How a man who could bend horseshoes with his bare hands revolutionized 18th-century warfare.

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Maurice de Saxe was an illegitimate royal son who rose to become Marshal General of France. A legendary tactician, he led armies while suffering from edema, commanded from a wicker chariot, and challenged the era's rigid military orthodoxy by prioritizing mobile warfare over the slow, traditional siege of fortresses.

Born in 1696 to Augustus II the Strong and Countess Maria Aurora von Königsmarck, Maurice de Saxe was a figure of immense physical and intellectual energy. His early life was defined by military service, starting at age twelve under Prince Eugene of Savoy. By the 1740s, he had emerged as one of the most formidable generals of the War of the Austrian Succession, securing his reputation with a brilliant, surprise capture of Prague in 1741 and a decisive victory at the Battle of Fontenoy in 1745.

His military philosophy, posthumously published in 1756 as Mes Rêveries, offered a radical departure from the period's obsession with static fortifications. Influenced by the earlier arguments of the Duke of Marlborough, Saxe contended that winning a single battle was far more valuable than capturing a dozen fortresses. He rejected the rigid, Prussian-style discipline favored by many of his contemporaries, advocating instead for a deep order of tactics that played to the strengths of the French character. His work sought to apply the scientific method to military affairs, aiming to transform warfare into a reasoned, systematic discipline.

Saxe’s life was as dramatic as his career. He was a man of legendary strength, capable of bending a horseshoe with his hand, yet his later years were marred by illness and excess. His personal life included a complex web of royal connections and high-profile romances, including an affair with the actress Adrienne Lecouvreur. Even his death in 1750 did not end his influence; his elaborate mausoleum in Strasbourg, designed by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, remains a masterpiece of funerary art. Some observers, including Gérard de Nerval, have suggested that the marshal's heroic, unfazed pose in the monument may have even inspired the iconic statue of the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

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