Prince Eugene of Savoy by James Falkner;

Author:James Falkner;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Military
Publisher: Casemate Publishers & Book Distributors, LLC
Published: 2022-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

An Uncertain Business – Toulon

The final and controversial act in northern Italy came in March 1707, when a convention, largely negotiated by Eugene and generally known as the Treaty of Milan, agreed that the remaining French garrison troops could leave and their Spanish/Italian allies disband. This saved the trouble of having to clear out those now-isolated fortresses, but concern was felt in both The Hague and London that thousands of these soldiers would be free to campaign elsewhere, perhaps in Spain or the Low Countries, as no conditions for cartels of exchange or parole were imposed. The arrangement suited the interests of Emperor Joseph and his ministers, as it did to a lesser but obvious degree Eugene, although it remained suspect in terms of the effect on the Grand Alliance as a whole, and has been harshly judged by historians: ‘The conduct of the Imperial court at this junction, stands forth remarkably as an example of wanton, reckless self-seeking.’1 However, it was unlikely that Vienna, even in concert with Duke Victor-Amadeus, had the military power to drive these garrisons out against their will, other than at the expense of irretrievable time and effort. Any further projects contemplated, as they currently were at the bidding of the Maritime Powers, would have been impossible in the meantime. A careful reading of the terms of the treaty also makes it clear that the French had to leave behind a large number of their guns (each garrison only taking ten field pieces with them), stores and equipment, and that prisoners of war already held by either side were only released on strict terms of formal exchange. Nonetheless the criticism stood, but in war it is often necessary to accept what is practical, rather than what is ideal.2

A surprising proposal now came from the Russian tsar, Peter, that Eugene should put himself forward for election as King of Poland, but this was simple troublemaking intended to exert pressure on King Charles XII of Sweden, with whom Moscow was at war. Predictably, nothing came of this notion, and it is not at all clear that the prince would even have been able to accept the offer had it ever been formally made. As the victor of Turin, however, he was also accorded the honour by Joseph of being appointed Viceroy of Milan, with an annual stipend of 150,000 gulden, and once again he entered the city with great ceremony and pomp on 16 April 1707. His reception by the populace was genuinely warm, flowers were strewn in the streets, wine ran from the public fountains to help things along, and a Te Deum in celebration was sung in the cathedral. This public enthusiasm was not matched by that of Victor-Amadeus, however, as he had expected the post of viceroy for himself, but Habsburg rule over the region, which would last for 150 years, had begun in earnest, and portions of western Lombardy and Montferrat, already promised to the duke, were only belatedly handed over in 1708 after pressure from those in London and The Hague who were anxious to keep Savoy in the war.

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