Editing Prince Eugene of Savoy (section)

=== War of the Polish Succession ===
{{Main|War of the Polish Succession }}
[[File:Prince Eugene of Savoy - Kupetzky.jpg|thumb|200x200px|Portrait of Prince Eugene of Savoy in later years by [[Jan Kupecký]].]]

In 1733 the Polish King and Elector of Saxony, [[Augustus II the Strong|Augustus the Strong]], died. There were two candidates for his successor: first, [[Stanisław Leszczyński]], the father-in-law of Louis XV; second, the Elector of Saxony's son, [[Augustus III of Poland|Augustus]], supported by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The Polish succession had afforded Louis XV's chief minister, [[André-Hercule de Fleury|Fleury]], the opportunity to attack Austria and take [[Duchy of Lorraine|Lorraine]] from Francis Stephen. To gain Spanish support France backed the succession of Elisabeth Farnese's sons to further Italian lands.{{sfn | Simms | 2009 | p=231}}{{sfn | Mckay | Scott | 2014 | p=141}}

Eugene entered the [[War of the Polish Succession]] as President of the Imperial War Council and commander-in-chief of the army, but he was severely handicapped by the quality of his troops and the shortage of funds; now in his seventies, the Prince was also burdened by rapidly declining physical and mental powers. France declared war on Austria on 10 October 1733, but without the funds from the Maritime Powers – who, despite the Vienna treaty, remained neutral throughout the war – Austria could not hire the necessary troops to wage an offensive campaign. "The danger to the monarchy", wrote Eugene to the Emperor in October, "cannot be exaggerated".{{sfn | Henderson | 1964 | p=228}} By the end of the year French forces had seized Lorraine and Milan; by early 1734 Spanish troops had taken Sicily.

Eugene took command on the Rhine in April 1734, but vastly outnumbered he was forced onto the defensive. In June Eugene set out to relieve [[Siege of Philippsburg (1734)|Philippsburg]], yet his former drive and energy was now gone. Accompanying Eugene was a young prince [[Frederick II of Prussia|Frederick of Prussia]], sent by his father to learn the art of war. Frederick gained considerable knowledge from Eugene, recalling in later life his great debt to his Austrian mentor, but the Prussian prince was aghast at Eugene's condition, writing later, "his body was still there but his soul had gone."{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=239}} Eugene conducted another cautious campaign in 1735, once again pursuing a sensible defensive strategy on limited resources; but his short-term memory was by now practically non-existent, and his political influence disappeared completely—[[Gundaker Thomas Starhemberg|Gundaker Starhemberg]] and [[Johann Christoph von Bartenstein]] now dominated the conference in his place. Fortunately for Charles VI, Fleury was determined to limit the scope of the war, and in October 1735 he granted generous peace preliminaries to the Emperor.{{sfn | McKay | Baker | von Savoyen | 1977 | p=240}}