to crush the rebels of the Hungarian revolt, the Emperor had offered lenient conditions, leading to the signing of the Treaty of Szatmar on 30 April 1711. In ealy July Eugene took the fortress of Le Quesnoy, then besieged Landrecies. On 24 July he was outmanoeuvred by Villars. The French seized the Allies' main supply magazine at Marchiennes and reversed their earlier losses at Douai, Le Quesnoy and Bouchain. In December Eugene became undisputed 'first minister' in Vienna due to the death of his friend and close political ally, Count Wratislaw, and as de facto president of the conference he dealt with foreign policy. In this position of influence Eugene took the lead in pressing Charles VI towards peace. Preparations for another campaign in 1713 were poor and through Villars's successful feints and stratagems Landau fell to the French commander in August, followed in November by Freiburg. Eugene, reluctant to carry on the war, wrote about it to the Emperor in June, and Charles VI was compelled to enter into negotiations. Eugene and Villars initiated talks on 26 November. The Prince gained favourable terms by the Treaty of Rastatt signed on 7 March 1714 and the Treaty of Baden signed on 7 September 1714. In his subsequent Turkish campaigns he gained victories at Peterwardein (1716) and Belgrade on August 16, 1717, occupied after a long siege. The principal objectives of the Austro-Turkish war had been achieved: the task Eugene had begun at Zenta was complete, and the Karlowitz settlement secured. The war had dispelled the immediate Turkish threat to Hungary, and was a triumph for the Empire and for Eugene personally. His ability to snatch victory at the moment of defeat had shown the Prince at his best. Before the conclusion of the Turkish war Eugene had to return to Vienna determined to prevent an escalation of the conflict between Philip V and Charles VI, which ended up with signing the Quadruple Alliance on 2 August 1718. Austria's military operations in Sicily was a failure, which worsened Eugene's influence over the Emperor, as the Prince had put the safeguarding of his conquests in Hungary before everything else. From June 1716 to 16 November 1724, he was governor of the Southern Netherlands - then the Austrian Netherlands as well as the first political adviser of the Emperor Charles VI. As a compensation for his resignation Charles VI conferred on him the honorary position as vicar-general of Italy, worth 140, 000 gulden a year, and an estate at Siebenbrunnin Lower Austria said to be worth double that amount. That Christmas Eugene caught a severe bout of influenza. For the remaining twelve years of his life he suffered of permanent bronchitis and acute infections every winter. From 1726 Eugene gradually began to regain his political influence, and in 1730 he was again in control of Austrian policy. Eugene had been the Austrian minister most responsible for the alliance. During the War of the Polish Succession Eugene served as President of the Imperial War Council and commander-in-chief of the army, but he was severely handicapped by the quality of his troops and the shortage of funds; now in his seventies, the Prince was also burdened by rapidly declining physical and mental powers. He was unable to repeat his previous military success. The Prussian prince, young Frederick the Great, wrote later, "his body was still there but his soul had gone. " Eugene returned to Vienna from the War of the Polish Succession in October 1735, weak and feeble. His last evening he spent playing cards at Countess Batthyany's. The Prince returned to his bed at the Stadtpalais 20 April 1736, and the next morning his servants found him dead after choking from phlegm in his throat, presumably after suffering from pneumonia. Eugene's heart was buried with those of others of his family in Turin. His remains were carried in a long procession to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where the body was interred in the Kreuzkapelle. His rewards for his victories, share of booty, revenues from his abbeys in Savoy, and a steady income from his Imperial offices and governorships enabled him to be a contributor to the landscape of Baroque architecture. His main residence was his Winter Palace at Vienna, the Stadtpalais, built by Fischer von Erlach. The Savoy Castle on his Danubian island at Ráckeve was finished in 1722. Of more importance was the grandiose complex of the two Belvedere palaces in Vienna, finished in 1716 and 1722. The Upper Belvedere was said to become a wonder of Europe. An existing structure was converted on his Marchfeld estate into a country seat, the Schlosshof, situated between the Rivers Danube and Morava. It was strong enough to serve as a fortress in case of need and was used as an elaborate hunting lodge. Eugene became acquainted with a large number of scholarly men, among them were Gottfried Leibniz, Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, Montesquieu. He was a collector on the grandest scale: his picture galleries were filled with 16th- and 17th-century Italian, Dutch and Flemish art; his library at the Stadtpalais crammed with over 15, 000 books, 237 manuscripts as well as a huge collection of prints.
Achievements
Prince Eugene of Savoy was the greatest Austrian general. He helped to save the Habsburg Empire from French conquest, broke the westward thrust of the Ottomans, liberating central Europe after a century and a half of Turkish occupation and was one of the great patrons of the arts whose building legacy can still be seen in Vienna today. Several statues and monuments were erected in his honor. There is a statue of Eugene in Buda Castle, Budapest, Hungary. One side of the huge equestrian statue in Heldenplatz, Vienna says 'To the wise counsellor of three Emperors', and on the other side is inscribed, 'To the glorious conqueror of Austria's enemies'. Several ships have been named in Eugene's honour: Prinz Eugen, an Austrian World War I battleship; the HMS Prince Eugene, British Royal Navy World War I monitor; Italian light cruiser Eugenio di Savoia and the German cruiser Prinz Eugen (later USS Prinz Eugen), a World War II heavy cruiser. A genus of flowering plants Eugenia was named in his honor. The song 'Prinz Eugenius, der edle Ritter' is dedicated to his victory over the Turks.
(A master of the field of battle in his own words
Anyone...)
Politics
Eugene preferred to rely on a strong army instead of on the elaborate diplomatic arrangements.
Views
Quotations:
"You should only be harsh when, as often happens, kindness proves useless"
Personality
According to Duchess of Orleans, Eugene was never good-looking. "It is true that his eyes are not ugly, but his nose ruins his face; he has two large teeth which are visible at all times. " There were suggestions that he was predominantly homosexual. Eugene was a disciplinarian, but rejected blind brutality. He was skilled in tactics, capable of bold decisions, and able to inspire his men to excel in battle against a dangerous foe. Eugene had the ability to make an inadequate system work. He was equally adept as an organizer, strategist, and tactician, believing in the primacy of battle and his ability to seize the opportune moment to launch a successful attack. His criteria for promotion were based primarily on obedience to orders and courage on the battlefield rather than social position. On the whole his men responded because he was willing to push himself as hard as them. Eugene attached his own personal values - physical courage, loyalty to his sovereign, honesty, self-control in all things - to his responsibilities, and expected these qualities from his commanders. His approach was dictatorial, but he was willing to co-operate with someone he regarded as his equal, such as Baden or Marlborough. It was said that he was austere figure, inspiring respect and admiration rather than affection.
Quotes from others about the person
Louis of Baden: "This young man will, with time, occupy the place of those whom the world regards as great leaders of armies. "
Connections
Despite being one of the richest and most celebrated men of his age, Eugene was never married.
