EUGENE, FRANCIS, Prince of Savoy, was born in 1663, and was descended from Carignan, one of the three branches of the house of Savoy. His father was Eugene Maurice, Earl of Soissons, general of the Swiss and Grisons, and governor of Champagne in France ; and his mother was Olympia Martini, niece of Cardinal Ma zarin, a woman of an intriguing disposition, and once the chief favourite of Louis XIV. lie was at first in tended for the service of the church, and in 1670 was committed to the tuition of a doctor of the Sot bonne. Here he gave great hopes of proficiency in polite litera ture ; but was observed, even at that early age, to derive the greatest pleasure from the perusal of Curtius and Cmsar ; and soon indicated a strong predilection for the military profession. His father, however, having died before his son was ten years of age, and his mother hav ing lost all her influence with the French monarch, who even banished her from his dominions, Eugene found his prospects of promotion in that country considerably di minished. He was still maintained by the king accord ing to his rank ; but was refused an abbey, because he was considered to he more addicted to pleasure than to piety ; and a commission in the army, because he was of too delicate a constitution. He seems afterwards to have admitted, that Louis nevertheless had some regard for him, and would have at length provided hint with a suit able employment in his service ; but thinking at the time that his me s were slighted, and feeling himself involv ed in the disgrace of his mother, he quitted France in 1683, full of enmity against its sovereign, and vowing that he would never re-enter his territories except with arms in his hands. In company with his brother Philip, who had received from the Emperor of Germany the command of a regiment of horse, he arrived at Vienna at the moment when it was closely besieged by the Tur kish army. He immediately joined the duke of Lor raine as a volunteer ; and, having greatly signalized him %elf both in the defeat and pursuit of the enemy, he was appointed, in the course of a few months, to a colonelcy of dragoons. In 1684, he was present at the sieges of Neuhausel and Buda, where he gave such unequivocal proofs of intrepidity and intelligence, that, on his return to Vienna in 1686, the prince of Baden presented him to the emperor with these prophetic words ; " Sire, here is a young Savoyard, who will some time or other be the greatest captain of the age." Thus he rose daily in fa vour at the court of Vienna ; and so great was the rapi dity of his military advancement, that he was a majo• general at the age of 21, and a lieutenant-general at 25. In 1689, when the French monarch declared war against the emperor, and it became necessary to form a coali tion against his ambitious schemes, Prince Eugene was sent from Vienna to negotiate an alliance with his cousin, Victor Amadeus, duke of Savoy. That selfish and as piring prince, who loved neither Louis nor Leopold, and who was ready to betray both as his interests requi red, was secured on the side of the Imperialists by the title of generalissimo, from Austria,—a subsidy of 20,000 crowns per month from England, a similar allowance from Holland, and the promise of four millions more to defray the expcnces of the war. Eugene was sent with a reinforcement of German troops to keep him steady to his engagements, as well as to cooperate with him in the field ; and, during the seven campaigns, which they car ried on with various success, he found occasion for all his talents to watch against the bad faith of the duke, to retrieve the errors of his bad generalship, and to make head against the able tactics of the French commander Catinat. In spite of all these disadvantages, he succeed ed in penetrating into France, and had opened a free passage to Lyons, when Amadeus was seized with the small-pox, and Eugene was obliged to withdraw the ar my to Turin. In reward of his exploits, he received this
year the order of the golden fleece ; and was created a field-marshal exactly ten years after his entrance into the service. He was greatly thwarted by his unmanageable ally, during the remainder of the war ; and at last, in spite of all his vigilan'ce, the duke concluded, in 1696, a sepa rate treaty with the French, whom he soon afterwards joined against the emperor. The king of France, think ing that Eugene was discontented with the court of Vi enna, or that they were discontented with him, made a proposal that he should enter his service. He is said to have offered him his father's government of Champagne, an annual pension of 2000 pistoles, and the rank of a marshal of France ; but, so strong was the prince's anti pathy to Louis, that he rejected the offer with the great est disdain. " I received gayly," he says in his Memoirs, " the person who brought the proposal, and he did not surely dart to deliver my answer exactly as I spoke it." Notwithstanding the unfavourable result of affairs in Ita ly, the emperor saw that he was free from all ground of reproach, and sufficiently testified his approbation, by giving him the command of the army in Hungary. In 1697, he took the against the Turks, who were commanded by the Grand Seignor in person ; and inflict ed upon them the severest defeat which they had sus tained in the whole course of the war. While march ing to attack them at Zenta, on the river Teisse, he re ceived an order from Vienna, not to fight a battle in any circumstances ; but, having advanced too far to retreat with honour or safety, he hastened to the assault, forced the entrenchments of the Vizier's camp, defeated his army with great slaughter, and made himself master of an immense booty, to the amount of several millions ster ling. Of the enemy, 20,000 were killed in the field, 10,000 drowned in the river, and 4,000 taken prisoners ; while the victorious Imperialists did not lose one thou sand men. But his enemies at Vienna having gained the ascendancy, he was received by the emperor with the greatest coldness, commanded to deliver up his sword, charged with disobedience of orders, and arrest ed for trial before a council of war. Upon the report of these proceedings, the populace assembled around his house, and the citizens offered to form a guard about his person, to prevent his being removed for examination. The emperor, either from fear or from conviction, re stored his sword, and requested him to resume the com mand in Hungary. His answer was, as he has recorded it with his ON% n pen," I will do it upon condition of hav ing carte blanche, and of not being exposed in future to the malice of generals and ministers." " The poor em peror," he adds, " durst not give me this full power pub licly ; but he gave it me in private under his own signa ture, with which I was quite satisfied." The war with the Turks was terminated in another campaign ; and now for the first time since he commenced his military career, be was left at leisure to cultivate the arts of peace. Ile employed himself in forming a select library, collecting paintings, building palaces, planning gardens, and hear ing music, in preference, as he says, to "the talk of idlers." During this interval of peace, he enjoyed the society of the celebrated French General Villars, who was ambassador at Vienna ; and with whom he maintain ed, during the remainder of his life, a most cordial friend ship, which was not interrupted even in the midst of hos tilities.