Prince Eugene of Savoy

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François-Eugène, Prince of Savoy-Carignan
18 October 1663—24 April 1736
Prince Eugene of Savoy by Jacob van Schuppen
Place of birth	Hôtel Soissons, Paris
Place of death	Vienna
Allegiance	Austrian Habsburgs
Battles/wars	Great Turkish War • Battle of Vienna • Battle of Zenta War of the Spanish Succession • Battle of Blenheim • Battle of Turin • Battle of Oudenarde • Battle of Malplaquet • Battle of Denain Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18 • Battle of Petrovaradin

François-Eugène, Prince of Savoy-Carignan (October 18, 1663 – April 24, 1736), known as Principe Eugenio di Savoia in Italian and Prinz Eugen von Savoyen in German, was one of the greatest generals to serve the Habsburgs.

Contents 1 Early life 2 Turkish Wars 3 War of the Grand Alliance 4 Battle of Zenta 5 War of the Spanish Succession 6 Later life 7 Legacy 8 Lernet-Holenia on Eugene 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Early life

Eugene of Savoy was born on October 18, 1663 in Paris. He was the fifth son of Prince Eugène-Maurice of Savoy-Carignano, comte de Soissons, grandson to Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, and Olympia Mancini, niece to the powerful Cardinal Mazarin. There were rumors that his real father was Louis XIV, as Olympia had been one of his mistresses; but chronology makes this impossible.

His mother's sister Laura Mancini was the mother of Vendôme, one of his great opponents. Another cousin was Louis, Margrave of Baden-Baden, whose mother was a sister of Eugene's father. Another sister of Mazarin's was the mother of Laura Martinozzi, the Duchess of Modena, whose daughter Mary Beatrice d'Este, was the queen consort of James II & VII of England and Scotland

Eugene had an unstable childhood due to his father's death when he was ten and his mother's banishment from France in the aftermath of the Poison affair when he was seventeen.

Originally destined for the Roman Catholic Church, Eugene was known at court as the petit abbé (English: the little abbot or priest), but personally he preferred the army. His repeated applications for a commission were refused by Louis XIV, possibly due to Eugene's slight build and his mother's disgrace.

Whatever the reason, Eugene left France in disgust with a personal hatred for Louis XIV. His destination was Austria, where his older brother Louis-Jules already served as colonel of a dragoon regiment. There was need for soldiers in Austria because the Ottoman Turks were besieging Vienna itself.

Before he could reach Austria his brother was killed in battle with the Turks, so Eugene now hoped to take over the regiment after his brother. When Eugene reached Emperor Leopold I in Passau the regiment already had a new commander, but the emperor gave Eugene a commission in a cavalry regiment.

[edit] Turkish Wars

Eugene distinguished himself quickly in a cavalry skirmish at Petronell on July 7, 1683. He also took part in the Relief of Vienna, after which he got his own Dragoon regiment.

In the capture of Buda, Eugene was wounded, but continued to serve until the siege of Belgrade where he was more seriously wounded. After that he returned to Vienna.

[edit] War of the Grand Alliance

The capture of Belgrade was the end of the Austrian offensive against the Turks. The army was needed to resist the ambitions of Louis XIV. So Eugene went with the army to Italy to cooperate with his relative, the Duke of Savoy. When the Duke of Savoy defected from the coalition, further war in Italy was abandoned and Eugene returned to Vienna.

[edit] Battle of Zenta

When Eugene came back from Italy in 1697 he received command of the army in Hungary. Since the capture of Belgrade the Turks had rebounded and recaptured it in 1690.

It was his first independent command and it turned out to be a good decision, as Eugene, after some skilful manoeuvres, surprised the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta near Senta (today Serbia). The victory was one of the most complete and important ever won by Austria, leading to the Treaty of Karlowitz in Karlovci (today Serbia) in 1699. The peace that followed would be a short one, as the Spanish king Charles II lay dying and the succession had not been settled.

[edit] War of the Spanish Succession

In the opening shots of that war, Eugene defeated French armies in northern Italy. As the area of French offensive action moved north, and as the war spread to include other nations such as England, Eugene joined forces for the first time with his English counterpart, the Duke of Marlborough. Together they defeated the French in Bavaria at the Battle of Blenheim (1704). For the next three years he was engaged in fighting in northern Italy and Provence, were he suffered defeats in Cassano, but finally he defeated French armies in the decisive battle of Turin (1706), after which Louis XIV had to withdraw all French forces from Italy. Eugene attacked French Toulon on 1707, but siege was unsuccessful.

Eugene then moved north to Flanders, where he joined up with Marlborough to win the battles of Oudenarde and Malplaquet. During 1711, following the death of the Emperor Joseph, Eugene's army was withdrawn from Flanders to the Rhine to counter an attempt by the Elector of Bavaria to invade southern Germany. Britain signed the Treaty of Utrecht with France in 1713 which left Austria and Eugene to face France alone. After one more year of fighting, Austria signed a favourable peace with France, in 1714.

[edit] Later life

Also in 1714, Eugene began construction of the Belvedere, a baroque palace in the 3rd district of Vienna. Construction of various parts of the palace complex continued until 1723. Eugene never married, something that was highly unusual at the time; there is in fact not a single recorded relationship of any kind. He may very well have lived in celibacy his entire life.

One of the new Austrian possessions after the War of the Spanish Succession was the former Spanish, now Austrian Netherlands. Eugene was made governor of this area, then later became vicar of the Austrian lands in Italy. Just two years after the end of the war against France, Eugene led the Austrian armies during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716-18. With the Victorys of Peterwardein Hungary was freed from the Turkish and the Stronghold of Belgrade was captured by Eugene August 22, 1717, attacking them unexpectedly over a pontoon bridge. This victory is eternalized in the traditional song Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter (Prince Eugene, the noble knight) and commemorated with the founding of the Timişoreana brewery. The Battle of Belgrade led to the Treaty of Passarowitz, which temporarily added northern Serbia and the Bosnian bank of the Sava river to the Austrian crown, and ended the Turkish threats to Vienna once and for all. Late in his life, Eugene engaged in one last war, the War of the Polish Succession.

Eugene died in Vienna in 1736, in his sleep, after a night of playing cards with his old friend, the Countess Batthyany. A legend maintains that a lion in his palace zoo died the same night. Eugene is buried in a chapel of honor in St. Stephen's Cathedral but his heart lies in the Basilica of Superga in Turin.

[edit] Legacy

At his death, Eugene was one of the wealthiest men in Europe. His fortune passed to his niece, Princess Victoria of Savoy-Carignan, whom he had never met. She sold his extensive library to the Austrian emperor, and it formed the core of what is today the Austrian National Library.

In a tribute to his military skill he was named by Napoleon as one of the seven generals whose' campaigns were worthy of study.

The World War I British monitor HMS Prince Eugene, Austro-Hungarian battleship Prinz Eugen, and the World War II German 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen and Italian light cruiser Eugenio di Savoia were named after Eugene of Savoy, the only person whose name has been given to warships of four different navies.

[edit] Lernet-Holenia on Eugene

The Encyclopaedia Britannica article on Prince Eugene of Savoy contains the following:

Even as he faced a world of foes before him, he had a world of enemies at his back, nourished by the "hereditary curse" of Austria: slothful souls and thoughtless minds, low intrigue, envy, jealousy, foolishness, and dishonesty. He served three emperors: Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. Toward the end of his life, Eugene observed that, whereas the first had been a father to him and the second a brother, the third (who was perhaps least worthy of so great a servant) had been a master.

The end of the article contains the initials A.L.-Ho. In the index of contributors, these initials correspond to Alexander Marie Norbert Lernet-Holenia (1897-1976), a minor Austrian writer, dramatist and poet.

[edit] References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Military Heritage did a feature about the Muslim Turks versus Christian Nobility 1716 battle and crusade at Peterwardein, and the success of Prince Eugene of Savoy (Ludwig Heinrich Dyck, Military Heritage, August 2005, Volume 7, No. 1, pp 48 to 53, and p. 78), ISSN 1524-8666.
• Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. Gustavus Adolphus - A History of the Art of War from its Revival After the Middle Ages to the End of the Spanish Succession War, with a Detailed Account of the Campaigns of the Great Swede, and of the Most Famous Campaigns of Turenne, Conde, Eugene and Marlborough. London: Grenhill Books, 1996. ISBN 1-85367-234-3
• Henderson, Nicholas. Prince Eugen of Savoy. Phoenix Press. 2002. ISBN 1-84212-597-4
• McKay, Derek. Prince Eugene of Savoy. London: Thames and Hudson. 1977. OCLC 3716509
• Nicolle, David and Hook, Christa. The Janissaries. Botley: Osprey Publishing. 2000. ISBN 1-85532-413-X
• Setton, Kenneth M. Venice, Austria, and the Turks in the Seventeenth Century. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society. 1991. ISBN 0-87169-192-2

[edit] External links

• AEIOU | Eugène, Prince of Savoy
• Kaisergruft | Prinz Eugen von Savoyen
• Belvedere
• Austrian Federal Ministry of Finance | Winter Palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy
• Prince Eugene the noble knight, song, lyrics and melody, german