Prince Eugene of Savoy

Biography

Eugene was born in Paris, the son of an Italian prince and a niece of Cardinal Mazarin. Slight, ugly, and destined by his mother for the Church, he was rejected by Louis XIV for a commission in the French army — reportedly because the Sun King thought him too small for a soldier. It was the worst personnel decision in French military history. Eugene crossed the border, entered Habsburg service, and spent the next fifty years making France regret it. He first saw action at the siege of Vienna in 1683 as a twenty-year-old volunteer and was immediately recognized as exceptional. He rose quickly through the Imperial army, commanding dragoons, then a regiment, then an army. His genius was a combination of audacity in the field and mastery of logistics: he was the rare general who could improvise a devastating attack and also make sure his men were fed. At Zenta in 1697 he caught the Ottoman army crossing the Tisza River and attacked without orders — the result was perhaps the most lopsided victory in European military history, with 25,000 Ottomans killed against 500 Imperial dead. Zenta made him the most famous soldier in Europe, but it was only the beginning. In the War of the Spanish Succession he partnered with Marlborough to win Blenheim, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, and he went on to fight the Ottomans again in 1716–18, capturing Belgrade. He served three emperors, never married, collected books and art, and built the Belvedere Palace in Vienna. When he died in 1736, even his enemies acknowledged that he had been the greatest general of his age — and possibly any age.

Key Battles