Eugene, PRINCE. François Eugène, commonly called Prince Eugene of Savoy, one of the greatest generals of his time, was born at Paris, 18th October 1663. He was the youngest of the five sons of Eugene Maurice of Savoy-Carignan, Count of Soissons (grandson of the Duke of Savoy, Charles Emmanuel I.), and of Olympia Mancini, a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. He was intended for the church, but had a strong predilection for the camp, and, after his father's death (1673), his mother's banishment from court by command of the young king Louis XIV., and the latter's refusal to give him a commission, he indignantly renounced his country, and at twenty entered the service of the Emperor Leopold as a volunteer against the Turks. He early displayed extraordinary courage and tactical talent in the Turkish war, especially at the famous siege of Vienna in 1683, and rose rapidly in rank. In the Coalition War against Louis XIV. in Italy, he covered himself with the glory peculiar both to the soldier and the general; he became field-marshal in 1693, and overwhelmed the Turks, who left 30,000 dead on the field, in the famous battle of Zenta, September 11, 1697, which put an end to their power in Hungary. The outbreak in 1701 of the Spanish War of Succession recalled him to the command of the army of Italy, but though he displayed a strategy worthy of Hannibal, inflicted several severe defeats upon the French, and even captured the Duke of Villeroi in Cremona by a daring night-attack, he was prevented from effecting anything of importance by the smallness of his own forces and the skilful tactics of the Duke of Vendôme, who inflicted upon him a severe defeat at Luzzara (15th August 1702). Becoming in 1703 president of the council of war, he took the command of the imperial army in Germany, and helped Marlborough to gain the brilliant victory of Blenheim (13th August 1704). Eugene was checked at Cassano (August 16, 1705) by Vendôme, and twice wounded in the field, but after a daring march appeared before Turin and crushed the French in a complete defeat which closed their career in Italy. He shared with Marlborough the glory of the fields of Oudenarde (in 1708) and Malplaquet (in 1709); but, being crippled in his resources by the retirement of Holland and England from the contest, he was unable to withstand the enemy on the Rhine, and his defeat by Villars at Denain (24th July 1712) was followed by other disasters, until the peace of Rastadt (6th March 1714) put an end to the war. On the recommencement of the war (in 1716) against the Turks, Eugene with but 64,000 men defeated an army of 150,000 men at Peterwardein, took Temesvar, and in the year 1717, after a desperate battle, carried Belgrade by assault. He had already lain for a month before the city contending against dysentery and a force six times his own, when he determined to stake everything upon a general attack. In the bloody struggle Eugene received his thirteenth wound.
After the peace of Passarowitz (21st July 1718), he returned covered with glory to Vienna, where, during the succeeding years of peace, he laboured with unwearied energy in the cabinet. When the question of the succession to the throne of Poland brought on a new war with France, Eugene appeared again on the Rhine, but owing to insufficient resources and failing vigour, he was unable to do more than keep the enemy out of Bavaria. After the peace, he returned to Vienna, where he died, 21st April 1736. Prince Eugene was of middling stature, his face thin and long; his eager dark eyes alone revealed the vigour of his nature. His dress was plain and simple like his manners; he had no passion but that of glory; no appetite save an inveterate relish for snuff. Although a strict disciplinarian and a general who risked his soldiers' lives as freely as his own, he was worshipped by his men, and he has gone down to posterity as a hero in popular song. As 'Prinz Eugen, der edle Ritter,' his memory is green with thousands who never heard of his campaigns. He introduced no new tactics in the art of war, and was deficient in the guidance and command of masses; but by his rapidity of perception and decision, and faculty for turning to instant advantage existing circumstances, he raised the prestige of the Austrian arms to an eminence unequalled before or since his time. He successively served under three emperors, of whom he was wont to say that in Leopold I. he had a father, in Joseph I. a brother, and in Charles VI. a master. Compare Dumont, Histoire Militaire du Prince Eugène (with continuation, 1823-29), and the monographs of Kausler (1838-39), Arneth (1858-59), Von Sybel (1861), and Col. Malleson (1888).