Birthday Greetings #16

Happy birthday to Prince Eugene of Savoy, perhaps the greatest general to ever serve the Habsburg empire. Eugene was born in Paris the son of aristocrats from Savoy in north western Italy. Italy then was no more than a geographical term, the Duchy of Savoy was an independent nation and like many such nations of similar size survived somewhat precariously by alternately playing off and currying up to more powerful nations. At the time Savoy grovel target of choice was France then ruled by Louis XIV. Eugene's father was close to Louis and according to salacious rumour his mother was closer. Unfortunately she fell from favour and turned to black magic and various other socially unacceptable activities. Implicated in the poisoning death of her husband she fled Paris leaving Eugene and his siblings to be raised by their paternal grandmother.

Eugene was earmarked for the church from an early age due to his physical infirmity and general sloppiness (with a resume like that its amazing he didn't become pope) but Eugene wanted to go for a soldier and asked Louis for a command. Unfortunately Louis hadn't forgotten that Eugene's mother was a devil worshiping nutbag and turned the young man down flat. In high dudgeon Eugene stomped out of Versailles and promptly offered his services to Louis' greatest continental rival the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. He came at a good time; Vienna was under siege by the Ottoman Turks and Leopold was prepared to take help from anyone who offered it (see a previous brilliantly written blog entry for the details). Eugene served in the force that relieved Vienna (and Leopold) and distinguished himself in the battle. This lead to command of a regiment of dragoons and a glorious part in the battles that followed as the imperial forces pursued the retreating Turks.

After recovering from a serious wound to the knee Eugene served in Italy during the Nine Years War against France alongside his cousin Duke Victor-Amadeus of Savoy who had decided to hitch his wagon to the Habsburg star. This proved rather stupid as the Habsburg operations in Italy were marked by sloth and incompetence (with Eugene fuming at the idiocy of his superiors) and eventually Victor-Amadeus decided to go crawling back to Louis which undermined the Habsburg position completely. Eugene having bitched (accurately enough) about most of the Habsburg commanders in Italy wasn't in good odour at court until Leopold surprised everybody by making him a field marshal. At that point everybody in court started talking about how they had always known that he was a military genius.

Peace with the French allowed Leopold to continue his war against the Ottomans and now Eugene was in charge. He won a staggering victory at the Battle of Zenta and went on to sack Sarajevo. Thereafter peace was made with the Turks so that Leopold could turn his attention back to France. Charles (Karl, Carlos etc) II the Habsburg king of Spain was on the point of dying (to be fair he had been on the point of dying for most of his life) and all of Europe was sharpening swords in anticipation of a succession struggle. Louis had married one of his sons to Charles' half sister and with Charles childless their son Philip was named as Charles' heir. Unfortunately pretty much the entire remainder of Europe was having kittens at the thought of the unification of the French and Spanish thrones under the rule of the House of Bourbon. Leopold as head of the House of Habsburg was one of the chief kitten havers but joining him in feline birth were Holland, England, bits (but not all) of Spain, Savoy (breaking away from France again), Portugal and Prussia.

Originally commanding in Italy, Eugene won a victory over French forces but reinforcements (under a more capable general) allowed the French to keep the initiative and Eugene settled for keeping a force in being to assert Habsburg claims. Eugene himself was then transferred to the Rhine (the war was over the succession to the Spanish throne so naturally a lot of the fighting was done in Belgium and Germany) where he formed a highly successful partnership with John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough who commanded the Anglo-Dutch army. During their time together Eugene and Marlborough defeated the French on several occasions (and spanked the Bavarians who had rather foolishly pulled a Savoy in reverse) and were instrumental in bringing the war to a successful conclusion.

Unfortunately the new emperor, Charles VI (Leopold and his immediate successor Joseph both having died) proved to be an idiot and carried on the war with France by himself in the hopes of claiming the Spanish throne. Outnumbered and (as usual) bankrupt the Habsburgs suffered a pair of defeats despite Eugene's leadership. Charles then reluctantly made peace and Eugene proved to be as skillful a negotiator as he was a soldier because the peace terms were far more favourable than the circumstances deserved. Less than two years later Eugene was back in the Balkans fighting the Turks (again). This time his victory was decisive, the Ottoman army was crushed and Belgrade was captured. Never again would the Turks threaten the existence of the Habsburg empire. Eugene was riding high.

With the wars over for the time being Eugene used his wealth to develop a reputation as a patron of the arts and architecture or, if you prefer it, now that he had wealth he was able to indulge in a long held and genuine passion for the arts and architecture; whatever. He also had considerable influence with the emperor. Since 1703 he had been head of the Imperial War Council (as well as commander in the field) and he and a close friend Count Wratislaw von Mitrowitz had been pretty much running the government since 1709. When Wratislaw died Eugene more or less was the government. Unfortunately his opposition to Charles' halfwit Spanish ambitions lost him a certain amount of favour.

There was one last war for Eugene, however. In 1733 the King of Poland died kicking off the War of the Polish Succession. Naturally this wound up as a contest between Habsburg Empire and Bourbon France (pretty much everything in Europe did in those days) and Eugene was back campaigning on the Rhine. Not for long though, Eugene was past seventy and almost visibly disintegrating in body and mind. The campaign was uninspired and notable only for the fact that it included a young German prince who would become Frederick the Great of Prussia. Only a French desire not to extend the war saved the Empire from defeat and Eugene from humiliation in his final days. As it was he died peacefully in his sleep not long afterwards.

Eugene of Savoy was possibly the greatest soldier who ever served the Habsburg monarchy. He served it faithfully and well and it seems a little churlish to point out that he did it largely to piss off Louis XIV of France.