Evgeny Savoysky personal life. Evgeny Savoysky. Biography of the commander. War against the Ottoman Empire

Prince without a kingdom

Eugene of Savoy was born on October 18, 1663 in the family of an outstanding statesman and military figure of France, a representative of the House of Savoy, Eugene-Maurice of Savoy-Carinth. He was an influential person at court and served as governor of Champagne. Eugene's mother was Olympia Mancini, the niece of the all-powerful Cardinal Mazarin. From childhood, the boy was prepared for the clergy, because there were many influential clerics in the family, but young Eugene was attracted by the military path. He wanted to be like his father - a hero of two wars and a fighter against the Fronde.

Family tree of Evgeniy Savoysky

Eugene was barely ten years old when Eugene-Maurice died, and a dark streak came in the boy’s life. Having fallen out of favor at court, his mother was forced to leave Paris, and the little prince remained in the capital with a tiny boarding house. Eugene tried to enlist in military service, but Louis XIV, seeing the child’s weak physique, refused his request and decided to continue his spiritual education.

Eugene was born into the family of the Prince of Savoy and Mazarin's niece

The Prince of Savoy was not one to calmly accept adversity, even if it was caused by the Sun King himself. The future commander firmly decided to follow in his father’s footsteps, stopping at nothing. Soon he had the fortunate opportunity to begin a military career.

Great Turkish

In 1683, a terrible threat loomed over the Austrian monarchy: the Turkish Sultan Mehmed II decided to put an end to the “infidels” once and for all by setting Vienna on fire, for which he assembled a huge army for that time: about 200 thousand soldiers (and the same number of non-combatants). German Emperor Leopold I hastily sought allies throughout Europe, calling on all sympathizers to stand under his banner. The emperor's call found a response even among the Habsburgs' sworn enemies - the French. Hundreds of nobles went to war with the Turks, enlisting in the Austrian army. So twenty-year-old Eugene decided to try his luck in the fight for a common Christian cause, especially since his cousin Ludwig Wilhelm was already in Hungary. The young man was warmly received by the emperor and sent to the active army.

Battle of Mohacs 1687. In the foreground is Ludwig Wilhelm, brother of Eugene of Savoy.

On the fields of the Turkish war, the young aristocrat quickly gained fame - in less than six months he was promoted to colonel, and in 1686, after two years of constant battles, where he and his regiment were invariably the first, he received his first rank of general. And this at twenty-three years old! His bold and daring enterprises spread the fame of his young talent throughout Europe. Minister of War Louvlois, a prominent associate of Louis XIV (and also the main enemy of the Savoys at court), allegedly said, having heard about Eugene’s successes: “He will never return to France!” Eugene, according to legend, promised to return without fail, but with a weapon in his hands. And very soon he had such an opportunity.

To Italy!

The fact is that in 1688, when the war with Turkey was still in full swing, Austria had to enter into another war. The fact is that Louis XIV decided to take advantage of the political and dynastic situation and, while the Austrians were fighting in the east, to lay claim to the small German principality of the Kurpfalz. The Dutch ruler William of Orange, fearing the strengthening of France, quickly put together a coalition against Louis, the so-called League of Augsburg, from which the war got its name.

Austrian soldiers during the war of the League of Augsburg (based on the book by I. Golyzhenkov European Soldier for 300 Years)

Despite the fact that the object of the dispute was the lands on the Rhine, the flames of war quickly spread throughout Europe. The Emperor left a small corps in Hungary to act against the Turks, and sent his main forces against France. Eugene of Savoy was sent to Italy, where he was to act in accordance with the Duke of Savoy, with whom an agreement had been concluded.

At the age of 20 he entered the army, at 23 he became a general, and at 30 he became a field marshal!

Fighting in northern Italy began in the spring of 1690, when the French tried to withdraw Savoy from the war. The Duke of Savoy, thirsting for military exploits, decided to enter into battle with the excellent French army of Marshal Catin. No matter how much Eugene begged his distant relative (Duke Victor-Amadeus and the prince belonged to the same Savoy dynasty) to abandon the risky enterprise, he was adamant. The result is logical: the allied forces were defeated at Staffardo, and only the competent actions of Eugene saved them from complete disaster in Italy, who even managed to achieve some successes by the end of the year.

Portrait of the young Eugene of Savoy (c. 1700)

During the 1691 campaign, the French were driven out of Savoy and cleared of all of Northern Italy, largely due to the skillful actions of Prince Eugene. In the spring of 1692, the Allies, bypassing the French army, invaded Dauphine, a region in southern France. Eugene planned to occupy Dauphiné and Provence, which were left without cover (the main French forces were occupied on the Rhine), but the plan was prevented by the illness of Duke Victor-Amadeus, who was actually dying and had even managed to appoint Eugene as regent for the duke’s young son. After the capture of Embrun, the allied army had to return to the borders of Savoy, and the Duke miraculously recovered and began to actively approach the French, conducting secret negotiations, sabotaging all enterprises of the Austrians.

As commander

Before the conclusion of peace in 1697, nothing noticeable happened in Italy, and the Duke of Savoy even concluded a separate peace with the French in 1696. The Emperor summoned Eugene to Vienna (back in 1693, the prince was granted the rank of field marshal when he was only thirty years old!) and ordered him to go to Hungary, where the war with Turkey was still going on.

Eugene's defeat of the Turks at Zenta became the reason for the conclusion of peace

It is interesting that Louis XIV himself drew attention to Eugene’s talents after the campaigns in Italy and the latter’s invasion of France. The monarch invited him to join the French service, promising an impressive salary of 200 thousand livres, the “father’s” governorship of Champagne and a marshal’s baton. Eugene, who once so wanted to enter the service of the king, indignantly rejected such an offer - the emperor, who had once warmly received the prince as a twenty-year-old youth and showered him with ranks, became Eugene’s second father.

Rice. 5 Scheme of the Battle of Zenta - the first battle where Eugene was commander-in-chief

The campaign in Hungary in 1697 was the first campaign where Eugene was an absolute commander, independent of the orders of higher ranks in the theater of war. Here he was able to demonstrate his leadership talents even more clearly both in the strategic field and on the battlefield. Through maneuvers and movements, he forced the Turkish army to cross to the eastern bank of the Danube, and then caught it crossing the Tisa near the town of Zenta (modern Serbia). The battle took place on September 11, 1697.

Before the eyes of Sultan Mustafa, the Turkish camp on the other bank was attacked, and after a skirmish and shelling, the Turks were put to flight, many of them drowned in the river, fleeing persecution. The Sultan's army of 100 thousand was missing more than 30 thousand people, 90 guns, treasury and banners that went to the winner. Austrian losses amounted to only 300 people killed and one and a half thousand wounded! The Turks were suppressed by the inglorious defeat, the Sultan agreed to peace negotiations.

Evgeny managed to fight in Hungary, Italy and France itself

It is curious that just before the battle, a courier arrived at Eugene’s headquarters with a dispatch from Vienna: the Gofkriegsrat (military department) and the emperor were afraid that Eugene, due to his youth, would make mistakes and therefore sent a letter with orders not to engage in battle with by the Turks (Eugene’s army barely reached half of the Sultan’s). The ossified Viennese cabinet tried to artificially limit the initiative of the commander with its directives. Eugene, guessing about the contents of the dispatch, refused to read it at that moment, citing the fact that all the orders for the start of the battle had already been given, and he himself was already going on the attack.

The Battle of Senta, painting by Jacques Parassel

After the triumphant victory, Eugene invaded Bosnia, and when the army was sent to winter quarters, he left for the capital. In Vienna, instead of congratulations, what awaited him was... prison. The commander was taken into custody, and especially zealous Viennese generals even demanded his trial. Fortunately, common sense prevailed (the residents of Vienna doted on the prince and even sent a deputation to the emperor), Eugene was completely acquitted and treated kindly by Emperor Leopold.

Together with Marlborough, he defeated the French at Hochstedt, turning the tide of the war

The defeat at Zenta and two successful campaigns of Eugene in Hungary forced the Sultan to seek peace, which was concluded in Karlowice in 1699. Under the terms of the peace, Austria received Hungary and Transylvania, which the Habsburgs had claimed since the time. The war, which began with the Turkish invasion of Austria and the siege of Vienna back in 1683, was won largely thanks to Eugene's victory at Senta. It seemed that Evgeniy could rest on his laurels, but that was not the case.

War again

In 1700, King Charles II died, ending the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and Philip of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV, was declared the new king. The European powers could not allow such a strengthening of France (if they had already risen up against the seizure of the tiny Palatinate, then what to say about the huge Spanish Empire), and the War of the Spanish Succession began, in which Eugene of Savoy was to play an outstanding role.

Map of Europe in 1700

Eugene spent the 1701 campaign in Italy, where he commanded a 30,000-strong corps whose task was to capture Northern Italy. He was opposed by old acquaintances - Marshal Catina and Duke of Savoy Victor-Amadeus, who acted at the beginning of the war on the side of Louis XIV (more than 50 thousand soldiers in total). Prince Eugene initially managed to oust the French from Parma and Verona, reaching Cremona and Bergamo. The following year, however, the newly arrived Marshal Vendôme was lucky, so that the Austrians cleared significant territories in Italy, and Eugene of Savoy himself was recalled to Germany, where he was to act together with another great commander of the time, John Churchill Marlborough.

Together with Marlboro

The difficult situation at the beginning of the war forced Leopold to send Eugene to Germany, where the French, in alliance with the Bavarians, had already caused a lot of trouble for the emperor. Marlborough also approached the borders of Bavaria to help the Austrians and avert the threat from Vienna. The result of this strategic deployment was the main battle of the first stage of the War of the Spanish Succession, which destroyed Louis’s plans for a quick victory in the war together with the army of Marshal Tallard.

Battle of Hochstedt (Bleinheim) 13 August 1704

It was only thanks to the genius of two great tacticians that the two allied armies (each remaining under the command of “their” commander) acted as one, and the confident actions of Prince Eugene led the allies to victory. The Bavarian Elector abandoned the fight and was forced to make peace with the allies. The French were so demoralized by this defeat that they did not even think about offensive actions, and the war was moved from the Danube to the banks of the Rhine.

On the verge of glory

After the campaign in Bavaria, Eugene of Savoy again went to Italy, where Marshal Vendôme repeatedly defeated the Austrians and the Duke of Savoy (who had already defected to the Allies). The entire company of 1705 passed through maneuvers and minor skirmishes: despite the difficult situation of Victor-Amadeus, Eugene was in no hurry to engage in battle with the French, who had a two-fold superiority in forces.

Eugene of Savoy's crossing of the Alps was one of the commander's exploits during the War of the Spanish Succession. Copper engraving

The military merits of Eugene of Savoy in the war with the French were recognized by the emperor with the title of chairman of the Kofkriegsrat, the highest military authority of the empire. This was the last good deed of Leopold I. In 1705, the emperor died, and the throne was inherited by his eldest son Joseph.

In 1701, Eugene repeated the feat of Hannibal, crossing the Alps

In the Adizhde Valley, near the shores of Lake Gard, we will leave Prince Eugene - at the very heights of glory. Over more than twenty years of his military career, he achieved unprecedented success, highly raising the prestige of the Austrian monarchy and German weapons. One could only guess that after the triumphant battles of Senta and Gostedt, new victories and sensitive defeats awaited him. And the campaign of 1706 in Italy will become a true classic in the history of military art. To be continued.

Prince Francis Eugene, Prince of Savoy-Carignano, was born in 1663 in Paris, at the Hotel de Soissons (a hotel is not a hotel, but the city residence of a wealthy French aristocrat, where he stays when he arrives in the city from his estates), owned by his father, Count of Soissons. The father, a relatively famous general in the French service, practically did not take part in the fate of his son, being on the fronts of various wars, and died of fever in an army camp in Germany when Evgeniy was 10 years old.

His mother was Olympia Mancini, the niece of Cardinal Mazarin, who arrived with him from Italy. She led an active court life and was the mistress of the King's mistress and his brother's wife, Henrietta of England, and a little of the King. She was almost not involved in raising her son, but her further fall (participation in the “poison case”) affected the fate of Evgeniy.

In 1675, a certain Marquise de Brenvilliers was accused of poisoning her father and brothers in order to obtain an inheritance. She was arrested in a convent where she was hiding under the guise of a nun, taken to Paris and subjected to waterboarding (a method of torture in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water over a short period of time, causing distension of the stomach and possibly death).

The marquise confessed to everything, was beheaded, and her body was burned. It would seem that the case was closed, but “a sediment remained,” and French society with the king at its head was gripped by the fear of being poisoned. They began to look everywhere for potential poisoners, and each arrest pointed to five more. This rose to the level of the Court when a midwife and fortune teller was arrested, earning money by terminating unplanned pregnancies of court ladies. She said that almost every court lady was involved in various intrigues with poisons, moreover, there were those who were plotting evil against the King.

Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736)

The “Fiery Chamber” was restored - an institute from the time of the Religious Wars, engaged in the fight against heretics and sorcerers (theoretically, poisoning fell under witchcraft). The case went on a grand scale, they grabbed everyone, for example, one descendant of a rich family was arrested for taking part in black masses. Those masses, apparently, were ordinary orgies in a Gothic setting (indeed, nothing special - editor's note), but the “guilty” spent the rest of his life in prison. Directly in connection with the case, 367 people were arrested, of which 36 were executed, 5 were sent to the galleys and 23 were expelled. The rest received different sentences. This does not include about a hundred who were arrested and imprisoned extrajudicially, by direct royal order (“letter with a seal,” lettre de cachet), and the number of people who were identified as witnesses and suspects is completely difficult to estimate.

Eugenie's mother, Olympia Mancini, was sentenced to exile and settled in Brussels, leaving the children in Paris, in the care of their paternal grandmother, Maria Bourbon. Evgeniy, weak and sickly, with no special prospects for an inheritance (he had 4 older brothers), was prepared for a church career from the age of 10, but our hero firmly decided to become a military man.

In February 1683, he appeared before King Louis XIV and petitioned to be appointed commander of a company. Louis refused: in addition to his frailty and origin from a family disgraced by the “poison case,” the fact that he was too old for a military career spoke against Eugene. It is customary to laugh at the underage children who are included in the unit lists from birth and rise in rank without leaving the cradle, but we should not forget that a significant part of them arrived for active service at the age of 12-14. Thus, a 17-year-old battalion commander could have 5 years of combat experience under his belt. Of course, this did not always apply to the highest aristocracy. Eugene was of high birth, but in fact an orphan (since his mother lived in exile in Brussels and did not care for the children) and with no prospects for inheritance; for a military career he had to serve from the age of 12.

Battle of Vienna in September 1683

Eugene examined other European armies for vacancies. Austria looked the most promising - the country waged a bloody war with Turkey, and in war, growth in ranks always occurs faster. In addition, Eugene's cousin, Louis of Baden, served in the imperial army, with whom he grew up for some time in the house of a common grandmother (the Margrave of Baden and his wife hated each other and lived in different states; at some point, agents of Baden kidnapped the margrave's son was taken from his mother and taken to Germany).

Eugene's brother, Louis Julius, enlisted in the Austrian army and was promptly killed in 1683. Hoping to receive his commission by inheritance, Eugene left his Parisian house on the night of June 26, 1683 and went to the eastern border of France. Crossing the state border without a passport issued by the relevant authorities was a criminal offense, so the way back was closed for Evgeniy.

Prince Eugene began his service in the Austrian army during the war with the Ottoman Empire. To distinguish it from other Austro-Turkish wars and to pay tribute to its historical significance, this one, which lasted 15 and a half years (1683-1699), is usually called the Great Turkish. This war is characterized by a large number of participants, sometimes changing sides, individual operations on the other end of the map - like the Azov and Crimean campaigns of Russia or the Venetian actions at sea and in Greece, and the like. We will limit ourselves to only a description of the events in which Eugene took part or which had a direct impact on his fate.

The part of the story that interests us begins in Hungary. By Hungary we do not mean the lands remaining after the 20th century, but a somewhat larger territory, including parts of present-day Serbia, Romania, Ukraine, Croatia, Slovenia and all of Slovakia. In 1683, Hungary was divided into three unequal parts: the so-called. Royal Hungary with its capital in Pressburg (aka Pozsony, now Bratislava), belonging to the Habsburgs, who held the title of kings of Hungary and Croatia; Ottoman Hungary, divided into several regions with a common capital in Buda (now part of Budapest); a separate principality of Transylvania, formally a vassal to the Sultan but largely independent, with its capital at Gyulafehérvár (now Alba Iulia in Romania).

Balance of power against the Turks

At the same time, formally, Royal Hungary was considered independent, had its own laws and constitution, and the power of the king (Emperor Leopold) was significantly limited by parliament. Moreover, the king was theoretically elected by this parliament. When Austria was at its peak, elections were a mere formality - even during the life of the previous ruler, parliament confirmed his successor as king. However, as soon as Vienna’s hand weakened, the Hungarians remembered that parliament was a place for discussion, and made attempts to elect a king from outside the Habsburg dynasty.

Another problem was the Hungarian Calvinist Protestants, who formed an influential minority. You can often find references to the fact that the Catholic monarch oppressed Protestants, but in fact, much more united and fanatical Calvinists enjoyed the broadest autonomy and behaved defiantly, expelling and persecuting Catholics in their areas of residence (does this remind you of anything? - Ed.). Calvinist princes were also influential in parliament. By 1681, the struggle between Leopold and Parliament had reached the point of direct military confrontation.

The Calvinist leader Imre Thököly, realizing that it was impossible to fight the emperor alone, turned to the Ottomans for help, promising to recognize himself as a vassal king of Hungary if he won. In 1683, the Ottoman army, under the leadership of the Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha, entered Hungary and, without wasting time besieging the fortresses blocked by the rebel Hungarians, rushed straight to Vienna, beginning its siege by mid-July 1683. The emperor, along with most of the inhabitants, left the city, in which only the garrison of General Staremberg (15,000 people) and the volunteers (8,700) who decided to stay and defend their homes remained.

It is difficult to estimate the number of Turkish troops involved, because it is unknown who was actually combat-ready and who, like the Crimean Tatars, was only fit for a small war, or, like the Wallachian and Moldavian contingents, was extremely unreliable. Numbers have been given ranging from 90,000 to 300,000, but even the lower estimate covers those involved in the entire campaign, and not directly under the walls of Vienna.

Eugene arrived at the emperor's camp near Passau in August 1683, was recruited and assigned to the headquarters of his cousin, Louis of Baden, commander of the cavalry in the army of the imperial generalissimo Charles of Lorraine. With this army he set out for Vienna to join the Polish army of King John Sobieski, who was waging his personal war with the Turks and bound by an alliance treaty.

Contrary to popular myth, the army that came to the rescue of besieged Vienna was not one hundred percent Polish - out of 74,000 soldiers, Poland fielded 24,000, the Emperor - 21,000, Bavaria - 10,500, Saxony - 9,000, the rest were contingents from small German principalities . Jan Sobieski was undoubtedly a capable commander, but even despite his reform program, the Polish army was technically backward: for example, there were practically no flintlock weapons, which actively replaced matchlock weapons in more developed countries.

The Turks were caught in a trap, finding themselves simultaneously under attack from the allied army and an attack from the defenders. However, a stubborn battle continued from 4 am until 6 pm, when a cavalry charge of 18,000 horsemen, led by antiquated but determined winged hussars, sent the Turks into disorderly flight. Vienna was saved, and Eugene received an honorable mention from Charles of Lorraine and his immediate commander, Baden (who was the first to enter Vienna). He soon received his first command - the Kufstein Dragoon Regiment, which existed until 1918 under the name "Prince Eugene Dragoon Regiment".

The further campaign brought fame and rank to the twenty-year-old colonel - at 22 he was already a major general. Our hero distinguished himself during the capture of the capital of Ottoman Hungary - Buda. In the great Battle of Mohács in 1687, Turkish losses were so great that they led not only to the collapse of the front, but also to a coup d'etat in the empire itself. Eugene commanded the brigade, and after the victory he was given the honorable duty of notifying the emperor of the victory; as a reward he was promoted to lieutenant general.

Siege of Buda in the summer-autumn of 1686

1687 was the year when Eugene woke up famous - he was initiated into the Order of the Golden Fleece and his cousin and Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus granted him two abbeys in Piedmont (which is much more useful for a young man without lands and inheritance in a world where the salaries of commanders do not pay, but, on the contrary, expect them to maintain the units at their own expense). The management of the monasteries was carried out by the administrator, Eugene regularly received income.

In 1688, imperial troops approached Belgrade, a powerful fortress and one of the main cities of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. Neither the Ottoman commander (the Armenian Yegen Osman, who converted to Islam, who went from a village bandit to the Sultan’s son-in-law), nor the residents (who heard that during the liberation of Buda not only Muslims and Jews suffered, but also Christians who paid tribute to the Sultan), were not going to surrender the city without a fight. The Austrian army consists mainly of cavalry, largely recruited from local Serbs unfamiliar with line formation. The campaign dragged on for several months, and in one of the skirmishes, Evgeniy, lightly wounded several times, received a musket bullet in the knee. The wound put him out of action for six months, but in January 1689 he returned to service.

Taking advantage of the diversion of the main Habsburg forces to fight the Turks, Louis XIV sent an army of thirty thousand to the Empire, under the formal pretext of resolving the issue of the election of the Archbishop of Cologne. The War, later called the Nine Years' War, also immediately broke out in the Netherlands and Northern Italy. Our hero was also sent to fight the French.

He initially arrived on the Rhine, but was slightly wounded in the head during the siege of Mainz. In 1689, Eugene’s relative, the Savoy Duke Victor-Amadeus, entered the war. In the hope that family ties would help Eugene deal with his treacherous and duplicitous ally, the emperor promoted Eugene to cavalry general and appointed him imperial representative in Italy.

The Nine Years' War (1688-1697), to which Eugene, who had recovered from his wounds, was transferred, also known as the War of the Grand Alliance, the War of the League of Augsburg, the War of the Palatine Succession, sometimes even the War of the English Succession, and for our overseas readers - King William's War had fronts even more than names. In addition to several European theaters (including Ireland and Scotland), the war was fought in North America, the Caribbean and India.

Balance of power in the Nine Years' War. Green is France, blue is the Augsburg League

As is often the case, it is difficult to find any starting point from which it all began. As a result of the Dutch War in 1678, the France of Louis XIV became undoubtedly a powerful power. Taking advantage of this, Louis began a policy of annexing small surrounding possessions: special courts, the “Chambers of Reunion” (Chambres de Réunions), ruled that France had rights to these territories on the basis of medieval treaties. France had occupied and annexed imperial Lorraine and most of Alsace, and now sought to acquire Luxembourg (which belonged to Spain) and Strasbourg (a free imperial city). Of course, no court other than the French one recognized these rights, so Louis sent troops.

In 1681, the Turks were not yet at Vienna, but all of Hungary was in rebellion, so the empire did not have troops to oppose Louis. However, the damage to the prestige of France, which was caused by the war with Austria defending itself from the infidels, forced the French to stop the offensive in 1684. The Rattisbon Truce was signed, according to which Strasbourg, Luxembourg and other points came under French control for 20 years, after which international arbitration should be held.

By the end of 1688, the situation on the eastern front had changed - the advancing Austrians began to beat the Turks hard. Louis understood where the army that had gained the experience of a victorious war and the money mined in new territories would go. The foreign policy situation also changed - instead of Frederick William (the Great Elector), loyal to his alliance with Louis, Frederick I, the future first king of Prussia, ascended the throne in Brandenburg-Prussia. He did not like the French and, together with other Protestant princes of Saxony, Hanover and Hesse-Kassel, founded an anti-French alliance (the so-called Magdeburg League).

Edict of Nantes revoked by Louis XIV

The reason for this was this: striving for maximum centralization and unification of France, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, which gave Huguenot Calvinists freedom of religion. Hundreds of thousands of Huguenots had to leave France or convert to Catholicism. The procedure of forced baptism of the Huguenots with robberies and rapes entered the language like dragonade - from the word “dragoon”. Huguenot areas broke out in uprisings, and thousands of them fled to England, Holland or Brandenburg-Prussia, where Frederick I organized a whole program of resettlement in the sparsely populated areas of East Prussia.

By 1689, many countries were opposed to Louis: Catholic Austria, Bavaria and Spain created the League of Augsburg against him, blessed by the Pope himself, which was joined by Protestants. Louis did not wait to be struck, inflated the lack of recognition of his protege by the Archbishop of Cologne to cosmic proportions, published the “Memorandum of Causes,” a verbose and confusing document listing all the insults that the Protestant Austrians had ever inflicted on France, and invaded the Empire.

At this time, a conspiracy was brewing in England against the Catholic King James. The conspirators, Anglicans and Protestants, feared that James would continue the policy of Catholicization. In fact, Jacob gave refuge only to the same Huguenots, and the real reason for the conspiracy was that he was trying to curtail the rights of Parliament. The confrontation reached its peak after the birth of the royal son. Without consulting parliament, James changed the order of succession to the throne, replacing his daughter Mary, a Protestant and the wife of the Stadtholder of Holland, William of Orange, with his newborn son James, who, naturally, converted to Catholicism.

The conspirators approached William with a proposal to invade England with a Dutch army. William, with an army consisting of mercenaries from all over the world (there were even blacks from the Caribbean), did this. The coup was not bloodless - even in England there were several battles, and in Scotland and Ireland there was a real war. Be that as it may, Jacob fled to France, William became king of England, confirming the rights of parliament and the Bill of Rights that is still in force. The word “invasion” was prohibited from being used in relation to the operation, and it went down in history as the “Glorious Revolution.”

The Dutch land in England

Louis's mistake was that, knowing about the impending invasion, he assumed that England would plunge into civil war for a long time and did nothing to prevent the unification of England and Holland under the rule of his long-time enemy. Then he supported the rebels in Ireland and Scotland, but it was too late. With the accession of England and Holland (the "Sea Powers") to the League of Augsburg and the League of Magdeburg, the Grand Alliance was born, united against the French.

However, all these events were a level above our 26-year-old cavalry general, who arrived with the imperial contingent in the army of the Duchy of Savoy. The Duke was his cousin, and also a cunning and treacherous politician. Savoy, effectively sandwiched between two superpowers, France and Austria, played a complex game, joining one side or the other, not allowing anyone to gain too much strength, and always putting its own interests first.

The army of the duchy numbered about 8,000 people, and through the hiring of the Swiss it increased to about 10,000. Another 10,000 were provided by the Spaniards (mainly from their Italian possessions), Eugene spoke extremely poorly of them. Eugene himself arrived with 5,000 soldiers, but these five thousand, who had gone through the Turkish War, were the most combat-ready force south of the Alps. However, overall command belonged to the Duke of Savoy. They were opposed by 12,000 soldiers of General Katin.

Contrary to the advice of Eugene, the Duke of Savoy attacked the French at Staffard and was not only completely defeated, but defeated. The retreat in order was possible largely thanks to the actions of Eugene, who commanded the cavalry. The troops spent the rest of the 1690 campaign in a positional raid war typical of the era, waged with extreme ferocity. Religious contradictions added to the cruelty - many Waldenses, members of a Christian sect with a long history, lived in the Piedmontese Alps. The Waldenses in Piedmont were often persecuted (see "Piedmontese Easter"), but to make use of their experience in the mountain war with the French, the Duke granted them religious freedom in exchange for military service (the so-called Glorious Return). On the French side of the border, the Waldensians were exterminated or forcibly baptized, and they took it out on the French they caught. The Balkan elements in Eugene's army also added flavor, and stories like 200 castrated and killed Frenchmen happened more often than we would like.

During this period of time, those features were fully manifested that allow us to call the Nine Year Plan the last war of the 17th and first of the 18th centuries. Firstly, the point is the impact flintlock, which everywhere replaces the matchlock. Like everything related to the army, rearmament proceeded slowly, and in remote French garrisons matchlock weapons remained almost until 1705, but most combat units met the war with a ratio of approximately 3 flintlock guns to 2 matchlocks, and ended completely at flint.

French victory at Staffard

Secondly, bayonets attached to the barrel of a weapon appeared and rapidly spread. The previous baguettes, inserted into the barrel channel, were of little use - the fighter was still inferior to the pikeman, and besides, he could not shoot. A new type of bayonet that could fire made the need for pikemen questionable.

The war in Italy did not bring Eugene much glory - he distinguished himself by lifting the siege of Cuneo, and 800 prisoners were captured; but Katina erased all the successes of the allies in Italy, defeating them at Marsaglia in 1693. The Marsaglia field saw one of the first bayonet attacks in history (no one went on the attack with the old baguettes). Eugene took away valuable experience from what was happening, giving his descendants the aphorism “The war would have been won if everyone had fulfilled their duties.”

The war ended with a peace concluded by all parties at Ryswijk near The Hague in 1697. By that time, Eugene was no longer in Italy - he had disagreements with the appointed commander-in-chief, Count Caraffa. Karaffa was an interesting figure, although his title “General-Kriegs-Commissar” meant “only” “responsible for supplies.” When Calvinist Upper Hungary was cleared of Turks and rebels, it was Caraffa who became its governor, established an “Executive Court” in Presov, which secretly, through torture and execution, eliminated those suspected of collaborating with the Turks, as well as maintaining ties with the rebel leader Thököly. When Transylvania came under imperial control, Caraffa was again a military governor, “so here we have conspiracies, heresy, collaboration with the Turks, incitement to rebellion.”

Eugene went to Vienna, where he made a report exposing the incompetence of the army leadership in Italy. The Court Military Council did not pay attention to the report.

Meanwhile, the ongoing war with the Turks reached a dead end - Belgrade, which had been taken with such difficulty, was lost again. In such circumstances, having unsuccessfully tried several commanders, the Chairman of the Court Military Council, Staremberg, appointed Eugene commander of one of the armies.

Participation in wars: War of the Spanish Succession. Campaign against the Turks. War of the Polish Succession.
Participation in battles: Under Zenta. At Capri and Chiari. Under Hochstedt. Under Peterwardein. Victory at Belgrade

(Eugene of Savoy) Outstanding Austrian commander. Participant in the Austro-Turkish War (1683–1699), War of the Spanish Succession, Austro-Turkish War (1716–1718) and War of the Polish Succession

Eugene was the son of a prince Evgeniy Moritz of Savoy and Carignan, the chief commander of the Swiss troops in the service of the French king.

Since childhood, Evgeniy had poor health, and therefore he was prepared for the clergy. However, he himself dreamed of a completely different field of activity and therefore, upon reaching adulthood, he turned to Louis XIV with a request to give him command of a cavalry regiment. However, this desire was met with ridicule, both from the king himself and his Minister of War Luwu A. Insulted, Eugene left France, vowing to return here only with arms in hand. His path lay in Austria.

Here he was quickly accepted into the imperial troops, with whom he underwent his baptism of fire in the fields Austro-Turkish war. In 1683, Eugene of Savoy took part in the battle of Vienna, where the Polish king Jan Sobieski defeated the Turkish troops.

During the two years of command of the dragoon regiment, Eugene Savoysky stood out so much for his military abilities that in 1686, during the siege of Ofen, at the age of twenty-three, he found himself in the responsible role of chief of defense of the circumvallation line against the large army of the High Vizier.

In 1687, Eugene Savoysky, with the rank of major general, pursuing the Turks defeated at Gersan, penetrated with his regiment to their very fortified camp and, dismounting the dragoons, stormed the last Turkish stronghold. At the beginning of 1688, he was promoted to field marshal-lieutenant, having been the first to enter the breach during the capture of Belgrade.

With the beginning 2nd Dutch War(1689-1697) Eugene of Savoy was appointed commander of the imperial troops sent to Italy to help Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus II. Here his main opponent became one of the best French commanders Marshal Katina, to whom Evgeny Savoysky became a worthy opponent.

But in the person of Duke Victor Amadeus, who did not have the necessary abilities for a leader, Eugene often encountered obstacles to his plans. At Stafford in 1690, Victor Amadeus, having entered into battle with the French, was almost defeated and was saved only thanks to the courage and stewardship of Eugene of Savoy. The same situation repeated itself at the Battle of Marsalia in 1693.

On July 28, 1691, Eugene of Savoy, after a stubborn battle, forced the French to lift the siege of the Koni fortress and retreat across the Po River. The following year, Eugene obtained permission to launch an invasion of Dauphiné and Provence, thereby exposing French troops to the threat of serious consequences for France itself. He had already captured several border fortresses, when suddenly Duke Victor Amadeus fell dangerously ill, and the advance of the allied vanguard was stopped. In 1693 for victories in Italy Evgeny Savoysky was promoted to field marshal.

Now the military reputation of Eugene of Savoy stood so high that Louis XIV himself began to call him into his service, offering the rank of marshal, governorship in Champagne and 20 thousand livres of maintenance. However, Eugene firmly replied that he owed gratitude to the Austrian emperor, and did not need money.

In 1697 he was again sent to act against the Turks in Hungary. This was the first campaign in which Eugene acted independently and freely. His main victory in this campaign was the defeat of the Turkish troops at Zent's on the Teise River.

Shortly before the start of the battle, a courier arrived to Eugene with an imperial dispatch in which he was prohibited from taking decisive actions and was asked to limit himself to defense. However, the prince, guessing what order was contained in the package, did not open it and on September 11, 1697, inflicted a crushing defeat on the enemy troops.

The chairman of the Gofkriegsrat, General Caprara, succumbing to the suggestions of envious people and personal enmity towards Eugene, insisted on bringing him to a military court, however, taking into account public opinion and the fact that the winner is not judged, the emperor Leopold I not only did he not condemn the prince, but also put him at the head of the army in Hungary, granting him complete independence from the Gofkriegsrat. The victory at Senta and the further actions of Eugene of Savoy contributed to the conclusion in 1699 of a favorable agreement for Austria World of Karlowitz, as a result of which most of Hungary, Croatia, Transylvania and almost all of Slovakia became part of the empire.

War of the Spanish Succession(1701 -1714) became the highest achievement of the military leadership of Eugene of Savoy.

The beginning of the campaign of 1701 was marked by the most difficult transition of the 30,000-strong army of Eugene of Savoy through the Tridentine (Tyrolian) Alps.

In fact, the army of Eugene Savoy was the first to open military operations, while the armies of other countries were only preparing for them. His troops concentrated in Tyrol, pretending that they were preparing to go on the offensive from here. In response, the French army under the command of Katina took up a position in the Rivoli Gorge in order to prevent the advance of the Austrians. But Eugene, having carried out secret reconnaissance of a difficult pass in the mountains, which had not been used by troops for a long time, overcame it and entered the plain, making a deep detour to the east. Increasing the advantage thus gained with further maneuvers, which often misled the enemy as to his intentions, Eugene of Savoy involved the French in a disastrous offensive for them in the Chiari area (near Brescia). This led to a complete retreat of the French from Northern Italy, occupied by Austrian troops.

Eugene of Savoy began the campaign of 1702 with a surprise attack on Cremona, where he was at that time Marshal Villeroi, replacing Katina. Soon the Austrian troops were attacked by superior forces under the command of Marshal Vendôme. However, having half the strength of the French commander-in-chief, Eugene of Savoy still managed to retain the territories conquered in Italy. One of the main difficulties he encountered in Italy was the lack of a traditional store system for supplying troops. The prince managed to overcome these difficulties by learning to extract everything he needed from the Italian lands he occupied.

In 1703, Eugene Savoysky was appointed president of the Gofkriegsrat, and the highest leadership of the military affairs of the empire passed to him. In the same year, under the leadership of Eugene of Savoy, the uprising was suppressed Ferenc Rakoczy, which broke out in Hungary.

In 1704, together with Duke of Marlborough Eugene Savoysky defeated the Franco-Bavarian troops at Hochstadt(Blenheim). This victory immediately led to the fall of Bavaria from the alliance with Louis XIV. Shortly before the start of the battle, the prince managed to quietly break away from Villeroy's troops and unite with the troops of the Duke of Marlborough, thereby catching the French troops under the command of Tagliara taken by surprise. At the Battle of Gochstadt (August 13, 1704), Eugene delivered the main blow to the left flank of the French troops. Although his attack was repulsed twice, Eugene was able not only to repeat it, but also to support the Duke of Marlborough, whose troops were counterattacking the French.

In 1705, Eugene Savoysky was sent to Spain, where he stopped Vendome's progress. However, the campaign of 1706 is rightfully considered the pinnacle of his military art in the War of the Spanish Succession. In this campaign, Eugene of Savoy set as his goal the conquest of all of Italy.

Initially, Eugene of Savoy was forced to retreat east to Lake Garda and further into the mountains, while his ally the Duke of Savoy was besieged in Turin. But instead of trying to break forward with a fight, Evgeny Savoysky deceived the enemy with a cunning maneuver. Together with his 24,000-strong army, he made a difficult and courageous transition through the mountains along the right bank of the Po River, ending it with the defeat of the 80,000-strong French army near Turin. Eugene of Savoy, without hesitation, sacrificed his base, but won the battle for all of Italy, which was not saved even by 33 fortresses occupied by French garrisons.

In 1707, the troops of Eugene of Savoy invaded Provence, where the prince tried to take possession of Toulon, but this attempt was unsuccessful. In the same year, Eugene Savoysky acted less energetically than in previous campaigns. Thus, he rejected the Duke of Marlborough's plan to directly break through to Paris by bypassing the fortresses and without getting involved in protracted battles with French troops.

From 1708 he operated in the Netherlands, commanding the combined Allied forces. Here, together with the Duke of Marlborough, he defeated the French at Oudenard and captured Lille.

In 1709, they won a victory at Malplaquet, which cost the allies too much and did not bring tangible results. In 1711, the army of Eugene of Savoy was recalled from the theater of military operations for political reasons. In the next campaign in 1712, he commanded Austrian and Dutch troops and now decided to undertake an invasion of France. However, as a result of a complex maneuver undertaken Marshal Villard near Denen, Eugene of Savoy was defeated and retreated. This defeat completed the collapse of the anti-French coalition.

In 1714, Prince Eugene of Savoy served as imperial commissioner at the conclusion of the Peace of Rastadt. Emperor Charles VI was forced to acknowledge the king Philip V of Bourbon right to the Spanish crown, but was able to retain a significant part of the “Spanish inheritance”: the Spanish Netherlands, Northern Italy with Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, part of Tuscany and Sardinia.

During the new Austro-Turkish War (1716-1718), troops under the command of Eugene of Savoy, having defeated Turkish troops at Peterwardein, captured Temesvar(now Timisoara). The Austrian army owed this victory largely to the genius of its commander. The same genius saved the imperial troops the following year near Belgrade, when they found themselves sandwiched between the Grand Vizier's army and the strong Belgrade garrison. On the night of August 16, under the cover of fog, the troops of Eugene Savoy, emerging from the trenches, attacked Turk and put them to flight. The victory of Evgeniy Savoysky near Belgrade led to the signing Passarovitsky (Pozharevets) Peace Treaty, according to which Banat, Temesvar, part of Wallachia and Northern Serbia with Belgrade went to the Austrian Empire. Austrian subjects were granted, after paying an extremely low duty (3%), the right to free trade throughout the Ottoman Empire.

Until 1724, Eugene of Savoy was a stadtholder in the Austrian Netherlands, while simultaneously serving as chairman of the Privy Council under the emperor. Despite the fact that Charles VI did not treat the prince with the same confidence with which the former Austrian sovereigns treated him, his influence remained in solving all important state issues.

The prince himself was interested not only in military affairs. He built luxurious palaces in Vienna, primarily the Belvedere, where a unique library and collections of world art monuments were collected.

In 1733, Eugene Savoysky was appointed commander-in-chief of the allied forces operating against France in War of the Polish Succession(1733-1739). However, his strength was running out, and the prince was unable to demonstrate his former military genius and was soon recalled. Three years later he died in Vienna and was buried in St. Stephen's Cathedral. Subsequently, a magnificent monument to the greatest commander of world history was erected in front of the Belvedere in the capital of Austria.

Eugene of Savoy combined courage and determination, based on a deep understanding of his enemy and the given situation, the ability to align his goals with forces and means, for which he was especially appreciated Napoleon, composure in the most critical moments of battle.

Despite the harsh discipline that Eugene of Savoy established in his troops, he managed to attract the hearts of soldiers who were ready to follow their beloved commander everywhere.

The composure and presence of mind in the most critical moments were so extraordinary that contemporaries wondered how such a great spirit could reside in such a weak body. Eugene Savoysky had the rare ability to talk to a soldier and gain his trust, despite the extremely varied composition of his army and the fact that he himself was a foreigner.

Biography of Prince Eugene of Savoy

Prince Eugene of Savoy (born October 18, 1663 - death April 21, 1736) - an outstanding commander of the Holy Roman Empire, generalissimo.

Evgeny Savoysky was born in Paris. His father, Prince Eugene Moritz of Saxony, was in the military service of the French crown. But his parents were soon expelled from France for participating in an unsuccessful plot against King Louis XIV. He showed generosity towards the prince-conspirator, not subjecting him and his family to the usual royal repressions in such cases.

Having chosen a military career, Evgeny Savoysky left Paris for Austria. 1683 - he volunteered for the Austrian Imperial Army. In those days, Vienna was at war with the Ottoman Porte and willingly accepted any volunteers into the Austrian army.

For the first time, young Eugene of Savoy distinguished himself in a big battle with the Turks under the walls of Vienna, which they had been besieging since July 14, 1683. He served in the 70,000-strong army of Christian Europeans under the command of King John Sobieski III of Poland, who came to the aid of besieged Vienna. On September 12, near the Austrian capital, a battle took place with a 158,000-strong Turkish army under the command of Kara Mustafa Pasha.

The King of Poland was the first to attack the Ottoman positions and, after a fierce battle that lasted all day, defeated the Turks, who suffered significant losses. Six Sultan generals - pashas - fell on the battlefield. Kara-Mustafa Pasha himself happily escaped captivity, fleeing from near Vienna to his own borders. The Austrian capital was saved.

After this, Eugene of Savoy participated in the liberation of Hungary from Turkish troops in 1684–1688. In this Austro-Turkish War, Eugene of Savoy won his first victories.

Then he took part in the War of the Great Alliance of 1688–1697. for the English Heritage. But here the commander faced defeat, which he suffered on October 4, 1693 in the Battle of Marsaglia, where he commanded the combined forces of the Austrians, Spaniards and British. That afternoon, the Allies, who had superior strength, were attacked by the French army under the command of Marshal de Catin and, after a fierce battle, retreated across the river. In the battle, the Austrians alone lost about 6,000 soldiers killed. The winners lost much fewer people.

But Duke Eugene of Savoy completely erased this defeat with a brilliant victory over the Turkish army under the command of the Grand Vizier Ilyas Mehmed at Zenta on September 11, 1697. The prince, at the head of the Austrian troops, after a 10-hour march, approached the Zenta River, at a time when the Sultan’s cavalry had already crossed the river, and the infantry crossed it across the bridge. The Grand Vizier was taken by surprise during his campaign against Transylvania. During this long battle, the Turks lost (according to various sources) from 20 to 29,000 people, while the Austrians lost only 500 people.

The victory over the Turkish army at Zenta promoted Eugene of Savoy to the ranks of the best commanders in Europe. 1697 - he becomes Generalissimo of Austria. The victory on the banks of the Zenta contributed to the conclusion of the Karlowitz Peace, which was beneficial for Vienna.

The prince fought with a wide variety of opponents, was an ally or an enemy of most of the major European commanders of the time. In this regard, the years are indicative.

1701, July - Austrian troops under his command defeated French troops under the command of Marshal de Catina at the Battle of Carpi in Italian Lombardy. This is how the commander repaid the marshal for the defeat at Marsaglia. In the same year, he won another victory - at the city of Kyari. After a 2-hour battle, the enemy (represented by the French and Spaniards), having lost 3,000 people, retreated, and the Austrians lost 117 people.

The following year, the Prince of Savoy launched a surprise attack on the city of Cremona with a strong French garrison. The defenders of Cremona did not even have time to sound the alarm, and many French military leaders, including Marshal Villeroy, were captured. Part of the garrison fortified itself in the citadel. The Austrians did not storm it, because they received news of the approach of large enemy forces rushing to the rescue of the Cremona garrison, and retreated.

The War of the Spanish Succession lasted a long time - from 1701 to 1714. 1704, August 13 - Eugene of Savoy, in alliance with English troops under the command of the Duke of Marlborough, defeated a Franco-Bavarian army under the command of Marshals Tallard and Marsen and the Elector of Baden near the village of Blenheim. The winners had a numerical superiority - 60,000 versus 52,000. First, the English cavalry cut the French line in two with a decisive blow. Then the Austrians entered the picture and successfully repelled the attack of the French and Bavarians. After the first successes, Savoy and Marlborough went on the offensive and defeated the right flank and center of the enemy, who fled or began to surrender.

The Austrians and British lost 11,000 people during this battle. The French army lost 40,000 people, including 16,000 captured by the victors. Marshal Tallar was among the prisoners.

In that war, the Austrian army under the command of the imperial commander won another great victory - at Cassano in August 1705.

Fighting on Italian soil, Prince Eugene of Savoy won great victories over the French troops, inflicting their final defeat when lifting the siege of the city of Turin. During the siege, the Turin garrison of the Austrians lost half of its strength - 5,000 people, many of whom died from disease. Generalissimo of Savoy, who led the defense of the city at the beginning of the siege, was able to timely gather troops outside its borders and come to the rescue. The French troops under the command of General de Felliade were completely defeated.

The siege of one of the largest Italian cities was lifted on September 7, 1706, after which the French army left this country. Her defeat led to the final capture of Northern Italy by the Austrians.

The War of the Spanish Succession that year received a new continuation on the European continent. At the Battle of Ramilly, the Anglo-Austrian army of Marlborough and Savoy (about 62,000 people with 120 guns) inflicted a crushing defeat on the French army, which had 70 guns, under the command of Marshal Villeroy. The French lost a third of their army in the battle killed, wounded and captured, as well as 50 guns.

1708 - the Generalissimo, at the head of the troops of the Holy Roman Empire, besieged, bombarded and ultimately took the hitherto impregnable French fortress of Lille, built by the remarkable military engineer-fortifier de Vauban. Another great victory came to the commander Eugene of Savoy and his ally the Duke of Marlborough on September 11, 1709 at the Battle of Malplaquet, where they commanded the Anglo-Austro-Dutch army (117,000 people with 120 guns). They were opposed by a French army of 90,000 with 60 guns, led by Marshal L. Villar. He approached the city of Mons, which was surrounded by the allies, with the aim of liberating the besieged garrison there.

Duke of Marlborough

The Battle of Malplaquet was notable for its great bloodshed: the Allies lost up to 30,000 people, the French - 12,000 people, but they still had to retreat from the besieged city.

1710 - The Prince of Savoy won another victory. At the head of the Allied troops, he besieged the city of Douai. Its French garrison stubbornly defended itself, undertaking numerous forays, but at the end of June, after a 2-month siege, it was forced to surrender.

But the real military triumph for the commander was the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–1718. Eugene of Savoy was again at the head of the Austrian Imperial Army. At the Battle of Peterwardein on August 10, 1716, he commanded an army much smaller than the Turkish commander Darnad Ali Pasha. He, according to various sources, had from 110 to 200,000 soldiers. But the Austrian army consisted mainly of veterans of the War of the Spanish Succession, experienced and seasoned fighters in battles and campaigns.

In that battle, the commander launched his famous night attack on the Turkish army, although his army was 4 times smaller than the enemy. The Austrians fought so decisively with the bayonet that the Ottomans fled. The Turks lost 20,000 killed, 50 banners and 250 guns. The Austrians lost about 3,000 people during the night attack.

As a result of the victory at the Battle of Peterwardein, the Holy Roman Empire acquired new territories. After this battle, Austrian troops occupied the city of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, which was under Ottoman rule.

After the defeats of the Turkish troops at Peterwardein and under the walls of Belgrade, the Sultan of the Ottoman Porte did not dare to continue the war. Soon the parties signed a peace treaty beneficial to Vienna.

1703 - Prince Eugene of Savoy was the chairman of the Military, then the Privy Council under the emperor, exerting significant influence on foreign state policy. He advocated a military alliance between Austria and Prussia and Russia against France. He pursued a policy of Germanization of the territories annexed to the empire, primarily the lands inhabited by the South Slavs.

At the age of 70, the commander had the opportunity to take part in another war - for the Polish inheritance, which became his last. 1734, July - the Austrian army under the command of the imperial commander-in-chief defeated the French army under the command of Marshal Duke de Broglie at the Battle of Quistello. The prince again, as in previous years, demonstrated his skill as a commander.

1736 - the famous commander Eugene of Savoy died in Vienna.

Yevgeny Savoysky entered world military history as an outstanding strategist and tactician. As the first (of course, after the emperor) person in the military hierarchy of Austria, he carried out a number of reforms in its armed forces and increased their combat effectiveness.

Thus, he abolished the rule according to which command positions were bought with money, and appointed army commanders, taking into account only their personal merits and qualities. At the same time, the aristocratic origin of candidates for vacant command positions was not taken into account.

In the Austrian possessions, the prince created a system of rear bases where large reserves of provisions, ammunition and other equipment needed by the troops were stored. Now, in wartime conditions, they were not so dependent on rear services and army convoys.

The commander-in-chief of the imperial army made a great contribution to the organization of military intelligence: in his army, special small detachments of cavalrymen and dragoons observed the maneuvering of enemy troops. Their mobility made it possible to preempt enemy attacks in advance. Under Eugene of Savoy, Austrian army intelligence turned out to be head and shoulders above any enemy.

Austrian commander. Generalissimo.
Evgeny Savoysky was born in Paris. He was the son of Prince Eugene Moritz of Saxony, who was in the military service of the French crown. However, his parents were soon expelled from France for their participation in an unsuccessful plot against King Louis XIV. He showed generosity towards the prince-conspirator, not subjecting him and his family to the usual royal repressions in such cases.

Eugene grew up in the aristocratic house of his grandmother, who prepared her physically weak and ugly grandson for a church career. However, he dreamed of a military career and, having matured, turned to King Louis XIV with a request to join the ranks of the French army. However, the monarch rejected his request, not wanting to fill the ranks of the royal army with the children of the conspirators.

Having chosen a military career for himself, Evgeny Savoysky left Paris for Austria. In 1683, he volunteered for the Austrian Imperial Army. At that time, Vienna was at war with the Ottoman Porte and willingly accepted any volunteers into the Austrian army.

For the first time, young Eugene of Savoy distinguished himself in a big battle with the Turks under the walls of Vienna, which they had been besieging since July 14, 1683. He served in the 70,000-strong army of Christian Europeans under the command of the Polish king John III Sobieski, who came to the aid of besieged Vienna. On September 12, near the Austrian capital, a battle took place with a 158,000-strong Turkish army commanded by Kara Mustafa Pasha.

The Polish king was the first to attack the Ottoman positions and, after a fierce battle that lasted all day, defeated the Turks, who suffered significant losses. Six of the Sultan's generals-pashas fell on the battlefield. Kara-Mustafa Pasha himself happily escaped captivity, fleeing from near Vienna to his own borders. The capital of Austria was saved.

After this, Eugene of Savoy took part in the liberation of Hungary from Turkish troops in 1684-1688. In this Austro-Turkish war, Eugene of Savoy won his first victories.

This was followed by participation in the War of the Great Alliance of 1688-1697 for the English Succession. However, here Duke Eugene of Savoy faced defeat, which he suffered on October 4, 1693 at the Battle of Marsaglia, where he commanded the combined forces of the Austrians, Spaniards and British. On that day, the allies, who had superiority in strength, were attacked by the French army under the command of Marshal de Catina and, after a fierce battle, retreated across the river. In the battle, the Austrians alone lost about 6 thousand soldiers killed. The winners lost much fewer people.

However, the commander completely erased this defeat with a brilliant victory over the Turkish army under the command of the Grand Vizier Ilyas Mehmed at Zenta on September 11, 1697. Eugene of Savoy, at the head of the Austrian troops, after a 10-hour march, approached the Zente River, at a time when the Sultan's cavalry had already crossed the river, and the infantry was crossing it across the bridge. The Grand Vizier was taken by surprise during his campaign against Transylvania.

The Austrians approached the river, hiding behind the hills. Just before Zenta, they decisively attacked the Turks, split their infantry into two parts, defeated them and drove them into the river. After this, the extermination of the Ottoman army began. During this long battle, the Turks lost (according to various sources) from 20 to 29 thousand people, while the Austrians lost only 500 people.

The victory over the Turkish army at Zenta promoted Prince Eugene of Savoy to the ranks of the best European commanders. In 1697 he became Generalissimo of Austria. The victory on the banks of the Zenta contributed to the conclusion of the Karlovac Peace Treaty, which was beneficial for Vienna.

Eugene of Savoy fought with a variety of opponents, was an ally or an enemy of most of the largest commanders in Europe at that time. In this regard, the War of the Spanish Succession of 1701-1714 is indicative.

In July 1701, Austrian troops under his command defeated French troops under the command of Marshal de Catina at the Battle of Carpi in Italian Lombardy. The French suffered a complete defeat, after which their commander was removed from command. This is how Eugene Savoysky repaid the marshal for the defeat at Marsagli. In the same year, he won another victory - at the city of Kyari. After a two-hour battle, the enemy (represented by the French and Spaniards), having lost 3 thousand people, retreated, and the Austrians lost 117 people.
The following year, Eugene of Savoy unexpectedly attacked the city of Cremona with a strong French garrison. The defenders of Cremona did not even have time to sound the alarm, and many French military leaders, including Marshal Villeroy, were captured. Part of the garrison fortified itself in the citadel. The Austrians did not storm it, because they received news of the approach of large enemy forces rushing to the rescue of the Cremona garrison, and retreated.

In 1702, the Austrian commander received sad news. During the siege of the Landau fortress, where the French were defending themselves, his elder brother Viscount de Soissons, who also served in the imperial army, died. The War of the Spanish Succession lasted a long time - from 1701 to 1714. On August 13, 1704, Prince Eugene of Savoy, in alliance with English troops under the command of the Duke of Marlborough, defeated a Franco-Bavarian army under the command of Marshals Tallard and Marsen and the Elector of Baden near the village of Blenheim. The winners had a numerical superiority - 60 thousand versus 52 thousand. First, the English cavalry cut the French line in two with a decisive blow. Then the Austrians entered the picture and successfully repelled the attack of the French and Bavarians. After the first successes, Savoy and Marlborough went on the offensive and defeated the right flank and center of the enemy, who fled or began to surrender. The Austrians and British lost 11 thousand people in this battle. The French army lost 40 thousand people, including 16 thousand captured by the victors. Marshal Tallar was among the prisoners.

In that war, the Austrian army under the command of the imperial commander won another great victory - at Cassano in August 1705. Large forces took part in the battle on the part of the French under the command of the Duke of Vendome - 35 infantry battalions and 45 cavalry squadrons. The Austrians, who were inferior to the enemy in numbers, attacked the enemy position and by nightfall drove the French out of it.

Fighting on Italian soil, Generalissimo Eugene of Savoy won great victories over the French troops, inflicting their final defeat when lifting the siege of the city of Turin. During the siege, the Turin garrison of the Austrians lost half of its strength - 5 thousand people, many of whom died from disease. Eugene Savoysky, who led the defense of the city at the beginning of the siege, managed to gather troops outside its borders in time and come to the rescue. The French troops under the command of General de Felliade were completely defeated.

The siege of one of the largest Italian cities was lifted on September 7, 1706, after which the French army left this country. Its defeat led to the final capture of Northern Italy by the Austrian Habsburg dynasty.

The War of the Spanish Succession that year received a new continuation on the European continent. In the Battle of Ramilly, the Anglo-Austrian army of Marlborough and Savoy (about 62 thousand people with 120 guns) inflicted a crushing defeat on the French army, which was approximately the same in number, with 70 guns, under the command of Marshal Villeroy. The French lost a third of their army in the battle killed, wounded and captured, as well as 50 guns.

In 1708, Generalissimo Eugene of Savoy, at the head of the troops of the Holy Roman Empire, besieged, bombarded and finally took the hitherto impregnable French fortress of Lille, built by the remarkable military engineer-fortifier de Vauban. The siege of the fortress lasted from August to the end of October. The French garrison, commanded by Marshal de Bouffler, successfully repelled several Austrian assaults, but eventually capitulated, losing 7 thousand people. The losses of the besiegers were almost half that.

Another great victory came to Generalissimo Eugene of Savoy and his ally the Duke of Marlborough on September 11, 1709 at the Battle of Malplaquet, where they commanded the Anglo-Austro-Dutch army (117 thousand people with 100 guns). They were opposed by a French army of 90,000 with 60 guns, led by Marshal L. Villar. He approached the city of Mons, which was surrounded by the allies, with the goal of liberating the besieged garrison there.

The French were the first to begin the battle on the outskirts of Mons, but the Allies did not dare to start immediately a great battle, awaiting help from Tournai, where part of their army was stationed. During this time, the French managed to build strong field fortifications, which yielded to the enemy only after fierce resistance. The Battle of Malplaquet was notable for its great bloodshed: the Allies lost 24 thousand people, the French - 10 thousand people less, but they still had to retreat from the besieged city.

In 1710, Prince Eugene of Savoy won another victory. At the head of the Allied troops, he besieged the city of Douai. Its French garrison stubbornly defended itself, making numerous forays, but at the end of June, after a two-month siege, it was forced to surrender.

The War of the Spanish Succession ended for the Generalissimo of the Holy Roman Empire with defeat on the battlefield. True, the prince was not the main culprit here. On July 24, 1712, the Allied camp at Denen, in which there were 10.5 thousand troops under the command of Count Albemarle, was unexpectedly attacked by the 24 thousand-strong army of the French Marshal Villars. Evgeny Savoysky tried to help his own, but was unable to cross the Scheldt River. The French broke the resistance of the allies and completely defeated them in the camp - only 4 thousand people managed to retreat from it, and 5 generals were killed or captured.

The Austro-Turkish War of 1716-1718 was a real military triumph for Eugene of Savoy. The Generalissimo again found himself at the head of the Austrian imperial army. At the Battle of Peterwardein on August 10, 1716, he commanded a much smaller army than the Turkish commander Darnad Ali Pasha. He, according to various sources, had from 110 to 200 thousand soldiers. However, the Austrian army consisted mainly of veterans of the War of the Spanish Succession, experienced and seasoned fighters in battles and campaigns.

In that battle, Eugene of Savoy launched his famous night attack on the Turkish army, although his army was four times smaller than the enemy. The Austrians fought so decisively with the bayonet that the Ottomans had to flee. The Turks lost 20 thousand people killed, 50 banners and 250 guns. The Austrians lost about 3 thousand people during the night attack.

In the battle of Belgrade, the 40,000-strong army of Eugene of Savoy fought with the almost 180,000-strong army of the Grand Vizier Ibrahim Pasha. The Austrians suffered almost three times fewer losses than their enemy - only about 5,500 people killed and wounded, and received 166 guns as trophies.
After the defeats of the Turkish troops at Peterwardein and under the walls of Belgrade, the Sultan of the Ottoman Porte did not dare to continue the war. Soon the parties signed a peace treaty beneficial to Vienna.

Since 1703, Eugene of Savoy was the chairman of the Military, then the Privy Council under the emperor, exerting significant influence on the foreign policy of the state. He advocated a military alliance between Austria and Prussia and Russia against France. He pursued a policy of Germanization of the territories annexed to the empire, primarily the lands inhabited by the South Slavs.

At the age of 70, Eugene Savoysky had the opportunity to participate in another war - for the Polish inheritance, which became his last. In July 1734, the Austrian army under the command of the prince defeated the French army under the command of Marshal Duke de Broglie at the Battle of Quistello. The imperial commander-in-chief again, as in previous years, demonstrated his military leadership.

In the same year, Eugene Savoysky also suffered misfortune. He was unable to provide assistance to the besieged garrison of the Philippsburg fortress near the city of Karlsruhe, and the fortress fell. However, this did not in any way affect the outcome of the War of the Polish Succession.

In 1736, the famous commander of the Holy Roman Empire died in Vienna.

Evgeny Savoysky entered world military history as an outstanding strategist and tactician. As the first (of course, after the emperor) person in the military hierarchy of Austria, he carried out a number of reforms in its armed forces and increased their combat effectiveness.

In the Austrian possessions, the commander-in-chief of the imperial army created a system of rear bases where large reserves of provisions, ammunition and other equipment necessary for the troops were stored. Now, in wartime conditions, they were not so dependent on rear services and army convoys.

Evgeny Savoysky introduced many improvements. For example, his dragoons dismounted before battle and turned into ordinary army infantry.

The commander made a great contribution to the organization of military intelligence: in his army, special small detachments of cavalry and dragoons observed the maneuvering of enemy troops. Their mobility made it possible to preempt enemy attacks in advance. Under Eugene of Savoy, Austrian army intelligence turned out to be head and shoulders above any enemy.

The soldiers loved their great commander for his reasonable fearlessness and concern for them. The Allies considered the Austrian commander-in-chief an honest, reliable and unconceited man.

It is known that the art of military leadership and methods of warfare of Eugene of Savoy were carefully studied by the warlike Prussian king Frederick the Great and the great conqueror Napoleon I Bonaparte.

The personality of Eugene of Savoy is also notable for the fact that during the half-century of his command of the imperial army, Austria became the leader of the German world and turned into a powerful European power, which collapsed only after the First World War.