page_title: Prince Eugene of Savoy
section_title: Quadruple Alliance
hierarchical_section_title: Prince Eugene of Savoy / Mid life (1700–20) / Quadruple Alliance
caption_attribution_description: Portrait of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685-1740) wearing the robes of the Order of the Golden Fleece
context_page_description: Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy–Carignano was a field marshal in the army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. He was one of the most successful military commanders of his time, and rose to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna.
  Born in Paris, Eugene grew up around the court of King Louis XIV of France. Based on his poor physique and bearing, the Prince was initially prepared for a clerical career, but by the age of 19 he had determined on a military career. Following a scandal involving his mother Olympe, he was rejected by Louis XIV for service in the French army. Eugene moved to Austria and transferred his loyalty to the Holy Roman Empire.
  Spanning six decades, Eugene served three Holy Roman emperors: Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI. He first saw action against the Ottoman Turks at the Siege of Vienna in 1683 and the subsequent War of the Holy League, before serving in the Nine Years' War, fighting alongside his cousin, the Duke of Savoy. However, the Prince's fame was secured with his decisive victory against the Ottomans at the Battle of Zenta in 1697, earning him Europe-wide fame.
context_section_description: While Eugene fought the Turks in the east, unresolved issues following the Utrecht/Rastatt settlements led to hostilities between the Emperor and Philip V of Spain in the west. Charles VI had refused to recognise Philip V as King of Spain, a title which he himself claimed; in return, Philip V had refused to renounce his claims to Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands, all of which had transferred to the House of Austria following the Spanish Succession war. Philip V was roused by his influential wife, Elisabeth Farnese, daughter of the Hereditary Prince of Parma, who personally held dynastic claims in the name of her son, Don Charles, to the duchies of Tuscany, Parma and Piacenza. Representatives from a newly formed Anglo-French alliance—who were desirous of European peace for their own dynastic securities and trade opportunities—called on both parties to recognise each other's sovereignty. Yet Philip V remained intractable, and on 22 August 1717 his chief minister, Alberoni, effected the invasion of Austrian Sardinia in what seemed like the beginning of the reconquest of Spain's former Italian empire.
  Eugene returned to Vienna from his recent victory at Belgrade (before the conclusion of the Turkish war) determined to prevent an escalation of the conflict, complaining that, "two wars cannot be waged with one army"; only reluctantly did the Prince release some troops from the Balkans for the Italian campaign. Rejecting all diplomatic overtures Philip V unleashed another assault in June 1718, this time against Savoyard Sicily as a preliminary to attacking the Italian mainland. Realising that only the British fleet could prevent further Spanish landings, and that pro-Spanish groups in France might push the regent, Duke of Orléans, into war against Austria, Charles VI had no option but to sign the Quadruple Alliance on 2 August 1718, and formally renounce his claim to Spain. Despite the Spanish fleet's destruction off Cape Passaro, Philip V and Elisabeth remained resolute, and rejected the treaty.
  Although Eugene could have gone south after the conclusion of the Turkish war, he chose instead to conduct operations from Vienna; but Austria's military effort in Sicily proved derisory, and Eugene's chosen commanders, Zum Jungen, and later Count Mercy, performed poorly. It was only from pressure exerted by the French army advancing into the Basque provinces of northern Spain in April 1719, and the British Navy's attacks on the Spanish fleet and shipping, that compelled Philip V and Elisabeth to dismiss Alberoni and join the Quadruple Alliance on 25 January 1720. Nevertheless, the Spanish attacks had strained Charles VI's government, causing tension between the Emperor and his Spanish Council on the one hand, and the conference, headed by Eugene, on the other. Despite Charles VI's own personal ambitions in the Mediterranean it was clear to the Emperor that Eugene had put the safeguarding of his conquests in Hungary before everything else, and that military failure in Sicily also had to rest on Eugene. Consequently, the Prince's influence over the Emperor declined considerably.
caption: Charles VI (1685–1740), by Johann Gottfried Auerbach. Eugene served Emperor Charles VI for the last 25 years of his life.
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