Marshal of France: The Life and Times of Maurice de Saxe

by Jon Manchip White

MAURICE DE SAXE was the brilliant adornment of a brilliant age, one of the most renowned and admired men in the Europe of his day. It is not surprising that the writing of the biography of this vivid, talented and entertaining figure should have provided the author with a genial and absorbing task.

He came of extraordinary stock; the circumstances of his birth were remarkable; he was the lover of many celebrated women; he won the lifelong friendship of men of the stature of Voltaire; he aspired to a crown, and nearly became the Czar of Russia; his activities spanned a whole continent, from Paris to Dresden, from Dresden to Warsaw, from Warsaw to Moscow. Yet he was more, much more, than an energetic and flamboyant adventurer: he was acknowledged to be the outstanding general of his era, a military genius who linked the epoch of Marlborough with the epoch of Frederick the Great. He led great armies and won great victories.

It is part of the purpose of this book to restore him to the pre-eminent place in social and military history to which his achievements entitle him. The study of his campaigns has proved no dutiful or dreary labour, for he was among the wittiest and most elegant military practitioners who have ever lived. There was a touch of diablerie about the manner in which he gained his spectacular triumphs that set him apart from the other great captains of his era.

Genres: 18th Century, Military History, France, Nonfiction, History, Biography Memoir

300 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Jon Ewbank Manchip White was a novelist, editor, playwright, poet, and researcher.

Reviews

[Daniel Polansky]

A genuinely engaging biography of the Marshal de Saxe, who won a couple of battles for Louis XV, when he wasn't courting Parisian actresses and hanging out with Voltaire. I'm not really sure who else shares my interest in relatively obscure corners of European military history, but if that's something you're interested in you could do a lot worse.

[Sean Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wide ranging and wise book about one of history's finest and most personable and intelligent military commanders. Maurice was a man of great strength, appetites, and abilities and White does him justice. I also like that the other figures in the story, such as Louis XV and Lowendahl, are full blooded characters in their own right; many lesser biographies pay only cursory attention to the figures that surrounded the subject. To that end White places Maurice as a man of his times, but also one pointing to another age. It is these contradictions that make Maurice fascinating. He was after all the bastard son of one of Europe's most powerful monarchies. Such men, like Momouth before him, knew both the pomp of power and the insults of the court.