PRINCE EUGENE OF SAVOY: A Genius for War Against Louis XIV and the Ottoman Empire

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Biography of Prince Eugene of Savoy-Carignan (1663-1736), French born of an Italian mother, who was destined for the church but fled France as a young man and chose the life of a soldier. He entered the service of the Habsburg Emperor Leopold I in 1683 and rose rapidly to become one of the greatest military commanders of the age, playing a leading role in the wars against both the Ottoman Turks and the French. Reconstructs his military campaigns in compelling detail and also describes his career as a politician, statesman, and a great patron of the arts.

Eugene first showed his military genius during the siege of Vienna in 1683 where the Ottoman Turkish threat to western Europe was thrown back, and he commanded the Imperial army at the resounding victory over the Ottomans at Zenta in 1697. Most famously for English readers, he joined John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough in the victory over the French at Blenheim in 1704 and served alongside him at the subsequent victories at Oudenarde and Malplaquet. His later triumph, again over the Ottomans, at the capture of Belgrade in 1717, sealed his reputation as a great captain.