Note 70 — LETTER XLI.
Reading edition
The King, having appointed the Marshal de Villars to command in Italy, thought fit to send the Marshal de Berwic to oppose Prince Eugene, whom the Emperor had nominated for the Command on the Rhine. He began the Siege of Philipsburg; but on the first of June, O. S. 1734, as he went to take a View of the Trenches, he was kill’d with a Cannon Ball between his two Grandsons. He is succeeded in all his Titles by his Son the Duke de Liria, now Duke of Berwic, &c. who has been lately at the Court of Naples.
It will be doing no Dishonour to the Marshal, to say he made War his Trade, which he studied with an unwearied Application; and as he never wanted Courage, so none had more military Knowledge. Having consider’d War as a Science, he left little to Chance, or even Bravery; but depended upon Skill and Discipline, which was the Thing that gain’d him the Battle of Almanza. As he was so regular and mechanical a Warrior, he was himself the Life and Soul of his Army, not as he was belov’d, but as he was much fear’d by his Soldiers, whom he never spar’d, and least of all, his own Countrymen, that came to serve in France. He was reserved even to his General Officers, rarely consulting them, nor so much as communicating the Orders he had receiv’d, or the Designs he had projected, but as they had their own Parts to execute in them. Tho’ he was the best regular General of his Time, yet he was the least enterprizing one. He was never a great Favourite at the Court of France, which is something to be wonder’d at, considering the Use he was made of upon every Occasion; for as a Soldier of Fortune, he had no Obligations but for his Appointments; and yet attach’d himself to France preferably to any other Nation. As he was bred up in the War against the English, his Enmity to them became a second Nature, which is suppos’d to be the Reason that he never did one of that Nation any Service, beside those of his own Family. As the Marshal took care to be obey’d by the Officers and Soldiers of the Armies he commanded, he was always obsequious himself to the Orders of the Court, of which there needs no other Proof, than the Instance above-mention’d; when he appear’d in Arms against Spain with Alacrity, after he had receiv’d the highest Honours from King Philip.
He had the Title of Duke of Berwic, and likewise the Garter conferr’d on him by King James. He was born in 1671, so that when he died, he was sixty-three Years of Age.