Editing Prince Eugene of Savoy (section)

==== Turin and Toulon ====
[[File:Prince Eugene's Italian campaign, 1701 - 1707.png|thumb|300px|Eugene's major engagements in the Italian theatre during the War of the Spanish Succession.]]

Eugene returned to Italy in April 1705, but his attempts to move west towards Turin were thwarted by Vendôme's skilful manoeuvres. Lacking boats and bridging materials, and with desertion and sickness rife within his army, the outnumbered Imperial commander was helpless. Leopold I's assurances of money and men had proved illusory, but desperate appeals from Amadeus and criticism from Vienna goaded the Prince into action, resulting in the Imperialists' bloody defeat at the [[Battle of Cassano (1705)|Battle of Cassano]] on 16 August.{{sfn | Coxe | 1820 | p=15}}  Following Leopold I's death and the accession of [[Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph I]] to the Imperial throne in May 1705, Eugene began to receive the personal backing he desired. Joseph I proved to be a strong supporter of Eugene's supremacy in military affairs; he was the most effective emperor the Prince served and the one he was happiest under.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=94}} Promising support, Joseph I persuaded Eugene to return to Italy and restore Habsburg honour.

The Imperial commander arrived in theatre in mid-April 1706, just in time to organize an orderly retreat of what was left of [[Christian Detlev Reventlow|Count Reventlow]]'s inferior army following his defeat by Vendôme at the [[Battle of Calcinato]] on 19 April. Vendôme now prepared to defend the lines along the River [[Adige]], determined to keep Eugene cooped to the east while the [[Louis d'Aubusson de la Feuillade|Marquis of La Feuillade]] threatened Turin. Feigning attacks along the Adige, Eugene descended south across the river [[Po River|Po]] in mid-July, outmanoeuvring the French commander and gaining a favourable position from which he could at last move west towards Piedmont and relieve Savoy's capital.{{sfn | Coxe | 1820 | p=17}}

[[File:Prince Eugene of Savoy.png|180x180px|thumb|left|Prince Eugene by Jacob van Schuppen.]]

Events elsewhere now had major consequences for the war in Italy. With Villeroi's crushing defeat by Marlborough at the [[Battle of Ramillies]] on 23 May, Louis XIV recalled Vendôme north to take command of French forces in Flanders. It was a transfer that [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon|Saint-Simon]] considered something of a deliverance for the French commander who was "now beginning to feel the unlikelihood of success (in Italy){{sfn | de Rouvroy duc de Saint-Simon | Norton | Brogan | 1967 | p=1}} ... for Prince Eugene, with the reinforcements<ref>The Duke of Marlborough had supplied Eugene with 10,000 reinforcements, as well as a loan of £250,000.</ref> that had joined him after the Battle of Calcinato, had entirely changed the outlook in that theatre of the war."<ref>Saint-Simon. ''Memoirs'', 303</ref> The [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Duke of Orléans]], under the direction of Marsin, replaced Vendôme, but indecision and disorder in the French camp led to their undoing. After uniting his forces with Victor Amadeus at [[Villastellone]] in early September, Eugene attacked, overwhelmed, and decisively defeated the French forces [[Battle of Turin|besieging Turin]] on 7 September. Eugene's success broke the French hold on northern Italy, and the whole Po valley fell under Allied control. Eugene had gained a victory as signal as his colleague had at Ramillies—"It is impossible for me to express the joy it has given me;" wrote Marlborough, "for I not only esteem but I really love the prince. This glorious action must bring France so low, that if our friends could but be persuaded to carry on the war with vigour one year longer, we cannot fail, with the blessing of God, to have such a peace as will give us quiet for all our days."{{sfn | Churchill | 2002 | p=182|ps=: Eugene took little interest in Milan: he never returned after 1707.}}

The Imperial victory in Italy marked the beginning of Austrian rule in Lombardy, and earned Eugene the Governorship of [[Duchy of Milan|Milan]]. But the following year was to prove a disappointment for the Prince and the Grand Alliance as a whole. The Emperor and Eugene (whose main goal after Turin was to take [[Kingdom of Naples|Naples]] and [[Kingdom of Sicily|Sicily]] from Philip duc d'Anjou's supporters), reluctantly agreed to Marlborough's plan for an [[Battle of Toulon (1707)|attack on Toulon]]—the seat of French naval power in the Mediterranean. Disunion between the Allied commanders—Victor Amadeus, Eugene, and the English Admiral [[Cloudesley Shovell]]—doomed the Toulon enterprise to failure. Although Eugene favoured some sort of attack on France's south-eastern border it was clear he felt the expedition impractical, and showed none of the "alacrity which he had displayed on other occasions."{{sfn | Coxe | 1820 | p=28}} Substantial French reinforcements finally brought an end to the venture, and on 22 August 1707, the Imperial army began its retirement. The subsequent capture of [[Susa (Italy)|Susa]] could not compensate for the total collapse of the Toulon expedition and with it any hope of an Allied war-winning blow that year.{{sfn | Chandler | 1989 | p=199}}