Serving under Baden, as a twenty-year-old volunteer, Eugene distinguished himself in the battle, earning commendation from Lorraine and the Emperor; he later received the nomination for the colonelcy and was awarded the Kufstein regiment of dragoons by Leopold I.

Louis XIV had hoped that a show of force would lead to a quick resolution to his dynastic and territorial disputes with the princes of the Empire along his eastern border, but his intimidatory moves only strengthened German resolve, and in May 1689, Leopold I and the Dutch signed an offensive compact aimed at repelling French aggression.

[32] Military honours in Italy undoubtedly belonged to the French commander Marshal Catinat, but Eugene, the one Allied general determined on action and decisive results, did well to emerge from the Nine Years' War with an enhanced reputation.

For the loss of some 2,000 dead and wounded, Eugene had inflicted an overwhelming defeat upon the enemy with approximately 25,000 Turks killed—including the Grand Vizier, Elmas Mehmed Pasha, the pashas of Adana, Anatolia, and Bosnia, plus more than thirty aghas of the Janissaries, sipahis, and silihdars, as well as seven horsetails (symbols of high authority), 100 pieces of heavy artillery, 423 banners, and the revered seal which the sultan always entrusted to the Grand Vizier on an important campaign, Eugene had annihilated the Ottoman army and brought to an end the War of the Holy League.

[39] Although the Ottomans lacked western organization and training, the Savoyard prince had revealed his tactical skill, his capacity for bold decision, and his ability to inspire his men to excel in battle against a dangerous foe.

Land in Hungary, given him by the Emperor, yielded a good income, enabling the Prince to cultivate his newly acquired tastes in art and architecture (see below); but for all his new-found wealth and property, he was, nevertheless, without personal ties or family commitments.

"The surprise at Cremona", wrote the diarist John Evelyn, "... was the great discourse of this week"; but appeals for succour from Vienna remained unheeded, forcing Eugene to seek battle and gain a 'lucky hit'.

[54] The Imperial ambassador in London, Count Wratislaw, had pressed for Anglo-Dutch assistance on the Danube as early as February 1703, but the crisis in southern Europe seemed remote from the Court of St. James's where colonial and commercial considerations were more to the fore of men's minds.

"[60] France now faced the real danger of invasion, but Leopold I in Vienna was still under severe strain: Rákóczi's revolt was a major threat; and Guido Starhemberg and Victor Amadeus (who had once again switched loyalties and rejoined the Grand Alliance in 1703) had been unable to halt the French under Vendôme in northern Italy.

Leopold I's assurances of money and men had proved illusory, but desperate appeals from Amadeus and criticism from Vienna goaded the Prince into action, resulting in the Imperialists' bloody defeat at the Battle of Cassano on 16 August.

The Imperial commander arrived in theatre in mid-April 1706, just in time to organize an orderly retreat of what was left of Count Reventlow's inferior army following his defeat by Vendôme at the Battle of Calcinato on 19 April.

Feigning attacks along the Adige, Eugene descended south across the river Po in mid-July, outmanoeuvring the French commander and gaining a favourable position from which he could at last move west towards Piedmont and relieve Savoy's capital.

It was a transfer that Saint-Simon considered something of a deliverance for the French commander who was "now beginning to feel the unlikelihood of success (in Italy)[64] ... for Prince Eugene, with the reinforcements[65] that had joined him after the Battle of Calcinato, had entirely changed the outlook in that theatre of the war.

This glorious action must bring France so low, that if our friends could but be persuaded to carry on the war with vigour one year longer, we cannot fail, with the blessing of God, to have such a peace as will give us quiet for all our days.

The Emperor and Eugene (whose main goal after Turin was to take Naples and Sicily from Philip duc d'Anjou's supporters), reluctantly agreed to Marlborough's plan for an attack on Toulon—the seat of French naval power in the Mediterranean.

Marlborough and Eugene favoured an engagement before Villars could render his position impregnable; but they also agreed to wait for reinforcements from Tournai which did not arrive until the following night, thus giving the French further opportunity to prepare their defences.

In January 1712 Eugene arrived in England hoping to divert the government away from its peace policy, but despite the social success the visit was a political failure: Queen Anne and her ministers remained determined to end the war regardless of the Allies.

But on 21 May 1712—when the Tories felt they had secured favourable terms with their unilateral talks with the French—the Duke of Ormonde (Marlborough's successor) received the so-called 'restraining orders', forbidding him to take part in any military action.

By early August 1716 the Ottoman Turks, some 200,000 men under the sultan's son-in-law, the Grand Vizier Damat Ali Pasha, were marching from Belgrade towards Eugene's position on the north bank of the Danube west of the fortress of Petrovaradin.

[92] Eugene proceeded to take the Banat fortress of Temeswar in mid-October 1716 (thus ending 164 years of Turkish rule), before turning his attention to the next campaign and to what he considered the main goal of the war, Belgrade.

On the morning of 16 August, 40,000 Imperial troops marched through the fog, caught the Turks unaware, and routed Halil Pasha's army; a week later Belgrade surrendered, effectively bringing an end to the war.

Realizing 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.

[102] 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.

[106] But his resignation distressed him, and to compound his concerns Eugene caught a severe bout of influenza that Christmas, marking the beginning of permanent bronchitis and acute infections every winter for the remaining twelve years of his life.

[113] Believing that a resurgent France now posed the greatest danger to their security British ministers, headed by Robert Walpole, moved to reform the Anglo-Austrian Alliance, leading to the signing of the Second Treaty of Vienna on 16 March 1731.

"[120] Eugene conducted another cautious campaign in 1735, once again pursuing a sensible defensive strategy on limited resources; but his short-term memory was by now practically non-existent, and his political influence disappeared completely—Gundaker Starhemberg and Johann Christoph von Bartenstein now dominated the conference in his place.

[141] Schulenburg, whose ambitions to command the Austrian army had been thwarted by Eugene, wrote that the prince "has no idea but to fight whenever the opportunity offers; he thinks that nothing equals the name of Imperialists, before whom all should bend the knee.

The palace acted as his official residence and home, but for reasons that remain speculative the Prince's association with Fischer ended before the building was complete, favouring instead Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt as his chief architect.

According to Churchill, "Marlborough was the model husband and father, concerned with building up a home, founding a family, and gathering a fortune to sustain it", whereas Eugene, the bachelor, was "disdainful of money, content with his bright sword and his lifelong animosities against Louis XIV".

[168] Sicco van Goslinga, one of the Dutch field deputies who worked very close with Eugene during his campaigns with Marlborough, described him in his memoires as follows: He had untameable courage and outdid himself during battle and in all undertakings where vigorous action was required.