SAX 



551 



SAX 



Saxe, occasion, a regiment of cavalry was raised for him, at 

 Mughal. tne head of which he fought against the Swedes at the 

 "Y*^ bloody battle of dadebiiHch, where he had a horse 

 killed under him, after he had thrice rallied his regi- 

 ment, and led them on to the charge. 



When this campaign was fini-hrd, ID'S mother pre- 

 vailed upon him to marry the Countess of Loben, a lady 

 of wealth and beauty. This union, however, was not 

 a happy one, and was dissolved in 1721. Their only 

 child died in infancy ; and the licentious habits of Count 

 Saxe unfitted him tor the enjoyments of domestic life. 



In the war against the Turks, he accompanied Prince 

 Eugene into Hungary, with 1 />,()<)<) nun. lie was pre- 

 sent at the siege of Belgrade, and at another battle 

 gained over the Turks ; and on his return to Poland 

 in 1718, he was decorated with the golden eagle. 



After the general pacification of Europe, he took up 

 his residence in France, where the Duke of Orleans, 

 then regent of the kingdom, honoured him with a bre- 

 vet of Ma rechal de Camp. Resolved to devote himself 

 to the study of his profession, he resumed with ardour 

 his mathematical pursuits, and made himself master of 

 the various improvements in military tactics. Having 

 got the command of a German regiment in France, he 

 drilled them in a new kind of exercise, which was con- 

 sidered a favourable presage of his future greatness. 



When the dukedom of Courlaod became vacant in 

 1725, the states of Courhnd chose Marshal Saxe for 

 their sovereign ; but his election was opposed both by 

 Russia and Poland. Prince MenzikofF, the Russian 

 candidate, sent 800 Russians to Mittau, where he be- 

 sieged the Marshal in his palace ; but such was the in- 

 trepidity with which he defended himself with only 

 sixty men, that the Russians were obliged to abandon 

 their scheme of taking him prisoner. Finding it in 

 vain to contend alone with such powerful enemies, heap- 

 plied to France for men and money. The celebrated ac- 

 tress, Mademoiselle de Couvreur, pawned her jewels and 

 plate, in order that she might send him 40,000 livres ; 

 but this assistance was inadequate to his wants, and he 

 was therefore obliged to quit Courland, and return to 

 France. The Duchess of Courland, who afterwards 

 sat on the Russian throne, flattered him with the hopes 

 of her hand, but finding herself unable to fix his affec- 

 tions, then under the dominion of Mademoiselle de 

 Couvreur, she abandoned all thoughts of the match. 



In the interval which succeeded these disappoint- 

 ments, Marshal Saxe again devoted himself to literary 

 pursuits. He not only resumed his mathematical stu- 

 dies, but in the course of thirteen nights, during the in- 

 tervals of an ague, he composed his " Reveries ;" a 

 work containing many new ideas on military subjects. 



Upon the death of his father, the king of Poland, in 

 1733, the talents of our hero were again called into ac- 

 tion. From a partiality for the French service, he de- 

 clined the command of the Saxon troops, which had 

 been offered him by his brother; and he joined the 

 Duke de Berwick's army, which was then encamp- 

 ed on the Rhine. The general, who was at this moment 

 preparing to attack the enemy's entrenchments at Et- 

 linghen, exclaimed, on the Count's arrival, " I was 

 about to send for 3000 men, but your arrival is of more 

 value than them." This compliment was not mis- 

 placed. At the head of a regiment of grenadiers he 

 penetrated the enemy's ranks, and decided the fate of 

 the day. At the siege of Philipsburg he exhibited equal 

 valour ; and from his great merits, he was raised to the 

 rank of lieutenant-general in 1734. 



After the short peace of 1736, a new war was caused 

 by the death of Charles VI. Count Saxe took the city 



<>f Prague by assault in 1741 ; and Egra submitted to 

 his arms a few days after the trenches were opened. In 

 consequence of this success, Charles VII. wrote a letter 

 of thanks to the Count with his own hand. 



When the King of France invaded Flanders in per- 

 son in 1744, and had obtained the most signal success, 

 he was obliged to quit the scene of his triumph, in or- 

 der to check the advance of Prince Charles of Lorraine, 

 who had entered Alsace. He therefore left Marshal 

 Saxe to watch the motions of the enemy, a duty in which 

 he displayed the most consummate generalship. 



In 1745, though in very bad health, he gained the 

 celebrated battle of Fontenoy, of which we have already 

 given an account in our article BRITAIN, Vol. VI. p. 627. 

 In the campaign of 1747 and 1748, he acquired ad- 

 ditional honour. On the llth Oct. 1746, the King of 

 France sent him a present of 6 pieces of cannon; on 

 the 12th Jan. 1747, he was created Marshal of the French 

 armies; and, in 1748, he was intrusted with the com- 

 mand of the French conquests in the Netherlands. 



After the peace of Aix-la- Chapel le, to which these 

 victories led, Marshal Saxe retired to Chambord, an 

 estate which was presented to him by the King of 

 France, and he spent his leisure hour* in the most 

 agreeable manner in the society of philosophers, men 

 of letters, and artists. He was induced some time 

 afterwards to pay a visit to the King of Prussia, by 

 whom he was received with the highest honours. 



Exhausted with the labours of a military life, he was 

 carried off by a fever on the 30th Nov. 1750, in the 

 54th year of his age. Though licentious in his habits, 

 Marshal Saxe was firmly attached to the Lutheran re- 

 ligion, in which he had been brought up ; and when 

 the Queen of France heard of his death, she expressed 

 her regret that they could not ' say a single de pro- 

 fundis for a man, who had made them sing so many 

 tedeums." In his will, dated at Paris, March 1, 1748, 

 he directed his body to be buried in quick lime, that 

 " nothing but the remembrance of him among his 

 friends might remain." The body, however, was em- 

 balmed, and his heart deposited in a silver gilt box. 

 His body was interred in the Lutheran church of St. 

 Thomas, at Strasburg, on the 8th Feb. 1751, and the 

 expences of his funeral defrayed by Louis XV. 



Marshal Saxe, though a man of ordinary stature, was 

 remarkable for great strength and a robust constitution. 

 Along with a warlike mien, he possessed great mildness 

 of expression. He was affable and generous even to 

 excess. In his last illness he declared that " his life 

 had been a fine dream ;" and he expressed much pe- 

 nitence for the licentiousness of his life. 



The best edition of his Reveries appeared at Paris in 

 1757, in two vols. 4to, accompanied with several en- 

 gravings, and a life of the author. For a full account 

 of the biography of this eminent general, see his life 

 by M. d'Espagnon, in 2 vols. 12mo. and Marechal de 

 Saxe's Let I res el Memoir es, Paris 1 796. 



SAXONY, a kingdom in the north-east of Ger- 

 many, bounded on the north, north-west, and north- 

 east by Prussia; on the south and south-east by 

 Austria ; on the west by the principality of Reuss and 

 Saxe Gotha ; and on the south-west by Bavaria, The 

 dominions of the Elector of Saxony were established in- 

 to a kingdom in 1807 by Bonaparte, who enlarged 

 it by the addition of Prussian Poland, and by consider- 

 able portions of the Austrian states. This additional 

 territory, however, was restored to Prussia and Aus- 

 tria at the congress of Vienna, when the kingdom of 

 Saxony was composed as it is at present of the follow- 

 ing divisions : 



