Reed S. Browning explores the often-changing war aims of the major belligerents-Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia, Piedmont-Sardinia, and Spain-and links diplomatic and military events to the political and social context from which they arose.

The War of the Austrian Succession

Set in motion by the disputed succession of Maria Theresa and her husband to the lands and dignities of Emperor Charles VI, this series of major conflicts (1740-48) involved far more than just the fate of the Habsurgs: soon, Austria, Prussia, France, Britain, Spain, Bavaria, Saxony and the Netherlands were embroiled in their different but interlocking power struggles, with profound long-term significance for Europe and beyond. The war marks the rise of Prussia to great-power status, and the opening of the struggle between France and Britain for maritime supremacy and colonial empire in North America, the Caribbean and India. This book examines the war and its consequences in their widest context.

The War of Austrian Succession 1740-1748

The Habsburg Monarchy has received much historiographical attention since 1945. Yet the military aspects of Austria’s emergence as a European great power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have remained obscure. This book shows that force of arms and the instruments of the early modern state were just as important as its marriage policy in creating and holding together the Habsburg Monarchy. Drawing on an impressive up-to-date bibliography as well as on original archival research, this survey is the first to put Vienna’s military back at the centre stage of early modern Austrian history.

Austria's Wars of Emergence, 1683-1797

This is by far the most celebrated study of the Battle of Fontenoy and is an essential study for the campaign. Fontenoy was the bloodiest battle in Western Europe since Malplaquet in 1709, with French losses around 7,000 or 8,000 killed and wounded those of the Allies somewhere between 8,000 to 12,000, including prisoners. Victory restored French battlefield pre-eminence in Europe, although the best of the Allied infantry remained superior to their opponents. Cumberland performed poorly as a commander, ignoring advice from his more experienced subordinates, failing to ensure the Bois de Barry was properly cleared and issuing Ingoldsby with conflicting orders. Although praised for his courage, the inactivity of the Allied cavalry was partly due to his participation in the infantry attack, and loss of strategic oversight. Ligonier and others viewed Fontenoy as a 'defeat snatched from the jaws of victory' and although understandable for a 24 year old in his first major engagement, the same faults were apparent at the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747.

FONTENOY AND GREAT BRITAIN'S SHARE IN THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION 1741-48

The Battle of Fontenoy marked a turning point in the War of the Austrian Succession, yet it has rarely been analyzed in depth and the Europe-wide conflict in which it played a part is little understood. James Falkner, in this perceptive and original account, puts the record straight by describing the fighting in graphic detail and setting it in the context of the sequence of wars that determined the shape of Europe during the eighteenth century. Great Britain with her Austrian and Dutch allies fought to ensure that Maria Theresa of Austria should be able to take the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Ranged against her interests was the might of Louis XV's France, which strove to weaken Austria by promoting a Bavarian aspirant to the Imperial throne. On 11 May 1745 at Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands the two sides met in a ferocious day-long struggle that changed course of the war. James Falkner's narrative gives a fascinating insight into the Battle of Fontenoy itself and more widely into the nature of warfare in Europe 250 years ago.

The Battle of Fontenoy 1745

A major reassessment of Philip V's leadership and what it meant for the modern Spanish state Often dismissed as ineffective, indolent, and dominated by his second wife, Philip V of Spain (1700–1746), the first Bourbon king, was in fact the greatest threat to peace in Europe during his reign. Under his rule, Spain was a dynamic force and expansionist power, especially in the Mediterranean world. Campaigns in Italy and North Africa revitalized Spanish control in the Mediterranean region, and the arrival of the Bourbon dynasty signaled a sharp break from Habsburg attitudes and practices. Challenging long-held understandings of early eighteenth-century Europe and the Atlantic world, Christopher Storrs draws on a rich array of primary documents to trace the political, military, and financial innovations that laid the framework for the modern Spanish state and the coalescence of a national identity. Storrs illuminates the remarkable revival of Spanish power after 1713 and sheds new light on the often underrated king who made Spain’s resurgence possible.

The Spanish Resurgence, 1713-1748

The Wild Geese, Irish soldiers exiled in France at the end of the seventeenth century, gained fame fighting for France on the battlefields of Europe, India and America in the eighteenth century.

'More Furies Than Men'

'You have to die in Piedmont ' An old folk song, still played in the western Alps, speaks about the French regiments that were incoming from the Mongeneve Pass in order to attack a combined Austro-Sardinian force entrenched on the Assietta Plateau at 2,500 meters (about 8,200 ft) of elevation in the Cottian Alps, which controls two main roads from France to the Kingdom of Sardinia's capital, Turin. The battle occurred 19 June 1747, and was the bloodiest single day battle not only of the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748) in Italy, but also of the whole military history of the Alps, and of mountain warfare in general. The strategic goal of the French offensive was the siege and the capture of the Fort of Exilles, a fortress in the Susa Valley on the road from Brian on to Turin. An army of about 20,000 soldiers under the command of Louis Charles Armand Fouquet de Belle-Isle (called the Chevalier de Belle-Isle, the younger brother of the Marshal de Belle-Isle) was divided into two corps: one went down the Moncenisio towards Exilles, while the other advanced towards the Chisone Valley, in order to reach the Assietta ridge from the south side. Having predicted that the French would move through it, the King Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy had fortified the area with an entrenched camp garrisoned with 7,000 men of 13 infantry battalions: 9 Sardinian, and 4 Austrian. French intelligence discovered that the allied forces were fortifying the pass, while the main Austrian army had left the siege of Genoa to reach the Alps. So, the decision was taken to attack immediately. The forces involved amounted to 32 French battalions against 13 allied. The French troops were divided into three attacking columns and their movements began at about 16:30 pm. Despite the desperate effort of the soldiers and the personal value of the French officers, all the attacks were repulsed with heavy losses. In a matter of three hours of murderous firefight, five thousand soldiers, out of 27,000 men engaged, were killed, wounded or missing: even the French commander, the Chevalier de Belle-Isle, was killed in the struggle. Since that day, the Battle of Assietta became a sort of military legend for the Sardinian forces, and subsequently for the Italian Army, but no serious attempt to reconstruct the event was ever made. Only the French at the end of the 19th century tried to develop a more detailed study of the struggle by publishing the manuscript written by the Lieutenant-G n ral de Vault in the second half of 18th century. This is therefore the first full work to address the history of this battle.

You Have to Die in Piedmont!

A disputed succession to the Austrian throne led to general war between the leading powers of Europe in 1740, with France, Spain and Prussia on one side, and Britain, Habsburg Austria and the Dutch Republic on the other. While fighting occurred across the globe, the bloodiest battles were fought on the European continent, with none more costly than the battle of Fontenoy in 1745. Fearing an encirclement of France by a resurgent Habsburg-controlled Austria, the French commander Marshall Saxe planned to overrun the Austrian Netherlands, thereby dealing a decisive blow against their enemy's ability to wage war. Saxe's army, the cream of the French military, invaded and set up a defensive position at Fontenoy, near Tournai – daring his enemies to knock him off his perch. This title, beautifully illustrated with full colour plates, is an in-depth study of the British Duke of Cumberland's attempt to assault Saxe's position. It focuses on the inability of allied leaders to coordinate their attacks and how Cumberland came within a whisker of achieving a major victory.

Fontenoy 1745

Fontenoy and Great Britain's Share in the War of the Austrian Succession, 1741-1748

Focusing on the policy of the Hapsburg Monarchy toward the Ottoman Empire during the whole of the eighteenth century, Karl A. Roider maintains that it was in the early part of that century when Austria first faced the twin problems of Ottoman decline and Russian expansion into southeastern Europe. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Austria's Eastern Question, 1700-1790

Among the finest examples of deeply researched and colorfully written military history, Richard Bassett’s For God and Kaiser is a major account of the Habsburg army told for the first time in English. Bassett shows how the Imperial Austrian Army, time and again, was a decisive factor in the story of Europe, the balance of international power, and the defense of Christendom. Moreover it was the first pan-European army made up of different nationalities and faiths, counting among its soldiers not only Christians but also Muslims and Jews. Bassett tours some of the most important campaigns and battles in modern European military history, from the seventeenth century through World War I. He details technical and social developments that coincided with the army’s story and provides fascinating portraits of the great military leaders as well as noteworthy figures of lesser renown. Departing from conventional assessments of the Habsburg army as ineffective, outdated, and repeatedly inadequate, the author argues that it was a uniquely cohesive and formidable fighting force, in many respects one of the glories of the old Europe.

For God and Kaiser

Austrian Seven Years War Infantry and Engineers

The Habsburg Empire's grand strategy for outmaneuvering and outlasting stronger rivals in a complicated geopolitical world The Empire of Habsburg Austria faced more enemies than any other European great power. Flanked on four sides by rivals, it possessed few of the advantages that explain successful empires. Yet somehow Austria endured, outlasting Ottoman sieges, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon. A. Wess Mitchell tells the story of how this cash-strapped, polyglot empire survived for centuries in Europe's most dangerous neighborhood without succumbing to the pressures of multisided warfare. He shows how the Habsburgs played the long game in geopolitics, corralling friend and foe alike into voluntarily managing the empire's lengthy frontiers and extending a benign hegemony across the turbulent lands of middle Europe. The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire offers lessons on how to navigate a messy geopolitical map, stand firm without the advantage of military predominance, and prevail against multiple rivals.

The Grand Strategy of the Habsburg Empire

Sebastian Haffner regarded himself as “a Prussian with a British passport.” In this overview of Prussia’s 170-year history as an independent state, he depicts Prussia’s evolution from a sensational 18th century success story – “a state based on law, one of the first in Europe” – to its absorption into the Third Reich where “the rule of law was the first thing that Hitler abolished.” In this succinct and readable book, Haffner argues that Hitler’s racial and nationality policy was the opposite of Prussia’s and Hitler’s political style, the very opposite of Prussian. “In his short book The Rise and Fall of Prussia Haffner combines a critical examination with a declaration of love for a state which always lived beyond its means ... but which managed to combine material poverty with intellectual grandeur.” — Michael Stürmer,Welt am Sonntag “Haffner sees Prussia’s history as the 'tragedy of a purely rational state'. An agglomeration of arbitrary territories, it made a virtue of its artificiality, adapting to the enlightenment and then to romanticism, but finally also to nationalism, betraying the basis of its statehood and leading to its ultimate destruction.” — Chrisian Roth,Akademische Blätter “Haffner long regarded himself as a 'Prussian with a British passport'. He identified with Prussia and its achievements: general compulsory schooling (1717), the abolition of torture (1740), the establishment of religious toleration (1740), Bismarck’s welfare state (1883), the medical giants Virchow, Koch, von Behring, the intellectual giants Kant, von Humboldt and von Schlegel, and much more. At the end of his book he recounted the (often-ignored) expulsion of millions of Prussians from their homeland in 1945. 'It was an atrocity, the final atrocity of a war which had more than its share in atrocities, admittedly begun by Germany under Hitler.' His message is very relevant today, when he praises those expelled for rejecting revenge and having the courage to say, 'This is enough.'” — David Childs, The Independent

The Rise and Fall of Prussia

Prussian Fusiliers of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War: Uniforms, Organisation and Equipment This new comprehensive study of Frederick II's Fusilier and Garrison Regiments is organised by province reflecting contemporary practice rather than using the regimental number. It combines sources from the earliest available to the most recent studies, details their Chef (colonel-in-chief), campiagn history, organisation, uniforms, flags and equipment. The strength of this study lies in the lavish number of illustrations. There are over 750 colour illustrations, including over 315 drawings by Dessauer (1729, 1737), Accurate (1759), Stammliste (1762), Etat Militaire (1770), and Menzel (1857) with schematics from Hans Bleckwenn, Eduard Bolz, Hans Brauer and Richard Knotel. The uniform and equipment chapters have 250+ uniform details, equipment, fusilier caps, lace and weapons plus 92 flags. In addition there are 8 maps, 15 tables and 16 orders of battle. This is the companion volume to the author's acclaimed study of 'Prussian Musketeers of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War'.

Prussian Fusiliers of the War of Austrian Succession and Seven Years War

War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession: Uniforms of the French Army, 1740-1748

This book contains the biography of Maria Theresa of Austria, the only female ruler of the Habsburg Dominions written by J. Alexander Mahan, and would make an excellent addition to the bookshelf of anyone with an interest in this fascinating woman.

Maria Theresa of Austria

The Sinews of Habsburg Power explores the domestic foundations of the immense growth of central European Habsburg power from the rise of a permanent standing army after the Thirty Years' War to the end of the Napoleonic wars. With a force that grew irregularly in size from around 25,000 soldiers to as many as half a million in the War of the Sixth Coalition, the Habsburg monarchy participated in shifting international constellations of rivalry from western Europe to the Near East and in some two dozen, partly overlapping armed conflicts. Raising forces of such magnitude constituted a central task of Habsburg government, one that ultimately required the cooperation of society and its elites. The monarchy's composite-territorial structures in the guise of the Lower Austrian Estates -- a leading representative body and privileged corps -- formed a vital, if changing, element underlying Habsburg international success and resilience. With its capital at Vienna, the archduchy below the river Enns (the historic designation of Lower Austria) was geographically, politically, and financially a key Habsburg possession. Fiscal-military exigency induced the Estates to take part in new and evolving arrangements of power that served the purposes of government; in turn the Estates were able in previously little-understood ways and within narrowing boundaries to preserve vital interests in a changing world. The Estates survived because they were necessary, not only thanks to their increasing financial potency, but also because they offered a politically viable way of exacting ever-larger quantities of money, men, and other resources from local society. These circumstances would persist as ruling became more regularized, formalized, and homogenized, and as the very understanding of the Estates as a social and political phenomenon was evolving.

The Sinews of Habsburg Power

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The works of French novelist Alexandre Dumas have been reproduced time and again on stage and screen. Based on a genuine memoir by an officer named D'Artagnan, Dumas published The Three Musketeers. The King's Musketeers were formed in 1622 and were populated by young men of noble birth, but often of poorer means. The Musketeers served as a form of military academy, which enabled these men to qualify for commission into the regular army, but the academy was not just a schoolroom the Musketeers served in all major battles and campaigns of the period; their reputation for bravery was well deserved. This title explores the history behind the legends created by Dumas. Drawing on historical and fascinating accounts the truth of this most colourful and flamboyant of units is revealed.

French Musketeer 1622-1775

This study analyzes the battle of Dettingen, one of the major Allied victories of the War of the Austrian Succession, and the last time a British monarch commanded troops in the field. The death of the Emperor Charles VI in 1741 was the catalyst for a conflict ostensibly about the female inheritance of the Hapsburg patrimony but, in reality, about the succession to the Imperial Throne. The great European powers were divided between those, such as Britain, who supported the Pragmatic Sanction and the rights of the Archduchess Maria-Theresa, daughter of Charles VI, and those who challenged it, including Bavaria which were supported by France. The conflict quickly escalated into what is now known as the War of the Austrian Succession, and a series of turbulent political events brought the crisis to a head on the road to Hanau, near Dettingen. There, the French moved to put into place a complex maneuver which had the potential to end the war at a single stroke. A column of French troops would cross the Main near Dettingen and block the road to Hanau, their orders being to simply hold their ground and bar the route of the Allied British and Hanovarian advance. A second column would cross the Main behind the enemy and then follow their line of march northwards. The bulk of the army would use a combination of bridges and pontoon-bridges to cross the Main and engage the enemy from the flank as they were strung out on the line of march. However, the plan relied heavily on the blocking force, and command of this crucial sector fell to an inexperienced nobleman Louis-Auguste, Duc de Grammont, who chose to attack rather than hold his position. Consequently, the maneuver failed and the French broke, fleeing for the Main and safety, with the Gardes Francaises famously swimming the river. Supported by specially commissioned artwork including maps and battleplates, this title explores the battle in depth, detailing its build-up, events, and aftermath, as well as analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the commanders, armies, and tactics of both sides.

Dettingen 1743

Until at least the latter years of Maria Theresa's reign, the Austrian artillery was acknowledged to be second to none in Europe; and it must have been no coincidence that Jean Baptiste de Gribeauval, who went on and so radically reformed the French artillery after he became inspector of artillery in 1776, had spent the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) on attachment to the Austrian army from the French. In this last of three volumes [Men-at arms 271 & 276], Philip Haythornwaite does a first class job of examining the composition and uniforms of these and other specialist troops of the Austrian army 1740-80, including the artillery units, engineers, Grenz, Jägers and medical troops.

The Austrian Army 1740–80 (3)

This book describes and illustrates the organization and uniforms of the Allied contingents during the Seven Years' War (1756-1763). At the outbreak of the war King George II's dual role as King of England and Elector of Hanover led to Britain creating and funding an alliance with Frederick's Prussia. This colorful multi-national arm of British, Brunswick, Hanoverian, and Hessian troops, with other smaller contingents, played an essential part by guarding Prussia's western front against French armies, and in the process the British contingent won some remarkable victories, such as the redcoats' legendary attack at Minden and Granby's cavalry triumph at Warburg. This disparate group of soldiers is brought to vivid life by the illustrations of Gerry and Sam Embleton and by the unrivalled detail of Stuart Reid's analysis.

Frederick the Great’s Allies 1756–63

Colours and Standards of the War of the Austrian Succession

The War of the Austrian Succession: Naval warfare, 1739-1748

Continuing this highly praised series on the uniforms of the Seven Years War, Dr Stephen Summerfield has come up with the definitive study of the Saxon army ­ of particular interest as it fought on both sides, as it were. Bits and pieces of information exist in various books and uniform plates, but this is the first attempt to put all the information together, regiment by regiment - infantry, cavalry, artillery & staff: uniforms, equipment, flags and organisation. There are over 450 illustrations: 66 Flags after Hottenroth and author¹s reconstructions, 50 Uniform and Equipment Details, 125 illustrations after Brauer, Eichhorn, Knotel and Trache, 192 uniform schema after Eichhorn and Trache, 13 Horse Furniture & 5 Scale plans. colour illustrations

Saxon Army of the Austrian War of Succession and the Seven Years War

The War of the Austrian Succession: The uniforms of the the British Army, 1739-1748

The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) was a major European conflict sparked by the death of Emperor Charles VI and the contested succession of his daughter, Maria Theresa, despite the Pragmatic Sanction securing her inheritance. Prussia, under Frederick II, seized Silesia, prompting Austria, Britain, and allies to resist Prussian and French expansion. The war spread across Europe, North America, and India, involving multiple theaters. It ended with the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), which restored most territories but allowed Prussia to retain Silesia, setting the stage for future conflicts, including the Seven Years' War.