Eugene of Savoy

Early years (1663–1699)

Birth and family

Prince Eugene was born at the Hôtel de Soissons in Paris on 18 October 1663. His mother, Olympia Mancini, was one of Cardinal Mazarin's nieces whom the Cardinal had brought to Paris from Rome in 1647 to further his (and, to a lesser extent, their) ambitions. The Mancinis were raised at the Palais-Royal along with the young Louis XIV, with whom Olympia formed an intimate relationship. Yet to her great disappointment, her chance to become queen passed by, and in 1657 she married Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons, Count of Dreux and Prince of Savoy. Together they had had five sons (Eugene being the youngest) and three daughters, but neither parent spent much time with the children: the father, a French general officer, spent much of his time away campaigning, while Olympia's passion for court intrigue meant the children received little attention from her.

The King remained strongly attached to Olympia, so much so that many believed them to be lovers; but her scheming eventually led to her downfall. After falling out of favour at court, Olympia turned to Catherine Deshayes (known as La Voisin), and to the arts of black magic and astrology. It proved a fatal relationship. She became embroiled in the "Affaire des poisons"; suspicions abounded of her involvement in her husband's premature death in 1673, and even implicated her in a plot to kill the King himself. Whatever the truth, Olympia, rather than face trial, subsequently fled France for Brussels in January 1680, leaving Eugene in the care of his paternal grandmother, Marie de Bourbon, Countess of Soissons, and of his paternal aunt, Louise Christine of Savoy, Princess of Baden consort to the heir apparent Ferdinand Maximilian, and mother of Prince Louis of Baden.

Youth

From the age of ten, Eugene had been brought up for a career in the church, in line with expectations for the youngest son. Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans, known for her satirical letters and her hostility toward those who opposed the French crown, described him unfavourably, writing that he was "never good looking" and criticising his features. In the same retrospective commentary, she claimed he had lived a life of "debauchery" and associated with what she described as an "effeminate” circle", including figures such as the Abbé de Choisy. These remarks were made decades later, after Eugene had entered the service of France’s principal enemy, the Habsburgs.

In February 1683, to the surprise of his family, the 19-year-old Eugene declared his intention of joining the army. Eugene applied directly to Louis XIV for command of a company in French service, but the King who was said to dislike Eugene's appearance and who had shown no compassion for Olympia's children since her disgrace—refused him out of hand. "The request was modest, not so the petitioner", he remarked. "No one else ever presumed to stare me out so insolently." Whatever the case, Louis XIV's choice would cost him dearly twenty years later, for it would be precisely Eugene, in collaboration with the Duke of Marlborough, who would defeat the French army at Blenheim, a decisive battle which checked French military supremacy and political power.

Denied a military career in France, Eugene decided to seek service abroad. One of Eugene's brothers, Louis Julius, had entered Imperial service the previous year, but he had been immediately killed fighting the Ottoman Empire in 1683. As soon as news of his death reached Paris, Eugene decided to immediately travel to Austria in the hope of taking over his brother's command. It was not an unnatural decision: his first cousin, Louis of Baden, was already a leading general in the Imperial army, as was a more distant cousin, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. 13 days after his brother's death, on the night of 26 July 1683, Eugene left Paris and headed east. Some accounts state that Eugene travelled in disguise, reportedly dressed as a woman, and was accompanied by his cousin Louis Armand I, Prince of Conti. Years later, in his memoirs, Eugene recalled his early years in France:

Some future historians, good or bad, will perhaps take the trouble to enter into the details of my youth, of which, I scarcely recollect anything. They will certainly speak of my mother; somewhat too intriguing indeed, driven from the court, exiled from Paris, and suspected, I believe, of sorcery, by people who were not, themselves, very great conjurors. They will tell, how I was born in France and how I quitted it, my heart swelling with enmity against Louis XIV who refused me a company of horse, because, said he, I was of too delicate a constitution; and an abbey, because he thought, (from I know not what evil discourse respecting me, or what false anecdotes current in the gallery of Versailles,) that I was more formed for pleasure than for piety. There is not a Huguenot, expelled by the revocation of the edict of Nantz who hated him more than I did. Therefore when Louvois, hearing of my departure, said, "So much the better; he will never return into this country again,"— I swore never to enter it but with arms in my hands. I HAVE KEPT MY WORD.I have penetrated into it on many sides, and it is not my fault that I have not gone further. But for the English, I had given law in the capital of the Grand Monarque, and made his MAINTENON shut herself up in a convent for life.

Great Turkish War

By May 1683, the Ottoman threat to Emperor Leopold I's capital, Vienna, was very evident. The Grand Vizier, Kara Mustafa Pasha—encouraged by Imre Thököly's Magyar rebellion—had invaded Hungary with between 100,000 and 200,000 men; within two months approximately 90,000 were beneath Vienna's walls. With the 'Turks at the gates', the Emperor fled for the safe refuge of Passau up the Danube. It was at Leopold I's camp that Eugene arrived in mid-August.

Although Eugene was not of Austrian extraction, he did have Habsburg antecedents. His grandfather, Thomas Francis, founder of the Carignano line of the House of Savoy, was the son of Catherine Michaela of Spain—a daughter of Philip II of Spain—and the great-grandson of the Emperor Charles V. But of more immediate consequence to Leopold I was the fact that Eugene was a relative of Victor Amadeus II, the Duke of Savoy, a connection that the Emperor hoped might prove useful in any future confrontation with France. These ties, together with his ascetic manner and appearance (a positive advantage to him at the sombre court of Leopold I), ensured the refugee from the hated French king a warm welcome at Passau, and a position in Imperial service. Though French was his favoured language, he communicated with Leopold in Italian, as the Emperor (though he knew it perfectly) disliked French. But Eugene also had a reasonable command of German, which he understood very easily, something that helped him much in the military.

I will devote all my strength, all my courage, and if need be, my last drop of blood, to the service of your Imperial Majesty.

Eugene had no doubt as to where his new allegiance lay, and this loyalty was immediately put to the test. By September, the Imperial forces under the Duke of Lorraine, together with a powerful Polish army under King John III Sobieski, were poised to strike the Sultan's army. On the morning of 12 September, the Christian forces drew up in line of battle on the south-eastern slopes of the Vienna Woods, looking down on the massed enemy camp. The day-long Battle of Vienna resulted in the lifting of the 60-day siege, and the Sultan's forces were routed. Serving under Baden, as a twenty-year-old volunteer, Eugene distinguished himself in the battle, earning commendation from Lorraine and the Emperor; he later received the nomination for the colonelcy and was awarded the Kufstein regiment of dragoons by Leopold I.

Middle life (1700–20)

War of the Spanish Succession

With the death of the infirm and childless Charles II of Spain on 1 November 1700, the succession of the Spanish throne and subsequent control over her empire once again embroiled Europe in war—the War of the Spanish Succession. On his deathbed Charles II had bequeathed the entire Spanish inheritance to Louis XIV's grandson, Philip, Duke of Anjou. This threatened to unite the Spanish and French kingdoms under the House of Bourbon—something unacceptable to England, the Dutch Republic, and Leopold I, who had himself a claim to the Spanish throne. From the beginning, the Emperor had refused to accept the will of Charles II, and he did not wait for England and the Dutch Republic to begin hostilities. Before a new Grand Alliance could be concluded Leopold I prepared to send an expedition to seize the Spanish lands in Italy.

Eugene crossed the Alps with some 30,000 men in May/June 1701. After a series of brilliant manoeuvres the Imperial commander defeated Catinat at the Battle of Carpi on 9 July. "I have warned you that you are dealing with an enterprising young prince", wrote Louis XIV to his commander, "he does not tie himself down to the rules of war." On 1 September Eugene defeated Catinat's successor, Marshal Villeroi, at the Battle of Chiari, in a clash as destructive as any in the Italian theatre. But as so often throughout his career the Prince faced war on two fronts—the enemy in the field and the government in Vienna.

Starved of supplies, money, and men, Eugene was forced into unconventional means against the vastly superior enemy. During a daring raid on Cremona on the night of 31 January/1 February 1702 Eugene captured the French commander-in-chief. Yet the coup was less successful than hoped: Cremona remained in French hands, and the Duke of Vendôme, whose talents far exceeded Villeroi's, became the theatre's new commander. Villeroi's capture caused a sensation in Europe and had a galvanizing effect on English public opinion. "The surprise at Cremona", wrote the diarist John Evelyn, "... was the great discourse of this week"; but appeals for succour from Vienna remained unheeded, forcing Eugene to seek battle and gain a 'lucky hit'. The resulting Battle of Luzzara on 15 August proved inconclusive. Although Eugene's forces inflicted double the number of casualties on the French the battle settled little except to deter Vendôme trying an all-out assault on Imperial forces that year, enabling Eugene to hold on south of the Alps. With his army routing away, and personally grieving for his long-standing friend Prince Commercy who had died at Luzzara, Eugene returned to Vienna in January 1703.

Austro-Turkish War

Eugene's main reason for desiring peace in the west was the growing danger posed by the Turks in the east. Turkish military ambitions had revived after 1711 when they had mauled Peter the Great's army on the River Pruth (Pruth River Campaign): in December 1714 Sultan Ahmed III's forces attacked the Venetians in the Kingdom of the Morea. To Vienna it was clear that the Turks intended to attack Hungary and undo the whole Karlowitz settlement of 1699. After the Sublime Porte rejected an offer of mediation in April 1716, Charles VI despatched Eugene to Hungary to lead his relatively small but professional army. Of all Eugene's wars this was the one in which he exercised most direct control; it was also a war which, for the most part, Austria fought and won on her own. Eugene left Vienna in early June 1716 with a field army of between 80,000 and 90,000 men. By early August 1716 the Ottoman Turks, some 200,000 men under the sultan's son-in-law, the Grand Vizier Damat Ali Pasha, were marching from Belgrade towards Eugene's position on the north bank of the Danube west of the fortress of Petrovaradin. The Grand Vizier had intended to seize the fortress; but Eugene gave him no chance to do so. After resisting calls for caution and forgoing a council of war, the Prince decided to attack immediately on the morning of 5 August with approximately 70,000 men. The Turkish janissaries had some initial success, but after an Imperial cavalry attack on their flank, Ali Pasha's forces fell into confusion. Although the Imperials lost almost 5,000 dead or wounded, the Turks, who retreated in disorder to Belgrade, seem to have lost double that amount, including the Grand Vizier himself who had entered the mêlée and subsequently died of his wounds.

Eugene proceeded to take the Banat fortress of Temeswar in mid-October 1716 (thus ending 164 years of Turkish rule), before turning his attention to the next campaign and to what he considered the main goal of the war, Belgrade. Situated at the confluence of the Rivers Danube and Sava, Belgrade held a garrison of 30,000 men under Serasker Mustapha Pasha.

Imperial troops besieged the place in mid-June 1717, and by the end of July large parts of the city had been destroyed by artillery fire. By the first days of August, however, a huge Turkish field army (150,000–200,000 strong), under the new Grand Vizier Hacı Halil Pasha had arrived on the plateau east of the city to relieve the garrison. News spread through Europe of Eugene's imminent destruction; but he had no intention of lifting the siege. With his men suffering from dysentery, and continuous bombardment from the plateau, Eugene, aware that a decisive victory alone could extricate his army, decided to attack the relief force. On the morning of 16 August, 40,000 Imperial troops marched through the fog, caught the Turks unaware, and routed Halil Pasha's army; a week later Belgrade surrendered, effectively bringing an end to the war. The victory was the crowning point of Eugene's military career and had confirmed him as the leading European general. His ability to snatch victory at the moment of defeat had shown the prince at his best.

Quadruple Alliance

While Eugene fought the Turks in the east, unresolved issues following the Utrecht/Rastatt settlements led to hostilities between the Emperor and Philip V of Spain in the west. Charles VI had refused to recognise Philip V as King of Spain, a title which he himself claimed; in return, Philip V had refused to renounce his claims to Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands, all of which had transferred to the House of Austria following the Spanish Succession war. Philip V was roused by his influential wife, Elisabeth Farnese, daughter of the Hereditary Prince of Parma, who personally held dynastic claims in the name of her son, Charles, to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma and Piacenza. Representatives from a newly formed Anglo-French alliance—who were desirous of European peace for their own dynastic securities and trade opportunities—called on both parties to recognise each other's sovereignty. Yet Philip V remained intractable, and on 22 August 1717 his chief minister, Alberoni, effected the invasion of Austrian Sardinia in what seemed like the beginning of the reconquest of Spain's former Italian empire.

Eugene returned to Vienna from his recent victory at Belgrade (before the conclusion of the Turkish war) determined to prevent an escalation of the conflict, complaining that, "two wars cannot be waged with one army"; only reluctantly did the Prince release some troops from the Balkans for the Italian campaign. Rejecting all diplomatic overtures Philip V unleashed another assault in June 1718, this time against Savoyard Sicily as a preliminary to attacking the Italian mainland. Realizing that only the British fleet could prevent further Spanish landings, and that pro-Spanish groups in France might push the regent, Duke of Orléans, into war against Austria, Charles VI had no option but to sign the Quadruple Alliance on 2 August 1718, and formally renounce his claim to Spain. Despite the Spanish fleet's destruction off Cape Passaro, Philip V and Elisabeth remained resolute, and rejected the treaty.

Although Eugene could have gone south after the conclusion of the Turkish war, he chose instead to conduct operations from Vienna; but Austria's military effort in Sicily proved derisory, and Eugene's chosen commanders, Zum Jungen, and later Count Mercy, performed poorly. It was only from pressure exerted by the French army advancing into the Basque provinces of northern Spain in April 1719, and the British Navy's attacks on the Spanish fleet and shipping, that compelled Philip V and Elisabeth to dismiss Alberoni and join the Quadruple Alliance on 25 January 1720. Nevertheless, the Spanish attacks had strained Charles VI's government, causing tension between the Emperor and his Spanish Council on the one hand, and the conference, headed by Eugene, on the other. Despite Charles VI's own personal ambitions in the Mediterranean it was clear to the Emperor that Eugene had put the safeguarding of his conquests in Hungary before everything else, and that military failure in Sicily also had to rest on Eugene. Consequently, the Prince's influence over the Emperor declined considerably.

Later life (1721–36)

Governor-General of the Austrian Netherlands

Eugene had become governor of the Austrian Netherlands—in June 1716, but he was an absent ruler, directing policy from Vienna through his chosen representative the Marquis of Prié. Prié proved unpopular with the local population and the guilds who, following the Barrier Treaty of 1715, were obliged to meet the financial demands of the administration and the Dutch barrier garrisons; with Eugene's backing and encouragement, civil disturbances in Antwerp and Brussels were forcibly suppressed. After displeasing the Emperor over his initial opposition to the formation of the Ostend Company, Prié also lost the support of the native nobility from within his own council of state in Brussels, particularly from the Marquis de Mérode-Westerloo. One of Eugene's former favourites, General Bonneval, also joined the noblemen in opposition to Prié, further undermining the Prince. When Prié's position became untenable, Eugene felt compelled to resign his post as governor of the Austrian Netherlands on 16 November 1724. As compensation, Charles VI conferred on him the honorary position as vicar-general of Italy, worth 140,000 gulden a year, and an estate at Siebenbrunn in Lower Austria said to be worth double that amount. But his resignation distressed him, and to compound his concerns Eugene caught a severe bout of influenza that Christmas, marking the beginning of permanent bronchitis and acute infections every winter for the remaining twelve years of his life.

'Cold war'

The 1720s saw rapidly changing alliances between the European powers and almost constant diplomatic confrontation, largely over unsolved issues regarding the Quadruple Alliance. The Emperor and the Spanish king continued to use each other's titles, and Charles VI still refused to remove the remaining legal obstacles to Don Charles' eventual succession to the duchies of Parma and Tuscany. Yet in a surprise move Spain and Austria moved closer with the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in April/May 1725. In response Britain, France, and Prussia joined in the Alliance of Hanover to counter the danger to Europe of an Austro-Spanish hegemony. For the next three years there was the continual threat of war between the Hanover Treaty powers and the Austro-Spanish bloc.

From 1726, Eugene gradually began to regain his political influence. With his many contacts throughout Europe Eugene, backed by Gundaker Starhemberg and Count Schönborn, the Imperial vice-chancellor, managed to secure powerful allies and strengthen the Emperor's position—his skill in managing the vast secret diplomatic network over the coming years was the main reason why Charles VI once again came to depend upon him. In August 1726 Russia acceded to the Austro-Spanish alliance, and in October Frederick William I of Prussia followed suit by defecting from the Allies with the signing of a mutual defensive treaty with the Emperor.

Despite the conclusion of the brief Anglo-Spanish conflict, manoeuvring between the European powers persisted throughout 1727–28. In 1729 Elisabeth Farnese abandoned the Austro-Spanish alliance. Realizing that Charles VI could not be drawn into the marriage pact she wanted, Elisabeth concluded that the best way to secure her son's succession to Parma and Tuscany now lay with Britain and France. To Eugene it was 'an event that which is seldom to be found in history'. Following the Prince's determined lead to resist all pressure, Charles VI sent troops into Italy to prevent the entry of Spanish garrisons into the contested duchies. By the beginning of 1730 Eugene, who had remained bellicose throughout the whole period, was again in control of Austrian policy.

In Britain there now emerged a new political re-alignment as the Anglo-French entente became increasingly defunct. Believing that a resurgent France now posed the greatest danger to their security, Robert Walpole led British ministers in moving to reform the Anglo-Austrian Alliance, leading to the signing of the Second Treaty of Vienna on 16 March 1731. Eugene had been the Austrian minister most responsible for the alliance, believing once again it would provide security against France and Spain. The treaty compelled Charles VI to sacrifice the Ostend Company and accept, unequivocally, the accession of Don Charles to Parma and Tuscany. In return King George II as King of Great Britain and Elector of Electorate of Hanover guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction, the device to secure the rights of the Emperor's daughter, Maria Theresa, to the entire Habsburg inheritance. It was largely through Eugene's diplomacy that in January 1732 the Imperial diet also guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction which, together with the Treaties with Britain, Russia, and Prussia, marked the culmination of the Prince's diplomacy. But the Treaty of Vienna had infuriated the court of King Louis XV: the French had been ignored and the Pragmatic Sanction guaranteed, thus increasing Habsburg influence and confirming Austria's vast territorial size. The Emperor also intended Maria Theresa to marry Duke Francis Stephen of Lorraine which would present an unacceptable threat on France's border. By the beginning of 1733 the French army was ready for war: all that was needed was the excuse.

War of the Polish Succession

In 1733 the Polish King and Elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, died. There were two candidates for his successor: first, Stanisław Leszczyński, the father-in-law of Louis XV; second, the Elector of Saxony's son, Augustus, supported by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Polish succession had afforded Louis XV's chief minister, Fleury, the opportunity to attack Austria and take Lorraine from Francis Stephen. To gain Spanish support France backed the succession of Elisabeth Farnese's sons to further Italian lands.

Eugene entered the War of the Polish Succession as President of the Imperial War Council and commander-in-chief of the army, but he was severely handicapped by the quality of his troops and the shortage of funds; now in his seventies, the Prince was also burdened by rapidly declining physical and mental powers. France declared war on Austria on 10 October 1733, but without the funds from the Maritime Powers – who, despite the Vienna treaty, remained neutral throughout the war – Austria could not hire the necessary troops to wage an offensive campaign. "The danger to the monarchy", wrote Eugene to the Emperor in October, "cannot be exaggerated". By the end of the year French forces had seized Lorraine and Milan; by early 1734 Spanish troops had taken Sicily.

Eugene took command on the Rhine in April 1734, but vastly outnumbered he was forced onto the defensive. In June Eugene set out to relieve Philippsburg, yet his former drive and energy was now gone. Accompanying Eugene was a young prince Frederick of Prussia, sent by his father to learn the art of war. Frederick gained considerable knowledge from Eugene, recalling in later life his great debt to his Austrian mentor, but the Prussian prince was aghast at Eugene's condition, writing later, "his body was still there but his soul had gone." Eugene conducted another cautious campaign in 1735, once again pursuing a sensible defensive strategy on limited resources; but his short-term memory was by now practically non-existent, and his political influence disappeared completely—Gundaker Starhemberg and Johann Christoph von Bartenstein now dominated the conference in his place. Fortunately for Charles VI, Fleury was determined to limit the scope of the war, and in October 1735 he granted generous peace preliminaries to the Emperor.

Later years and death

Eugene returned to Vienna from the War of the Polish Succession in October 1735, weak and feeble; when Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen married in February 1736 Eugene was too ill to attend. After playing cards at Countess Batthyány's on the evening of 20 April until nine in the evening, he returned home to the Stadtpalais, his attendant offered him to take his prescribed medicine which Eugene declined.

When his servants arrived to wake him the next morning on 21 April 1736, they found Prince Eugene dead after passing away quietly during the night. It has been said that on the same morning he was discovered dead, the great lion in his menagerie was also found dead.

Eugene's heart was buried with the ashes of his ancestors in Turin, in the Basilica of Superga. His remains were carried in a long procession to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where his embalmed body was buried in the Kreuzkapelle. It is said that the emperor himself attended as a mourner without anybody's knowledge.

The Prince's niece Maria Anna Victoria, whom he had never met, inherited Eugene's immense possessions. Within a few years she sold off the palaces, the country estates and the art collection of a man who had become one of the wealthiest in Europe, after arriving in Vienna as a refugee with empty pockets.

Personal life

Being an Italian by descent, a Frenchman by birth, and a German by adoption, Prince Eugene signed his name using the trilingual form “Eugenio von Savoye” (Italian: Eugenio, German: von, French: Savoye).

Eugene never married. He was reported to have said that a woman was a hindrance in war and that a soldier should not marry. Some contemporaries attributed his defeat at the 1712 Battle of Denain to the presence of an Italian lady accompanying him on campaign, a claim repeated by Voltaire, who said he had met the woman in question. He was sometimes described as "Mars without Venus" for his lifelong bachelorhood. Winston Churchill, in his biography of the John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, wrote that Eugene was "a bachelor, almost a misogynist, disdainful of money, content with his bright sword and his lifelong animosity against Louis XIV".

For the final two decades of his life, Eugene was closely associated with Hungarian Countess Eleonore Batthyány-Strattmann, the widowed daughter of Theodor von Strattman, a former Hofkanzler. Although Eugene left no personal papers beyond official correspondence, he and Eleonore were constant companions. They met almost daily for dinner, receptions, and card games, and were widely assumed by diplomats to be lovers. One earlier reference exists to another woman, Countess Maria Thürheim, but there is no further evidence of a relationship. The precise beginning of Eugene and Eleonore's relationship is unknown, though their estates in Hungary near Rechnitz Castle made them neighbours after the Battle of Zenta. In diplomatic correspondence of the early 18th century, she was referred to as “Eugen’s Egeria” and eventually as his constant companion. When asked if she and the prince would marry, Eleonore reportedly replied, “I love him too well for that, I would rather have a bad reputation than deprive him of his.”

Allegations concerning Eugene’s private life circulated in later court correspondence, most notably from Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orléans, a prolific letter-writer and wife of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, a noted court figure known for male companions and brother to Louis XIV. In her correspondence, she alleged that Eugene had engaged in “youthful indiscretions” with lackeys and pages, and claimed that he was denied an ecclesiastical benefice due to “depravity”. Eugene’s biographer Helmut Oehler attributed these comments to her personal hostility. Eugene himself mocked the claims in his memoirs as “the invented anecdotes from the gallery of Versailles”. These allegations were made many years later, after Eugene had inflicted military defeats on her brother-in-law Louis XIV. No further contemporary accusations regarding Eugene’s private life were recorded. According to historians Kramar and Mayrhofer, reflecting the attitudes of a time when such allegations were framed as discrediting or defamatory, “there was never again an observer or a malicious diplomat who accused Eugene of homosexual inclinations”.

Patron of the arts

Eugene's rewards for his victories, his share of booty, his revenues from his abbeys in Savoy, and a steady income from his Imperial offices and governorships, enabled him to contribute to the landscape of Baroque architecture Eugene spent most of his life in Vienna at his Winter Palace, the Stadtpalais, built by Fischer von Erlach. The palace acted as his official residence and home, but for reasons that remain speculative the Prince's association with Fischer ended before the building was complete, favouring instead Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt as his chief architect. Eugene first employed Hildebrandt to finish the Stadtpalais before commissioning him to prepare plans for a palace on his Danubian island at Ráckeve, the Savoy Castle in Ráckeve. Begun in 1701 the single-story building took twenty years to complete; yet, probably because of the Rákóczi revolt, the Prince seems to have visited it only once—after the siege of Belgrade in 1717.

Of more importance was the grandiose complex of the two Belvedere palaces in Vienna. The single-storey Lower Belvedere, with its exotic gardens and zoo, was completed in 1716. The Upper Belvedere, completed between 1720 and 1722, is a more substantial building; with sparkling white stucco walls and copper roof, it became a wonder of Europe. Eugene and Hildebrandt also converted an existing structure on his Marchfeld estate into a country seat, the Schloss Hof, situated between the Rivers Danube and Morava. The building, completed in 1729, was far less elaborate than his other projects but it was strong enough to serve as a fortress in case of need. Eugene spent much of his spare time there in his last years accommodating large hunting parties.

In the years following the Peace of Rastatt Eugene became acquainted with a large number of scholarly men. Given his position and responsiveness, they were keen to meet him: few could exist without patronage and this was probably the main reason for Gottfried Leibniz's association with him in 1714. Eugene also befriended the French writer Jean-Baptiste Rousseau who, by 1716, was receiving financial support from Eugene. Rousseau stayed on attached to the Prince's household, probably helping in the library, until he left for the Netherlands in 1722. Another acquaintance, Montesquieu, already famous for his Persian Letters when he arrived in Vienna in 1728, favourably recalled his time spent at the Prince's table. Nevertheless, Eugene had no literary pretensions of his own, and was not tempted like Maurice de Saxe or Marshal Villars to write his memoirs or books on the art of war. He did, however, become a collector on the grandest scale: his picture galleries were filled with 16th- and 17th-century Italian, Dutch and Flemish art; his library at the Stadtpalais crammed with over 15,000 books, 237 manuscripts as well as a huge collection of prints (of particular interest were books on natural history and geography). "It is hardly believable", wrote Rousseau, "that a man who carries on his shoulders the burden of almost all the affairs of Europe ... should find as much time to read as though he had nothing else to do."

Historical reputation and legacy

Napoleon considered Eugene one of the eight greatest commanders of history. Although later military critics have disagreed with that assessment, Eugene was undoubtedly the greatest Austrian general. He was no military innovator, but he had the ability to make an inadequate system work. He was equally adept as an organiser, strategist, and tactician, believing in the primacy of battle and his ability to seize the opportune moment to launch a successful attack. "The important thing", wrote Maurice de Saxe in his Reveries, "is to see the opportunity and to know how to use it. Prince Eugene possessed this quality which is the greatest in the art of war and which is the test of the most elevated genius." This fluidity was key to his battlefield successes in Italy and in his wars against the Turks. Nevertheless, in the Low Countries, particularly after the battle of Oudenarde in 1708, Eugene, like his cousin Louis of Baden, tended to play safe and become bogged down in a conservative strategy of sieges and defending supply lines. After the attempt on Toulon in 1707, he also became very wary of combined land/sea operations. To historian Derek McKay the main criticism of him as a general is his legacy—he left no school of officers nor an army able to function without him.

Eugene was a disciplinarian—when ordinary soldiers disobeyed orders he was prepared to shoot them himself—but he rejected blind brutality, writing "you should only be harsh when, as often happens, kindness proves useless".

On the battlefield Eugene demanded courage in his subordinates, and expected his men to fight where and when he wanted; his criteria for promotion were based primarily on obedience to orders and courage on the battlefield rather than social position. On the whole, his men responded because he was willing to push himself as hard as them. His position as President of the Imperial War Council proved less successful. Following the long period of peace after the Austro-Turkish War, the idea of creating a separate field army or providing garrison troops with effective training for them to be turned into such an army quickly was never considered by Eugene. By the time of the War of the Polish Succession, therefore, the Austrians were outclassed by a better prepared French force. For this Eugene was largely to blame—in his view (unlike the drilling and manoeuvres carried out by the Prussians which to Eugene seemed irrelevant to real warfare) the time to create actual fighting men was when war came.

Memorials

A huge equestrian statue in the centre of Vienna commemorates Eugene's achievements. It is inscribed on one side, 'To the wise counsellor of three Emperors', and on the other, 'To the glorious conqueror of Austria's enemies'.

A prominent equestrian statue of Eugene sculpted by József Róna overlooks the Danube Promenade from the royal gardens of Buda Castle in Budapest. Erected in 1900, it was originally meant as a placeholder for a planned equestrian statue of Franz Joseph I, which was ultimately never completed.

Prinz-Eugen-Kapelle, a chapel located at the northern corner of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna

Prinz-Eugen-Straße a street in Vienna in use since 1890; Until 1911 a street in Döbling was also named Prinz-Eugen-Straße, since then the street connects Schwarzenbergplatz with the Wiedner Gürtel leading past the Belvedere Palace.

Strada Eugeniu de Savoya, a street in central part of Timișoara, Romania and the nearby house of Prinz Eugene of Savoy, built in 1817, over the old entrance gate of the Timișoara, used by the general when entering in the conquered city in 1716.

Several ships have been named in Eugene's honour:

SMS Prinz Eugen, an Austro-Hungarian ironclad warship built in 1862

SMS Prinz Eugen, an Austro-Hungarian ironclad warship built in the 1870s

SMS Prinz Eugen, an Austro-Hungarian battleship of World War I launched in 1912

HMS Prince Eugene, a Royal Navy monitor

Eugenio di Savoia, an Italian Navy light cruiser

Prinz Eugen (later USS Prinz Eugen), a German Navy heavy cruiser of World War II launched in 1938