The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–48), also known as
King George's War in North America, involved almost all the major European powers, but caused only minor exchanges of
territory. The war began under the pretext that Maria Theresa of Austria was
ineligible to succeed to the Habsburg throne, because Salic law precluded royal inheritance by a woman.
By December 1741 nearly all the powers
of Europe were involved in the struggle, but the most enduring military historical interest and importance of the war lies in the
struggle of Prussia and the Habsburg monarchs for the region of Silesia.
Southwest Germany, the Low Countries and Italy were, as usual, the battle-ground trampled by the armies of France and Austria. The habitual and constant allies of France and Prussia were
the same Hapsburg relations in Spain and the Kingdom of
Bavaria as had been teaming up for many issues and conflicts since the Thirty years'
war and to an extent, long before.
Various other powers joined them at intervals, but what became the surprise was the quality of the Prussian forces which were
a professional army, not a gaggle of mercenary companies as had been typical theretofore. Even Gustavus Adolphus, whom some credit with the invention of modern warfare method of combined
arms had used mercenaries in large measure. Permanent professional armies, then as now, were expensive.
Austria was supported almost as a matter of course by Great Britain and by the
United Provinces, the traditional enemies of France, as throughout the Second Hundred Years' War. Of Austria's intermittent allies, the Kingdom of Sardinia and Saxony were the most important.
The war ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.
Salic Succession
In 1740, Maria Theresa attempted to succeed her father as Queen of Hungary
and Bohemia, Archduchess of
Austria, and Duchess of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla. The plan was for her to
succeed to the hereditary Habsburg domains, and her husband, Francis I, Duke of
Lorraine, to be elected Holy Roman Emperor. The complications involved in a female Habsburg ruler had been long foreseen,
and Charles VI had persuaded most of the states of Germany to agree to the Pragmatic
Sanction of 1713.
Problems began when King Frederick II of Prussia, having not himself agreed
to the Pragmatic Sanction, invaded Silesia on 16 December
1740, using a variety of minor unsettled dynastic territorial
claims as a pretext. Maria Theresa, as a woman, was perceived as weak, and some other princes (such as Charles Albert of Bavaria) alleged his own claim
to the crown of Maria Theresa as someone who as a male with a clear genealogical basis, could inherit directly the
elected dignities of the Holy Roman Emperor.
Frederick Invades Silesia: 1740
Prussia in 1740 was a small and thoroughly organized emerging international power. While the only recent war experience of its army had been
in the desultory War of the Polish Succession (Rhine campaign of
1733–1735), it therefore had a uninspiring reputation and was
counted as one of the larger of very many minor armies of Europe of which there were a plenitude in the German states.
Only few, and those counted as dreamers, thought that it could rival the modern forces of Austria and France. But King
Frederick William I had drilled it to a perfection previously unknown,
and the Prussian infantry soldier was so well-trained and well-equipped that he could fire five
shots to an Austrian's three. Prussian cavalry and artillery
were comparatively less efficient, but they were of somewhat better quality as well, for Prussia had contended with the excellent
cavalry of Poland to its east and had felt the lash of the Swede's artillery in the early to
middle seventeenth century.
The initial advantage of Frederick's army was that undisturbed by wars, it had developed the professional standing-army concept to full maturity and effect. This was telling in the early going while
the Austrians had to wait for drafts to complete the field forces, Prussian
regiments took the field at once, and thus Frederick was able to overrun Silesia almost
unopposed.
In any event, his army had massed quietly along the Oder River during early December, and
on 16 December 1740, without declaration of war, it crossed
the frontier into Silesia. The extant forces available to the local Austrian generals could do no more than garrison a few fortresses, and they necessarily fell back to the
mountain frontier of Bohemia and Moravia with only a small
remnant of their available forces left in the garrisons.
On their new territory, the organized Prussian army was soon able to go into winter quarters, holding all Silesia and
investing the strong places of Glogau, Brieg and Neisse. In effect, in one step, Prussia had doubled its population and made huge gains in its industrial
productivity for the minor cost of fair treatment of the people in the occupied territory—an atypical factor and effect in a day
when relatively undisciplined mercenary forces (typically gangs of thugs in quasi uniforms organised under a "captain" or
"colonel" who had little interest in protecting the populace, and every interest in accommodating his men's desires) were the
rule rather than the exception with their habitual rapine, looting, and abuse of the various populations around themselves —
which were generally forced to provide quarters.
Nationalism as we know it today, was not a factor but an evolving concept just coming
into its early years. Prussia benefited greatly from the apolitical nature of the society of the
time, as the masses in central Germany would correspondingly suffer as the contending armies
rampaged through their plains yet again.
Silesian Campaign of 1741
In February 1741 the Austrians collected a field army under Count Neipperg and made preparations to re-conquer Silesia. While the Austrian garrisons in Neisse and Brieg
continued to hold out against Prussian forces, Glogau was stormed on the night of 9 March
1741. The Prussian besiegers under Prince Leopold (the younger) of Anhalt-Dessau
executed their task in one hour with a mathematical precision which excited universal admiration. However, the Austrian army in
Moravia took to the field at a time when Frederick's cantonments were dispersed over all
Upper Silesia. Consolidating the army proved a difficult task for the ground was deep in
snow; before it could be completed, Neisse was relieved and the Prussians cut off from their own country by the march of Neipperg
from Neisse on Brieg. A few days of slow manoeuvring between the two armies ended in the Battle of Mollwitz (10 April 1741),
the first pitched battle fought by Frederick and his army. The Austrians routed the Prussian right wing of cavalry, but
Frederick's infantry held and won the battle.
Frederick himself was absent after the battle. He had fought in the cavalry mêlée, but when the battle seemed lost, he had
been persuaded by Field Marshal Schwerin to ride away. Schwerin thus,
like Marshal Saxe at Fontenoy, remained
behind to win the victory, and the king narrowly escaped being captured by wandering Austrian hussars.
In the aftermath of the battle the Prussians secured Brieg, and Neipperg fell back to Neisse, where he maintained himself and
engaged in a series of manoeuvres during the summer. Europe recognized the emergence of a new military power, and France sent
Marshal Belle-Isle to Frederick's camp to negotiate an
alliance, causing the "Silesian adventure" to become the War of the Austrian
Succession. The Elector of Bavaria's candidacy for the imperial
dignity was to be supported by a French "auxiliary" army, and other French forces were sent to observe Hanover. Saxony was already watched by a Prussian army under Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau, the "old Dessauer", who had trained the Prussian army to
its present perfection.
During the Russo-Swedish War, 1741-1743, the task of Sweden was to prevent Russia from attacking Prussia, but her troops were defeated,
on 3 September 1741, at Villmanstrand by a greatly superior Russian army. In 1742 another great
defeat was sustained by the Franco-Prussian alliance in the capitulation of Helsinki to the
Russians. In central Italy an army of Neapolitans and Spaniards was collected for the purpose of
conquering the Milanese.
Allies in Bohemia
The French duly joined the Bavarian Elector's forces on the Danube and advanced towards
Vienna, but the objective was suddenly changed, and after many countermarches the anti-Austrian
allies advanced, in three widely-separated corps, on Prague. A
French corps moved via Amberg and Pilsen. The Elector marched on
Budweis, and the Saxons (who had now joined the allies) invaded Bohemia by the Elbe valley. The Austrians could at first offer little resistance,
but before long a considerable force intervened at Tábor between the Danube and the allies, and
Neipperg was now on the march from Neisse to join in the campaign. He had made with
Frederick the curious agreement of Klein Schnellendorf
(9 October 1741), by which Neisse was surrendered after a mock
siege, and the Austrians undertook to leave Frederick unmolested in return for his releasing Neipperg's army for service
elsewhere. At the same time the Hungarians, moved to enthusiasm by the personal appeal of Maria
Theresa, had put into the field a levée en masse, or "insurrection", which furnished the regular army with an invaluable
force of light troops. A fresh army was collected under Field Marshal Khevenhüller at Vienna, and the Austrians planned an offensive winter campaign against
the Franco-Bavarian forces in Bohemia and the small Bavarian army that remained on the Danube to defend the electorate.
The French in the meantime had stormed Prague on 26 November 1741, the Grand-Duke Francis, consort of Maria Theresa, who
commanded the Austrians in Bohemia, moving too slowly to save the fortress. The Elector of Bavaria, who now styled himself
Archduke of Austria, was crowned King of Bohemia (9 December 1741) and elected to the imperial throne as Charles VII (24 January 1742), but no active measures were undertaken.
In Bohemia the month of December was occupied in mere skirmishes. On the Danube, Khevenhüller, the best general in the
Austrian service, advanced on 27 December, swiftly drove back the allies, shut them up in
Linz, and pressed on into Bavaria. Munich itself surrendered to the
Austrians on the coronation day of Charles VII.
At the close of this first act of the campaign the French, under the old Marshal de Broglie, maintained a precarious foothold in central Bohemia, menaced by the main
army of the Austrians, and Khevenhüller was ranging unopposed in Bavaria, while Frederick, in pursuance of his secret
obligations, lay inactive in Silesia. In Italy the allied Neapolitans and Spaniards had advanced towards Modena, the duke of which state had allied himself with them, but the vigilant Austrian
commander, Count Traun had out-marched them, captured
Modena, and forced the duke to make a separate peace.
Campaign of 1742
Frederick had hoped by the truce to secure Silesia, for which alone he was fighting. But with the successes of Khevenhüller
and the enthusiastic "insurrection" of Hungary, Maria Theresa's opposition became firmer, and she divulged the provisions of the
truce, in order to compromise Frederick with his allies. The war recommenced. Frederick had
not rested on his laurels. In the uneventful summer campaign of 1741 he had found time to begin
that reorganization of his cavalry which was before long to make it even more efficient than his infantry. The Emperor Charles
VII, whose territories were overrun by the Austrians, asked him to create a diversion by invading Moravia. In December
1741, therefore, Schwerin had crossed the border and captured Olomouc. Glatz also was invested, and the
Prussian army was concentrated about Olomouc in January 1742. A combined plan of operations was made by the French, Saxons and Prussians for the rescue of Linz. But Linz soon
fell. Broglie on the Vltava, weakened by the departure of the Bavarians to oppose Khevenhüller,
and of the Saxons to join forces with Frederick, was in no condition to take the offensive, and large forces under
Prince Charles of Lorraine lay in his front from Budweis to Jihlava (Iglau). Frederick's march was made towards Iglau
in the first place. Brno was invested about the same time (February), but the direction of the
march was changed, and instead of moving against Prince Charles, Frederick pushed on southwards by Znojmo and Mikulov. The extreme outposts of the Prussians appeared before
Vienna. But Frederick's advance was a mere foray, and Prince Charles, leaving a screen of troops in front of Broglie, marched to
cut off the Prussians from Silesia, while the Hungarian levies poured into Upper Silesia by the Jablunka Pass. The Saxons, discontented and
demoralized, soon marched off to their own country, and Frederick with his Prussians fell back by Svitavy and Litomysl to Kutná Hora in
Bohemia, where he was in touch with Broglie on the one hand and (Glatz having now surrendered) with Silesia on the other. No
defence of Olomouc was attempted, and the small Prussian corps remaining in Moravia fell back towards Upper Silesia.
Prince Charles, in pursuit of the king, marched by Jihlava and Teutsch (Deutsch) Brod on Kutna Hora, and on 17 May was fought the battle of Chotusice, in which after a severe
struggle the king was victorious. His cavalry on this occasion retrieved its previous failure, and its conduct gave an earnest of
its future glory not only by its charges on the battlefield, but by its vigorous
pursuit of the defeated Austrians. Almost at the same time Broglie fell upon a part of the Austrians left on the Vltava and won a
small, but morally and politically important, success in the action of Sahay, near Budweis
(24 May 1742). Frederick did not propose another combined movement.
His victory and that of Broglie disposed Maria Theresa to cede Silesia in order to make good her position elsewhere, and the
separate peace between Prussia and Austria, signed at Breslau on 11
June, closed the First Silesian War. The War of the Austrian Succession continued.
French at Prague
The return of Prince Charles, released by the Peace of Breslau, put an end to Broglie's offensive. The prince pushed back the
French posts everywhere, and his army converged upon Prague, where, towards the end of June 1742,
the French were to all intents and purposes surrounded. Broglie had made the best resistance possible with his inferior forces,
and still displayed great activity, but his position was one of great peril. The French government realized at last that it had
given its general inadequate forces. The French army on the lower Rhine, hitherto in observation of Hanover and other possibly
hostile states, was hurried into Franconia. Prince Charles at once raised the siege of Prague (14 September), called up Khevenhüller with the
greater part of the Austrian army on the Danube, and marched towards Amberg to meet the new
opponent.
Marshal Maillebois, the French commander, then manoeuvred from Amberg towards the
Eger valley, to make contact with Broglie. Marshal Belle-Isle, the political head of French affairs
in Germany and a very capable general, had accompanied Broglie throughout, and it seems that Belle-Isle and Broglie believed that
Maillebois' mission was to regain a permanent foothold for the army in Bohemia. Maillebois, on the contrary, conceived that his
work was simply to disengage the army of Broglie from its dangerous position, and to cover its retreat. His operations were no
more than a demonstration, and had so little effect that Broglie was sent for in haste to take over the command from him,
Belle-Isle at the same time taking over charge of the army at Prague.
Broglie's command was now on the Danube, east of Regensburg, and the imperial (chiefly
Bavarian) army of Charles VII under Seckendorf aided him to clear Bavaria of the Austrians. This
was effected with ease, for Khevenhüller and most of his troops had gone to Bohemia. Prince Charles and Khevenhüller now took
post between Linz and Passau, leaving a strong force to deal with Belle-Isle in Prague. This,
under Prince Lobkowitz, was little superior in numbers or quality to the troops under Belle-Isle,
under whom served Saxe and the best of the younger French generals, but its light cavalry swept the country clear of provisions.
The French were quickly on the verge of starvation, winter had come, and the marshal resolved
to retreat. On the night of 16 December 1742, the army left
Prague to be defended by a small garrison under de Chevert, and took the route of
Eger. The retreat (December 16-26) was accounted a triumph of generalship, but the weather made it painful and costly. The brave
Chevert displayed such confidence that the Austrians were glad to allow him freedom to join the main army. The cause of the new
emperor was now sustained only in the valley of the Danube, where Broglie and Seckendorf opposed Prince Charles and Khevenhüller,
who were soon joined by the force lately opposing Belle-Isle.
In Italy, Traun held his own with ease against the Spaniards and Neapolitans. Naples was forced by a British squadron to withdraw her troops for home defence, and Spain, now too weak to advance in the Po valley, sent a second army to Italy via France. Sardinia had allied herself with Austria, and at the same
time neither state was at war with France, and this led to curious complications, combats being
fought in the Isère valley between the troops of Sardinia and of Spain, in which the French took no part.
Campaign of 1743
1743 opened disastrously for the emperor. The French and Bavarian armies were not working well
together, and Broglie and Seckendorf had actually quarrelled. No connected resistance was offered to the converging march of
Prince Charles's army along the Danube, Khevenhüller from Salzburg towards southern Bavaria, and Prince Lobkowitz from Bohemia
towards the Naab. The Bavarians suffered a severe reverse near Braunau (9 May 1743), and now an
Anglo-allied army commanded by King George II, which had been formed on the
lower Rhine on the withdrawal of Maillebois, was advancing southward to the Main and
Neckar country. A French army, under Marshal Noailles, was being collected on the middle Rhine to deal with this new force. But
Broglie was now in full retreat, and the strong places of Bavaria surrendered one after the other to Prince Charles. The French
and Bavarians had been driven almost to the Rhine when Noailles and the king came to battle. George, completely outmaneuvered by
his veteran antagonist, was in a position of the greatest danger between Aschaffenburg and
Hanau in the defile formed by the Spessart Hills and the river
Main. Noailles blocked the outlet and had posts all around, but the allied troops forced their way through and inflicted heavy
losses on the French, and the Battle of Dettingen is justly reckoned as a notable
victory of British arms (June 27).
Broglie, worn out by age and exertions, was soon replaced by Marshal Coigny. Both Broglie and Noailles were now on the strict defensive behind the Rhine.
Not a single French soldier remained in Germany, and Prince Charles prepared to force the passage of the great river in the
Breisgau while the king of Britain moved forward via Mainz to co-operate by drawing upon
himself the attention of both the French marshals. The Anglo-allied army took Worms, but
after several unsuccessful attempts to cross, Prince Charles went into winter quarters. The king followed his example, drawing in
his troops to the northward, to deal, if necessary, with the army which the French were collecting on the frontier of the
Southern Netherlands. Austria, Britain, Holland and Sardinia were now allied.
Saxony changed sides, and Sweden and Russia neutralized each other (Peace of Åbo, August
1743). Frederick was still quiescent. France, Spain and Bavaria actively continued the struggle
against Maria Theresa.
In Italy, the Spaniards on the Panaro had achieved a Pyrrhic
victory over Traun at Campo Santo (8 February
1743), but the next six months were wasted in inaction, and Lobkowitz, joining Traun with
reinforcements from Germany, drove back the enemy to Rimini. The Spanish-Piedmontese war in the Alps continued without much result, the only incident of
note being the Battle of Casteldelfino won by Charles Emmanuel of Sardinia in person.
Campaign of 1744
With 1744 began the Second Silesian War. Frederick of Prussia, disquieted by the
universal success of the Austrians, secretly concluded a fresh alliance with Louis XV of
France. France had posed hitherto as an auxiliary, its officers in Germany had worn the Bavarian cockade, and only with Britain was it officially at war. France now declared war direct upon Austria and
Sardinia (April 1744). A corps was assembled at Dunkirk to support
the cause of James Stuart in Great Britain, and Louis XV in person, with
90,000 men, prepared to invade the Austrian Netherlands, and took Menin and Ypres. His presumed opponent was the allied army previously under King
George II and now composed of British, Dutch, Germans and Austrians. On the Rhine, Coigny was up against Prince Charles, and a
fresh army under the Prince de Conti was to assist the
Spaniards in Piedmont and Lombardy. This plan was, however, at once dislocated by the advance
of Charles, who, assisted by the veteran Traun, skilfully manoeuvred his army over the Rhine near Philippsburg (July 1), captured the lines of Weissenburg, and cut off the French marshal from Alsace. Coigny, however,
cut his way through the enemy at Weissenburg and posted himself near Strasbourg. Louis XV now
abandoned the invasion of the Southern Netherlands, and his army moved down to take
a decisive part in the war in Alsace and Lorraine. At the same time Frederick
crossed the Austrian frontier (August).
The attention and resources of Austria were fully occupied, and the Prussians were almost unopposed. One column passed through
Saxony, another through Lusatia, while a third advanced from Silesia. Prague, the objective, was
reached on 2 September. Six days later the Austrian garrison was compelled to surrender, and
the Prussians advanced to Budweis. Maria Theresa once again rose to the emergency, a new "insurrection" took the field in
Hungary, and a corps of regulars was assembled to cover Vienna, while the diplomats won over Saxony to the Austrian side. Prince
Charles withdrew from Alsace, unmolested by the French, who had been thrown into confusion by the sudden and dangerous illness of
Louis XV at Metz. Only Seckendorf with the Bavarians pursued him. No move was made by the French,
and Frederick thus found himself isolated and exposed to the combined attack of the Austrians and Saxons. Marshal Traun, summoned
from the Rhine, held the king in check in Bohemia, the Hungarian irregulars inflicted numerous minor reverses on the Prussians,
and finally Prince Charles arrived with the main army. The campaign resembled that of 1742: the Prussian retreat was closely
watched, and the rearguard pressed hard. Prague fell, and Frederick, completely outmanoeuvred by the united forces of Prince
Charles and Traun, retreated to Silesia with heavy losses. At the same time, the Austrians gained no foothold in Silesia itself.
On the Rhine, Louis XV, now recovered, had besieged and taken Freiburg, after which the forces
left in the north were reinforced and besieged the strong places of Southern
Netherlands. There was also a slight war of manoeuvre on the middle Rhine.
In 1744 the Italian war became serious. A grandiose plan of campaign was formed, and the French
and Spanish generals at the front were hampered by the orders of their respective governments. The object was to unite the army
in Dauphiné with that on the lower Po. The support of Genoa
allowed a road into central Italy. But Lobkowitz had already taken the offensive and driven back the Spanish army of the
Count de Gages towards the Neapolitan frontier, so the King of Naples had to assist the Spaniards. A combined army was formed at Velletri, and defeated Lobkowitz there on 11 August. The
crisis past, Lobkowitz then went to Piedmont to assist the king against Conti, the King of Naples returned home, and de Gages
followed the Austrians with a weak force. The war in the Alps and the Apennines was
keenly contested. Villefranche and Montalban were stormed by Conti on 20 April, a desperate fight took
place at Peyre-Longue on 18 July, and the King of Sardinia was defeated in a great battle at Madonna dell'Olmo (September 30) near Coni
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