Prince Eugene of Savoy (Eugène-François de Savoie, Eugen von Savoyen) died two hundred and ninety years ago, on April 21, 1736. He was the most outstanding imperial commander of Austria in the wars against the Turks and the War of the Spanish Succession, and the man who drove the Turks out of Hungary.
He was born in Paris on October 18, 1663; his mother was the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who once ruled France, and his father was officially the Prince of Savoy-Carignan, though rumor had it that he was none other than the Sun King, Louis XIV. His mother paid little attention to her children’s upbringing; she was more preoccupied with court intrigues, in which she ultimately lost out and was forced to flee to Brussels in 1673. The Sun King intended for the frail-looking Eugene, who was mockingly called the “little abbot,” to become a priest, denying him the opportunity for a military career.
Fact
Eugene of Savoy (François-Eugène de Savoie) was a famous military commander in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. He was born a subject of the King of France as a Member of the House of Savoy, one of the oldest and most prominent noble families in Europe. The House of Savoy ruled the Duchy of Savoy (which included parts of modern-day France, Italy, and Switzerland) and later the Kingdom of Sardinia and eventually unified Italy.
The offended young man left his homeland at the age of twenty and offered his sword to the French’s greatest adversary, Leopold I of the House of Habsburg, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary and Bohemia.
In 1683, the prince took part in the rout of the Turks who were besieging Vienna for the last time, and through his bravery he soon became commander of a dragoon regiment; by the age of 22, he had already become a general. In 1686, he served as deputy commander of the Christian forces that liberated Buda, and in 1687, he brought the news of the victory at Nagyharsány (southern Hungary) —often referred to as the “Second Battle of Mohács,” though this time ending in a catastrophic defeat for the Turks—to Vienna. In the War of the Palatinate Succession that broke out in 1688, he fought against the French alongside his relative, Prince Victor Amadeus of Savoy, who eventually concluded a separate peace.
At the age of 29, Leopold I promoted him to general and in 1696 appointed him to lead the army setting out to drive the Turks out of Hungary. In his first independent campaign, Eugene of Savoy routed the numerically superior Turks at the Battle of Zenta on September 11, 1697; the victory brought an end to a century and a half of Turkish rule in Hungary.
He was not able to enjoy the honors and estates that rained down upon him (most of which were in liberated Hungary) for long: the War of the Spanish Succession, which broke out in 1701, called him back to the battlefield.
Crossing the Alps, he racked up one victory after another on the battlefield, but he had to contend not only with the French; officials at the Viennese court also made his task more difficult. The situation did not change until 1703, when he was appointed president of the Imperial War Council, and he transformed the imperial army into a formidable force. In 1704, at Blenheim, in alliance with the British Duke of Marlborough, he defeated the Bavarians who had defected to the French; in 1706, with his victory at Turin, he secured Northern Italy for Austria; and in 1708–1709, he secured most of the Low Countries; his victories were decisive in bringing about the peace treaties that ended the war.
During the Rákóczi War of Independence, although he held the Hungarians in high esteem and spoke out on multiple occasions in defense of Hungary’s constitutional rights, he remained loyal to his oath to the emperor and opposed any concessions to the “rebel” Ferenc Rákóczi II. After the War of Independence, at the Diet of 1712–15, he was granted indigenate, meaning he was conferred Hungarian nobility by a special law as a distinction.
Eugene of Savoy became governor of the Low Countries in 1714, but when the Porte violated the Treaty of Karlóc in 1716, Emperor Charles VI sent him once again to fight the Turks. At Pétervárad (today’s Serbia), the prince defeated Ali Pasha’s 150,000-strong army, recaptured the last major Turkish stronghold in Hungary, Temesvár (Timișoara), and then laid siege to Belgrade (Nándorfehérvár) in August 1717. With a force of barely 40,000 men, he routed the 200,000-strong Turkish army that had arrived to relieve the fortress, and subsequently captured Belgrade, which later, in 1739, fell once again under Ottoman rule.
As a result of this resounding victory, the sultan, acknowledging his defeat, offered to negotiate, leading to the 1718 Treaty of Pozsarevac, which permanently expelled the Turks from Hungary.
After his battlefield victories, the prince once again governed the Low Countries of the Habsburg Empire (modern Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and parts of northern France), but spent most of his time at his palace in Vienna, the Belvedere. In 1734, he went to war once more in the War of the Polish Succession, but was soon recalled due to his age.
One of the Habsburgs’ greatest military commanders died of a stroke in Vienna on April 21, 1736, at the age of 73; he is buried in one of the chapels of St. Stephen’s Cathedral.
Known as Prince Eugen von Savoyen in German-speaking regions, Eugene of Savoy played a pivotal role in the Habsburg Empire’s emergence as a victorious power from the great European wars of the late 17th and early 18th centuries. His military successes can be attributed to his excellent strategic decisions and his captivating drive; he not only conquered the occupied territories but also held them.
Prince Eugene monument at the Buda Castle. Photo: Wikimedia Commons
His personal bravery is demonstrated by the fact that he was wounded 13 times during 24 battles. He taught the military arts to Frederick II (the Great), the future King of Prussia; Napoleon considered only his campaigns worthy of study.
He was a patron of the arts and sciences, corresponded with the greatest minds of his age, and amassed a vast library and art collection; his 15,000-volume book collection is housed in the Austrian National Library. The prince also owned vast estates in Hungary; among other things, he owned the entire island of Csepel, where he built the Ráckeve Castle. His estate included Promontor—today’s Budafok—one of whose central squares bears his name, and the Savoya Park shopping center is also named in his honor. Equestrian statues of him stand in front of the Hofburg in Vienna and the Buda Castle as well.
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Via MTI; Featured image: Wikimedia Commons
