Maurice de Saxe

German-born French general

• Born: October 28, 1696
• Birthplace: Goslar, Saxony (now in Germany)
• Died: November 30, 1750
• Place of death: Chambord, France

An innovative general adept at both attack and siege operations, the comte de Saxe is considered one of the greatest generals of the eighteenth century. He won impressive victories in the War of the Austrian Succession, but he was the only French general to do so, and France did not benefit from the war, despite his accomplishments.

Early Life

Maurice, the comte de Saxe (kohnt duh sahks), began life inauspiciously. He was one of the more than three hundred illegitimate children recognized by Augustus II, also known as Augustus the Strong, the elector of Saxony (r. 1694-1733) and later king of Poland (r. 1697-1704, 1709-1733). His mother was the Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmark, a strong, intelligent, and well-connected woman in the courts of Europe (Voltaire called her “the most famous woman of two centuries”). The countess maneuvered her son out of the mass of Augustus II’s offspring into a more prominent position, where he could make his own way in European society, mainly by preparing her son for a military career. As a young man, Saxe studied the art of war as an aide-de-camp to Prince Eugene of Savoy. Later, Saxe purchased the command of a German regiment serving in the French army.

At the age of thirty, Saxe stepped out of his mother’s shadow by asserting his claim to the duchy of Courland, in modern-day Latvia. Rivals backed by the Russians and Poles forced Saxe to cede his claim in 1727, however, and Saxe instead became a professional soldier. He served as a staff officer under the duke of Berwick, the son of England’s James II, then employed as a general in the service of France during the War of Polish Succession (1733-1735). That war ended with Saxe’s legitimate half brother, Augustus III, retaining the throne of Poland. Saxe distinguished himself at the Battles of Philippsburg and Ettingen, earning him the rank of lieutenant general. When the war ended, Saxe remained in the French army, a foreigner in a foreign army, just like his mentor the duke of Berwick.

Life’s Work

Peace in Europe did not last long. In 1740, Charles VI of Austria died, leaving his daughter Maria Theresa as empress and marking the start of the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). Seeking to exploit the change in leadership, Frederick the Great of Prussia seized the province of Silesia, in modern-day Poland. Seeking their own advantages, Spain, France, Bavaria, and Saxony sided with the Prussians. Only England sided with Austria. Louis XV of France granted Saxe a field command and sent him to cooperate with France’s Bavarian ally.

In 1741, Saxe marched his joint French-Bavarian force into Bohemia, where he captured the Austrian stronghold at Prague. His offensive, however, soon came to an ignominious end. Defeated in Silesia and Bohemia, Maria Theresa ceded Silesia to the Prussians and signed a peace treaty with Frederick the Great. Free to deal with the overstretched French, the Austrians retook Prague, routed the combined French and Bavarian army, and swept into Bavaria itself. Saxe halted the Austrian offensive and reestablished equilibrium along the French border. This success earned Saxe a promotion to marshal.

Louis XV sent Saxe to northeastern France, where the war was not going well. Prussia was no longer in the war. Bavaria could offer little help. Austria had negotiated an alliance with Sardinia that kept Spain from supporting its ally. Even worse, Saxony had switched its allegiance to the Austrians. France had to deal with Austria and England by itself. An English army, led by George II, king of England and elector of Hanover, had landed on the coast of Europe to participate in the war. British armies had pushed the French across the Rhine, threatening France itself. Saxe’s job was to halt the British and Austrian offensive by threatening the Netherlands, an Austrian possession.

In early 1745, Saxe moved a fifty-thousand-man army toward the Dutch city of Tournai. Austria had placed the defense of the Netherlands in the hands of its allies. Prussia had reentered the war in 1744, and Austria was once again dealing with Prussian armies on its northern frontier. Facing Saxe in the Austrian Netherlands was a combined English, Dutch, and Hanoverian army under the command of William, duke of Cumberland.

William II had returned to England to deal with an uprising in Scotland led by the Stuart claimant to the English throne. Saxe prepared to meet the English at the village of Fontenoy, southeast of Tournai, in May, 1745. Saxe prepared for the English army, equal in number to his, by constructing a fortified line featuring four reinforced redoubts, with its flanks anchored by the Schelde River and the Gavrain Forest. The position forced Cumberland to make frontal assaults into a crossfire generated from the reinforced redoubts. After several futile assaults, Cumberland assembled fourteen thousand men into a wedge formation that stormed into the center of the French line and began to press the French center. Saxe then committed his Irish Brigade, who, with their own particular hatred of Britain, fought ferociously and managed to halt the British advance. With half of his attacking troops dead, Cumberland broke off his assault. Tournai fell to the French, followed by Brussels soon afterward.

Events elsewhere further aided Saxe in his northern campaign. The Stuart uprising in Scotland evolved into a full-scale revolt, and the duke of Cumberland withdrew his army to deal with the Scottish clans, eventually defeating them at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The Austrians hurried an army under the command of Prince Charles of Lorraine to the Netherlands to replace the English. Seeking to take advantage of the confusion, Saxe pressed his army northward, toward the city of Rocourt to strike the Austrians before they could establish themselves. On October 11, 1746, in the open fields north of Rocourt, Saxe easily outmaneuvered the inexperienced Prince Charles and sent the Austrians reeling off the battlefield with a loss of more than five thousand men.

The situation in the Netherlands changed again in the spring of 1747. Having suppressed the Scottish, the duke of Cumberland returned to the Netherlands with a new English army with the intent of halting Saxe’s advance. Cumberland’s plan was to erode Saxe’s strength rather than engage the wily general in open battle. With this in mind, Cumberland marched his combined British and Dutch army against a portion of Saxe’s army holding the Dutch city of Lauffeld, in modern-day Belgium. Cumberland surrounded and besieged the French force at Lauffeld, believing his plan had worked. Saxe, however, hastily organized his army, marched his men fifty miles in two days, and struck Cumberland from the rear. The British army collapsed, leaving six thousand dead on the battlefield.

The next target was the fortified city of Maastricht, the last Dutch stronghold between the French and the Dutch heartland. In another masterfully orchestrated siege, Saxe outmaneuvered and wore down the battered allied forces, taking the city on May 7, 1748. Maastricht turned out to be Saxe’s final battle. After eight years of war, all of Europe was exhausted, and the combatants agreed to a peace in October, 1748. France emerged from the war with little to show for its efforts, as Saxe’s victories in the north could not offset French losses elsewhere, such as Italy and North America.

Although a hero when the war ended, bearing the rank of marshal general, Saxe soon became the target of palace jealousies and intrigues, and he retired from the army in disgust. His memoirs, Mes rěveries (1757), published posthumously, contained many simple yet complex statements on the nature of warfare, perhaps the most famous being “It is not big armies that win battles, it is the good ones.” Maurice, comte de Saxe, died in Chambord, France, on November 30, 1750.

Significance

While some critics believe that Saxe achieved fame only because he was the sole successful French general in the War of the Austrian Secession, most military historians consider Saxe a brilliant strategist, capable of undertaking all aspects of military operations. He successfully conducted storm assaults, prolonged sieges, and defensive struggles, often while outnumbered by his adversaries. His memoirs, which became standard reading for ambitious military officers throughout Europe, influenced the way Europeans fought wars for decades thereafter.

Bibliography

Bois, Jean-Pierre. Maurice de Saxe. Paris: Fayard, 1992. Fully researched and well documented; the best biography of Saxe available.

Hulot, Frédéric. Le Marechal de Saxe. Paris: Pygmalion, 1989. A very good biography of Saxe, available only in French.

Liddell-Hart, Basil H. Great Captains Unveiled. New York: Da Capo, 1996. An interesting volume that compares great military leaders of different eras. Saxe is compared, for example, to the British general James Wolfe, the Swedish military genius Gustavus Adolphus, and Genghis Khan, leader of the Mongol horde.

Trowbridge, W. R. H. A Beau Sabreur, Maurice de Saxe, Marshal of France: His Loves, His Laurels, and His Times, 1696-1750. New York: Brentano, 1910. A flowery account of Saxe’s life, concentrating on his scandalous relationship with Adrianne Lecouvreur, the noted French actress.

White, Jon E. Marshal of France: The Life and Times of Maurice, Comte de Saxe, 1696-1750. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1962. A lengthy academic account of Saxe’s life and campaigns.