Maurice de Saxe
Maurice, Count of Saxony (German: Hermann Moritz von Sachsen, French: Maurice de Saxe; 28 October 1696 – 20 November 1750) was a notable soldier, officer and a famed military commander of the 18th century. The illegitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, he initially served in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire, then the Imperial Army, before finally entering French service. De Saxe became a Marshal and even Marshal General of France. He is best known for his deeds in the War of the Austrian Succession and especially for his decisive victory at the Battle of Fontenoy.
Maurice de Saxe
28 October 1696
Goslar, Holy Roman Empire
20 November 1750 (aged 54)
Château de Chambord, Kingdom of France
Johanna Viktoria von Loeben
August Adolf von Sachsen
Marie-Aurore de Saxe
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Childhood[edit]
Maurice was born at Goslar, an illegitimate son of Augustus II the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, and the Countess Maria Aurora of Königsmarck. He was the first of eight extramarital children whom August acknowledged, although as many as 354 are claimed by sources, including Wilhelmine of Bayreuth, to have existed.[1]
In 1698, the Countess sent him to his father in Warsaw. Augustus had been elected King of Poland in the previous year, but the unsettled condition of the country obliged Maurice to spend the greater part of his youth outside its borders. This separation from his father made him independent and had an important effect on his future career.[1]
Writings[edit]
Saxe's work on the art of war, Mes Rêveries (My Reveries), was published after his death in 1757.[7] Described by Carlyle as "a strange military farrago, dictated, as I should think, under opium", it was praised by Frederick the Great and described by Lord Montgomery, more than two centuries later, as "a remarkable work on the art of war".
A common theme of the 18th century Age of Enlightenment was to emphasise the scientific method and the idea every activity could be expressed in terms of a universal system.[8] In one sense, Mes Rêveries followed this by subjecting "military affairs to reasoned criticism and intellectual treatment, and the ensuing military doctrines were perceived as forming a definitive system".[9] Written following Prussian expansion during the War of the Austrian Succession, Saxe rejected their rigid discipline; arguing the French character was fundamentally different and their tactics should reflect that, he advocated the use of a deep order or ordre profond, rather than relying on firearms.[10]
However, Mes Rêveries also challenged French military orthodoxy in arguing for a greater focus on mobile warfare, rather than fortifications; this was partly a legacy of Vauban (1633–1707), who had revolutionised this field but adherence to his principles meant French engineers became ultra-conservative. As early as 1701, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough argued winning one battle was more beneficial than taking 12 fortresses; Saxe followed this line but his argument was given increased weight by French losses in the 1756–1763 Seven Years' War.[11]
Saxe's Lettres et mémoires choisis (Selected Letters and Memoirs) appeared in 1794. His letters to his sister Anna Karolina Orzelska, the Duchess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck, preserved at Strasbourg, were destroyed by the bombardment of that place in 1870.[1] Thirty copies had, however, been printed from the original.[1]