French Aristocracy, Marshal General of France. He is only one of six French officers to have been conveyed the military title of Marshall General in the history of France. He was the illegitimate son of King Augustus II the Strong of Poland and Countess Maria Aurora of Konigsmarck. He began his military service at the age of 12 in the army of Prince Eugene of Savoy, participating at the Siege of Tournai and at the Battle of Malplaquet in present-day Belgium on September 11, 1709, during the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1711 he served under Tsar Peter the Great in the Russian war against Sweden, after which his father gave him the title Count of Saxony and travelled with him to Pomerania (present-day Germany) on the Baltic Sea and participated in the Siege of Stralsund. In 1713 he was given command of his own regiment at the age of 17. Following the Ottoman Empire Campaign in 1717, he went to Paris, France to study mathematics and three years later he obtained a commission as a Marechal de camp (or major general) in the French Army. After the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession, he served under James FitzJames, 1st Duke of Berwick and was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general for his actions at the Siege of Philippsburg in 1734. The following year he was chosen to lead the French invasion of England in support of James Francis Edward Stuart, the "Old Pretender", but it was thwarted by severe weather. In 1745 he led his forces at the Siege of Tournai in present-day Belgium and defeated the English Prince William, Duke of Cumberland, at the Battle of Fontenoy, one of the major engagements during the War of the Austrian Succession. For his great achievement, King Louis XV of France gave him the Chateau de Chambord at Strasbourg for life, and in April 1746, he was naturalized as a French citizen. He continued his military successes with victories at the Siege of Brussels (January-February 1746), the Battle of Rocoux (October 11, 1746), the Battle of Lauffeld (July 2, 1747), and the Siege of Maastricht (April-May 1748) in the Netherlands. In 1747 he was awarded the title of Marshal General of the King's Camps and Armies. He died of a fever at at the age of 54. He authored "The Reveries on the Art of War" that was published posthumously in 1757.