Everything about Prince Eugene Of Savoy totally explained
François-Eugène, Prince of Savoy-Carignan (
October 18,
1663–
April 24,
1736), known as
Prince Eugen the noble knight in Austria-Hungary,
Principe Eugenio di Savoia in Italian,
Prinz Eugen von Savoyen in German, was one of the most prominent generals to serve the
Habsburgs.
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 of the powerful Cardinal
Mazarin. There were rumours 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. This instability perhaps contributed to the development of his cosmopolitan character, exemplified by his signature: Eugenio von Savoy, which includes three languages ("Eugenio" in Italian, "von" in German, "Savoy" in French) (Spini).
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.
Turkish Wars
Eugene took part in the
relief of Vienna in 1683, after which he got his own
Dragoon regiment.
In the 1686 capture of
Buda, Eugene was wounded, but continued to serve until the siege of
Belgrade in 1688 where he was more seriously wounded. After that he returned to Vienna.
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.
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 skillful maneuvers, 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 hadn't been settled.
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, where 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 the 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.
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's 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
Victories of Peterwardein Hungary was cleared of Ottoman forces and the stronghold of
Belgrade was captured by Eugene
august 22 1717, attacking them unexpectedly over a pontoon bridge near the village of
Semlin. This victory is remembered in the traditional song "Prinz Eugenius, der edle Ritter (Prince Eugene, the noble knight)". 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.
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'd 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, whose name has thus been given to warships of four different navies--variously on opposite sides in both
World War I and
II.
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'd 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), an Austrian writer, dramatist and poet.
Prince Eugene of Savoy coin
Prince Eugene of Savoy has been the main motive for many collector coins and medals, the most recent one is the famous silver coin
20 euro Baroque coin issued in
September 11 2002. The reverse of the coin displays a portrait of Prince Eugene, reminiscent of his equestrian statue in the grounds of the
Hofburg Palace in Vienna. A typical baroque arrangement of cannon, flags and captured standards decorates the background.
Literature
- 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.
- 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
- Spini, Giorgio. "Storia dell'Eta' Moderna da Carlo V all'Illuminismo", Edizioni Einaudi, Torino, 1988. ISBN 8806049941
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