Maurice, Count of Saxe

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Maurice, Count of Saxe bigraphy, stories - Marshal General of France

Maurice, Count of Saxe : biography

28 October 1696 – 20 November 1750

Maurice, Count of Saxe ( ) (28 October 1696 – 20 November 1750) was a Saxon soldier in French service who became a Marshal and later also Marshal General of France.

Military career

At the age of twelve, Maurice served in the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy, at the sieges of Tournai and Mons and at the Battle of Malplaquet. A proposal at the end of the campaign to send him to a Jesuit college in Brussels was dropped due to the protests of his mother.

Upon his return to the camp of the Allies at the beginning of 1710, Maurice displayed a courage so impetuous that Prince Eugene admonished him to not confuse rashness with valour.

He next served under Peter the Great against the Swedes. In 1711, August formally recognized him and Maurice was granted the rank of Count. He then accompanied his father to Pomerania, and in 1712 he took part in the siege of Stralsund. At the age of 17 in 1713 he commanded his own regiment.

In manhood, Maurice bore a strong resemblance to his father, both physically and in character. His grasp was so powerful that he could bend a horseshoe with his hand, and even at the end of his life, his energy and endurance were scarcely affected by the illnesses his many excesses had caused.

On 12 March 1714, a marriage was arranged between him and one of the richest of his father’s subjects, Countess Johanna Viktoria Tugendreich von Loeben, but he dissipated her fortune so rapidly that he was soon heavily in debt. The next year (21 January 1715), Johanna gave birth to a son, called August Adolf after his grandfather; the child only lived a few hours. Since Maurice had also given her more serious grounds of complaint against him, he consented to an annulment of the marriage in 21 March 1721.

After serving in a campaign against the Ottoman Empire in 1717, he went to Paris to study mathematics, and in 1720 obtained a commission as maréchal de camp. In 1725, he entered negotiations for election as Duke of Courland, at the insistence of the Duchess Anna Ivanovna, who offered him her hand. He was chosen Duke in 1726, but declined marriage with the duchess. He soon found it impossible to resist her opposition to his claims, but with the assistance of £30,000 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 residence in Paris.

At the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession, Saxe served under Marshal the Duke of Berwick, and for a brilliant exploit at the Siege of Philippsburg he was named lieutenant-general. In the War of the Austrian Succession he took command of an army division sent to invade Austria in 1741, and on 19 November 1741, surprised Prague during the night, and seized it before the garrison was aware of the presence of an enemy, a coup de main which made him famous throughout Europe; he thus repeated the exploit of 1648 of his maternal great-grandfather, Hans Christoff von Königsmarck. After capturing the fortress of Eger (Cheb) on 19 April 1742, he received a leave of absence, and went to Russia to push his claims for the Duchy of Courland, but returned to his command after getting nowhere.

Saxe’s exploits were the sole redeeming feature in an unsuccessful campaign, and on 26 March 1743, his merits were rewarded by promotion to Marshal of France. He had been given only 50-60,000 men to defend against an enemy army twice as large.White, p. 138 From this time on, he became one of the great generals of the age. In 1744, he was chosen to command the 10,000 men of the French Invasion of Britain on behalf of the Old Pretender, which assembled at Dunkirk but did not proceed more than a few miles out of harbour before being wrecked by disastrous storms.White, p. 132 After its termination, he received an independent command in the Netherlands, and by skilful manoeuvering succeeded in continually harassing the superior forces of the enemy without risking a decisive battle.

In the following year, Saxe with 65,000 men besieged Tournai and inflicted a severe defeat on the army of the Duke of Cumberland at the Battle of Fontenoy, an encounter determined entirely by his constancy and cool leadership.White, p. 147 During the battle, he was unable to sit on horseback due to edema, and was carried about in a wicker chariot.