Saxe, Maurice Count of, was born the 13th October 1666. He was the natural son of Frederic Augustus II, elector of Saxony, and king of Poland, and of the countess of Konigsmarck, a Swedish lady, celebrated both for her wit and beauty. He was educated along with Frederic Augustus the electoral prince, afterwards king of Poland. His infancy announced the future warrior. Nothing could prevail on him to apply to his studies but the promise of being allowed, after he had finished his talk, to mount on horseback, or exercise himself with arms.
He served his first campaign in the army commanded by Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, when only twelve years old. He signalized himself at the sieges of Tournay and Mons, and particularly at the battle of Malplaquet. In the evening of that memorable day, he was heard to say, "I'm content with my day's work." During the campaign of 1710, Prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough made many public encomiums on his merit. Next year the young count accompanied the king of Poland to the siege of Stralsund, the strongest place in Pomerania, and displayed the greatest intrepidity. He swam across the river in flight of the enemy, with a pistol in his hand. His valour shone no less conspicuously on the bloody day of Gaedeluck, where he commanded a regiment of cavalry. He had a horse killed under him, after he had three times rallied his regiment, and led them on to the charge.
Soon after that campaign, his mother prevailed on him to marry the countess of Lubin, a lady both rich and beautiful. This union lasted but a short time. In 1721, the count procured a dissolution of the marriage; a step of which he afterwards repented. The countess left him with regret; but this did not prevent her from marrying soon after. The count of Saxe was too fond of pleasure and variety to submit to the duties which marriage imposes. In the midst, however, of the pleasures in which he sometimes indulged, he never lost sight of his profession. He carried along with him wherever he went a library of military books; and even when he seemed most taken up with his pleasures, he never failed to spend an hour or two in private study.
In 1717 he went to Hungary, where the emperor had an army of 15,000 men under the command of Prince Eugene. Young Count Saxe was present at the siege of Belgrade, and at a battle which the prince gained over the Turks. On his return to Poland in 1718, he was made a knight of the golden eagle.
The wars in Europe being concluded by the treaties of Utrecht and Passarowitz, Count Saxe went to France. He had always professed a partiality for that country. French, indeed, was the only foreign language which during his infancy he was willing to learn. He spent his whole time during the peace in studying mathematics, fortification, and mechanics, sciences which exactly suited his genius. The mode of exercising troops had struck his attention when very young. At 16 he invented a new exercise, which was taught in Saxony with the greatest success. Having obtained a regiment in France in 1722, he formed it himself according to his own ideas. From that moment the Chevalier Folard, an excellent judge of military talents, predicted that he would be a great man.
In 1726 the states of Courland chose him for their sovereign. But both Poland and Russia rose in arms to oppose him. The Czarina wished to bestow the duchy on Menzikoff, a happy adventurer, who from a pastry-cook's boy became a general and a prince. Menzikoff sent 800 Russian troops to Milan, where they besieged the new-chosen duke in his palace. Count Saxe, who had only 60 men, defended himself with astonishing intrepidity. The siege was raised, and the Russians obliged to retreat. Soon after he retired to Ulmiz, and prepared to defend his people against the two hostile nations. Here he remained with only 300 men, till the Russian general approached at the head of 4000 to force his retreat. That general invited the count to a conference, during which he intended to surprise him, and take him prisoner. The count, informed of the plot, reproached him for his baseness, and broke up the conference. About this time he wrote to France for men and money. Mademoiselle le Couvreur, a famous actress, pawned her jewels and plate, and sent him the sum of 40,000 livres. This actress had formed his mind for the fine arts. She had made him read the greater part of the French poets, and given him a taste for the theatre, which he retained even in the camp. The count, unable to defend himself against Russia and Poland, was obliged in the year 1729 to leave his new dominions, and retire into France. It is said that Anne Ivanowa, duchess dowager of Courland, and second daughter of the tsar Ivan Alexievitch, had given him hopes of marriage, and abandoned him at that time because she despaired of fixing his wavering passion.—This infatuation lost him not only Courland, but the throne of Russia itself, which that princess afterwards filled.
Count Saxe, thus stript of his territories, devoted himself for some time to the study of mathematics. He composed also, in 13 nights, and during the intervals of anague, his Reveries, which he corrected afterwards. This book is written in an incorrect but forcible style; it is full of remarks both new and profound, and is equally useful to the soldier and the general.
The death of the king of Poland his father, in 1733, kindled a new war in Europe. His brother, the elector of Saxony, offered him the command of all his forces, but he preferred the French service, and repaired to the marshal of Berwick's army, which was encamped on the Rhine. "Count," said that general, who was preparing to attack the enemy's entrenchments at Ettingen, "I was going to send for 3000 men, but your arrival is of more value than theirs." When the attack began, the count, at the head of a regiment of grenadiers, forced the enemy's lines, and by his bravery decided the victory. He behaved at the siege of Philipburgh with no less intrepidity. For these services he was, in 1734, rewarded with the rank of lieutenant-general. Peace was concluded in 1736; but the death of Charles VI, emperor of Germany kindled a new war almost immediately.
Prague was besieged by the count of Saxe in 1742, near the end of November, and taken the same month by assault. The conquest of Egra followed that of Prague. It was taken a few days after the trenches were opened. This success gave so much joy to the emperor Charles VII, that he wrote a congratulatory letter to the conqueror with his own hands.
In 1744 he was made marshal of France, and commanded a part of the French army in Flanders. During that campaign he displayed the greatest military conduct. Though the enemy was superior in number, he observed their motions so skilfully that they could do nothing.
In January 1745, an alliance was concluded at Warsaw between the queen of Hungary, the king of England, and the States of Holland. The ambassador of the States General, meeting Marshal Saxe one day at Versailles, asked his opinion of that treaty. "I think (says he), that if the king my master would give me an unlimited commission, I would read the original at the Hague before the end of the year." This answer was not a bravado; the marshal was capable of performing it.
He went soon after, though exceedingly ill, to take the command of the French army in the Low Countries. A gentleman seeing the feeble condition in which he left Paris, asked him how he could in that situation undertake so great an enterprise. "The question (replied he) is not about living, but setting out."—Soon after the opening of the campaign, the battle of Fontenoy was fought. Marshal Saxe was at the point of death, yet he caused himself to be put into a litter, and carried round all the posts. During the action he mounted on horseback, though he was so very weak that his attendants dreaded every moment to see him expire. The victory of Fontenoy, owing entirely to his vigilance and capacity, was followed by the reduction of Tournay, Bruges, Ghent, Oudenaarde, Ostend, Antwerp, and... SAX
and Brufels: This last city was taken on the 28th February 1746; and very soon after the king sent to the marechal a letter of naturalization conceived in the most flattering terms. The succeeding campaigns gained him additional honours. After the victory of Raucoix, which he gained on the 11th October 1746, the king of France made him a present of six pieces of cannon. He was, on the 12th of January of the following year, created marechal of all the French armies, and, in 1748, commander-general of all those parts of the Netherlands which were lately conquered.
Holland now began to tremble for her safety. Maastricht and Bergen-op-Zoom had already fallen, and nothing but misfortunes seemed to attend the further prosecution of the war. The States General, therefore, offered terms of peace, which were accepted, and a treaty concluded on the 18th October 1748.
Marechal Saxe retired to Chambord, a country seat which the king of France had given him. Some time after he went to Berlin, where the king of Prussia received him as Alexander would have received Caesar.—On his return to France, he spent his time among men of learning, artists, and philosophers. He died of a fever, on the 30th November 1750, at the age of 54.
Some days before his death, talking to M. Senac his physician about his life, "It has been (says he) an excellent dream." He was remarkably careful of the lives of his men. One day a general officer was pointing out to him a poll which would have been of great use. "It will only cost you (says he) a dozen grenadiers. That would do very well," replied the marechal, "were it only a dozen lieutenant-generals."
It was impossible for Marechal Saxe, the natural brother of the king of Poland, elected sovereign of Courland, and possessed of a vigorous and restless imagination, to be destitute of ambition. He constantly entertained the notion that he would be a king. After losing the crown of Russia by his inconstancy in love, he formed, it is said, the project of assembling the Jews, and of being the sovereign of a nation which for 1700 years had neither possessed chief nor country. When this chimerical idea could not be realized, he cast his eyes upon the kingdom of Corsica. After failing in this project also, he was busily employed in planning a settlement in some part of America, particularly Brazil, when death surprized him.
He had been educated and died in the Lutheran religion. "It is a pity (said the queen of France, when she heard of his death) that we cannot say a single De profundis (prayer for the dead) for a man who has made us sing so many Te Deums." All France lamented his death.
By his will, which is dated at Paris, March 1. 1748, he directed that his body should be buried in quicklime: "that nothing (says he) may remain of me in this world but the remembrance of me among my friends." These orders, however, were not complied with; for his body was embalmed, put into a leaden coffin, which was inclosed in another of copper, and this covered with one of wood, bound about with iron. His heart was put into a silver gilt box, and his entrails into another coffin. Louis XV. was at the charge of his funeral. By his order his corpse was interred with great pomp and splendor in the Lutheran church of St Thomas, at Straiburg, on the 8th February 1751.
The marechal was a man of ordinary stature, of a robust constitution, and extraordinary strength. To an aspect, noble, warlike, and mild, he joined the excellent qualities of the heart. Affable in his manners, and disposed to sympathize with the unfortunate, his generosity sometimes carried him beyond the limits of his fortune. On his death-bed he reviewed the errors of his life with remorse, and expressed much penitence.
The best edition of his Reveries was printed at Paris 1757, in two vols. It was compared with the greatest attention with the original manuscript in the king's library. It is accompanied with many designs exactly engraved, and a Life of the Author. The Life of Marechal Saxe was written by M. d'Epagnac, two vols. 12mo. This history is written in the panegyrical style. The author is, however, impartial enough to remark, that in the three battles upon which the reputation of Marechal Saxe is founded, he engaged in the most favourable circumstances. "Never did a general (says he) stand in a more advantageous situation. Honoured with the confidence of the king, he was not restrained in any of his projects. He always commanded a numerous army: his soldiers were steady, and his officers confessed great merit."