Battle of Trenčín

Infobox Military Conflict


caption=Memorial of the Battle of Trencsén
partof=the Francis II Rákoczi Kuruc uprisings
conflict=Battle of Trenčín
date=3 August 1708
place=near the villages of Trenčianska Turná, Soblahov, Mníchova Lehota, present-day Slovakia
result=Habsburgs' victory
combatant1=Kuruc Army of Francis II Rakoczi
combatant2=Habsburg Imperial Army
Serbian army in the Voivodina
commander1=Francis II Rakoczi
de la Motte
Laurinc Pekri
commander2=Siegbert Heister
John Pálfi
strength1=15,000 infantry and cavalrymen, 12 cannons
strength2=around 5,000 infantry and cavalrymen, serbs
casualties1=3,000 dead or wounded, 500 POW
12 cannons captured
casualties2=200 dead or wounded

The Battle of Trenčín ( _hu. Trencséni csata, _sk. Bitka pri Trenčíne) was a battle between the Kuruc forces of Francis II Rákóczi and the Imperial Army of the Habsburgs. The battle caused great losses for the Anti-Habsburg rebels, forcing them to give up their plans of obtaining allies in the War of the Spanish Succession against the Habsburgs. The battle also meant the beginning of the end of a long series of Anti-Habsburg uprisings in the Kingdom of Hungary.

Background

In the year 1708, Francis II Rákóczi decided to march his troops into Silesia, to pave the way for the plans of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia to take the Hungarian throne, thus reinforcing the Silesian Protestants as well. His army started to march down the Váh river, and planned to pass by the town of Trencsén on their way to Moravia. However, Trenčín was in the hands of a reinforced Habsburg garrison. At first, Rákóczi had no intention to besiege Trenčín, as to not to weaken his army, but under pressure of other Kuruc commanders, he decided to do so. The commander of the garrison, Siegbert Heister, found out about the moves of the Kuruc army, and started preparing his soldiers for the attack.

The Battle

At the morning of 3 August 1708, 5,000 Habsburg soldiers faced 15,000 Kuruc soldiers, with 12 cannons. [V. Vamgl, V. Kopčan - "Vojenské dejiny Slovenska II." / "1526-1711" / published 1995 ISBN 80-967113-2-8 (pages 204 - 206) ] The right wing of the Hungarian Kuruc army was composed of light cavalry and part of the infantry under command of Lőrinc Pekri. The middle was composed by the artillery, protected by the German cavalry, as well as with the Polish and German carabiniers under command of colonel de la Motte. The left wing was made out of the rest of the infantry. The terrain ahead of them, however, was unclear, with moats going through it. When Siegbert Heister saw the number of Kuruc troops, and their advantageous standing, he decided to retreat into Trencsén Castle. At the moment of giving this order, the Kuruc artillery started firing, with Pekri's wing advancing forward to attack the Habsburg soldiers while they were still organising.

But the terrain was unsuitable for attack. The terrain was rugged, with two man-made ponds being next to each other, with an embankment between them. Pekri's cavalry started to go through the embankment at the trot. Meanwhile, Pekri was warned that the narrow passage might cause difficulties; he therefore decided to retreat from those positions. While his cavalry started to turn back, it became disorganized, of which the troops of Imperial commander János Pálffy - a loyalist Hungarian - took advantage; they counter-attacked, and caused the disorganized horsemen to flee.

The middle and left wing meanwhile fought off Imperial mercenaries, but the flight of the right wing brought about uncertainty among the troops. Rákóczi tried to impress his soldiers and personally entered the fight. When jumping one of the moats, however, he fell from his horse and lost consciousness. Rumours about his death started to spread between his soldiers, and even the fighting troops started to flee. Heister's cavalry broke the originally three times bigger Kuruc army during the next three hours. As a result, around 3,000 Kuruc soldiers died or were wounded, 500 were captured, along with all their 12 cannons; Imperial losses were negligible.

Juraj Jánošík fought in the battle for the Kuruc side at the age of fifteen.

Aftermath

The Kuruc troops were heavily defeated in the Battle of Trencsén, revealing that they had smaller fighting capability than their foes. Heister's troops chased the remainder of Rákóczi's soldiers, captured North-Hungarian mining towns, took Nyitra, and started to besiege Érsekújvár. By the end of the year 1708, the Kuruc rebels had lost all of North-western Hungary and part of the Kuruc soldiers joined the Habsburgs army. Soon, the rebels lost Bars, Hont, the town of Zólyom and at the beginning of 1709, had to retreat from Liptó.

In December 1708, Rákóczi tried to save the situation of his declining army by promising freedom and land grants to the peasants who fought by his side. However, this failed to have any notable effect, as peasants, and, even more notably, compromising nobles continued deserting from his army.

The growing defeatism and moral decline provoked by the defeat at Trencsén therefore marked the beginning of the ultimate defeat of Rákóczi's War for Independence and the perpetuation of the Kingdom of Hungary remaining subjugated to Austrian rule.

References