Hermann-Maurice Comte de Saxe achieved the rank of marshal- general of France for his leadership during the War of the Aus¬trian Succession (1740-48). Known as a brilliant tactician and a commander who could motivate soldiers to win battles even though outnumbered, Saxe stands at the head of mid-eighteenth- century military leaders. His writings on mobility, training, disci¬pline, and morale, particularly in Mes reveries (My Thoughts), influenced future leaders, including NAPOLEON I. Saxe was born on October 28, 1696, at Goslar, one of the more than three hundred illegitimate children of Frederick Au¬gustus, elector of Saxony and the future king of Poland. Frederick arranged an ensign’s commission in the Saxon infantry for Mau¬rice when he was twelve.
After serving with Prince EUGENE OF SAVOY and MARLBOROUGH in 1709, Maurice accepted the title count of Saxony (comte de Saxe in French) from his father in 1711 and served with the German Imperial Army at Pomerania against the Swedes in 1712 and at the siege of Stralsund. At the young age of seventeen, Saxe, already a colonel, began a remark¬able career of womanizing and other excesses that would rival his future military accomplishments.
After marrying in 1713 and squandering his wife’s wealth on other women, Saxe prevailed upon his father to buy him a colonelcy in a German regiment serving in France in 1719. Con¬tinuing his hard living and womanizing in his adopted country of France, Saxe also studied methods of warfare. Reputed to be an excellent trainer of soldiers, particularly in the use of musketry, Saxe earned a promotion to brigadier general.
The War of the Polish Succession, which began in 1733 with the death of his father, then the king of Poland, pitted Saxe against his old mentor Eugene and his brother Frederick Augustus II when France entered the war against Saxony and Austria. Remaining loyal to France, Saxe achieved mounting successes, highlighted by his command of the covering force at the siege of Philippsburg in the summer of 1734. By the end of the war, in 1738, Saxe was a lieutenant general who had come to the attention of King Louis XV. Saxe became a close friend of the king’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, thereafter a strong supporter of his career.
When the War of the Austrian Succession erupted in 1740, Saxe commanded French “volunteers” who supported Bavaria and in 1741 planned and led the attack that captured Prague. France officially joined the war in 1744, and Saxe assumed command of the French army in Flanders as a marshal. Saxe prevailed over the combined armies of Britain, Austria, and the Netherlands despite their better trained, more experienced soldiers, who outnumbered him.
Saxe besieged Tournai on April 25, 1745, and when allied re¬inforcements approached the area, Saxe set up on easily defensi¬ble high ground at Fontenoy. From his litter, where he was confined by an extremely painful bout of dropsy, Saxe combined artillery barrages with massed musket fire to beat back the initial assault. When the enemy’s subsequent attack appeared ready to break through the French defenses, Saxe rose to personally rally his army to victory.
Saxe followed the win at Fontenoy by capturing the cities of Ghent, Brussels, Antwerp, Mons, and Namur, and within a year he controlled all of Flanders. Now the best-known and respected gen¬eral in France, Saxe was appointed marshal-general, only the third officer in French history to attain that rank. In the war’s final year, Saxe led his army farther into the Netherlands, achieved a decisive victory at Lauffeld on July 2, 1747, and captured Maastricht on May 7, 1748.
When the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle concluded the war later in 1748, Saxe retired to live at the Chateau de Chambord, a gift from his grateful adopted country. His old German regiment camped on the estate’s grounds so that Saxe could use them to test new drills and tactical innovations. He also continued his womanizing, hosting parties of remarkable debauchery. Saxe died on November 30, 1750, at age fifty-four. Rumors ascribed his death to a duel, but more reliable sources attributed his death to an evening of “inter¬viewing” a troupe of eight young actresses.
Saxe’s reputation and successes resulted from his integration of his cavalry, infantry, and artillery resources and his uncanny ability to employ maneuver and reinforcements at the most advantageous times. Through personal leadership, he established an elan within his ranks that often produced victory over larger, better-trained opponents. He understood his army’s weaknesses as well as its strengths and committed his forces only when assured of victory. Saxe also exhibited a mastery in the use of artillery and the organizing of his army with the proper balance of infantry and cavalry.
While battlefield accomplishments earned Saxe the distinction as the mid-eighteenth century’s most successful soldier, his long-term influence comes from his writings—apparently a family talent, for his great-granddaughter was French novelist George Sand. Although not published until after his death, Saxe’s book Mes reveries (My Thoughts), written in 1732, recorded his ideas on the organization, preparation, and conduct of warfare. Some of his ideas, such as the use of the plug bayonet—which fit directly into the musket barrel—and the pike were impractical, but like all his ideas, they emphasized Saxe’s push for innovation and reform in warfare. His recommendations for combined armies of infantry, cavalry, and artillery were far ahead of the times.
European leaders of the next century read and heeded the recommendations of Saxe. Napoleon admired him immensely, and much of what Saxe preached in writings became practice in the Napoleonic corps, which dominated early-nineteenth-century warfare.
Saxe’s accomplishments on the battlefield earned him the reputation as the foremost soldier of the mid-eighteenth century. His direct combat influence, combined with his writings, place him ahead of fellow theorists ANTOINE HENRI JOMINI and ALFRED THAYER MAHAN but behind KARL VON CLAUSEWITZ and SUN TZU , Whose writings merit the most study today.