Contributions to Modern History:
Frederick II. and his Times, chapters 24-28._
See, also,
ENGLAND: A. D. 1754-1755;
and AUSTRIA: A. D. 1755-1763.
GERMANY: A. D. 1756.
The Seven Years War:
Frederick strikes the first blow.
Saxony subdued.
"Finding that the storm was wholly inevitable, and must burst
on him next year, he [Frederick], with bold sagacity,
determined to forestall it. First, then, in August, 1756, his
ambassador at Vienna had orders to demand of the Empress Queen
a statement of her intentions, to announce war as the
alternative, and to declare that he would accept no answer 'in
the style of an oracle.' The answer, as he expected, was
evasive. Without further delay an army of 60,000 Prussians,
headed by Frederick in person, poured into Saxony. The Queen
of Poland was taken in Dresden: the King of Poland [Augustus
III. Elector of Saxony, and, by election, King of Poland] and
his troops were blockaded in Pirna. Thus did Frederick
commence that mighty struggle which is known to Germans by the
name of the Seven Years' War. The first object of the Prussian
monarch at Dresden was to obtain possession of the original
documents of the coalition against him, whose existence he
knew by means of the traitor Menzel. The Queen of Poland, no
less aware than Frederick of the importance of these papers,
had carried them to her own bed-chamber. She sat down on the
trunk which contained the most material ones, and declared to
the Prussian officer sent to seize them that nothing but force
should move her from the spot. [The official account of this
occurrence which Carlyle produces represents the Queen as
'standing before the door' of the 'archive apartment' in which
the compromising documents were locked up, she having
previously sealed the door.] This officer was of Scottish
blood, General Keith, the Earl Marischal's brother.
{1496}
'All Europe,' said the Queen, 'would exclaim against this
outrage; and then, sir, you will be the victim; depend upon
it, your King is a man to sacrifice you to his own honour!'
Keith, who knew Frederick's character, was startled, and sent
for further orders; but on receiving a reiteration of the
first he did his duty. The papers were then made public,
appended to a manifesto in vindication of Frederick's conduct;
and they convinced the world that, although the apparent
aggressor in his invasion of Saxony, he had only acted on the
principles of self-defence. Meanwhile, the Prussian army
closely blockaded the Saxon in Pirna, but the Austrian, under
Marshal Brown, an officer of British extraction, was advancing
to its relief through the mountain passes of Bohemia.
Frederick left a sufficient force to maintain the blockade,
marched against Brown with the remainder, and gave him battle
at Lowositz [or Lobositz] on the 1st of October. It proved a
hard-fought day; the King no longer found, as he says in one
of his letters, the old Austrians he remembered; and his loss
in killed and wounded was greater than theirs [3,308 against
2,984]; but victory declared on his side. Then retracing his
steps towards Pirna he compelled, by the pressure of famine,
the whole Saxon army, 17,000 strong, to an unconditional
surrender. The officers were sent home on parole, but the
soldiers were induced, partly by force and partly by
persuasion, to enlist in the Prussian ranks, and swear
fidelity to Frederick. Their former sovereign, King Augustus,
remained securely perched on his castle-rock of Königstein,
but, becoming weary of confinement, solicited, and was most
readily granted, passports to Warsaw. During the whole winter
Frederick fixed his head-quarters at Dresden, treating Saxony
in all respects as a conquered province, or as one of his own.
Troops and taxes were levied throughout that rich and populous
land with unsparing rigour, and were directed against the very
cause which the sovereign of that land had embraced."
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 33 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_T. Carlyle,
History of Friedrich II.,
book 17, chapters 4-8 (volume 7)._
_Lord Dover,
Life of Frederick IL,
volume 2, chapter 1._
GERMANY: A.-D. 1756-1757.
The Seven Years War:
Frederick under the Ban of the Empire.
The coalition against Frederick.
"All through the winter Austria strained every nerve to
consolidate her alliances, and she did not scruple to use her
position at the head of the Empire, in order to drag that body
into the quarrel that had arisen between two of its members.
On his own responsibility, without consulting the electors,
princes, and cities, the Emperor passed sentence on Frederick,
and condemned him, unheard, as a disturber of the peace. Many
of the great cities altogether refused to publish the
Emperor's decree, and even among the states generally
subservient to Austria there were some that were alarmed at so
flagrant a disregard of law and precedent. It may have seemed
a sign of what was to be expected should Prussia be
annihilated, and no state remain in Germany that dared to lift
up its voice against Austria. Nevertheless, in spite of this
feeling, and in spite of the opposition of nearly all the
Protestant states, Austria succeeded in inducing the Empire to
espouse her cause. In all three colleges of electors, princes,
and cities she obtained a majority, and at a diet held on
January 17, 1757, it was resolved that an army of the Empire
should be set on foot for the purpose of making war on
Prussia. Some months later Frederick was put to the ban of the
Empire. But the use of this antiquated weapon served rather to
throw ridicule on those who employed it than to injure him
against whom it was launched. ... It has been calculated that
the population of the States arrayed against Frederick the
Great amounted to 90,000,000, and that they put 430,000 men
into the field in the year 1757. The population of Prussia was
4,500,000, her army 200,000 strong; but, after deducting the
garrisons of the fortresses, there remained little over
150,000 men available for service in the field. The odds
against Frederick were great, but they were not absolutely
overwhelming. His territories were scattered and difficult of
defence, the extremities hardly defensible at all; but he
occupied a central position from which he might, by rapidity
of movement, be able to take his assailants in detail, unless
their plans were distinguished by a harmony unusual in the
efforts of a coalition."
_F. W. Longman,
Frederick the Great and the Seven Years' War,
chapter 8, section 3._
GERMANY: A. D. 1756-1758.
War of Prussia with Sweden in Pomerania.
See SCANDINAVIAN STATES (SWEDEN): A. D. 1720-1792.
GERMANY: A. D. 1757 (April-June).
The Seven Years War:
Frederick's, invasion of Bohemia.
Victory at Prague and defeat at Kolin.
"At the commencement of 1757, the grand confederacy against
the king of Prussia was consolidated by the efforts and
intrigues of the court of Vienna. The French had drawn
together 80,000 men on the Rhine, under the command of marshal
d' Etrées; the army of execution was assembling in the empire;
the Swedes were preparing to penetrate into Pomerania, and
60,000 Russians were stationed on the frontiers of Livonia,
waiting the season of action to burst into the kingdom of
Prussia. With this favourable aspect of affairs, the empress
prepared for the campaign by augmenting her forces in Hungary
and Bohemia to 150,000 men; the main army, stationed in the
vicinity of Prague, was commanded by Prince Charles, who was
assisted by the skill of marshal Brown, and the other corps
intrusted to count Daun. Frederic possessed too much foresight
and vigilance to remain inactive while his enemies were
collecting their forces; he therefore resolved to carry the
war into the heart of the Austrian territories, and by a
decisive stroke to shake the basis of the confederacy. He
covered this plan with consummate address; he affected great
trepidation and uncertainty, and, to deceive the Austrians
into a belief that he only intended to maintain himself in
Saxony, put Dresden in a state of defence, broke down the
bridges, and marked out various camps in the vicinity. In the
midst of this apparent alarm three Prussian columns burst into
Bohemia, in April, and rapidly advanced towards Prague. ...
The Austrians, pressed on all sides, retreated with
precipitation under the walls of Prague, on the southern side
of the Moldau, while the Prussians advancing towards the
capital formed two bodies; one under Schwerin remaining at
Jung Bunzlau, and the other, headed by the king, occupying the
heights between the Moldau and the Weisseberg.
{1497}
Expecting to be joined by marshal Daun, who was hastening from
Moravia, the Austrians remained on the defensive; but prince
Charles took so strong a position as seemed to defy all
apprehensions of an attack. ... These obstacles, however, were
insufficient to arrest the daring spirit of Frederic, who
resolved to attack the Austrians before the arrival of Daun.
Leaving a corps under prince Maurice above Prague, he crossed
the Moldau near Rostock and Podabe on the 5th of May, with
16,000 men, and on the following morning at break of day was
joined by the corps under marshal Schwerin. ... Victory
declared on the side of the Prussians, but was purchased by
the loss of their best troops, not less than 18,000, even by
the avowal of the king, being killed, with many of his bravest
officers, and Schwerin, the father of the Prussian discipline,
and the guide of Frederic in the career of victory. Of the
Austrians 8,000 were killed and wounded, 9,000 made prisoners,
and 28,000 shut up within the walls of Prague. ... A column of
16,000 Austrians made good their retreat along the Moldau to
join the army of marshal Daun. Prague was instantly blockaded
by the victorious army, and not less than 100,000 souls were
confined within the walls, almost without the means of
subsistence. They were soon reduced to the greatest
extremities. ... In this disastrous moment the house of
Austria was preserved from impending destruction by the skill
and caution of a general, who now, for the first time,
appeared at the head of an army. This general was Leopold
count Daun, a native of Bohemia. ... Daun had marched through
Moravia towards Prague, to effect a junction with prince
Charles. On arriving at Boehmischgrod, within a few miles of
Prague, he was apprised of the recent defeat, and halted a few
days to collect the fugitives, till his corps swelled so
considerably that Frederic detached against him the prince of
Bevern with 20,000 men." Daun declined battle and retreated,
until he had collected an army of 60,000 men and restored
their courage. He then advanced, forcing back the prince of
Bevern, and when Frederick, joining the latter with
reinforcements, attacked him at Kolin, on the 18th of June, he
inflicted on the Prussian king a disastrous defeat--the first
which Frederick had known. The Prussian troops, "for the first
time defeated, gave way to despondency, and in their retreat
exclaimed, 'This is our Pultawa.' Daun purchased the victory
with the loss of 9,000 men; but on the side of the Prussians
not less than 14,000 were killed, wounded, and taken
prisoners, and 43 pieces of artillery, with 22 standards, fell
into the hands of the Austrians. Maria Theresa ... conveyed in
person the news of this important victory to the countess
Daun, and instituted the military order of merit, or the Order
of Maria Theresa, with which she decorated the commander and
officers who had most signalised themselves, and dated its
commencement from the æra of that glorious victory. To give
repose to the troops, and to replace the magazines which had
been destroyed by the Prussians, Daun remained several days on
the field of battle; and as he advanced to Prague found that
the Prussians had raised the siege on the 20th of June, and
were retreating with precipitation towards Saxony and
Lusatia."
_W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 112 (volume 3)._
ALSO IN:
_Colonel C. B. Brackenbury,
Frederick the Great,
chapters 11-12._
_F. Kugler,
Pict. History of Germany during the
Reign of Frederick the Great,
chapter 25._
GERMANY: A. D. 1757 (July-December).
The Seven Years War:
Darkening and brightening of Frederick's career.
Closter-Seven.
Rossbach.
Leuthen.
The enemies of the King of Prussia "were now closing upon him
from every side. The provinces beyond the Vistula became the
prey of Russian hordes, to which only one division of
Prussians under Marshal Lehwald was opposed. In the result,
however, their own devastations, and the consequent want of
supplies, proved a check to their further progress during this
campaign. In Westphalia above 80,000 effective French soldiers
were advancing, commanded by the Mareschal d'Estrées, a
grandson of the famous minister Louvois. The Duke of
Cumberland, who had undertaken to defend his father's
electorate against them, was at the head of a motley army of
scarce 50,000 men. ... His military talents were not such as
to supply his want of numbers or of combination; he allowed
the French to pass the deep and rapid Weser unopposed; he gave
them no disturbance when laying waste great part of the
Electorate; he only fell back from position to position until
at length the enemy came up with him at the village of
Hastenback near Hameln. There, on the 26th of July, an action
was fought, and the Duke was worsted with the loss of several
hundred men, The only resource of His Royal Highness was a
retreat across the wide Lüneberg moors, to cover the town of
Stade towards the mouth of the Elbe, where the archives and
other valuable effects from Hanover had been already deposited
for safety." Intrigue at Versailles having recalled D'Estrées
and sent the Duke de Richelieu into his place, the latter
pressed the Duke of Cumberland so closely, hemming him in and
cutting off his communications, that he was soon glad to make
terms. On the 8th of September the English Duke signed, at
Closter-Seven, a convention under which the auxiliary troops
in his army were sent home, the Hanoverians dispersed, and
only a garrison left at Stade. "After the battle of Kolin and
the Convention of Closter-Seven, the position of Frederick,--
hemmed in on almost every side by victorious enemies,--was not
only most dangerous but well-nigh desperate. To his own eyes
it seemed so. He resolved in his thoughts, and discussed with
his friends, the voluntary death of Otho as a worthy example
to follow. Fully resolved never to fall alive into the hands
of his enemies, nor yet to survive any decisive overthrow, he
carried about his person a sure poison in a small glass phial.
Yet ... he could still, with indomitable skill and energy, make
every preparation for encountering the Prince de Soubise. He
marched against the French commander at the head of only
22,000 men; but these were veterans, trained in the strictest
discipline, and full of confidence in their chief. Soubise, on
the other hand, owed his appointment in part to his
illustrious lineage, as head of the House of Rohan, and still
more to Court-favour, as the minion of Madame de Pompadour,
but in no degree to his own experience or abilities. He had
under his orders nearly 40,000 of his countrymen, and nearly
20,000 troops of the Empire; for the Germanic diet also had
been induced to join the league against Frederick. On the 5th
of November the two armies came to a battle at Rosbach [or
Rossbach], close to the plain of Lützen, where in the
preceding century Gustavus Adolphus conquered and fell.
{1498}
By the skilful manœvres of Frederick the French were brought
to believe that the Prussians intended nothing but retreat,
and they advanced in high spirits as if only to pursue the
fugitives. Of a sudden they found themselves attacked with all
the compactness of discipline, and all the courage of despair.
The troops of the Empire, a motley crew, fled at the first
fire. ... So rapid was the victory that the right wing of the
Prussians, under Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, was never
engaged at all. Great numbers of the French were cut down in
their flight by the Prussian cavalry, not a few perished in
the waters of the Saale, and full 7,000 were made prisoners,
with a large amount of baggage, artillery and standards. ...
The battle of Rosbach was not more remarkable for its military
results than for its moral influence. It was hailed throughout
Germany as a triumph of the Teutonic over the Gallic race. ...
So precarious was now Frederick's position that the battle of
Rosbach, as he said himself, gained him nothing but leisure to
fight another battle elsewhere. During his absence on the
Saale, the Austrian armies had poured over the mountains into
Silesia; they had defeated the Prussians under the Duke of
Bevern; they had taken the main fortress, Schweidnitz, and the
capital, Breslau; nearly the whole province was already
theirs. A flying detachment of 4,000 cavalry, under General
Haddick, had even pushed into Brandenburg, and levied a
contribution from the city of Berlin [entering one of the
suburbs of the Prussian capital and holding it for twelve
hours]. The advancing season seemed to require winter
quarters, but Frederick never dreamed of rest until Silesia
was recovered. He hastened by forced marches from the Saale to
the Oder, gathering reinforcements while he went along. As he
drew near Breslau, the Imperial commander, Prince Charles of
Lorraine, flushed with recent victory and confident in
superior numbers, disregarded the prudent advice of Marshal
Daun, and descended from an almost inaccessible position to
give the King of Prussia battle on the open plain. ... On the
5th of December, one month from the battle of Rosbach, the two
armies met at Leuthen, a small village near Breslau, Frederick
with 40,000, Prince Charles of Lorraine with between 60,000
and 70,000 men. For several hours did the conflict rage
doubtfully and fiercely. It was decided mainly by the skill
and the spirit of the Prussian monarch. 'The battle of
Leuthen,' says Napoleon, 'was a master-piece. Did it even
stand alone it would of itself entitle Frederick to immortal
fame.' In killed, wounded and taken, the Austrians lost no
less than 27,000 men; above 50 standards, above 100 cannon,
above 4,000 waggons, became the spoil of the victors; Breslau
was taken, Schweidnitz blockaded, Silesia recovered; the
remnant of the Imperial forces fled back across the mountains;
and Frederick, after one of the longest and most glorious
campaigns that History records, at length allowed himself and
his soldiers some repose."
_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 34 (volume 4)._
ALSO IN:
_T. Carlyle,
History of Friedrich II.,
book 18, chapters 5-10._
_Lord Dover,
Life of Frederick II.,
volume 2, chapters 3-4._
_Sir E. Cust,
Annals of the Wars of the 18th Century,
volume 2, pages 217-240._
GERMANY: A. D. 1758.
The Seven Years War:
Campaign in Hanover.
Siege of Olmütz.
Russian defeat at Zorndorf.
Prussian defeat at Hochkirch.
"Before the end of 1757, England began to take a more active
part on the Continent. Lord Chatham brought about the
rejection of the Convention of Closter-Zeven by Parliament,
and the recall of Cumberland by the king. The efficient Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick was proposed by Frederick and made
commander of the English and Hanoverian forces. He opened the
campaign of 1758 in the winter. The French, under Clermont,
being without discipline or control, he drove them in headlong
flight out of their winter-quarters in Hanover and Westphalia,
to the Rhine and across it; and on June 23 defeated them at
the battle of Crefeld. A French army under Soubise afterward
crossed the Rhine higher up, and Ferdinand, retreated, but
succeeded in protecting the west as far as the Weser against
General Contades. Frederick first retook Schweidnitz, April
16. He then, in order to prevent the junction of the Russians
and Austrians, ventured to attack Austria, and invaded
Moravia. His brother, Prince Henry, had but a small force in
Saxony, and Frederick thought that he could best cover that
country by an attack on Austria. But the siege of Olmütz
detained him from May until July, and his prospects grew more
doubtful. The Austrians captured a convoy of 300 wagons of
military stores, which Ziethen was to have escorted to him.
[Instead of 800, the convoy comprised 3,000 to 4,000 wagons,
of which only 200 reached the Prussian camp, and its
destruction by General Loudon completely frustrated
Frederick's plan of campaign.] Frederick raised the siege,
and, by an admirable retreat, brought his army through Bohemia
by way of Königgrätz to Landshut. Here he received bad news.
The Russians, under Fermor, were again in Prussia, occupying
the eastern province, but treating it mildly as a conquered
country, where the empress already received the homage of the
people. They then advanced, with frightful ravages, through
Pomerania and Neumark to the Oder, and were now near Küstrin,
which they laid in ashes. Frederick made haste to meet them.
He was so indignant at the desolation of the country and the
suffering of his people that he forbade quarter to be given.
The report of this fact also embittered the Russians. At
Zorndorf, Frederick met the enemy, 50,000 strong, August 25,
1758. They were drawn up in a great square or phalanx, in the
ancient, half-barbarous manner. A frightfully bloody fight
followed, since the Russians would not yield, and were cut
down in heaps. Seidlitz, the victor of Rossbach, by a timely
charge of his cavalry, captured the Russian artillery, and
crushed their right wing. On the second day the Russians were
driven back, but not without inflicting heavy loss on the
Prussians, who, though they suffered much less than their
enemies, left more than one third of their force on the field.
The Russians were compelled to withdraw from Prussia.
Frederick then hastened to Saxony, where his brother Henry was
sorely pressed by Daun and the imperial army. He could not
even wait to relieve Silesia, where Neisse, his principal
fortress, was threatened. Daun, hearing of his approach, took
up a position in his way, between Bautzen and Görlitz. But
Frederick, whose contempt for this prudent and slow general
was excessive, occupied a camp in a weak and exposed position,
at Hochkirch, under Daun's very eyes, against the protest of
his own generals.
{1499}
He remained there three days unmolested; but on October 14,
the day fixed for advancing, the Austrians attacked him with
twice his numbers. A desperate fight took place in the burning
village; the Prussians were driven out, and lost many guns.
Frederick himself was in imminent danger, and his friends
Keith and Duke Francis of Brunswick fell at his side. Yet the
army did not lose its spirit or its discipline. Within eleven
days Frederick, who had been joined by his brother Henry, was
in Silesia, and relieved Neisse and Kosel. Thus the campaign
of 1758 ended favorably to Frederick. The pope sent Daun a
consecrated hat and sword, as a testimonial for his victory at
Hochkirch."
_C. T. Lewis,
History of Germany,
book 5, chapter 23, sections 7-9._
ALSO IN:
_G. B. Malleson,
Military Life of Loudon,
chapters 7-8._
_F. Kugler,
Pict. History of Germany during the
Reign of Frederick the Great,
chapters 29-31._
_Frederick II.,
History of the Seven Years War
(Posthumous Works, volume 2), chapter 8._
GERMANY: A. D. 1759 (April-August).
The Seven Years War:
Prince Ferdinand's Hanoverian campaign.
Defeat at Bergen and victory at Minden.