command of the French forces in Alsace, ... took Prissac on
the 7th of September, and invested Landau on the 16th of
October. The allies, under the Prince of Hesse, attempted to
raise the siege, but were defeated with considerable loss;
and, soon after, Landau surrendered, thus terminating with
disaster the campaign on the Upper Rhine. Still more
considerable were the losses sustained in Bavaria. Marshal
Villars commanded there, and, at the head of the French and
Bavarians, defeated General Stirum, who headed the
Imperialists, on the 20th of September. In December, Marshal
Marsin, who had succeeded Villars in the command, made himself
master of the important city of Augsburg, and in January,
1704, the Bavarians got possession of Passau. Meanwhile, a
formidable insurrection had broken out in Hungary, which so
distracted the cabinet of Vienna that the capital seemed to be
threatened by the combined forces of the French and Bavarians
after the fall of Passau. ... Instead of confining the war to
one of posts and sieges in Flanders and Italy, it was resolved
[by the French] to throw the bulk of their forces at once into
Bavaria, and operate against Austria from the heart of
Germany, by pouring down the valley of the Danube.
{1492}
The advanced post held there by the Elector of Bavaria in
front, forming a salient angle, penetrating, as it were, into
the Imperial dominions, the menacing aspect of the Hungarian
insurrection in the rear, promised the most successful issue
to this decisive operation. For this purpose, Marshal Tallard,
with the French army on the Upper Rhine, received orders to
cross the Black Forest and advance into Swabia, and unite with
the Elector of Bavaria, which he accordingly did at Donawerth,
in the beginning of July. Marshal Villeroy, with forty
battalions and thirty-nine squadrons, was to break off from
the army in Flanders and support the advance by a movement on
the Moselle, so as to be in a condition to join the main army
on the Danube, of which it would form, as it were, the left
wing; while Vendôme, with the army of Italy, was to penetrate
into the Tyrol, and advance by Innspruck on Salzburg. The
united armies, which it was calculated, after deducting all
the losses of the campaign, would muster 80,000 combatants,
was then to move direct by Lintz and the valley of the Danube
on Vienna, while a large detachment penetrated into Hungary to
lend a hand to the already formidable insurrection in that
kingdom. The plan was grandly conceived. ... Marlborough, by
means of the secret information which he obtained from the
French head-quarters, had got full intelligence of it, and its
dangers to the allies, if it succeeded, struck him as much as
the chances of great advantage to them if ably thwarted. His
line was instantly taken."
_A. Alison,
Military Life of Marlborough,
chapter 2, sections 30-33._
The measures taken by Marlborough to defeat the plans of the
French in this campaign are briefly stated in the account of
his first campaigns in the Netherlands.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1702-1704.
ALSO IN:
H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.
(translated by M. L. Booth), volume 2, chapter 5.
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 69 (volume 2)._
GERMANY: A. D. 1704.
The War of the Spanish Succession:
Marlborough and Prince Eugene on the Danube.
The Battle of Blenheim.
"Marlborough, with his motley army of English, Dutch, Danes
and Germans, concealing his main purpose, was marching south
along the Rhine, with a design to strike his critical blow, by
attacking the French armies that were forming for the campaign
of the Danube, and thus protect the Emperor and Vienna, and
punish the Elector of Bavaria, whose territories would be then
exposed. On the route, Marlborough was joined by Prince Eugene
and the Margrave of Baden: but as a new French force was
approaching, Prince Eugene was sent to keep it in check.
Marlborough and the Prince of Baden, with united forces of
about 60,000 men, then advanced, in rapid marches, and took,
by gallant assault, the fortifications of the Schellenberg in
Bavaria, and the old town of Donauworth, a critical and
commanding position on the Danube. The allies were now masters
of the main passages of the Danube--and had a strong place as
a basis of action. The allied leaders thereupon sent troops
into the heart of Bavaria, and devastated the country even to
the vicinity of Munich--burning and destroying as they
marched, and taking several minor fortresses. Marlborough's
forces and those of Prince Eugene were distant from each other
some forty miles, when came the news of the march of a French
army of 25,000 men under Tallard, to form a junction with the
others, to succor the Elector, and take revenge for the defeat
of the Schellenberg. Two French Marshals, Tallard and Marsin,
were now in command: their design was to attack Marlborough
and Eugene's armies in detail. By rapid marches, Marlborough
crossed the Danube and joined Prince Eugene near Donauworth,
and thereupon occurred one of the most important and decisive
contests of modern times, fought between the old town of
Hochstadt and the village of Blenheim, about fifteen miles
south of Donauworth. The skilful tactics of the allied
generals precipitated the battle. The allied French and
Bavarians numbered 60,000 [56,000; Malleson] men--the English,
Dutch and Germans and other allies, about 53,000 [52,000;
Malleson]. The allies were allowed to cross an intervening
brook without opposition, and form their lines. A great
charge, in full force, of the allies was then made; they broke
the enemy's extended line; and an ensuing charge of cavalry
scattered his forces right and left, and drove many into the
Danube. More than 14,000 French and Bavarians, who had not
struck a blow, except to defend their position, entrenched and
shut up in the village of Blenheim, waiting for orders to
move, were then surrounded by the victorious allies, and
compelled to surrender as prisoners of war. The scattered
remnants of the French and Bavarian army either disbanded, or
were driven over the Rhine. The garrison at Ulm capitulated,
and the Elector fled into France."
_J. W. Gerard,
The Peace of Utrecht,
chapter 16._
"The armies of Marchin and of Max Emanuel [of Bavaria] had
been defeated; that of Tallard had been annihilated. Whilst
the loss of the victors in killed and wounded reached 12,000
men, that of the French and Bavarians exceeded 14,000. In
addition, the latter lost 13,000 men taken prisoners, 47
pieces of cannon, 25 standards, and 90 colours. Such was the
battle of Blenheim. It was one of the decisive battles of
history, and it changed the character of the war. Up to that
moment, the action of France against. Germany had been
aggressive; thenceforward it became purely defensive.
Blenheim, in fact, dashed to the ground the hopes of Louis
XIV. and Max Emanuel of Bavaria. It saved the house of
Habsburg in Germany, and helped it greatly in Hungary. It
showed likewise that it was possible to inflict a crushing
defeat on the armies of Louis XIV."
_Colonel G. B. Malleson,
Prince Eugene of Savoy,
chapter 6._
"Marlborough [after the battle], having detached part of his
force to besiege Ulm, drew near with the bulk of his army to
the Rhine, which he passed near Philipsburg on the 6th of
September, and soon after commenced the siege of Landau, on
the French side; Prince Louis, with 20,000 men, forming the
besieging force, and Eugene and Marlborough, with 30,000, the
covering army. Villeroi, with the French army, abandoned an
intrenched camp which he had constructed to cover the town.
Marlborough followed, and made every effort to bring the
French marshal to battle, but in vain. ... Ulm surrendered on
the 16th of September, ... which gave the allies a solid
foundation on the Danube, and effectually crushed the power of
the Elector of Bavaria, who, isolated now in the midst of his
enemies, had no alternative but to abandon his dominions and
seek refuge in Brussels, where he arrived in the end of
September. ...
{1493}
The Electress of Bavaria, who had been left regent of that
state in the absence of the Elector in Flanders, had now no
resource left but submission; and a treaty was accordingly
concluded in the beginning of November, by which she agreed to
disband all her troops. Trêves and Traerbach were taken in the
end of December; the Hungarian insurrection was suppressed;
Landau capitulated in the beginning of the same month; a
diversion which the enemy attempted toward Trêves was defeated
by Marlborough's activity and vigilance, and that city put in
a sufficient posture of defense; and, the campaign being now
finished, that accomplished commander returned to the Hague
and London."
_A. Alison,
Military Life of Marlborough,
chapter 2._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
Battle-fields of Germany,
chapter 10._
_W. Coxe,
Memoirs of Marlborough,
chapters 22-26 (volume 1)._
_J. H. Burton,
History of the Reign of Queen Anne,
chapter 6 (volume 1)._
_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV.,
volume 2, chapter 5._
GERMANY: A. D. 1705.
The Election of the Emperor Joseph I.
GERMANY: A. D. 1705.
The War of the Spanish Succession:
The dissolution of Bavaria.
"The campaign of 1705 was destitute of any important events on
the side of Germany. ... In Bavaria, the peasants, irritated
by the oppressions of the Austrian government, rose in a body
in the autumn, and, could they have been supported by France,
would have placed the Emperor in great danger; but without
that aid the insurrection only proved fatal to themselves. The
insurgents were beaten in detail, and the Emperor now resolved
on the complete dissolution of Bavaria as a state. The four
elder sons of Maximilian were carried to Klagenfurt in
Carinthia, to be there educated under the strictest inspection
as Counts of Wittelsbach, while the younger sons were
consigned to the care of a court lady at Munich, and the
daughters sent to a convent. The Electress, who had been on a
visit to Venice, was not permitted to return to her dominions,
and the Elector Maximilian, as well as the Elector of Cologne,
was, by a decree of the Electoral College, placed under the
ban of the Empire. The Upper Palatinate was restored to the
Elector Palatine. ... The remaining Bavarian territories were
confiscated, and divided among various princes."
_T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 5, chapter 6 (volume 3)._
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 72 (volume 3)._
The campaign of 1705 in the Netherlands was unimportant; but
in Spain it had brilliant results.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1705;
and NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1705.
GERMANY: A. D. 1706-1711.
The War of the Spanish Succession:
Successes of the French.
During 1706, little was attempted on either side by the forces
which watched each other along the Rhine. In 1707 Villars, the
French commander, obtained liberty to act. "The Emperor,
greatly preoccupied with Hungary, had furnished but
indifferent resources to the new general of the army of the
Rhine, Brandenburg-Baireuth; the German army was ill paid and
in bad condition in its immense lines on the right bank, which
extended along the Rhine from Philippsburg as far as
Stolhofen, then, in a square, from Stolhofen to the Black
Mountains by Bühl. May 22, the lines were attacked
simultaneously at four points. ... The success was complete;
the enemy fled into the mountains, abandoning artillery,
baggage, and munitions, and did not stop till beyond the
Neckar. The lines were razed; Swabia and a part of Franconia
were put under contribution. Villars marched on Stuttgart,
crossed the Neckar, and subjected the whole country to ransom
as far as the Danube. The enemies in vain rallied and
reinforced themselves with tardy contingents of the Empire;
they could not prevent Villars from laying under contribution
the Lower Neckar, then the country between the Danube and Lake
Constance, and from maintaining himself beyond the Rhine till
he went into winter-quarters. French parties scoured the
country as conquerors as far as the fatal field of Hochstadt."
At the beginning of the campaign of 1708, it was the plan of
the allies to make their chief attack on France "by the way of
the Rhine and the Moselle, with two armies of 60,000 men each,
under the command of the Elector of Hanover and Eugene, whilst
Marlborough occupied the great French army in Flanders." But
this plan was changed. "Eugene left the Elector of Hanover in
the north of Swabia, behind the lines of Etlingen, which the
allies had raised during the winter to replace the lines of
Bühl at Stolhofen, and, with 24,000 soldiers collected on the
Moselle, he marched by the way of Coblentz towards Belgium
(June 30). The French forces of the Rhine and the Moselle
followed this movement." The campaign then ensuing in the
Netherlands was that which was signalized by Marlborough and
Eugene's victory at Oudenarde and the siege of Lille. In 1709,
"the attention of Europe, as in 1708, was chiefly directed to
Flanders; but it was not only on that side that France was
menaced. France was to be encroached upon at once on the north
and the east. Whilst the great allied army penetrated into
Artois, the army of the Rhine and the army of the Alps were to
penetrate, the latter into Bresse by the way of Savoy, the
former into Franche-Comté by the way of Alsace, and to combine
their operations. ... The Germans had not taken the offensive
in Alsace till in the month of August. Marshal Harcourt, with
over 20,000 men, had covered himself with the lines of the
Lauter: the Elector of Hanover, who had crossed the Rhine at
Philippsburg with superior forces, did not attack Harcourt,
and strove to amuse him whilst 8,000 or 9,000 Germans, left in
Swabia with General Merci, moved rapidly on Neuberg ... and
established there a tête-du-pont in order to enter Upper
Alsace." By swiftly sending a sufficient force to attack and
defeat Merci at Neuberg, August 26, Harcourt completely
frustrated these plans. "The Elector of Hanover recrossed the
river and retired behind the lines of Etlingen." During the
two following years the French and German forces on the side
of the Rhine did little more than observe one another.
_H. Martin,
History of France: Age of Louis XIV:,
volume 2, chapters 5-6._
Meantime, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet had been fought
in the Netherlands; Prince Eugene had won his victory at
Turin, and the contest had been practically decided in Spain,
at Almanza.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1706-1707,
1708-1709, 1710-1712;
ITALY: A. D. 1701-1713;
SPAIN: A. D. 1706, 1707, and 1707-1710;
and ENGLAND: A. D. 1710-1712.
ALSO IN:
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapters 75-79 (volume 3)._
_F. P. Guizot,
Popular History of France,
chapter 45 (volume 5)._
GERMANY: A. D. 1711.
Election of the Emperor Charles VI.
{1494}
GERMANY: A. D. 1711.
The War of the Spanish Succession:
Change in the circumstances of the war.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1711.
GERMANY: A. D. 1713-1719.
The Emperor's continued differences with the King of Spain.
The Triple Alliance.
The Quadruple Alliance.
See SPAIN: A. D. 1713-1725.
GERMANY: A. D. 1714.
Ending of the War of the Spanish Succession:
The Peace of Utrecht and the Treaty of Rastadt.
See UTRECHT: A. D. 1712-1714.
GERMANY: A. D. 1732-1733.
Interference in the election of the King of Poland.
See POLAND: A. D. 1732-1733.
GERMANY: A. D. 1733-1735.
The War of the Polish Succession.
Cession of Lorraine to France.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1733-1735.
GERMANY: A. D. 1740.
The question of the Austrian Succession.
The Pragmatic Sanction.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1718-1738, and 1740.
GERMANY: A. D. 1740-1756.
Early years of the reign of Frederick the Great in Prussia.
The War of the Austrian Succession.
When Frederick II., known as Frederick the Great, succeeded
his father, in 1740, "nobody had the least suspicion that a
tyrant of extraordinary military and political talents, of
industry more extraordinary still, without fear, without
faith, and without mercy, had ascended the throne."
_Lord Macaulay,
Frederic the Great (Essays)._
The reign of Frederick II. "was expected to be an effeminate
one; but when at the age of twenty-nine he became king, he
forgot his pleasures, thought of nothing but glory, and no
longer employed himself but in attention to his finances, his
army, his policy, and his laws. His provinces were scattered,
his resources weak, his power precarious; his army of seventy
thousand soldiers was more remarkable for handsomeness of the
men, and the elegance of their appearance, than for their
discipline. He augmented it, instructed it, exercised it, and
fortune began to open the field of glory to him at the moment
he was fully prepared to enjoy her favours. Charles XII. was
dead, and his station filled by a king without authority.
Russia, deprived of Peter the Great, who had only rough-hewn
her civilization, languished under the feeble government of
the Empress Anne, and of a cruel and ignorant minister.
Augustus III. King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, a Prince
devoid of character, could not inspire him with any dread.
Louis XV., a weak and peaceable king, was governed by Cardinal
Fleuri, who loved peace, but always by his weakness suffered
himself to be drawn into war. He presented to Frederic rather
a support than an obstacle. The court of France had espoused
the cause of Charles VII. against Francis I. Maria Theresa,
wife of Francis, and Queen of Hungary, saw herself threatened
by England, Holland, and France; and whilst she had but little
reason to hope the preservation of her hereditary dominions,
that arrogant princess wished to place her husband on the
Imperial Throne. This quarrel kindled the flames of war in
Europe; the genius of Frederic saw by a single glance that the
moment was arrived for elevating Prussia to the second order of
powers; he made an offer to Maria Theresa to defend her, if
she would cede Silesia to him, and threatened her with war in
case of refusal. The Empress, whose firmness nothing could
shake, impoliticly refused that proposition; war was declared,
and Frederic entered Silesia at the head of eighty thousand
men. This first war lasted eighteen months.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1740 to 1741.
Frederic, by gaining five battles, shewed that Europe would
recognize one great man more in her bloody annals. He had
begun the war from ambition, and contrary to strict justice;
he concluded it with ability, but by the abandonment of France
his ally, without giving her information of it, and he thus
put in practice, when he was seated on the throne, the
principles of Machiavel, whom he had refuted before he
ascended it. Men judge according to the event. The hero was
absolved by victory from the wrongs with which justice
reproached him; and this brilliant example serves to confirm
men in that error, too generally and too lightly adopted, that
ability in politics is incompatible with the strict rule of
morality. Four years after, in [1744], Frederic again took up
arms.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1743-1744 to 1744-1745.
He invaded Bohemia, Upper Silesia, and Moravia. Vienna thought
him at her gates; but the defection of the Bavarians, the
retreat of the French, and the return of Prince Charles into
Bohemia, rapidly changed the face of affairs. The position of
Frederic became as dangerous as it had been menacing; he was
on the point of being lost, and he saw himself compelled to
retire with as much precipitation, as he had advanced with
boldness. The gaining the battle of Hohen-Friedberg saved him.
That retreat and that victory fixed the seal to his
reputation. It was after this action that he wrote to Louis
XV. 'I have just discharged in Silesia the bill of exchange
which your majesty drew on me at Fontenoy.' A letter so much
the more modest, as Frederic had conquered, and Louis had only
been witness to a victory. He displayed the same genius and the
same activity in the campaign of 1745, and once more abandoned
France in making his separate peace at Dresden. By this treaty
Francis was peaceably assured of the empire, and the cession
of Silesia was confirmed to Frederic. France during this war
committed some wrongs, which might palliate the abandonment of
Prussia. The French did not keep Prince Charles within bounds,
they made no diversion into Germany, and fought no where but
in Flanders. ... In 1756, Europe was again in a flame. France
and England declared war against each other, and both sought
alliances; Frederic ranged himself on the side of England, and
by that became the object of the unreflecting vengeance of the
French, and of the alliance of that power with Austria;
Austria also formed an alliance with the Court of Petersburg
by means of a Saxon secretary; Frederic discovered the project
of the Courts of Petersburg, Dresden, and Vienna, to invade
the Prussian dominions. He was before-hand with them, and
began the war by some conquests."
_L. P. Ségur, the elder,
History of the Principal Events of the Reign of Frederic
William II., King of Prussia,
volume 1, pages 2-6._
GERMANY: A. D. 1742.
The Elector of Bavaria crowned Emperor (Charles VII.).
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1741 (OCTOBER).
GERMANY: A. D. 1745.
The consort of Maria Theresa elected Emperor (Francis I.).
Rise of the imperial house of Hapsburg-Lorraine.
See AUSTRIA: A. D.1745 (SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER);
also, 1744-1745.
GERMANY: A. D. 1748.
End and results of the War of the Austrian Succession.
See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. THE CONGRESS.
{1495}
GERMANY: A. D. 1755-1756.
The Seven Years War:
Its causes and provocations.
"The great national quarrel between England and the powers
which restrained her free movements on the sea and her
extension of colonies, had never ceased. England would have
the freedom of the sea: and on land she pushed population and
ploughs where France paraded soldiers. In such a struggle war
must come, but, by laws invariable as the laws of nature, the
population will win in the end. After much bickering, blows
began in 1754, and at the beginning of 1755 England despatched
the ill-fated Braddock with a small force, which was destroyed
in July. ... As yet, however, the quarrel was only colonial.
England embittered it by seizing French ships without any
declaration of war. But why did Frederick [of Prussia] strike
in, if indeed he desired peace? In truth there was no choice
for him. As early as 1752-53 his secret agents had discovered
that Austria, Russia and Saxony were hatching a plot for the
destruction of Prussia, and such a partition as afterwards
befell unhappy Poland. In 1753 a Saxon official, Mentzel by
name, began to supply the Prussian agents with copies of
secret documents from the archives at Dresden, which proved
that, during the whole of the peace, negotiations had been
proceeding for a simultaneous attack on Frederick, though the
astute Brühl [Saxon minister], mindful of former defeats,
objected to playing the part of jackal to the neighbouring
lions. In short, by the end of 1755 the king knew that
preparations were already on foot in Austria and Russia, and
that he would probably be attacked next year certainly, or, at
latest, the year after. A great war was coming between England
and France, in which the continental power would attack
Hanover, and tread closely on the skirts of Prussia. The
situation was dangerous, and became terribly menacing when
England bargained with Russia to subsidise a Muscovite army of
55,000 men for defence of Hanover. Russia consented with
alacrity. Money was all that the czarina needed for her
preparations against Frederick, and in the autumn of 1755 she
assembled, not 55,000, but 70,000 men on the Prussian
frontier, nominally for the use of England. But throughout the
winter all the talk at St. Petersburg was of Frederick's
destruction in the coming spring. It was time for him to stir.
His first move was one of policy. He offered England a
'neutrality convention' by which the two powers jointly should
guarantee the German Reich against all foreign intervention
during the coming war. On the 16th of January, 1756, the
convention was signed in London, and the Russian agreement
thrown over, as it could well be, since it had not been
ratified. Europe was now ranking herself for the struggle. In
preceding years, the Austrian diplomatist, Kaunitz, had so
managed the French court, especially through the medium of
Madame de Pompadour, that Louis XV. was now on the side of
Maria Theresa, who had bowed her neck so far as to write to
the French king's mistress as 'Ma Cousine,' while Frederick
forgot policy, and spoke of the Pompadour in slighting terms.
'Je ne la connais pas,' said he once, and was never forgiven.
... The agreement with Russia to partition Prussia had already
been made, and Frederick's sharp tongue had betrayed him into
calling the czarina that 'Infame catin du nord.' Saxony waited
for the appearance of her stronger neighbours in order to join
them. England alone was Frederick's ally."
_Colonel C. B. Brackenbury,
Frederick the Great,
chapter 9._
"The secret sources of the Third Silesian War, since called
'Seven-Years War,' go back to 1745; nay, we may say, to the
First Invasion of Silesia in 1740. For it was in Maria
Theresa's incurable sorrow at loss of Silesia, and her
inextinguishable hope to reconquer it, that this and all
Friedrich's other Wars had their origin. ... Traitor Menzel
the Saxon Kanzellist ... has been busy for Prussia ever since
'the end of 1752.' Got admittance to the Presses; sent his
first Excerpt 'about the time of Easter-Fair 1753,'--time of
Voltaire's taking wing. And has been at work ever since.
Copying Despatches from the most secret Saxon Repositories;
ready always on Excellency Maltzahn's indicating the Piece
wanted [Maltzahn being the Prussian Minister at Dresden]. ...
Menzel ... lasted in free activity till 1757; and was then put
under lock and key. Was not hanged: sat prisoner for
twenty-seven years after; over-grown with hair, legs and arms
chained together, heavy iron-bar uniting both ankles; diet
bread-and-water;--for the rest, healthy; and died, not very
miserable it is said, in 1784."
_T. Carlyle,
History of Friedrich II. of Prussia,
book 17, chapter 1 (volume 7)._
ALSO IN:
_Duc de Broglie,
The King's Secret,
chapters 1-2 (volume 1)._
_Frederick II.,
History of the Seven Years War
(Posthumous Works, volume 2), chapter 3._
_H. Tuttle,
History of Prussia, 1745-1756
(volume 3), chapters 6-9._