SAXE, Maurice, Count of, was born on the 13th of October 1696. He was the natural son of Frederick Augustus II. elector of Saxony and king of Poland, and of the Countess of Konigsmarc, a Swedish lady, celebrated both for her wit and her beauty. He was educated along with Frederick 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 task, to mount on horseback, or exercise himself in 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 Toumay 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, swimming across the river in sight of the enemy, with a pistol in his hand. His valour shone no less conspicuously on the bloody day of Gaedelbusck, 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 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 afterwards. The Count of Saxe was too fond of 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 occupied 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 commanded by Prince Eugene. 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 rnade 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 sixteen 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 new plan. 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 the election. 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 eight hundred Russians to Milan, where they besieged the newly-chosen duke in his palace. Count Saxe, who had only sixty men, defended himself with astonishing intrepidity. The siege was raised, and the Russians were obliged to retreat. Soon afterwards he retired to Usmaiz, and prepared to defend his people against the two hostile nations. Here he remained with only three hundred men, until the Russian general approached to force his retreat, at the head of four thousand. 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 celebrated actress, pawned her jewels and plate, and sent him the sum of forty thousand 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 Iwanowa, duchess dowager of Courland, and second daughter of the Czar Iwan Alexiowitz, had given him hopes of marriage, and abandoned him at that time because she despaired of fixing his wavering passion. This inconstancy lost him not only Courland, but the throne of Russia itself, which that princess afterwards filled.

Count Saxe, thus stripped of his territories, devoted himself for some time to the study of mathematics. He com-[7:19:665] posed also, in thirteen nights, and during the intervals of an ague, his Reveries, which he afterwards corrected. 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 Marshal Berwick’s army, which was encamped on the Rhine. “Count,” said that general, who was preparing to attack the enemy’s intrenchments at Etlinghen, “I was going to send for three thousand 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 with no less intrepidity at the siege of Philipsburg. For these services he was, in 1734, rewarded with the rank of lieutenant-general. Peace was concluded in 1736; but the death of Charles VL, the emperor of Germany, almost immediately kindled a new war.

Prague was besieged by the Count of Saxe in 1741, near the end of November, and was 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 VIL, that he wrote with his own hands a congratulatory letter to the conqueror.

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,” said 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 afterwards, 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, which was owing entirely to his vigilance and capacity, was followed by the reduction of Tournay, Bruges, Ghent, Oudenard, Ostend, Ath, and Brussels. This last city was taken on the 28th of February 1746; and very soon afterwards the king sent to the marshal a letter of naturalization, conceived in the most flattering terms. The succeeding campaigns gained him additional honours. After the victory of Raucoux, which he gained on the 11th of 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 marshal 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. Maestricht 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 of October 1748.

Marshal Saxe retired to Chambord, a country-seat which the king of France had given him. Some time afterwards 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 of November 1750, at the age of fifty-four.

The best edition of his Reveries was printed at Paris, 1757, in two volumes 4to. 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 written in the panegyrical style.