Battle of Piacenza

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Piacenza (1746)


caption=
partof=the War of the Austrian Succession
date=June 16 1746
place=Piacenza, Italy
result=Decisive Austrian Victory
combatant1=flagicon|France|restauration [1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition, New York 1910, Vol.X, p.460: "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour."George Ripley, Charles Anderson Dana, "The American Cyclopaedia", New York, 1874, p. 250, "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis...". * [http://www.anyflag.com/history/fleur23.htm] The original Banner of France was strewn with fleurs-de-lis. ] France
flagicon|Spain|1701 Spain
combatant2=flagicon|Holy Roman Empire Austria
commander1=flagicon|France|restauration Marquis de Maillebois
flagicon|Spain|1701 Comte de Gages
commander2=flagicon|Holy Roman Empire Prince Josef Wenzel
flagicon|Habsburg Monarchy Marquis of Botta d'Adorno
flagicon|Holy Roman Empire Count Maximilian Ulysses Browne
strength1=40,000
strength2=55,000
casualties1=13,000 dead, wounded and captured
casualties2=3,400 dead or wounded|The Battle of Piacenza was a pitched battle between a Franco-Spanish army and Austrian army near Piacenza on June 16 1746. It formed part of later operations in the War of the Austrian Succession. The result was a victory for the Austrian forces, led by Prince Josef Wenzel

Prince Franz Josef I and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm are among notable combatants.

The Bourbon Position

Following the battle of Bassignana and the splitting of the Austrian and Piedmontese armies the Spanish and French armies co-ordinated their plans. Spain viewed either the capture of Turin and Milan desirable but since France wished to negotiate with Charles Emmanuel this left Spain only with Milan. Therefore on 28th November 1745 De Gages began the Spanish invasion of Lombardy. The Austrian commander Prince Josef Wenzel of Liechtenstein retired before the Spanish advance lest he commit his undermaned army to destruction. Milan submitted peacefully and by the end of the year most of Lombardy was in Spanish hands.

The situation facing Austria in early 1746 was this. The Bourbon armies occupied all of Lombardy save Mantua and approximately 1/5 of Charles Emmanuels realm of Piedmont-Sardinia. The French court now began negotiations with Charles Emmanuel in the hope of detaching Piedmont from its alliance with Austria whilst at the same time Marshal Maillebois was pressing the siege of Alessandria. By all reckoning the Infant Philip was now master of his new realm and the Bourbons had been triumphant in Spain.

Charles Emmanual re-opens the battle for Italy

The Treaty of Dresden signed between Prussia and Austria on December 25 1745 had as much impact for the fighting in Italy as it did for central Europe. Charles Emmanuel and his advisors saw this clearly. Evidently Austria, now freed from a war in Germany, would transfer the bulk of its army to Italy and since the position of France and Spain had not altered the King realised that they would not be able to match Austria's military build up in the peninsular.

Although still negotiating with France the King realised that keeping his alliance with Austria was the more profitable gamble. Charles Emmanuel was no fool however and realised that he needed to buy himself time until Austria had completed her concentration in Italy. The easiest way to obtain this was to string out the negotiations for as long as possible until it was time to act. Consequently he gave the French court until the end of February to reach an agreement otherwise there would be a resumption of hostilities. He also requested that the French raise the siege of Alessandria and in an extraordinay act of good faith the French complied on the 17th February 1746.

With the first of March however with the deadline now passed and the Austrian concentration complete Charles Emmanual realised that the time had come to resume the war. The Piedmontese Army slowly began to move towards the French garrison at Asti and Alessandria. Having successfully disguised their intentions Charles Emmanuel re-opened the war in Italy on 5th March 1746 with an attack on Asti. Three days later the garrison had surrendered and 5,000 prisoners fell into Piedmontese hands.

Bourbon retreat to Piacenza

The surrender of the garrison at Asti created major problems for the French army. Morale plummeted and by the end of March Marshal Maillebois' army had lost 15,000 men to desertian, illness or capture. De Gages Spanish army sat still at Piacenza, uncertain of what course of action to take in the face of the new danger caused by the Austrian concentration. Neither he nor the Infant Philip wished to retreat from Lombardy due to the anger thaht this would provoke in Madrid. Unfortunately the Austrian command made the decision for them. By skilful manoeuvering the Austrians chased The Infant from Milan to Pavia. By April Parma, Reggio and Guastalla had fallen to Austria. In order to concentrate their dispersed forces the Spanish asked Marshal Maillebois to bring his French army westwards to join with the other Bourbon troops falling back on Piacenza from various directions.

Marshal Maillebois however was reluctant to abandon his lines of communication through Genoa and consequently only sent 10 battalions forward to Piacenza. The Spanish King Philip V and His wife Elizabeth Farnese however ordered De Gages to remain at Piacenza and Louis XV, wishing to confirm Bourbon solidarity and ready to be obliging to his Spanish uncle, ordered Maillebois to place his troups under Spanish command. Reluctantly agreeing the Marshal ordered his troops to Piacenza and by June 15th the Franco-Spanish army was joined together.

Opposing Plans

Since the Austrian army outnumbered his own by some 15,000 men De Gages worked out a plan which would be make an Austrian assault costly and invite a Spanish counterstoke which would very well win the battle. Rejecting a stand in the crumbling town of Piacenza Gages ordered ditches and artillery emplacements to be dug which would become a defensive line that the Austrians would have to attack. De Gages also ordered his troops to scout the area's to the north of Piacenza. Maillebois arrival gave the Spanish general a combined strength of 40,000 but this had already began to put a severe strain on the food supplies in the area and also approaching from the west was a Piedmontese army of 10,000 men which would firmly tip the balance in numbers in favour of the Austrians.

Consequently, with the Piedmontese only a day's march away the French Marshall urged that an immediate attack should be launched against the Austrians. This of course meant a change in the original plan. Instead of the original plan the Spanish commander would now hold his centre lightly whilst concentrating on the flanks. The attack on the Austrian left would entail pushing it back towards the Austian centre and in ean even more un-orthodox move De Gages asked Maillebois to take his troops beyond the extreme right of the line, encircle the Austrian right flank and fall on its rear. The battle was set to begin at sunrise on the 16th.

The Austrians had spent the last few month's emplacing their artillery, seizing Bourbon outposts and gathering in food supplies. The increasing mood in the Austrian camp was one of confident victory. The Austrian plan was much more simple than the Bourbon plan. They would let Gages waste his troops against his positions before counter-attacking once the attack had ran out of steam and on the morning of the 15th they began to deploy their forces to the north of Piacenza. Unfortunately for the French, Count Browne realised what Maillebois was up to and moved his units to block the French advance. The Marquis of Botta d'Adorno commanded the Austrian right and simply went to the expedient of putting his troops on the alert on the evening of the 15th. The Austrians now only had to wait for the Franco-Spanish attack.

The Battle

On the morning of the 16th the Austrian artillery began to open fire on the Bourbon camp opposite. At the same time the Franco-Spanish army began its assault upon the Austrian lines. Marshall Maillebois' plan became unstuck in the very few minutes of his assault. Instead of a clear decent upon the Austrian rear the Marshall was unerved to see Brownes troops drawn up in front of him behind a canal. To compound the problems the French force had emerged from the wrong place. The narrow valley they had gone down providied a bottleneck and as soon as they emerged they were mown down by the Austrians'. The Marshall tried to bring more troops into the action but his men were never to get near the Austrians due to the intensity of the Austrian fire. Finally Browne advanced his troop over the canal and the assault collapsed, many Frenchmen being cut to pieces in the narrow gully.

On the other flank Gages had been able to advance his men right up to the Austrian lines and his troops were slowly pushing the Austrians back in what seemed to be a much more even battle. However Count Bärenklau finally managed to engage the Austrian cavalry into the fight and the Spanish line finally broke under the pressure. With the Spanish hurrying back towards Piacenza the Austrians were able to give chase. By 2pm the battle was over and so were the Bourbon hopes in Italy.

The Aftermath

The casualties in this battle tell the whole story. Austria suffered c.3,400 casualties with about 700 dead. The Spanish army suffered c.9,000 casualties and the French added c.4000 to this total. Of these 4,500 were killed and 4,800 made prisoner, Louis-Joseph de Montcalm being one of them. Following the battle the Bourbons evacuated Piacenza on 27th of June and were sheppherded eastwards by the Austro-Piedmontese armies into the republic of Genoa.

Although not marking the end of the fighting in Italy the battle was decisive for not only did it end hopes for a Kingdom for the Infant Philip in Italy it also allowed the Austrians to retain control of the Duchy of Milan for the next 50 years.

References

Bibliography

Browning, R - The War of the Austrian Succession pgs.273-276 Bibliography pgs. 403-431