, prince of Savoy, an illustrious general, was born in 1663, and descended
, prince of Savoy, an illustrious general, was born in 1663, and descended from Carignan, one of the three branches of the house of Savoy. His father was Eugene Maurice, general of the Swiss and Grisons, governor of Champaigne in France, and earl of Soissons; his mother donna Olympia Mancini, neice to cardinal Mazarin. In 1670 he was committed to the tuition of a doctor of the Sorbonne; but his father dying before he was ten years of age, after the French king had given him the grant of an abbey as a step to a cardinal’s hat, and the government of Champaigne being given out of his family, occasioned an alteration in his intended profession; which was indeed by no means suitable to his genius, although he gave great and early hopes of proficiency in the belles lettres, and is said to have been particularly fond of Curtius and Cæsar. He was a youth of great spirit, and so jealous of the honour of his family, that when his mother was banished by the king’s order from the French court to the Low Countries, soon after her husband’s decease, he protested against the injustice of her banishment, and vowed eternal enmity to the authors and contrivers of it. After being for a time trained to the service of the church, for which he had no relish, he desired the king, who maintained him according to his quality, to give him some military employment. This, however, was denied him, sometimes on account of the weakness of his constitution, sometimes for want of a vacancy, or a war to employ the troops in. Apprehending from hence that he was not likely to be considered so much as he thought he deserved in France, and perceiving that he was involved in the disgrace of his mother, he resolved to retire to Vienna with one of his brothers, prince Philip, to whom the emperor’s ambassador had, in his master’s name, promised a regiment of horse. They were kindly received by the emperor; and Eugene presently became a very great favourite with his imperial majesty. He had in the mean time many flattering promises and invitations to return to France; but his fidelity to the emperor was unshaken, and he resolved to think no more of France, but to look on himself as a German, and to spend his life in the service of the house of Austria.
y of peace, at Baden in Ergau: in which treaty he is entitled “The most high prince and lord Eugene, prince of Savoy and Piedmont, knight of the golden fleece, counsellor
In 1713, though forced to act only defensively on the
Rhine against the French, who now threatened to overrun
the empire, he nevertheless so signalized himself by his
vigilance and conduct, that he obliged them to spend one
whole summer in taking Landau and Friburg. March 6,
1714, he concluded with marshal Villars, at Rastadt, preliminary articles of a general peace between the empire
and France; which were signed by him, as his imperial
majesty’s plenipotentiary, Sept. the 27th following, in a
solemn treaty of peace, at Baden in Ergau: in which
treaty he is entitled “The most high prince and lord
Eugene, prince of Savoy and Piedmont, knight of the
golden fleece, counsellor of state to his sacred imperial
majesty, president of the council of war, lieutenant-general
and marshal of the holy Roman empire.
” Upon his return
to Vienna, he was received with the loudest acclamations
of joy by the people, and with the most cordial affection by
the emperor, who presented him with a fine sword richly
adorned with diamonds. He now seemed to have some
respite from the fatigues of war but neither was this to
last long: for, though peace was concluded with France,
yet war broke out on the side of the Turks, who in 1716
began to make extraordinary preparations. Eugene was
sent with the command of the imperial army into Hungary,
attacked the Turks in their camp, and obtained a complete
victory over them. He took the important fortress of
Temeswaer, after the Turks bad been in possession of it
164 years; and next invested Belgrade, which he also took.