Chapter IV: , VII (89)

"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._

_F. Von Raumer,
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.

In the Hanoverian field of war, where Prince Ferdinand of
Brunswick held command, the campaign of 1759 was important,
and prosperous in the end for the allies of Prussia. "Besides
the Hanoverians and Hessians in British pay, he [Prince
Ferdinand] had under his direction 10,000 or 12,000 British
soldiers, amongst whom, since the death of the Duke of
Marlborough, Lord George Sackville was the senior officer. The
French, on their part, were making great exertions, under the
new administration of the Duke de Choiseul; large
reinforcements were sent into Germany, and early in the year
they surprised by stratagem the free city of Frankfort and
made it the place of arms for their southern army. No object
could be of greater moment to Ferdinand than to dislodge them
from this important post." Marching quickly, with 30,000 of
his army, he attacked the French, under the Duke de Broglie,
at Bergen, on the Nidda, in front of Frankfort, April 13, and
was repulsed, after heavy fighting, with a loss of 2,000 men.
"This reverse would, it was supposed, reduce Prince Ferdinand
to the defensive during the remainder of the campaign. Both De
Broglie and Contades eagerly pushed forward, their opponents
giving way before them. Combining their forces, they reduced
Cassel, Munster, and Minden, and they felt assured that the
whole Electorate must soon again be theirs. Already had the
archives and the most valuable property been sent off from
Hanover to Stade. Already did a new Hastenbeck--a new
Closter-Seven--rise in view. But it was under such
difficulties that the genius of Ferdinand shone forth. With a
far inferior army (for thus much is acknowledged, although I
do not find the French numbers clearly or precisely stated),
he still maintained his ground on the left of the Weser, and
supplied every defect by his superiority of tactics. He left a
detachment of 5,000 men exposed, and seemingly unguarded, as a
bait to lure De Contades from his strong position at Minden.
The French Mareschal was deceived by the feint, and directed
the Duke De Broglie to march forward and profit by the
blunder, as he deemed it to be. On the 1st of August,
accordingly, De Broglie advanced into the plain, his force
divided in eight columns." Instead of the small corps
expected, he found the whole army of the allies in front of
him. De Contades hurried to his assistance, and the French,
forced to accept battle in an unfavorable position, were
overcome. At the decisive moment of their retreat, "the Prince
sent his orders to Lord George Sackville, who commanded the
whole English and some German cavalry on the right wing of the
Allies, and who had hitherto been kept back as a reserve. The
orders were to charge and overwhelm the French in their
retreat, before they could reach any clear ground to rally.
Had these orders been duly fulfilled, it is acknowledged by
French writers that their army must have been utterly
destroyed; but Lord George either could not or would not
understand what was enjoined on him. ... Under such
circumstances the victory of Minden would not have been signal
or complete but for a previous and most high-spirited
precaution of Prince Ferdinand. He had sent round to the rear
of the French a body of 10,000 men, under his nephew--and also
the King of Prussia's--the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick.
... Thus Ferdinand became master of the passes, and the French
were constrained to continue their retreat in disorder. Upon the
whole, their loss was 8,000 men killed, wounded, or taken, 30
pieces of artillery, and 17 standards. ... Great was the
rejoicing in England at the victory of Minden"; but loud the
outcry against Lord George Sackville, who was recalled and
dismissed from all his employments.

_Lord Mahon (Earl Stanhope),
History of England, 1713-1783,
chapter 36 (volume 4)._

ALSO IN:
_Sir E. Cust,
Annals of the Wars of the 18th Century,
volume 2, pages 327-333._

GERMANY: A. D. 1759 (July-November).
The Seven Years War:
Disasters of Frederick.
Kunersdorf.
Dresden.
Maxen.

"Three years of the war were gone and the ardour of
Frederick's' enemies showed no signs of abating. The war was
unpopular in the Russian army, but the Czarina thought no
sacrifice too great for the gratification of her hatred.
France was sick of it too, and tottering on the verge of
national bankruptcy, but Louis was kept true to his
engagements by domestic influences and by the unbending
determination of Maria Theresa never to lay down arms until
Prussia was thoroughly humbled. ... Already Frederick was at
his wits' end for men and money. Of the splendid infantry
which had stormed the heights at Prague, and stemmed the rout
of Kollin, very little now remained. ... Moreover, Austria,
relying on her vastly larger population, had ceased to
exchange prisoners, and after the end of 1759 Russia followed
her example. ... Frederick's pecuniary difficulties were even
greater still. But for the English subsidy he could hardly
have subsisted at all. ... The summer was half gone before
there was any serious fighting. Frederick had got together
125,000 men of some sort, besides garrison troops, but he no
longer felt strong enough to take the initiative, and the
Austrians were equally indisposed to attack without the
co-operation of their allies. Towards the middle of July the
Russians, under Count Soltikoff, issued from Posen, advanced
to the Oder', and, after defeating a weak Prussian corps near
Kay, took possession of Frankfort.
{1500}
It now became necessary for the king to march in person
against them, the more especially as Laudon [or Loudon] with
18,000 Austrians was on his way to join Soltikoff. Before he
could reach Frankfort, Laudon, eluding with much dexterity the
vigilance of his enemies, effected his junction, and
Frederick, with 48,000 men, found himself confronted by an
army 78,000 strong. The Russians were encamped on the heights
of Kunersdorf, east of Frankfort." Frederick attacked them,
August 12, with brilliant success at first, routing their left
wing and taking 70 guns, with several thousand prisoners. "The
Prussian generals then besought the king to rest content with
the advantage he had gained. The day was intensely hot; his
soldiers had been on foot for twelve hours, and were suffering
severely from thirst and exhaustion; moreover, if the Russians
were let alone, they would probably go off quietly in the
night, as they had done after Zorndorf. Unhappily Frederick
refused to take counsel. He wanted to destroy the Russian
army, not merely to defeat it; he had seized the Frankfort
bridge and cut off its retreat." He persisted in his attack
and was beaten off. "The Prussians were in full retreat when
Laudon swept down upon them with eighteen fresh squadrons. The
retreat became a rout more disorderly than in any battle of
the war except Rossbach. The king, stupefied with his
disaster, could hardly be induced to quit the field, and was
heard to mutter, 'Is there then no cursed bullet that can
reach me?' The defeat was overwhelming. Had it been properly
followed up, it must have put an end to the war, and
Kunersdorf would have ranked among the decisive battles of the
world. Berlin lay open to the enemy; the royal family fled to
Magdeburg. For the first (and last) time in his life Frederick
gave way utterly to despair. 'I have no resources left,' he wrote
to the minister Finckenstein the evening after the battle,
'and to tell the truth I hold all for lost. I shall not
survive the ruin of my country. Farewell for ever.' The same
night he resigned the command of the army to General Finck.
Eighteen thousand, five hundred of his soldiers were killed,
wounded, or prisoners, and the rest were so scattered that no
more than 3,000 remained under his command. All the artillery
was lost, and most of his best generals were killed or
wounded. ... By degrees, however, the prospect brightened. The
fugitives kept coming in, and the enemy neglected to give the
finishing stroke. Frederick shook off his despair, and resumed
the command of his army. Artillery was ordered up from Berlin,
and the troops serving against the Swedes were recalled from
Pomerania. Within a week of Kunersdorf he was at the head of
33,000 men, and in a position to send relief to Dresden, which
was besieged by an Austrian and Imperialist army. The relief,
as it happened, arrived just too late." Dresden was
surrendered by its commandant, Schmettau, on the 4th of
September, to the great wrath of Frederick. By a wonderful
march of fifty-eight miles in fifty hours, Prince Henry, the
brother of Frederick, prevented the Austrians from gaining the
whole electorate of Saxony. The Russians and the Austrians
quarrelled, the former complaining that they were left to do
all the fighting, and presently they withdrew into Poland.
"With the departure of the Russians, the campaign would
probably have ended, had not Frederick's desire to close it
with a victory led him into a fresh disaster, hardly less
serious and far more disgraceful than that of Kunersdorf. ...
With the view of hastening the retreat of the Austrians, and
of driving them, if possible, into the difficult Pirna
country, he ordered General Finck to take post with his corps
at Maxen, to bar their direct line of communications with
Bohemia." As the result, Finck, with his whole corps, of
12,000, were overwhelmed and taken prisoners. "The
capitulation of Maxen was no less destructive of Frederick's
plans than galling to his pride. The Austrians now retained
Dresden, a place of great strategical importance, though the
king, in the hope of dislodging them, exposed the wrecks of
his army to the ruinous hardships of a winter campaign, in
weather of unusual severity, and borrowed 12,000 men of
Ferdinand of Brunswick to cover his flank while so engaged.
The new year had commenced before he allowed his harassed
troops to go into winter-quarters."

_F. W. Longman,
Frederick the Great and the Seven Years War,
chapter 10, section 2._