Battles of Custoza

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Custoza, battles of (1848, 1866). Custoza, a tactically vital hill town in Venetia, was the site of two important battles in the struggle for Italian independence. The first in July 1848 was a display of brilliant generalship by Austrian FM Radetzky. After the revolt of Austrian Lombardy in March 1848, King Carlo Alberto of Piedmont drove Radetzky across the Mincio river into the Quadrilateral forts in Venetia. There he waited until Carlo Alberto attempted to cross the Mincio and take Custoza and its surrounding heights with 22, 000 men on 24 July. In a two-day battle, Radetzky concentrated 33, 000 troops, took Custoza with the bayonet, and crushed the Piedmontese army. The battle forced Piedmont out of the war and effectively ended the national revolution of 1848 in Italy.

During the 1866 Austro-Prussian war, Piedmont was allied with Prussia and on 24 June, King Vittorio Emanuele tried to force his way across the Mincio with 127, 000 men, but was roundly beaten at Custoza by 75, 000 Austrians under FM Archduke Albrecht. This made no difference to the outcome, decided at Königgrätz in Bohemia, and in the post-war settlement Austria was obliged to relinquish her Italian provinces to the new kingdom of Italy.

Bibliography

• Sked, Alan, The Survival of the Habsburg Empire (London, 1979).
• Wawro, Geoffrey, The Austro-Prussian War (Cambridge, 1996)

— Geoffrey D. W. Wawro