EUGENE, FHANcOIS ( 1663-1736) . A celebrated Austrian general, best known as Prince Eugene of Savoy. his full name being Francois-Eugene dc Savoie-Carignan. Ile was the son of Eugene Maurice, Count of Soissons and of Olympia Mancini, a niece of Cardinal Mazarin and was born in Paris, October 18, 1663. The banishment of his mother to the Low Countries, by the order of Louis XIV., and the refusal of the King to grant him a commission in the army, so incensed Eugene against France that he indignantly renounced his country, and entered the service of the Emperor Leopold 1. as a volunteer against the Turks. Though barely twenty years of age. and without military train ing, he displayed extraordinary talents in war, especially at the 'anions siege of Vienna in 1683. Ile soon rose to a high position in the army. In the war of the Coalition against Louis XIV. (1689-97) lie took an active part in the fighting in Italy, and in 1691 was raised to the command of the Imperial army in Piedmont. It was about this time that Louis XIV, offered him the baton of a marshal of France, the generalship of Cham pagne, and a large pension, hut Eugene refused all such advances. In 1693 lie was made a field marshal of Austria, and on his return to Vienna he was placed at the head of the army of Ihm gary, and defeated the Turks, with immense slaughter. in the famous battle of Zenta, Septem ber 11, 1697. In 1701 the War of the Spanish Succession broke out and Eugene was put in command of the army in Italy; but his forces were too small for hint to accomplish anything of importance. In the year 1703, being appointed president of the council of war, he became thence forth the prime mover of every military under taking. He first took the command of the Impe rial army in Germany, and with Marlborough gained a brilliant victory at Blenheim, August 13, 1704, over the French and Bavarians. Eugene
afterwards saved Turin, and expelled the French from Italy in the year 1706. He shared, too, with 'Marlborough the glory of the fields of Ondenarde in 1708 and Malplaquet in 1709; but being crippled in his resources by the retirement of Holland and England from the contest, lie was tillable to withstand the enemy on the Rhine. The defeat of his Dutch allies by Villars at De rain, July 24, 1712, wan followed by other dis asters, until the Peace of Rastadt (1714) put an end to the war.
In 1716, on the renewal of the war against the Turks, Eugene defeated an army of 10.000 men at Peterwardein, took Temesvii•, and in the year 1717, after a bloody battle, gained possession of Belgrade. After the Peace of Passarowitz, which was concluded in the following year, he returned to Vienna, where, during the succeeding years of peace, lie labored with unwearied energies in the Cabinet. Mien the question of the succession to the throne of Poland brought. on a new war with France (1733-35), Engine appeared again on the Rhine; but being now advanced in years and destitute of sufficient resources, he was un able to accomplish anything of importance. After the peace he returned to Vienna, where lie died April 21, 1736, leaving an immense fortune to his niece, the Princess Victoria of Savoy. In his later years lie was a patron of art and literature. Among the common people of Germany and Aus tria his fame lives in songs. as "Prinz Eugen der edle Ritter"; his reputation as one of the great est military leaders of his own or, in fact, of any time, is firmly established.