SAXE, MAURICE, COMTE DE (1696-175o), marshal of France, was the natural son of Augustus II. of Saxony and the countess Aurora Konigsmark. In 1698 the countess sent him to Warsaw to his father, who had been elected king of Poland in the previous year, but on account of the unsettled condition of the country the greater part of his youth was spent outside its limits. He served under Prince Eugene in the Netherlands, and under Peter the Great against the Swedes. After receiving in 1711 formal recognition from his father, with the rank of count, he accompanied him to Pomerania, and in 1712 he took part in the siege of Stralsund. In manhood he bore a strong resemblance to his father, both in person and character. His grasp was so power ful that he could bend a horse-shoe with his hand, and to the last his energy and endurance were scarcely subdued by the illnesses resulting from his many excesses. In 1714 he married a rich wife, Johanna Victoria, countess von Loeben, but he dissipated her fortune so rapidly that he was soon heavily in debt, and the mar riage was annulled in 1721. Meantime, after serving in a cam paign against the Turks in 1717, he had in 1719 gone to Paris, to study mathematics, and in 172o obtained a commission as mare chal de camp. In 1725 negotiations were entered into for his elec tion as duke of Courland, at the instance of the duchess Anna Ivanovna, who offered him her hand. He was chosen duke in 1726, but declining marriage with the duchess found it impossible to resist her opposition to his claims, although, with the assistance of L30,000 lent him by the French actress Adrienne Lecouvreur, he raised a force by which he maintained his authority till 1727, when he withdrew and took up his residence in Paris. On the out break of the war in 1734 he served under Marshal Berwick, and for a brilliant exploit at the siege at Philippsburg he was in August named lieutenant-general. On the opening of the Austrian Succes sion War in 1741, he took command of a division of the army sent to invade Austria, and on Nov. 19 surprised Prague during
the night, and took it by assault before the garrison were aware of the presence of an enemy. After capturing the fortress of Eger on April 19, 1742, he received leave of absence, and went to Russia to push his claims on the duchy of Courland, but obtaining no success he returned to his command. His exploits had been the sole redeeming feature in an unsuccessful campaign, and on March 26, 1743, he was promoted to be marshal of France.
Marshal Saxe was now one of the first generals of the age. In I 744 he was chosen to command the expedition to England on behalf of the Pretender, which assembled at Dunkirk but did not proceed farther. After its abortive issue he received an inde pendent command in the Netherlands, and by dexterous manoeu vring succeeded in continually harassing the superior forces of the enemy without risking a decisive battle. In the following year he besieged Tournai and inflicted a severe defeat on the relieving army of the duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy (q.v.). Thencefor ward to the end of the war he continued to command in the Neth erlands, always with success. Besides Fontenoy he added Rocoux (1746) and Lawfeldt or Val (1747) to the list of French victories, and it was under his orders that Marshal Lowendahl captured Bergen-op-Zoom. He himself won the last success of the war in capturing Maestricht in 1748. In 1747 the title formerly held by Turenne, "Marshal general of the King's camps and armies," was revived for him. But on Nov. 3o, 275o, he died at Chambord.
In 1748 there had been born to him a daughter, one of several illegitimate children, whose granddaughter was George Sand. Saxe was the author of a remarkable work on the art of war, Mes Reveries, which though described by Carlyle as "a strange military farrago, dictated, as I should think, under opium," is in fact a classic. It was published posthumously in (ed.