REY .

ME -AT-ARMS SERIES

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ungartan
rmy 0. the even
liars
Text by ALBERT SEATON
Colourplatesby R.OTTENFELD

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Published in 1973 by
Osprey Publishing LId, P.O. Box 25,
707 Oxford Road, Reading, Berkshire
© Copyrighl J 973 Osprey Publishing LId
This book is copyrighted under the Berne
Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any
fair dealing for the purpose of private study,
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Copyright Act, 1956, no part of this publication may
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transmitted in any form or by any means electronic,
electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photo-
copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries should
be addressed 10 Ihe Publishers.

I n the preparation of this texL acknowledgment is

made to Die Osterreichische Annee by O. Teuber
(Vienna 1895-19°4) and the History rif Hungary by
D. Sinor (Allen & Unwin [959). All the photographs
arc reproduced by courtesy of the Keeper, the
Library of the Victoria and Albert Museum
(Photographer Berkhamsted Photographic,
Bcrkhamsted, Hen fordshi re).

ISBN 0 85045 149 3

Printed in Creat Britain.

Monochrome by BAS Printers Limited,
Wallop, Hampshire.
Colour by Colour Reproductions Ltd.,
Billericay.
 The rUlitstro-:7fUngarian 'Mrmyofthe
<Seven rears'J1Itr

peoples, leaving their Scandinavian homeland,

lntrodu{tion crossed the Baltic and the North Sea and settled
on the coast of the mainland, from where they
made their way southwards up the Rhine to the
Austro-Hungary of the eighteenth century em- source of the Danube. Fro,m there two Germanic
braced numerous and diverse races, but the main tribes, the Cimbri and Teutoni, overran Celtic
political and ethnological components of the state Gaul and invaded the Roman Empire in 109 B.C.,
were formed from the Duchy of Austria and the being followed by successive waves of other
old Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary. Austria Teutan barbarians, among whom were Suebi,
formed in addition the anchor sheet ofthe German Goths, Franks, Saxons, Alemans, Vandals, Lom-
Empire, its roots stretching back to Charlemagne's bards and Burgundians. In Caesar's time the
Holy Roman Empire. The Austrians, Czechs and Germanic Vindelici had already conquered and
Hungarians were of course separate peoples with settled a large area south of the Danube, with
no common origin or language. their capital at Augsburg, stretching from Hel-
vetia to what is now the Bavarian-Austrian
frontier.
In the fourth century A.D. the Roman Emperor
rUlitstria andthe Constantine removed his capital from Rome to
Byzantium and this eventually gave rise to the

:HOly CJ?ezan empire existence of two Roman Empires, that in the east
centred on Constantinople, and that in the west
with its capital remaining in Rome. Whereas the
About two thousand years ago, the German Western Empire was shortlived, breaking up

f dd 10'\4 rsth~ II

Before Maria Theresa's reign there was neither a distinctive ribbon in the waistcoat and coat; ranks shown are field-
uniform nor badges of rank for general officers. These illus- marshal, Ulajor-general, general and master-general of
trate the first to be introduced, rank being shown by gold ordnance

3
under the Hunnish and Vandal invasions, the should be consecrated until he had first taken an
Byzantine Empire was to endure for another oath ofallegiance to the emperor. Otto the Great's
thousand years. Holy Roman Empire differed from that of
The Christian Bishops of Rome, with the Charlemagne since it includcd only Germany and
assistance of the Franks on whom they relied for North and Central Italy and had no claim on
protection against the Germanic Lombards, had France or the borderland~ of Spain.
meanwhile become the political rulers of Central Germany was developing very differently,
Italy. In 768 Charlemagne, a German like his however, from France and England in that it
predecessors, came to the Frankish throne and lacked the political unity usually assoeiated with
for the next forty-three years dominated Europe, a kingdom, for it was in fact no more than a col-
extending his own influence and that ofthe Roman lection of independent or semi-independent prin-
Church. The Frankish kingdom already covered cipalities and duehies, and the kingship itself was
the whole of Gaul and the Low Countries, the strictly elective. A son might follow his father as
north German coast as far as Denmark, and king if he had reason to maintain his claim, but
Central Germany, including what is now Bavaria then only provided that the German prinees wcre
and Upper Austria. In ceaseless and bloody wars assured that he would be no threat to their inde-
against the North German Saxons, the Elbe Slavs pendence. In consequence the kings were guided
and the Avar Kingdom on the middle Danube, by their interests and thosc of their own duehies
Charlemagne pushed his frontiers eastwards as rather than by wider national issues. Often the
faras the OdeI', the Bakony Forest (now Hungary) title was one without substance. The Kings of
and the tongue of land between the Danube and Germany were the usual claimants of the Roman
the Sava on which Belgrade now stands. He imperial title.
annexed Slovenia, North and Central Italy, In the twelfth eentury Austria had been a tiny
Corsica and a strip of borderland Spain as far German duchy on the Danube to the east of
south as Barcelona. Bavaria, hardly more than a hundred milcs across,
Before the end of the eighth century, Charle- developed from Avar territory overrun and
magne regarded his domains as a revived Roman resettled by Charlemagne as part of the eastern
Empire and he opened negotiations with Con- frontier marches or Ostmark. The ruling dukes
stantinople in order to obtain recognition for had originally come from Switzerland, taking their
himself as the Holy Roman Emperor in the West. name of Habsburg, so it is said, from their family
In the autumn of800 Charlemagne went to Italy estates of Habichtsburg (Hawk's Castle) near
to reinstate in his office Pope Leo lIT, who had Lake Lucerne. They extended their influence a.nd
been driven from Rome on a charge of evil living. domains throughout the eastern border provinces
There on Christmas Day Charlemagne was of Carinthia, Carniola, the Tyrol and Austria,
crowned Holy Roman Emperor by his vassal, Leo. usually by advantageous marriages. In 1273
When Charlemagne died his Empire was Rudolf of Habsburg, Duke of Austria, was
divided among his sons and eventually became unanimously elected to the titles of the Holy
the Frankish and German kingdoms. Thereafter Roman Empire, mainly on account of his lack of
the Holy Roman Empire disintegrated as a authority, means and pretensions; fOf, in spite of
political entity under the invasions of the orse- the elective principle, the earlier Hohenstaufen
men and the Hungarians. With the death in g'g Emperors had in their time become very powerful.
of the last King of Germany directly descended Under the first of the Habsburgs Germany and
from Charlemagne, the Saxons and the Fran- orth Italy slipped back into anarchy and civil
conians elected Henry the Fowler, Duke ofSaxony, war, prince against prince and town against town.
as King of the Germans. Henry's son, Otto the Because of its internal weakness, Germany, and
Great, crossed the Alps in g6, to restore order to with it the Holy Roman Empire, began to move
the Roman Catholic Church, where the popes slowly eastwards. For a powerful France took
were once mare in disrepute. He had himself advantage of the German confusion and began
crowned and demanded that henceforth no pope to annex the German territories of Flanders and
4
 Austrian institution, steadily rose while its power
diminished, so that eventually it became merely
of a traditional prestige importance. Even the
papacy ceased to take an in terest in it.
Yet the real power of the Austrian Habsburgs
rested on foundations outside the German Holy
Roman Empire. For the Habsburg Emperor
Maximilian had married Mary of Burgundy,
joining both Burgundy and the Belgian and Dutch
Netherlands to his Austrian archduchy. Maxi-
milian's and Mary's son, Philip the Fair of
Burgundy, married Joanna of Castile, heiress to
the whole of Spain, the Spanish New World in
America and the southern half of Italy. And so
Philip's eldest son, the Habsburg Holy Roman
Emperor Charles V, inherited at the beginning
of the sixteenth century a further empire, in-
cluding Spain, Sardinia, Naples and Sicily,
Milan, the Netherlands and Burgundy.

Equipment and arms of the border sharpshooler. The car.

bine isa twin (upper and lower) barrelled fire--arm, one barrel
being rifted and the other smooth. The pike is fitted with an
'Ihe Gmning
aiming rest for the carbine
oft/le:Hitngarians
the Rhone Valley; with the passing of generations
the German inhabitants became Frenchmen. No one knows with certainty from wherc the
Meanwhile, as if in compensation, German Hungarians came, for their origin is outside the
crusading bishops and knightly orders were European community of nations. Their Hun-
already conquering the heathen-occupied terri- garian language is Ugrian, akin to the dialects
tories to the east, in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, spoken by the Ostiak and Vogul peoples of
Prussia and Silesia, and were resettling new Western Siberia, and it is likely that the Hun-
villages and towns wi th German colonists. garians once formed part of these races or had
The Golden Bull of '356 reaffirmed the system such prolonged contact with them that their
of election to the crown of the Holy Roman Em- tongues developed similarly. Another indication
pire, vesting the right of election originally to that the Hungarian tribes once lived on the
seven of the great German princes, who thereafter frontier territories of Asia between the Volga and
became known as electors. Although from '440 the Urals, is that their language includes com-
onwards it had become customary to elect a monplace words concerning livestock and agri.
Habsburg to the throne, the electors wcre always culture borrowed from the Chuvash, a Turkish
in a position to extort concessions in exchange for people still living in the Volga Basin near Kazan.
their vote and the Habsburgs had to grant sub- The Hungarians have certain affinities, too, with
stantial monetary favours to ensure their own the Turkish steppe tribes of southern Asia and
election. The expenses of the imperial crown, this probably accounts for the confusion in identi-
which was essentially a German and not an fying their early contacts with Byzantium and
5
 Western Europe. For they were often called Turk,
Bashkir, Sabir and Onogur. The latter name
remained in constant usc, however, and it is by
this that the Hungarians are known to the western
world today. The Hungarians call themselves
Magyar, originally the name, not of the people,
but of one of the main Hungarian tribes.
A loose association ofHungarian tribes emerged
as nomadic horsemen on the great steppe plains
in the south ofRussia. They were forced westwards
by the Turkish Pechenegs and, long before the
end of the ninth century, had arrived in South-
East Europe on the lower Danube. Leaving their
temporary home between the lower Danube and
the Pruth, the original seven Hungarian tribes, in
all probably about a quarter of a million people,
under a newly-elected Hungarian chieftain,
Arpad, moved into the lowland areas of what is
now Hungary.
Although ethnically far removed from the Avars
and the Huns who had preceded them, and the
Tartar Mongols who were yet to follow, the
Hungarians were much akin to those peoples in
their manners, customs and way of living. Even
in the middle of the twelfth century the Hun-
garians still spent most of the year in tents,
moving across the plains with great herds of
horses seeking new pastures. They were a race of
horsemen, and their light cavalry bowmen A dragoon, c. 1770
ranged far and wide in search of adventure and
plunder. They were regarded by German, Slav combat German pressure and encroachment to
and Italian as ferocious Asiatics for they raided the east.
and devastated Italy, plundering and burning
great cities, and mounted annual campaigns THE ETHNOLOGICAL AND
which took them through Bavaria, Saxony and POLITICAL COMPLEXITY OF
Thuringia as far west as Burgundy, the Rhone and HU GARY AND BOHEMIA
the Pyrenees. To the south they ventured to Rome
and Naples; to the north to Bremen. At first, the The Hungarian kingdom was far from being a
Germans were no match for the Hungarian nat.ional community, for it had admitted or
horse, and Henry the Fowler, Duke of Saxony and conquered aliens who were never to be assimi-
King of Germany, had to pay tribute for nine lated. The overrunning of Croatia and part of
years before he felt strong enough to defy them. Dalmatia gave Hungary an outlet to the Adriatic,
Eventually, in 955, Otto the Great met and des- but it brought foreign peoples into the kingdom.
troyed the Hungarian host at Lechfeld near In the north-east, along the Carpathians, part of
Augsburg. Galicia was seized, together with its Russian (now
Although Lechfeld put an end to the Hun- Ukrainian) and Polish inhabitants. Hungary
garian incursions into Western Europe it did owes its multi-racial character principally, how-
nothing to ease the enmity between Magyar and ever, to the Mongol-Tartar occupation of 1241-
German. Henccforth the Hungarians had to 1242, for the devastated and depopulated areas of

6
 Central Hungary and Transylvania were resettled ticularly bad since the baron's diet of 1492 had
by Turkish Comans, Rumanian, German, Polish enacted that no peasan t jobbag)l could move his
and Russian immigration. In Transylvania and residence wi thou t the consent of his lord. In
South Hungary, in particular, these new popula- accordance with the T ripaTtiturn of 1515, the
tions soon outnumbered the Hungarian hosts. diet further decreed that no noble could be
Much later large Serbian populations were arrested before judgement, that the king could do
admitted. nothing detrimental to the noble's pcrson or
I n the north-west of Hungary lay the Czech property without legal proceedings, that no noble
Kingdom of Bohemia, with its capital at Prague, should pay any taxes or tolls and only in the case
together with the state of Moravia, the remnant of a defensive war had the noble any obligation of
of an ancient and larger kingdom with a mainly military service. The nobles were thus given
Slovak population, and the Slav province of rights without duties; the jobbag)l on the other
Silesia, inhabited principally by Sorbs and Poles hand fought for the king and paid for the wars.
together with strong German colonies. Silesia had The situation continued to exist unchanged
originally belonged to Poland, but by the end of throughout the eighteenth century.
the fifteenth century it formed, together with Herberstein, the Holy Roman Emperor's am-
Moravia, part of the Bohemian Kingdom, tem- bassador to Hungary, described the nobility of the
porarily linked with Hungary under a common period in unflattering terms, 'disunited, vain and
monarch. arrogant, each seeking his own profit and living
With the death of the last of the Arpad dynasty on the fat of public property, corrupt, haughty
in 1301, the Hungarian kingship had become and proud, unable to command or to obey;
elective. Over the last century or so there had been unwilling to accept advice, working little but
a change in the pattern of Hungarian society. The spending their time with feasting and intriguing'.
tribal organization and nomadic habits had been
lost, and wealth and power were now based on
the ownership of land. With the creation of the
barons came a new nobility and attendant serf-
dom. The first of the elected kings, Charles Robert
of Anjou, set up the French feudal military
organization of the banderia, whereby each noble
had to furnish an armed contingent recruited
from his retainers and serfs. This was the fore-
runner of the insu"ectio, Hungarian troops
raised by the nobility for the defence of the realm.
The crowns of Poland and Bohemia were simi-
larly elective and the barons there, known as the
magnates, were equally determined to prevent
any single family holding the throne by hereditary
right. The rule of strong monarchs, particularly
if they were kings of a Bohemian-Polish or Polish-
Hungarian union, brought temporary stability
and held in check the bitler rivalries of Hungary,
Bohemia and Poland for the control ofSouth-East
Europe, a rivalry complicated by the effect of the
multi-national colonization. Under weaker kings
the powerful magnates brought their countries
to a state of anarchy.
--"':=;.
The common people had been largely reduced '----
to serfdom. Their situation in Hungary was par- A driver of the pontoon train, c. 1770
7
 Kingdom from Vienna through the Austrian
Royal Council, the Hcifrat. Since the Hungarians
stiffly refused to be represented on this German

The ~stro-:Jiitngarian institution they had little say in major policy and
none in foreign affairs. As Kings of Hungary and
Bohemia, successive Austrian Habsburgs were

'lit/ion already head of a multi-lingual and multi-

national state which had its roots in Eastern
Europe and the Balkans; it was impossible to
In 1526 the Turkish Sultan Soliman II, having reconcile the conflicting views and interests of
already taken Belgrade, advanced northwards up their subjects. Yet, as Emperors of Germany and
the Danube Valley and destroyed the Hungarian zealous Roman Catholics, the greater part of
Royal Army at Mohacs. There the Hungarian Habsburg energies were directed northwards
King, Louis II, lost his life. The detail of the where German protestant princes, encouraged by
Turkish occupation and the dynastic struggles in France, Denmark and Sweden, were ready to
West and Central Europe are complicated and of wage war against Austria, Bavaria and the papacy
no concern here. It suffices that the claimant of in defence of their religion and local liberties. For
the Hungarian throne, Ferdinand Habsburg, one of the causes of the disastrous Thirty Years
Archduke of Austria and brother of the Imperial War in Germany (1618-1648) had been the rejec-
Emperor Charles V, unable to drive back the tion by the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II of
Turk, contrived to occupy and rule over only a the provisions of the t 555 Treaty of Augsburg, a
narrow strip of Hungarian border territory in the compromise whereby the religion ofany particular
west and north. The Turkish Sultan, encouraged German state was to be determined by that of its
by French enmity to the Habsburgs, took ruler. For Ferdinand, intent on a Roman Catholic
possession of the remainder, first setting up a rival revival, stifled protestantism in Austria and
Hungarian king and then, finally, incorporating Bohemia and wanted to enforce a similar policy
it into the Ottoman Empire. Transylvania, under on his neighbours.
a Hungarian ruler or voivode, became a Turkish
vassal state.
When the Habsburg Emperor Charles V
abdicated in 1556 he left his Spanish, Italian and
Netherland possessions to his son, Philip II of
Spain (husband of Mary Tudor). His Austrian
and German territories went to his brother
Ferdinand, who succeeded as Holy Roman
Emperor. The Austrian Habsburgs continued to
prosper in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
however, becoming Kings of Bohemia, together
with Moravia and Silesia, and in 1699, when the
Turks were finally driven off to the south, the
!k facto rulers of Hungary and Transylvania.
Ferdinand I, the first Habsburg King of
Hungary, had a Spanish mother and a Spanish
education, and he understood no Hungarian. The
provincial town of Pressburg (Pozsony), origin-
ally selected as a capital since Buda was held by
the Turks, was too small to house the Hungarian
royal court and so Ferdinand dispensed wi th it,
ruling his Austrian Archduchy and Hungarian A hussar in parade order. c. 1770

8
 AUSTRO-HUNGAR Y IN THE
EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

When Charles II, the last Habsburg monarch of

Spain, died in t 700 without an heir, he left his
dominions to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of the
French monarch, Louis Bourbon. Fearing a union
of France and Spain under a common Bourbon
monarch, the Austrian Emperor formed the
Grand Alliancc with England and Holland to
fight what became known as the War of the
Spanish Succession. The Austrian troops, under
Prince Eugene, and Austria's allies under Marl-
borough, won Blenheim in t 704 and invaded
France and Spain. Mutual exhaustion ended the
war in l7 I 3, with the Peace of Utrecht. In Europe
,:..---
Austria was the victor and Spain the loser. For
the Habsburgs held Hungary, Croatia and Green-coated light horse, the successors to the horse-
Transylvania, the Austrian lands of Upper and grenadiers,c.1770
Lower Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, Tyrol, Breis-
gau, Burgau, Moravia, Silesia and Bohemia; in Bohemia and Hungary through the person of the
addition the Treaty of Utrecht gave them the Emperor. One of the most important measures
Belgian Netherlands, Naples, Sardinia and Milan. passed by the Hungarian Diet between 17 I 5 and
More than a third of the German territory of the 1722 was the establishing of a common Austro-
Holy Roman Empire was now ruled directly from Hungarian standing army, since the Hungarian
Vienna. Austria ranked with France and Britain insurrectio could hardly be called a trained and
as one of the most powerful states in Europe. disciplined force. Since the insurrectio, the almost
Meanwhile, however, the relationship between fictional noble levy, theoretically remained in
Austria and Hungary had deteriorated once more, being as the national Hungarian army, conscripts
the Hungarian rebels under Rakoczi refusing to for the Austro-Hungarian Army were, more often
recognize the Habsburg hereditary claim to the than not, incorporated into the Germanic mili-
throne of Hungary or the separation of Tran- tary organization of the Empire, mostly under
sylvania from Hungary (it was now ruled direct German officers using German words of com-
from Vienna). The Treaty ofSzatmar, which put mand. Once again the Hungarian nobility was
an end to the rebellion but did little to alleviate exempted from taxation and military service and
grievances, coincided with the accession in 171 I the burden of filling the conscription and paying
of the Emperor Charles VI (Charles III of for the new army resied on the jobbagy.
Hungary). The policy-making body for the government of
In contrast to his predecessors, Charles showed Hungary remained the Viennese Hofkammer
much goodwill towards his non-Germanic sub- ruling through the Hungarian Chancellery, also
jects and in particular towards the Hungarians. in the Austrian capital, which was in effect the
Sincc Charles was the last surviving male member intermediary between king and nation. Its exe-
of the Habsburg line hc required the acceptance cutive in Buda, known as the helytartotanacs, was
by the Hungarians and Bohemians of thc 17 I 3 nominated by the king and had no connection
Pragmatic Sanction which extended the pro- with the diet, which was responsible only for the
visions of a former family agreement so that voting of war taxes. The administration of the
Charles's daughters should become heirs to the taxes and all other financial questions were in the
throne. This was eventually accepted and a hands of the kamara which was answerable only
defensive union was established between Austria, to the Viennese Hofkammer.
9
 Two more wars were fought against the Turks man Empire, the area of which was almost two
in 17.6 and '736. In the first, Temesvar in the thirds as great as that of Brandenburg. From '70 I
south-east of Hungary was finally freed from onwards the Elector of Brandenburg was also
occupation and Belgrade and the northern styled the King of Prussia.
Balkans were taken by Austro-Hungarian troops To King Frederick William I, the father of
under the leadership of the veteran Prince Frederick the Great, Prussia owed its centralized
Eugene of Savoy. As a result of the second war, military form of government, a large and well
however, many of these former gains were lost. trained army (Prussian contingents fought at
Blenheim, Ramillies and Oudenarde), popular
schools, an efficient civil service and a well
ordered fiscal system. Under such a administra-
tion the Prussian population grew up inured to

~randenburg~russia
hardship and glorifying in austerity, obedience
and duty. In spite of extensive immigration
schemes to attract West German and Dutch

GhallengesrJlustria settlers to open up the barren and sandy wasteland

and reclaim the marshes (about twenty per cent
of the Prussian-Brandenburgers were such immi-
As Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI had his own grants), the total population of Prussia and all its
separate machinery of German imperial govern- dependencies hardly numbered much more than
ment with a diet in Ratisbon representing the four and a half million. The population of the
members of the three colleges (cuTiae) of electors,
princes and imperial cities, but these were merely
debating delegates from independent states. For
in spite of the fact that the .648 settlement
recognized only the territorial supremacy (Landes-
hohei!) of the rulers, they still enjoyed undisputed
and complete sovereignty. The diet concerned
itself with little of importance and its decisions
had only marginal effect since there was no means
of forcing their implementation. There was no
standing imperial defence force, since the exist-
ence of such an army depended on contributions.
The empire was divided into ten regions or circles
but across these administrative borders ran a
patchwork of more than 300 sovereign German
states, large and small. The most important of
these, in addition to Austria, were Bavaria,
Saxony and Prussia.
Prussia had developed from the Electorate of
Brandenburg, increasing in area during the
seventeenth century by the acquisition of Cleves,
Mark and Ravensburg, East Pomerania, Halber-
stadt, Minden and Magdeburg. Many of these
states were scattered throughout Germany and it
became the ambition of the Brandenburg Elec-
tors to uni te them. The Elector also owned
Prussia (later known as East Prussia), lying to the
east of the Vistula outside the border of the Ger- Hussar officer in undress uniform

10
territories of the Austrian Habsburgs was about A few months later, in October 1740, the Emperor
twenty-five million, ten million within and fifteen Charles VI died and his daughter Maria Theresa,
million without the borders of the Empire. a young married woman of twenty-three years of
Frederick William believed that Prussia must age, succeeded him.
expand or stagnate and in 1728 he made an agree- Frederick immediatelyinvaded Austrian Silesia,
ment with the Emperor Charles VI by which he and the war began between Prussia and Austria
was to be guaranteed the West German Duchy which was to become the struggle for the mastery
of Berg on the death of its ruler, in return for of Germany. Unexpectedly, it was Hungary that
Prussia's adherence to the Pragmatic Sanction came to Austria's aid.
assuring the female succession to the Austrian
possessions. Spain and Russia were already signa-
tories and Bri tain and France became addi tional
guarantors a few years later. After securing
signatures from the major European powers,
Charles VI had misgivings about his earlier under-
taking to support the transfer of Berg to Prussia.
'7he71itrof
Frederick William, nursing a grievance, came to a
secret understanding with France. t/le~strian~uccession
When Frederick the Great carne to the throne
shortly afterwards he inherited both the agreement Frederick the Great was arbiter of his own fate,
with France and the Prussian hostility to Austria. from the time ofhis accession accountable to none.
In going to war he was certainly not entirely
motivated by spite against Austria; he mayor
may not have wanted to cut a dashing figure on
the contemporary political scene, but primarily
he was an opportunist guided by what he judged
to be Prussian interests, and the European field
was clear for ambition. He was untroubled and
uninhibited by conscience, by a standard of
common decency or by any fellow feeling for his
brother Germans outside of Prussia. He was
perfidious, irreligious and cynical; for him the end
justified the means. He rightly judged Austro-
Hungary, in spite of it, size and large population,
to be disunited and militarily weak, and he was
correct in believing that the political climate in
Europe was auspicious for an unprovoked attack.
He was wrong, however, in his assessment of the
energy, strength and wisdom of the new Austrian
ruler, by far the most distinguished monarch the
Habsburgs ever produced, and in the fervent
support she was to receive, as Queen of Hungary,
from the Hungarian people.
Frederick attacked Silesia because he wanted
its rich territory. The province was contiguous to
Brandenburg, and brought to him further political
and strategic advantages in that it cut off the
Elector of Saxony, who was also King of Poland,
Gertnan infantry, a drummer, fusilier and a grenadier from his territories in the east. Silesia outflanked
II
Western Poland, also coveted by Frederick. constructed trenches and palisades and burned
Anxious for a share in the spoils, France de- down the suburbs to create fields of fire. And yet
manded the Austrian Netherlands and Luxem- war was still conducted according to the peculiar
bourg while the Elector of Bavaria claimed the mid-eighteenth century rules of Austrian formal-
imperial crown. Franco-Bavarian troops invaded ism, for when Wallis proposed to blow up the
Austria and Bohemia, threatening Vienna and Protestant church outside t.he town, 'in case the
taking Prague. England and Holland, as usual, Prussians make a blockhouse out of it', the chief
sided against the French and sent an annual Protestant burgher in Glogau pleaded against
subsidy to Vienna. this action and was sent to Frederick by Wallis for
The War of the Austrian Succession, in so far as a written undertaking that the church would not
it concerns operations in Central Europe, em- be used by the military. This the King readily
braces what is usually referred to as the First and gave and the church was spared.
the Second Silesian Wars. Meanwhile Wallis's deputy, a General Count
von Browne, a German-Irish Roman Catholic
descendant of an exiled Jacobite, born in Basic in
1705 and cousin of Field-Marshal Browne,
Governor ofRiga in the Russian service, happened

The to be in the south; he began to draw in detached

units from Moravia and South Silesia until
eventually he had concentrated 7,000 fool. But

first<Jilesian'Uitr
Before Frederick the Great entered Silesia he had
made his preparations in the greatest of secrecy,
cloaking all activity in the guise of a march to be
made to the wcst to secure the provinces of
Jillich-Berg on thc Rhine, already promised to his
father. In December 1740 the main body of the
28,000 strong Prussian force crossed into Silesia;
Frederick himself assumed full control and Count
von Schwerin, who had been commander-in-
chiefup to this time, was relegated to the command
of a division. The hereditary Prince of Anhalt-
Dessau (the Young Dessauer) was to follow from
Berlin with a further 12,000 men.
A month before, the Austrian force in Silesia,
which had numbered barely 600 horse and 3,000
foot, was under the command of the military
governor, Count von Wallis, a soldier of Scottish
descent whose forbears had come to Austria
generations before. Wallis had been surprised by
the outbreak of the new war and, having received
nei ther aid nor instructions from Vienna, pre-
pared for siege the nearby town ofGlogau, said to
be the key to orth Silesia, with the only troops
he had readily to hand, about 1,000 men. Wallis
was a man of energy and he had brought in from
the surrounding countryside salt, meat and meal, A collection of hussar arms and accoutrements

12
many of these he dissipated, in accordance with smaller, the town of Liegnitz being taken by
the military code at the time, by allocating them Schwerin by a CQUp de main. Browne and his
to fortresses and strongholds, keeping only 600 elusive flying cavalry column had not been idle,
dragoons under his own hand. The sectional for he visited and encouraged his numerous
interests of the Silesian people proved recalcitrant garrisons and detachments. The first of these, only
and obstructive, and Browne was obliged to 260 stout-hearted Austrian grenadiers at Ott-
abandon Breslau, the capital, to its own devices. machau on the Neisse, held out against Frederick
Wallis sent a messenger to Frederick warning him for three days before being reduced by bombard-
that if he attacked Glogau 'it would be most ment. Von Roth, the Austrian commander at
resolutely defended'; so the King, having in- Neisse, held out successfully so that Frederick
spected the defences from afar, marched on, had to be content with another masking blockade
leaving the Young Dessauer to mask the town as at Glogau and Brieg. The rest ofSilesia had for
with part of the reserve 'but not attack'. The the time being been overrun by Prussian troops
Prussian force marched on in two columns, so that Browne was forced to withdraw into
Frederick with the larger and Schwerin with the Moravia.

EUROPE in 1740

n
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NORTH
,,,,,,';
SEA \>
AND

FRANCE

Barcelona
o
____ HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE BOUNDARY
D
~ PRUSSIA~ BRANDENBURG
100 200

lIIIIIIIIIIIl HABSBURG LANDS If~' i~l OTTOMAN EMPIRE

, 'Illilu

13
 Frederick, who had returned to Berlin expect- MOLLWITZ
ing to hear from diplomatic channels that the war
was won, learned, to his chagrin, thal the Aus~ Although it was already the first week in April,
trians were mobilizing in earnesl. He set out two feel of snow lay on the ground. Neipperg's
almost immediately for Silesia. There Browne and headq uarters had reached a small hamlet called
Lentulus had established themselves in Glatz and Mollwitz and his army lay there and in the area of
were infiltrating regular and irregular troops back two adjacent towns of Langwilz and Gruningen,
into Silesia. About 600 men had forced their way astride Frederick's communications to the
through the blockading Prussians and reinforced Prussian reserves and magazines at Ohlau.
the Austrian garrison at Neisse. The Silesian roads Neipperg's mounted pandours had captured all
and backwoods had become infested with irregu- the Prussian messengers sent by Frederick to bring
lars, both foot and horse, principally Hungarian up reinforcements. At daybreak on Monday 10
and Serbo-Croat pandours (a corruption from April Frederick, who was near Brieg, still did not
banderia) and Magyar hussars. These latter were know the whereabouts of the Auslrians, although
not necessarily part of the regular forces since they were in fact only seven miles away, until one
they were, more often than not, irregular light of his General-Adjutants chanced to ask a passing
horse or part of the insurrectio enlisted for the Silesian labourer if he had heard where the
purpose. Austrians were. This farm servant knew full well
In Prussian eyes the pandour-hussars were in- (recht gut) and, on invitation, acted as the Prussian
disciplined predators, but they gave endless guide.
trouble, cutting off detachments and murdering Neipperg, the Austrian commander, was just
the wounded. Indeed, they wcre so bold that sitting down to dinner at the house of the Burger-
scores of them would hang about the Prussian meister of Mollwitz when the firing of outpost
encampments in broad daylight, just outside
musket range, watching and reporting all move-
ment and activity. They were no match against
disciplined Prussian infantry, but so great was the
self-esteem of the Magyar horsemen, that they
were not afraid to attack Prussian cavalry. At one
time they put to flight a squadron of Schulenburg
Dragoons which served as the royal escort, and
the King of Prussia himself was nearly taken. The
pandours were excellent in collecting information
and denying the enemy reconnaissance, so that,
even in those areas where the population was
Protestant and friendly, it became difficult for the
Prussians to learn what was going on in Silesia.
Beyond the borders it was impossible. When a new
Austrian army under eipperg entered Silesia on
its way to relieve the town of eisse, the Austrian
field-marshal, in the words of one chronicler,
'walked invisible within clouds ofpandours'.
Frederick, by rare good fortune, first heard of
Neipperg's approach from Austrian deserters.
Glogau had already been taken by the Young
Dessauer in a night action, which lasted only an
hour, hardly fifty men being lost by either side.
The Brieg blockade was given up and Frederick
prepared to meet the oncoming Austrians. A Gcr.ID.an fusilicr

14
signal rockets warned him that something was Romer took nine of the Prussian guns and turned
afoot. A hussar party was sent out; this came back his intrepid horse against the infantry line. Romer
at the gallop with von Rothenburg's Prussian and many of his companions were killed in the
dragoons hard on its heels. Neipperg called for infantry fire but the cavalry regrouped in excellent
Romer, his Saxon General of Horse, the alarm order preparatory to charging once more. At this
was sounded, and the troops sent for from the out- stage it looked as if the Prussians were lost and
lying villages. By then the Prussians were already Frederick their King fled the field of this, his first
deploying in two lines about 300 yards apart (just battle, to Oppeln thirty-five miles away. Many of
beyond musket range so that they should not be his escort were cut down or captured by Hungarian
hit in each other's fire), each line consisting of hussar or pandour. The command of the remain-
three ranks. ing infantry force was left to Schwerin.
Neipperg had about 20,000 troops, although The Prussian infantry, most of it drilled for
many of these were slow arriving on the field. The twenty years but never in action before, stood
Prussians had somewhat more. The Austrians firm in that great surging sea of horse. Neipperg
deployed 8,600 regular cavalry of good quality, ordered Goldlein's foot forward to dislodge the
outnum bering the Prussian horse by two to one; Prussians. Goldlein fell at the first Prussian volley.
the Austrian artillery, however, was weak, only The design of the Prussian muskets with their iron
eighteen pieces to the Prussian sixty. N eipperg's ramrods was much superior to that of the Austrian,
deployment was in the orthodox military fashion, with double the rate of fire, and the white-coated
in two lines, exactly the same as the Prussian, attackers were unable to get to bayonet distance.
having a frontage of perhaps two miles in length. Only artillery grape could have blown the
The left wing under Romer formed up first, its Prussian away. The Austrian horse, however, con-
infantry element being commanded by Goldlein, tinued to charge the infantry lines, five times
a Swiss; the right wing, when assembled, was to during the next four hours, until dispirited and
be under Neipperg. raked by musketry, they, too, had to fall back.
At two o'clock that afternoon all sixty Prussian Schwerin's ammunition was running low and
guns opened a rapid and sustained fire on the between cavalry charges foragers were running
Austrian left, with very damaging effect to horse out collecting ball and powder from the slain. At
standing in line. Neipperg was far away on the seven o'clock, just before sunset, Schwerin sensed
extreme Austrian right, still engaged in bringing he had the advantage and ordered the advance.
troops in the field. Romer could get no orders. Neither Austrian horse nor foot would accept
The counter-bombardment fire was weak and the further battle, and they trooped off the field.
Austrian horse became first restless and then There was never any question of pursuit, for the
angry. 'Are we to be shot down like dogs! For Austrian cavalry was too strong, but the Prussians
God's sake lead us forward!' Romer could hold remained encamped on the field of battle. They
them no longer and gave the order to advance. The had lost in killed, wounded and missing 4,600
thirty squadrons fell on the Prussian ten squadrons, men, against an Austrian loss of 4,400.
five of them Schulenburg's Dragoons, and caught Neipperg should have won Mollwitz and nearly
them in the flank as they were changing position. did so, in spite of his inferior infantry and artillery.
The Prussian cavalry, of indifferent quality, was He failed because the Austrian way of conducting
unschooled in close-quarter fighting. Austrian war was too confident, indolent and leisurely; all
and Hungarian discharged his pistol and then ranks shared a traditional and misplaced con-
set to with sabre, the first slash to the horse's head tempt for Prussia. On leaving for the battle,
and the second to the rider as the horse went down. Neipperg's staff officers had told their hosts to
Schulenburg was slashed twice and went down keep the dishes hot 'for we will be back soon after
for ever. Within minutes the Prussian horse was we have brushed the Prussians' jackets for them'.
ruined and in flight, hotly chased between its own Reconnaissance and intelligence had been neg-
lines of infantry while the pursuing Austrians lected. On the Sunday, the day before the battle,
rode the gauntlet of musketry fire. It len the field. there had been severe snowstorms which had
15
A three-pounder gun telUD in action, the Kanonier, who is the The Bestul. sling over his left shoulder is clearly visible
DUDl'ber ODe and the gun-layer, being astride the mounting.

red uced visi bili ty to twen ty yards and this may old Italian corsare. The hussar, by degrees, had
have accountcd for the scouts and pandours not become the Austrian light horse factotum; for
being at their posts. But to have allowed Frederick though he was in all respects a cavalryman of the
to havc made his approach march unobserved line, he specialized in scouting, deep penetration,
was hardly to bc forgiven. Had it not been that convoying and in combating partisans and
Frederick was new to warfare and that Schwerin enemy hussars.
was a soldier of the old school, the Prussians might After Mollwitz Frederick began the systematic
have gone in to the attack without the lengthy retraining of his own horse in order to match it
deployment into line; then Neipperg's surprised against the Austrian line cavalry and prepare it
troops would have been routed. for operations against the Magyar hussars and
pandours.
CHOTUSITZ Neipperg remained in Neisse until August and
for the next three months marched and counter-
Frederick remained at Strehlen about twenty marched, trying to destroy the Prussian maga-
miles from Brieg bringing in reinforcements and zines. But meanwhile Maria Theresa, anxious to
reforming and retraining his cavalry. About six start opera lions againsl the Franco·Bavarians,
years before he had detached some officers, had, much against her will, begun negotiations
among them the Captain Ziethen afterwards to with Frederick. Frederick and Neipperg met in
become so famous, to the Austrian cavalry to strict secrecy near Neisse and there the King of
learn what was known as the hussar art. Hussars Prussia played false to his allies. By the Conven-
were originally Hungarian light cavalry, in some tion of Klein Schnellendorf, Frederick agreed to
respects akin to the Turkish uhlan. The name conduct sham skirmishes and sieges in order to
appears to have come from the old Slavonic or deceive the French, but in reality to withdraw
Serbian husar or gusar, but its meaning and Prussia from the war. I n return, he demanded
earlier origin are obscure. I t might have meant 'a that he be left in possession of his Silesian spoils.
gooseherd' although there is some reason for To this Maria Theresa agreed, possibly in no good
believing that it was a Serbian corruption of the faith, so that Austria might split its enemies and
16
 deal with the Bavarian, French and Saxon forces second line of cavalry broke. The Austrian in-
in Bohemia. Neipperg's troops then withdrew fantry in the centre, little daunted, marched
from Silesia. straight into Chotusitz where the broken ground
However, the Franco-Bavarian troops appeared and ditches made it impossible for Frederick's
to have had little difficulty in overrunning cavalry to penetrate. The fiercest of infantry
Bohemia. Frederick, incensed by jealousy and fighting took place in the village, the Austrians
surprised at what he believed to be the Austrian losing heavily, 'rushing on like lions, shot down in
weakness, went back on his secret agreement and ranks, whole swaths of dead men, and their
ordered the occupation of Glatz and Moravia. muskets by them l' The Austrian left was already
But once in Moravia, Frederick received little in a bad way; the right was in good condition,
help from the French, who soon withdrew. The but the wings were now separated by the burning
Slovak inhabitants were hostile and the pandours village. The indisciplined Habsburg horse was
were everywhere, giving the Saxons in particular plundering the Prussian rear. A final Prussian
a rough handling. Frederick was unable to take attack with guns and infantry on the faltering left
Brunn and the Saxons departed for home, thus decided the day and at noon Charles gave the
causing a permanent breach in Prusso-Saxon order to retreat. He had lost eighteen guns and
relations. The discomfited Frederick was forced nearly half his men, although many of these
to retire to Bohemia. There he was met at were stragglers or deserters.
Chotusitz by a 30,000 stTong Austrian Army under The Austrian infantry had fought not with
Maria Theresa's brother-in-law, Prince Charles of their customary obstinacy, but with fury. After
Lorra{ne. the battle the belief took hold, not only abroad
The village of Chotusitz was held by the but in Vienna, that the Prussians were invincible.
Young Dessauer, his infantry drawn up, as usual, Maria Theresa decided to sue for peace, and by
in two lines. Frederick with the foot grenadiers, the Treaty of Berlin in July 1742 marked the end
the horse and much of the artillery was to his of the First Silesian War. This took Frederick
right. Charles of Lorraine advanced, his infantry speedily out of a European War which he had
likewise in two lines, with cavalry on both flanks himself started, together with the only spoils.
edging forward so that the battle formation was Saxony went out of the war with him. Austro-
in a crescent pattern. Frederick followed the Hungarian troops then cleared Bohemia of the
sequence of battle as at Mollwitz, his artillery French and invaded Bavaria, driving the Elector,
playing on the Austrian cavalry flank, but with the who had meanwhile been crowned as Holy
difference that it was the Prussian horse which Roman Emperor, from his own Munich capital.
first rode into the attack. The Austrian first and The Anglo-Hanoverians, together with the Aus-
trians, won Dettingen, and France was forced
back on the defensive. Maria Theresa prepared to
conq uer Alsace.
Frederick of Prussia had no wish to see France
forced out of the war since this would, he believed,
leave him alone to face Austria. He suspected that
Maria Theresa's cession of Silesia was merely an
arrangement of convenience until Bavaria,
France and Spain were beaten. Frederick hastened
to ally himself again by the Union of Frankfurt to
Bavaria, to the Palatine and Hesse-Cassel, and to
France, to uphold the authority of the imperial
crown worn temporarily by Charles Albert of
Bavaria. This was meant as a counter to Austria.
Detail of the 1760 three-pounder field gun. Until 1770 about As soon as the Austrian forces had entered Alsace,
four-fifths of Austrian artillery was made up of three-
pounders Frederick invaded Bohemia once more.
B
17
 sengcrs, so that for a whole month Frcderick was
ou t of touch from his kingdom and the rest of
Europe, with no news of friend or foe.
During this time Charles of Lorraine had been
Vze marching hard from the west, having broken
contact with the French, and he arrived in

eJecol1deJilesian'Uttr Bohemia in the early October, together with

Field-Marshal von Traun, an experienced Aus-
trian who was his deputy and principal adviser.
In August 1744 Frederick set 80,000 Prussians on They made their way to the Elbe, not far from
the march towards Prague and had a further Kolin, where they were joined by 20,000 Saxons.
20,000 in reserve in Silesia. Prague itself was Frederick was already in danger of being cut off
garrisoned by 4,000 Austrian troops and about from Prague, and the 20,000 Prussians remaining
10,000 local levies. Maria Theresa went once in the Bohemian capital were threatened. In
more to Pressburg to appeal to the Hungarian order to keep the way open to Prague, Frederick
nation for help and Charles of Lorraine was moved across the Moldau; the crossing of this
ordered to march out of Alsace eastwards. river cost him seven hours of bitter fighting
By the first week in September Frederick's against the swarms of pandours.
siege-artillery had arrived by Elbe barge and the Traun had skilfully evaded Frederick's efforts
cannonade of the city began. The Austrian to bring him to a pitched battle on ground of
batteries were overwhelmed and after a week the Prussian choosing but then, in the early hours of
Austrian commander, General Harsch, surren- t9 November, Austrians and Saxons crossed the
dered. Two days later Frederick, Schwerin and Elbe by stealth and attacked the Prussians on the
the Young Dessauer were on the march again south bank. The woods were beset with infiltrating
towards Tabor and Austria. It appeared that pandours 'uttering their blood-curdling shrieks';
nothing could withstand them. every Prussian scout, every messenger sent au t
The tide of battle changed, however, with the was killed. Amid fierce and scattered fighting the
rcappearance of the clouds of Hungarian horse Prussians were worsted and Frederick determined
and pandours. The Prussians were soon in a on a rctreat out ofBohemia. Numbers ofguns were
difficult position. Unlike the Silesian, the local spiked and enormous quantities of small arms
population was hostile, fleeing the path of the thrown into the river; powder and supplies were
invader and removing or destroying provisions. destroyed. The Prussian field army and garrisons
The irregular Magyar horse and pandours made their way back to Silesia, harried both by
insolently enclosed encampments and columns, irregulars and the populace, and continually
controlled the highways and captured all mes- fighting as their progress was barred by Austrian
and Saxon regular forces. Losses in casualties,
deserters and equipment were heavy. Afterwards
Frederick was to say that he considered Traun's
conduct of the campaign 'a model of perfection'.
Traun then invaded Silesia with 20,000 regular
forces and a large body of irregulars, but he was

_ ...... _~.
mainly intent on giving as much trouble to the
Old Dessauer who was in command, without
being himself pinned and brought to battle. The
effectiveness of the pandours may be gauged in
that Frederick, when he wanted to send a letter
General Service flint-lock muskets with bayonets; the
ordiniir remained in service until 1754 when it was gradually to jagerndorf ordering back a 12,000-strong
replaced by the Commiss.Flinu. The Fiisilier-Flinte was an Prussian detachment, had to entrust the message
interim substitute which was itself replaced by the 1754
pattern fireann to Ziethen, with his great reputation as a skirm-
18
isher and backwoodsman, and no fewer than 500
Prussian hussars. Evcn this force, although
travelling at speed by carefully chosen and little
used routes was eventually brought to a halt and
furiously set on by the irregulars, so that it had to
be extricated by the Jagerndorf garrison. By now
yet another mounted irregular had appeared,
the Polish uhlan light horse, usually in Saxon pay.
Meanwhile Charles Albert ofBavaria had died,
and the resilient and energetic Maria Theresa,
who had already detached the Saxons to her
cause, invaded Bavaria, inducing the new Elector
OfficeI' and trumpeter of hussars
to support her husband's nomination to the
imperial crown. soldier the Saxon was somewhat inferior to the
Austrian, and usually more unlucky; but he was
HOHE FRIEDBERG A D SOHR courageous and obstinate and, as he fought for
every yard of soil, his casualties mounted alarm-
Maria Theresll intended to invade Silesia in May ingly. Meanwhile Charles of Lorraine slept, and
1745, but she erred in entrusting the command to when the artillery fire awoke him he imagined it
Charles of Lorraine rather than to Traun. By the to be the Saxon attack on Striegau. He went back
clever use ofan unsuspecting double spy Frederick to sleep. When finally aroused, the ballle was
had led Charles to believe that if Silesia were to more than half lost and, as one chronicler said,
be attacked by the Austrians, the Prussians would 'the Austrians were not distinguished for celerity
behave as they had done in '744, that is to say of movement'. The Austrian cavalry on the right
retreat to the north to avoid being cut off from wing could, and should, have been brought into
Breslau. To strengthen this idea he evacuated action early in the engagement, but it remained
part of South-east Silesia. In truth Frederick in- passive and without orders.
tended to take the offensive with a force of 70,000 Whereas the Prussian cavalry excelled itself
men as soon as the Austrian enemy could be lured the behaviour of the Austrian horse was sur-
down to the Silesian plain. prisingly disappointing. Some Austrian regiments
Prince Charles came down from the mountains showed much reluctance to close with the enemy;
on 3 June and deployed in a valley about five they merely fired with their carbines, and, when
miles broad. Behind, on the edge of the hills, the time came, ran. The Austrian infantry were
was the little town of Hohenfriedberg, and in the shaken to pieces by the rapidity of Prussian
hills to the front of the Austrians the larger town musketry, delivered at a range of fifty paces. At
of Striegau. The Austrian vanguard, provided eight that morning the issue had finally been
by the 20,000-strong Saxon contingent under the decided and Charles of Lorraine ordered a
Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels, soon made contact retreat. Two hours later the Austrian and Saxon
with a Prussian force, which it wrongly believed columns pulled back through Hohenfriedberg
to be Frederick's rearguard, and it was ordered to covered by adasti's rearguard. The Prussian loss
take Striegau in the following morning. The bulk had been 5,000 dead and wounded; that of the
of the Prussian force lay beyond Striegau and was Austro-Saxons 9,000 dead and wounded, 7,000
hidden from the enemy. prisoners and sixty-six cannon. A further 8,000
On the night of 3 June Frederick ordered deserted. Frederick claimed that there had not
forward the whole of his force across the Striegau been so great a victory since Blenheim. He did not,
River and, having deployed it in the dark, at first however, pursue the Austrians, reduced by now to
light attacked the Saxon troops on the enemy left. 40,000, but contented himsclf with following up
The Saxons were soon dislodged by the cannonade into Bohemia as far as Koniggratz.
and by repeated assault of foot and horse. As a Frederick had hoped that his victory would
19
bring Austria and Saxony to terms. In this he while a great force ofpandours under Nadasti and
was disappointed once more. Maria Theresa's Trenk fell on the Prussian baggage, the wild
determination to continue the war was shared by Croats murdering all in their path, women camp-
Augustus of Saxony, who enjoyed the encourage- followers as well as men. But the arrival of the
ment and support of the Russians. Nor could Austrian main force was an hour too late and
England persuade Austria to make peace. their movement was espied at daybreak by
At the end of September, because he had Prussian picquets. Frederick and his staff were
already eaten up all the supplies in North-east already up and at work and the Prussian reactions
Bohemia, Frederick began to fall back towards were much quicker than those of the Austrian.
Silesia, so troubled by adasti's Tolpatsche that On the Austrian left wing were twenty-eight
I 1,000 horse and foot had to be detached to guns and fifty squadrons of horse; the guns
guard ration convoys. For the irregulars were opened fire but the horse and infantry stood
quite happy to set fire to their own Queen's immobile whereas, as Frederick said later, 'they
towns if by doing so they could deprive the should have thundered down on us'. When
Prussian. He crossed the Elbe and encamped Frederick sent his cuirassiers at them, they met no
with 18,000 men at the foot of the mountains near countercharge, 'merely the crackle of carbines'.
the village of Soor. Charles of Lorraine followed The Austrian cavalry wing was swept away. The
up with an army of30,000. Then, borrowing a not Prussian foot on the right, following up the cuiras-
very original leaf from Frederick's book, he siers, climbed the slope losing heavily in the case-
determined to repeat the tactics of Hohen- shot fire which raked them. The Prussians threw
friedberg. in their three reserve regiments of infantry. The
On the night of 29 September nearly 30,000 guns were taken and the enemy driven off.
Austrians, by a clever approach march in the Frederick then transferred the remainder of his
dark, arrived on the high ground above Frederick, cavalry to his left wing where the two lines still
stood apart. Again the Austrian horse on that
wing broke, leaving bare the infantry flank. The
Austrians poured back into the forest where the
Prussian cavalry could no longer pursue. Mean-
while the pandours in the rear, fully engaged in
looting, brought no aid to the main battle. The
engagement cost the Austrians 4,000 dead and
wounded and 3,000 prisoners. The Prussian loss
was about 4,000.

HENNERSDORF AND
KESSELSDORF

Frederick, certain that Maria Theresa must now

make peace, had returned to Berlin and his army
had slowly withdrawn into Silesia, eating the
country bare as it went, followed up as usual by
pandours. His own army was dispersed into
winter quarters and he assumed that the Austrian
would do the same. The Saxons, however, had
drawn up a plan to invade Brandenburg and
take Berlin, and to this Maria Theresa readily
agreed. Traun was to march from the Rhine while
A hussar trooper's arms and equipment, carbine, sabre,
Charles made his way down the Oder. The details
sabretache, ammunition-pouch and water-bottle of the operation were blabbed, however, by the
20
 the Old Dessauer to attack the Saxons before
Charles should join them, and not wait for
Frederick's own arrival. When the Old Dessauer
did give battle to Rutowski on 15 December,
Charles of Lorraine was not five miles away.
On 15 December 1745 at Kesselsdorf the Old
Dessauer attacked the entrenched Saxon force,
the Prussian infantry marching uphill through
wet snow against the massed fire of 9,000 muskets
and thirty guns. The Prussian cavalry hung about
on the outskirts. Time after time the Prussians
fell back, their ranks shot throu/,\h amid fearful
casualties. This type of fighting suited the Saxon
temperament, with time to think and time to
reload. Victory would probably have been theirs
had not an Austrian battalion, seeing the Prussian
infantry near disintegration, left its entrench-
A horse-grenadier in the so-called parade unifonn which
ments and, with repeated shouts of 'Sieg', run
was in fact used on field service down the slope with levelled bayonet to complete
Saxon minister Bruhl, through the Swedish envoy the destruction. The Saxons quickly followed and
to Berlin. The old Dessauer refused to believe it; there in the valley they were cu t to pieces by the
Frederick, horrified and astonished, was finally Prussian horse. Rutowski lost the battle, 3,000
convinced of its truth, and said that waging war dead and wounded and 6,000 prisoners. The
on Maria Theresa 'was not living; it was being Prussians lost 4,600, but at long last gained the
killed a thousand times a day'. peace. For Charles of Lorraine turned back yet
On 20 November 1745 Charles of Lorraine set again into Bohemia.
out on his long march through Silesia where This ended the Second Silesian War and, by
though the Austrians did not know it, Frederick the Treaty of Dresden signed on Christmas Day,
had already arrived. The King had concentrated Maria Theresa who had once said, and still meant,
the Young Dessauer's forces, about 35,000 troops, that 'she would as soon part with Silesia as with
near Naumburg. Three days later his forward her petticoat', was forced to agree to Silesia re-
elements, light horse, cuirassiers and foot, were maining in Prussian hands. Frederick for his part
in contact with the uhlans of Prince Charles's acknowledged Maria Theresa's husband Francis
Saxon advance guard. At Hennersdorf, on 23 Stephen as Emperor. Prussia, often faced with
November, Ziethen, who was in command, des- disaster, had been saved by Frederick's audacity
troyed the 6,000 strong Saxon force of horse and and mili tary skill.
foot. Surprise having been lost, Charles turned in The war between Austria and France continued
his tracks and retraced his steps to Bohemia. And for yet another three years in the Netherlands
so the whole enterprise collapsed. and Italy, peace being finally made at Aix-la-
Frederick now invaded Saxony. The Old Chapelle in October 1748. The astute Maria
Dessauer moved from Halle to Leipzig and then Theresa, no less a realist than Frederick the Great,
began a march towards Dresden, throwing a was disappointed in the terms of the peace treaty
bridge over the Elbe so that Frederick, coming and in Britain's effort during the war. Maria
from Silesia, might join him. A Saxon force under Theresa knew that Britain had little interest in
Count Rutowski, together with an Austrian Silesia, the Habsburgs or Austro-Hungary and
contingent, numbering in all 35,000, lay west of that London's only concern was to maintain the
the Saxon capital. Charles of Lorraine was balance of power in Europe by weighing down
marching out of Bohemia with 46,000 men, in the scales against France. She therefore began to
order to aid his Saxon ally. Frederick goaded on look about her for new allies and by 175 I was
21
already writing letters to the mistress of the
French monarch, addressing her as Madame, rna
chere s(£ur.

r0t(aria'Iheresas
Imperial'Rifjnns
The Treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle was regarded by
Britain and France as merely a truce. Maria
Theresa remained as determined as ever to regain
Silesia, and her first action was to reorganize the
administration and government of her own crown
lands in readiness for a resumption of the struggle.
In Bohemia many Czech nobles had welcomed
the Franco-Bavarian and Prussian intervention
and had recognized Charles Albert, Elector of
Bavaria, as the Imperial Emperor. When, two
years later, the Austrians rcoccupied the Bohem-
ian kingdom, Maria Theresa resolved to eliminate A dragoon foot-drummer
all separatist tcndcncies. The Bohemian royal
regalia was removed from Prague to Vienna to retention of appointments to key government
cmphasize the permanency of the Austro-Czech positions in Hungary. Each concession was fol-
union and the government and administration lowed by a new demand. After the peace of J 748,
were centralized in Austrian hands. German Maria Theresa did not revoke these concessions
became the language of the administration and made under duress but she simply declined to
was compulsorily taught in Czech schools; the convoke the Hungarian diet so that the nobles
Austrian code of law was introduced into Czech would be denied the opportunity of thinking up
courts. This Habsburg attempt to weaken Czech and presenting new claims. Nor did she attempt
nationalism and the hold of the Czech language, to centralize Hungarian administration or make
although understandable in the circumstances, it conform to the Austrian pattern as she had
was in fact a violation of the autonomous rights done in Bohemia, partly in return for Hungarian
earlier guaranteed to Bohemia. loyalty and partly, as she said, 'because of the
The situation in Hungary was very different. special conditions there'. Instead she tried to bind
The diet, when it had met in I74! to confirm the Magyar nobility to her cause by encouraging
Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary, had offered it to enter Austrian court circles, the Austrian
her 100,000 Hungarian troops for use against diplomatic service and the Austrian Army, and by
Frcderick. Only 60,000 had been forthcoming but conferring on it the titles and dignities of the
these had conducted themselves with great dash German Empire.
and bravery. The nobles, however, had turned to Owing to the century-and-a-halfoccupation by
good account the vulnerability of Austria, in the Turks, Hungary had become one of the more
securing concessions for themselves by a process primitive states in Central Europe. The Hun-
akin to extortion. They insisted on a confirmation garian diet, however, represented the interests of
of their own freedom from taxation and their medieval feudalism and was a barrier between
22
the monarchy and the Magyar people. Maria Years War. Maria Theresa and her minister, von
Theresa's rule was that of enlightened absolutism Haugwitz, had been impressed by the efficiency
and she made determined efforts to improve the of Frederick the Great's civil and military ad-
lot of the jobbagy. Serfdom was virtually elimin- ministration and wished to improve the Austrian.
ated in that the peasant had much of the burden The first requirement was to raise a standing
of socage lifted from him, and became free to army of 108,000 men together with a military vote
choose his own master and enter the professions. adequate to maintain it. Taxes were not only in-
Maria Theresa did much, too, to remove eduea- creased bu t were reorganized on a modern system
tion from the hands of reactionary Jesuits and of income tax, applicable to all, and a graduated
hasten its growth in secular hands and, because poll tax; exem ptions were abolished and the
she was decent, compassionate and charitable, set various diets were deprived oftheir former rights to
up popu lar elementary schools, orphanages and levy their own taxes and duties. These new re-
hospitals. forms trebled the Habsburg revenues so that the
Hungary was not, however, to share the im- Austrian provinces in Germany and Bohemia
proved standard of living, even the new pros- were soon shouldering over three quarters of the
perity, of the Austrian, and the blame for this lay cost of the new military expenditure. Much was
with the Hungarian nobility. Since Hungary done, laO, to extend industrialization and educa-
declined to be taxed per capita on the Austrian tion in the Austrian homeland and restrict the
model, the Austrian taxpayer saw little reason hi therlo inviolable hereditary rights of the noble
why he should subsidize his neighbour. Life in and great landowner. The great improvement in
Hungary remained simple and backward. Both Austrian military efficiency during the Seven
lord and peasant were hospitable and improvident; Years War was largely due to von Haugwitz.
even by the not very exacting Austrian standards
they were indolen t.
The entire Habsburg system of government,
outside Hungary, the Austrian Netherlands and
Milan, was reorganized in the period between
Aix-la-Chapelle and the outbreak of the Seven The
Jeven rears'J1ltr
Wi th the assistance of the Austrian Chancellor,
Count von Kaunitz-Reitberg, Maria Theresa at
last succeeded in breaking the Franco-Prussian
alliance. The English King, George II ofHanover,
would have welcomed a renewal of the Anglo-
Austrian agreement in order to safeguard Han-
over against Prussia. Vienna was little interested,
so London turned to St. Petersburg where, in
1 exchange for a subsidy, the Empress Elisabeth

'\ ,
promised to mass a Russian force of 55,000
against the Prussian border. Frederick the Great
was placed in a difficult situation. Fearing the
Russian, so he said, more than he feared God, and
being aware that Elisabeth and her minister,
Count Bestuzhev-Ryumin, were bitterly anti-
An officer of cuirassiers together with a trooper in stable
Prussian, he had good reason to expect a joint
fatigue dress Austro·Russian attack on East Prussia and Silesia.
23
In this event France was too far away to afford Austria in September 1756 by invading Saxony.
him direct and speedy assistance. In order to thus setting loose a new continental war.
neutralize Russia, he turned to Britain and by the The Seven Years War, sometimes known as the
Convention of Westminster, signed in January Third Silesian War, was a resumption of the
1756, agreed to ensure the neutrality of Germany struggle for the retention ofSilesia and the mastery
on the understanding that London would drop the of the German Empire. Moreover for Frederick
Russian pact; trus was some safeguard to Hanover. it was a war of survival fOf, if Prussia failed, it
Elisabeth of Russia, annoyed at the British action, would be dismembered by the powerful coalition
offered Austria an alliance, undertaking to attack which faced it.
Prussia if the alliance were accepted. This set off Although heavily outnumbered, Rutowski and
a further diplomatic reaction in that France, un- 18,000 Saxon troops entrenched in mountainous
willing to be isolated on the continent of Europe Pirna put up an unexpectedly tough resistance,
and angry at Frederick's new convention with the gaining time for Austria to mobilize; Frederick
British, entered into a defensive alliance with besieged but declined to attack them. Field-
Austria. Marshal Browne was sent to relieve the besieged
The loser was Frederick. His insulting raillery Saxons but met with Frederick's forces on I
had made enemies of the French king and Russian October 1756 at Lobositz. The Prussians were
empress and rus attempt to neutralize the Anglo- somewhat shaken by the much improved quality
Russian threat had drawn Russia, Austria and of the Austrian infantry and artillery, and by the
France in league againsl him. Russia, Austria and new efficiency in tactical command. Browne was
Saxony were openly hostile to Prussia. But he'had on the ground first but failed to take the pass, an
a standing army of 150,000 men and 14,000,000 error which he partially retrieved on- the day of
thalers put aside for war. He, therefore, without the battle. For he put the Austrian horse out as a
warning and without consulting Britain, attacked bait which twenty squadrons of Prussian cavalry

Charge of the Austrian Dragoons at the Battle of Kolin 1757, defeated. From a painting by Koch.
where the Prussia.n.s under Frederick the Great were tolally
 •

I Artillery Fusilier, surn.tner field

service uniforDt, c. '751
2: Artillerym.an. (Kanomer), -Inter
field service uniform, c. 1740
3 Gunner (BucbsenD1eister) of ArtUJery,
summer field service uDifo~ c. '751

R. OTTENFElD
A
 Horse-Grenadier,
winter parade unifonn, c .• 750

R.OTTENFELD
B
 1 Officer of Gennan Infantry,
sununer field service uniform, c . • 750
2 Dragoon, sununer field
service order, c .• '50
3 Hungarian Infantry Soldier,
Surnn'1er field service unilorDl, c. 1756

R OTT£NFELD
c
 HU9sar, winter field
service uniform, c. ]743

R.OTTENFELD
D
-

I Soldier of Frontier Infantry,

sum.tner field service uniform, c•• 750
2: Sharpshooter (Scharfschlitz) of Frontier
Infantry, sununer patrol uniform c. 1750
3 Cuirassier, suauner field
service order, c. 1750

R.OTTENFElD
E
 Trenk'scher Pandour and
Carlstadter Sluiner Croat, c. 1756

R. OTTENFELO
F
 • General of Cavalry,
winter parade unUonn, c. 1760
2 Engineer Officer,
winter field service uniforJn., c. 1760
3 Private Soldier of Sappers,
winter field service unifortn, c. 1760

R. OTTENFElO
G
 ,,
i

,
,.

I Fifer of GerJnan Infantry,

sum..mer field service unilonn, c. 1769
:z Private Soldier of Hungarian Infantry,
SUD1..Dler field service uniforD'l, c. 1770
3 Fusilier of GerDUUl Infantry,
slI.D1.ID.er field service unilorm, c. 1,69

R.OTTENFElO
H
greedily took, chasing off the Austrians helter- the wearers. These so-called Frei Korps usually
skelter; they were drawn almost into the muzzles took the names of cavalry or pandour leaders such
of hidden Austrian batteries which mowed them as Trenck, Nadasti, or the Scot, Loudon.
down with case-shot. After this unpromising start Frederick's answer to any political or military
Frederick ordered his infantry, loaded with threat was to attack. In the spring of 1757 he
ninety cartridges a man, to take Lobositz. invaded Bohemia with four columns, three from
Fighting was particularly fierce and the Aus- Saxony and the fourth, under Schwerin, from
trian infantry, now equipped with iron instead of Silesia. There 133,000 Austrians were making
wooden ramrods, were most determined, return- ready to cross into Silesia. Maria Theresa had
ing to the Prussian volley for volley. Browne's once more given the overall Austrian command to
flank broke, but he moved with haste and skill her inexperienced brother-in-law, Charles of
and soon recovered. After seven hours of fighting Lorraine. As the Prussians advanced Charles fell
the Prussians, though they had suffered more back with 60,000 men to the neighbourhood of
casualties, 3,300 against the Austrian 2,900, still Prague to await the arrival of a further 30,000
barred the way to Pima. Austrians under Field-Marshal Daun. Frederick
Maria Theresa ordered Browne 'to deliver me was determined to rout Charles before Daun
these poor Saxons at any price'. Browne's final should join him and, against Schwerin's wishes
attempt, enterprising though it was, failed because and advice, he ordered the 64,000 tired Prussians
the Saxons, much reduced by hunger, were too to attack the entrenched positions east of the
weak to carry out their allotted part of the opera- Bohemian capital. For Frederick had become
tion. Rutowski capitulated. All Saxon officers overweeningly confident in his own superiority
were dismissed and the Saxon rank and file were and in what he believed to be the invincibility of
forcibly incorporated into the Prussian army, his troops. Time was pressing and Daun was not
with Prussian officers and uniform. Saxony itself ten miles away.
remained in Prussian occupation for nearly six On 6 May 1757 Frederick was at the pinnacle
years. of his fame. He had just joined with Schwerin
Vet Frederick had made a poor beginning to outside Prague and together they reconnoitred
the war. The German Protestant rulers were, the outskirts of the Austrian position. They
admittedly, generally sympathetic to him but, in reckoned this to be so strong that they decided to
face of Austrian diplomacy, his position was outflank it by marching round the enemy right
rapidly deteriorating. Russia agreed to enter the to his rear, there to attack across what they
war against him in return for an Austrian subsidy. imagined to be green meadows. These lush fields
Maria Theresa offered to trade the Austrian were in fact carp ponds, two to three feet deep,
etherlands to France and Spain in exchange for covered wi th water weed. The circui tous march
active participation in the war and the return of was conducted with skill, but the Prussians were
Silesia to Austria. Sweden entered the war disconcerted to see the Austrians, under the
against Prussia. energetic leadership of Browne, counter without
any hesitation by immediately changing front at
the double. When the Prussian infantry arrived
at the carp ponds they were met by the tearing fire
of artillery case-shot at 400 paces. They stormed
the batteries, however, but were then thrown out

~striaVictorious again by Austrian grenadiers. To and fro the

battle raged for hours, the seventy-three-year-old
Schwerin, a veteran of Blenheim, being killed by
The Prussian outposts were much troubled by grape as he rallied broken regiments. Browne, too,
pandours of all nationalities, Hungarians, Croats directing the Austrian defence at this spot, was
and Poles, most wearing a uniform of a SOTt, mortally wounded.
devised by the.ir leaders and improved upon by The Austrian horse had already been chased
2S
from the field but the infantry fought like lions, Daun was very cautious, known even among
every surviving grenadier henceforth getting the Austrians as a 'Fabius Cunclator'. One brave
double pay for life. Yet the battle ended with the heart in Vienna was still not dismayed, for Maria
Prussians in possession of the field, the Austrians Theresa entreated him to give battle, assuring
having been forced back into Prague. But the him that even if he were defeated he would still
King himself had been most unpleasantly sur- enjoy the royal favour. The choice was already
prised; 'these are not by any means the old out of Daun's hands, however, for Frederick,
Austrians' he wrote very mournfully, 'this day having unsuccessfully besieged Prague for a
saw the pillars of the Prussian infantry cut down'. month, was on the march in search of the Aus-
He doubted whether he could ever replace the trian field-marshal.
quality of his losses. Prussia certainly lost at least Although Daun lacked dash and initiative, he
'3,000 men that day, the same number as the was experienced and clever in defence. He had
Austrians, but the King had earlier put his own taken up a strong position parallel to the Vienna-
loss at 18,000. The battle was heralded abroad Prague highway not far from Kolin. While
among Prussia's allies as a great victory for Frederick, only three miles away, remained in
Frederick, and the Tower of London guns fired a ignorance of where the Austrians were to be
salute. The Prussians had, admittedly, captured found, Daun was well informed of the Prussian
much equipment; on the other hand, Charles of activity by the pandours.
Lorraine's army, 46,000 strong, was still in being, About 30,000 Prussians moved in march route
although besieged in Prague. Daun, not far away, along the highway towards Kolin on 18 June, to
had been further reinforced and, having collected find the route blocked by a large force of Austrian
up and reformed the stragglers of the Prague horse under Nadasti. These were soon driven off
battle, had now 60,000 men under his command. by Ziethen's Prussian cavalry. Frederick, re-

~.

,.
..
··~·.4-

..
Mounted. and dismounted pandour irregulars, c. 1750

26
garding Daun's entrenched position on the slopes not like the sun to go down on his wrath'. The
to the right of the road as impregnable, decided lotal Austrian loss, including wounded, was
to outflank it by marching along the Austrian 8,000; the Prussians lost 8,000 dead and nearly
front and round the enemy right, exactly as he another 6,000 prisoners, fony-five cannon and
had done at Prague. On this day, however, much equipmenl. The main casualties were
nothing went right. Ziethen's force, galloping caused to the flower of the Prussian infantry.
after enemy cavalry and foot, ran into a trap and Thereafter fortune deserted Frederick for, as he
was taken in the flank by artillery and infantry, himself admitted, he had been decisively defeated
cleverly concealed in oak woods and copses. at Kolin. He had to quit Bohemia. Britain, too,
Thereafter Ziethen remained separated from the found lillIe consolation in its new choice of ally,
main battle. The Prussian infantry trying to get since Frederick was powerless to prevent the
round the Austrian right flank were soon pinned French occupation of Hanover. In the second half
by enemy fire and counter-allacks. The following of 1757 the Swedes invaded Prussian Pomerania
up Prussian columns, still in march formation, while Ihe Russians defeated a Prussian force at
were drawn, willy nilly, into the frontal battle on Gross-Jagerndorfin East Prussia. Maria Theresa's
ground of Daun's choosing. The Prussian centre forces spilled over into Silesia and an Austrian
was said to be wrongly directed (although this did cavalry and partisan force under General Haddik,
not come to light until many years afterwards) by 15,000 strong, raided Berlin and extracted from
Frederick himself, in the heat of battle, mistaking the capital a ransom of a quarter of a million
left for right. For the consequent disorder the thalers.
Prussian General Mannstein got much of the
blame, since his troops, angry at their rising
casualties caused by the fire of Hungarian and
Croat skirmishers hidden in the corn and scrub,
turned off the allotted march route to deal with
them. Mannstein, badly wounded himself, was
The
unable to make his excuses since he was murdered
several days later by pandours who waylaid his
carnage.
Prussian~very
So the battle was joined along the whole of the
Austrian front, raging indecisively for hours. Daun Frederick survived the summer and autumn of
began to fear that he would be forced off the high 1757 because of the lack of coordination between
ground into the swamp behind, and sent out his enemie~. The Russians, believing that the
messages in case a withdrawal should be needed. Empress Elisabeth was dcad, withdrew out of
These were received by his subordinates with East Prussia, while the French force in Hanover
indignation. Some Austrian horse, ineluding remained inactive. [n Lusatia, Daun and Prince
Nostitz's Saxon cavalry brigade and de Thiennes Charles had outmanoeuvred a Prussian force
Netherland Walloon regiment of dragoons, held under the King's brother Augustus William but,
back in reserve without seeing any action that in spite of Maria Theresa's urging, they would not
day, asked that they might be permitted at least comc to grips with the enemy. In November a
to strike a blow. Daun agreed 'if they thought it French army under Soubise began to move
would be any use'. A force was hastily improvised through Thuringia on Saxony, joining up with
ineluding supporting infantry and guns, and this some Saxons and an Austrian force under Hild-
Austrian cavalry decided the day. Frederick burghausen. In all Ihe Franco-Austrian force
quitted the field, and the Prussians were already numbered 50,000 men.
in rapid retreat, harried by the Austrian General The French were contemptuous of Prussian
Sampach. Daun did not pursue further, although arms. When the Prussian force first approached
the Prussian was by then thoroughly beaten, for the Franco-Austrian positions near Rossbach, and
as one historian said 'as a good Christian, he did then rapidly withdrcw as soon as engaged by
27
artillery fire (lhe position being very slrong and It was already well past noon that winter's
little to Frederick's liking), Soubise became ob- day, but within half an hour the Prussians were
sessed with lhe idea that Frederick was in full deployed to attack the moving enemy in the flank.
retreal and might escape him. Believing that the Thirty-eight squadrons, aboul4,000 horse, under
Prussians had only 10,000 men (in realilY they Seydlitz hit the surprised enemy column, and
had more than twice that number), Soubise set off infantry and guns followed. By four o'clock the
in immediate pursuit, intending to outflank and Franco-Austrian force was in flight leaving 3,000
get across lhe Prussian line of wilhdrawal. The dead and wounded and 5,000 prisoners, of whom
truth was much otherwise. For Frederick himself eight were generals and 300 officers. The Prussians
entertained the same mistaken thoughts about his lost 500 dead and wounded, and not half of their
enemy, who he knew to be short of rations, and he strength had come into action; Seydlitz's horse
believed lhe French were about to run away. and seven battalions had done all the work. Thus
Having haIled in some dead ground and sat down ended the battle of Rossbach.
to his dinner, he was astonished when his hussars The days of the Dessauers were nearly over and
reported that the enemy was streaming by on the Schwerin and Winterfeld were no more. The
other side of the hill in column of roule, the only Prussian general of outstanding distinction,
trotting cavalry in front leaving the panting besides Frederick, was Ferdinand of Brunswick
infantry far behind. and he was now in command of the Anglo-

Gennan infantry in parade order. The mounted figure in the dismounted-pattern gaiters. Dismounted officers carried
centre is a Dlajor, the officer to the right a colonel wearing pikes as a badge of office and as protection against cavalry

28
German force in Hanover. Charles of Lorraine The defeat lost Charles of Lorraine his post as
had begun to inflict a series of defeats on the Commander-in-Chief, henceforth assumed by
Prussian generals. He had taken Breslau. The Daun.
Prussian Bevern was captured by Croat irregulars
and his army fled to Glogau. The Saxon and
Silesian troops in Prussian service were deserting
Frederick en masse. Silesia was about to fall from
the Prussian grasp when, at the end of November,
Frederick arrived at the head of only 14.,000
weary men. The command of Bevern's remnants, 'IhefinalcStages
about ,8,000, he gave to Ziethen.
Frederick was determined to attack, whatever The French had been driven across the Rhine
the odds, though it is doubtful whether he knew and, after Leuthen, most of Silesia was re-
that Charles of Lorraine and Traun, now joined conquered by the Prussians. The British took
by Nadasti, had 80,000 men drawn up at Leuthen. advantage of Frederick's successes to reoccupy
The Austrian position, however, was not a strong Hanover.
onc, being overextended and nearly seven miles In the spring of '758 a new Prussian army
in length. Its observation was masked by a ridge moved through Moravia to Olmiitz on its way to
to its front, and this was held only by a Saxon Vienna only to lose its heavily guarded supply
brigade of horse and two Austrian hussar rcgi- train of 4,000 wagons to General Loudon, said to
ments. The ridgc was soon cleared by the Prus- be the best partisan leader of the times. Frederick
sians, the Saxon General Nostitz being killed in wi thdrew once morc through Bohemia into
the encounter. Silesia. Meanwhile the Russians, back again in
In the main Austrian line, the Italian General East Prussia, moved on Brandenburg only to be
Lucchesi commanded the right and Nadasti the repulsed at Zorndorf in August in one of the
left, with Traun in the centre. Lucchesi was con- bloodiest battles of the war.
vinced that his right would be attacked and in The indomitable Austrians had raised two more
response to his entreaties was eventually heavily armies. One they dispatched to Saxony and the
reinforced; in fact Frederick attacked the left, other to Silesia. That October, the first of these
moving in on it in his new oblique order. There armies, under Daun, defeated Frederick at Hoch-
the Croats and Wiirtemburgers eventually broke; kirch near Bautzen. Fredcrick had encamped his
and when Lucchesi led a cavalry charge from the 30,000 men in an untenable position facing Daun's
right of the field to the left, in support of the 60,000, and he mct thc protests of his own
faltering left wing, he was himself taken in the Prussian generals 'that in such a situation Daun
flank by hidden Prussian horse, routed, and ought to be hung if he did not attack', with the
killed. arrogant retort 'that the Austrians fear us more
Yet Charles and Daun acted with greater than the gallows'. Daun did attack, however,
celeri ty than they had ever done before, throwing before daylight and, although he lost 6,000 Aus-
men over from right to left into the village of trians, he destroyed a quarter of Frederick's force.
Leuthen, whcre the church and churchyard werc This was the third of Daun's victories over thc
bitterly defended. But the far-flung positions cost King in sixteen months. Once more he failed to
them both time and the battle, for the men, follow up his advantage, the Austrian neglect
arriving piecemeal, were blown before they permitting Frederick to keep his forces intact and
struck a blow. Three times the Austrians attempted outmanoeuvre his foes.
to rally and stand, only to be swept from the field. By carly 1759 the Prussian field army had been
Leuthen, probably the greatest of all Prussian reduced to 100,000 men, many of them recruits,
victories, cost the Austrians 3,000 dead, 7,000 and in August of that year a large Russian force
wounded, 2 I ,000 prisoners and I 16 guns lost. The under Saltykov, already in Frankfurt-on-Oder,
total Prussian loss was under 7,000. dcfeated, with some Austrian support, the Prus-
29
sians at Kunersdorf. The Russians refused to out of Landshut. Frederick indignantly ordered
pursue since they believed that the Grand Duke the place to be retaken. Like Finck, Fougue
Peter, an admirer of Frederick the Great, was obeyed his master's order to the letter and failed.
about to ascend the Russian throne. Saltykov For Loudon destroyed his lo,ooo-strong army,
spent his time in debauchery. Meanwhile the only 1,500 Prussian cavalry escaping.
Austrians remained in Saxony, manoeuvring and Frederick was having no better fortune against
counter-manoeuvring. In November Frederick the two Aus(rians, Daun and Lacy, in Saxony.
returned to his armies there and this was the He besieged Dresden but failed to take it. Then,
'v.
signal for Da un to wi thdra The sneering King hearing the bad news from the east, he set out
sent Finck and 15,000 Prussians to pursue; yet again for Silesia, with Daun and Lacy hanging
Frederick lost every single man when Daun on his flanks. When they arrived in Silesia Daun
turned on Finck's army and encircled it. On 21 joined up with Loudon, outnumbering the
ovember 1759 the Prussians laid down their Prussian force of 30,000 by nearly three to one,
arms at Maxen. and barring Frederick's path at Liegnitz. Freder-
The French, however, were still doing badly. ick was in a desperate position. He was short of
They had been defeated at Minden by an Anglo- rations and had a string of defeats behind him; a
German force and had suffered serious military large Russian army stood across the Oder waiting
defeats overseas. By 1759 they had reduced the the outcome of Daun's battle and had already
subsidy to Maria Theresa and were no longer thrown bridges across the water; the fighting
interested even in the Austrian Netherlands as efficiency of thc Austrian soldier was greatly
the price of restoring Silesia to Austria. France superior to that of the first two Silesian Wars and,
was rapidly dropping out of the European war. whereas the Prussian recruit was in decline, the
The year 1760 was the last year of the great Austro-Hungarian material was still improving.
campaigns. The Austrians sent a further army On '4 August Frederick was several miles to the
into Silesia. Loudon, the aggressive Scot, an south-west of Liegnitz while Daun and Loudon
expcrienced Held commander as well as partisan lay tcn miles to the north-east ofthe town. Hearing
leader, drove the Prussian force under Fougue from an Austrian deserter that the enemy in-
tended to make a night approach that very even-
ing to attack his camp before Hrst light, the
Prussian army moved immediately after darkness
several miles towards the enemy and lay down on
some high ground near the village of Panten, right
astride the Austrian approach route. The Hrst to
come up the hill was Loudon's force, out of touch
with Daun, Loudon himself leading with no ad-
vance guard deployed. On being challenged the
Austrians attacked. At first they thought they had
'. brushed a Prussian baggage train, but when the
tfuth became known, Loudon, undeterred, threw
in his whole force with such dash and momentum
that the Prussian left was well-nigh cut in two.
The Hghting lasted an hour and a half, the
Prussians rallied and drove out the Austrians
with a loss, so they claimed, of 6,000 dead and
wounded and 4,000 prisoners. Loudon had lost a
third of his force and fell back unsupported, siner
Daun was still too far away to do anything but
engage the Prussian right. Daun, in spite of the
A front view of the ubiquitous three pounder field gun Empress's urging, declined to attack once morc.
30
 followed, to be joined by Lacy. The master of
defence had entrenched himself ncar the Elbc at
Torgau with 50,000 troops; Frederick with
44,000, was determined to attack him. Making
over a third of his force to Ziethen, who had,
however, no experience of higher field command,
he ordered him to attack frontally on the Austrian
right flank. Frederick, with the main body, made
a long circuitous march offourteen miles through
the forest and attacked Daun from the rear.
Daun had 400 guns, a half of them new, and
these, quickly redeploying, did fearful execution
among Frederick's attacking infantry. The battle
had started at about midday and was of the
fiercest, but because of some confusion Ziethen's
• frontal attack did not materialize; by early
evening the Austrians had the best of it so that the
wounded Daun sent a messenger off to Vienna
announcing a victory. This was Frederick's view,
too, for he had withdrawn for the night, some
miles away, intending to renew the attack the next
day. At six in the evening in pitch darkness
Ziethen's force, over five hours late, came into
An officer of Hungarian infantry serious action for the first time at the place
appointed for its attack to the Austrian front.
Nor did the Russians across the Oder care to take Htilsen, in command of Frederick's bivouaced
up the engagement, notwithstanding their superi- forces, called them to arms again and went in to
ority in numbers. Yet Frederick did not dare to attack the rear. In a few hours the battle was lost
dclay on the field of battle and, only four hours to Daun. Torgau was his last great battle, as it was
afterwards at nine o'clock in the morning of 15 Frederick's. Frederick was later to say it was the
August, he was already away, having cleared the severest and most crucial battle of the war. The
ficld of guns, muskets and wounded, both Prussians lost 14,000 men against an Austrian loss
Prussian and Austrian. of 20,000 and 45 guns. Daun's army remained,
Loudon was censured by some for his im- however, still in being, and still ready for battle.
petuousity. Yet the issue was so close that Freder-
ick himself said that if the attack had been made
only a quarter of an hour earlier, it would have
gone badly with the Prussians.
At the beginning of October a Russian raiding
force of 20,000 tried to take Berlin but failed. A
week later 15,000 Austrian troops under Lacy
joined them and the capital was occupied for a finale
few days, the inhabitants paying a ransom offour
million thalers. The raiding force, hearing that The strain of the war was telling not only against
Frederick was approaching, then withdrew, Lacy Prussia, which with a population of under five
moving off to Saxony. million was keeping an army in the ficld which
In Saxony was fought the last great battle of the rarely fell in strength below 100,000, but also
war, for Frederick had returned to his main against the French and Austro-Russian coalition,
recruiting ground and treasure-house. Daun had which with a population of a hundred million
31
had near! y a quarter ofa million troops in Western Sweden also made peace. The murder of Peter
and Central Europe. Kaunitz warned Maria some months later did not alter the political
Theresa in December 1760 that Austria had situation in that the new monarch in St. Peters-
resources left for only one more campaign; in the burg, Catherine the Great, while having no in-
following spring the Austrian forces were reduced tention of intervening on Frederick's behalf,
by 20,000 men. merely confirmed the peace made by her pre-
Britain's new monarch, George III, wanted an decessor. She ordered all Russian troops from
end to the war and this was a widely shared Germany.
feeling in Britain and France; overseas, Britain Maria Theresa was now isolated and in July
had done well and France badly, and by [762 the and October 1762 Frederick won two further
British subsidy to Prussia was no longer paid. In victories when he began to clear Sile~ia of
January 1762, however, the European situation Austrian troops. Realizing that she could no
was entirely changed by the death of the Tsarina longcr hope unaided to win and keep Silesia she
Elisabeth. Her successor, the Grand Duke Peter, came to terms with Frederick. Frederick refused
was a German whose principal interest appeared to accept the mediation of Britain and France,
to be centred in the Duchy of Oldenburg and in a stating his own terms of 'not a foot ofland and no
dynastic claim against Denmark for Schleswig- compensation to Saxony, not a village, not a
Holstein. Moreover Peter admired Frederick the penny'. He agreed to evacuate Saxony but held
Great and mistrusted Austria. So he withdrew Silesia. The Treaty of Hubertusburg of February
from the war and concluded an alliance with 1763 between Prussia and Austria made no altera-
Prussia directed at both Austria and Denmark. tions to the frontiers of Europe; and so 'a million
men had perished but not a hamlet had changed
its ruler'.

A USTRO-HUNGARIAN
ARMY UNIFORM

In spite of Maria Theresa's efforts to enforce

regulations, the Austro-Hungarian Army dress of
the period was hardly uniform, for there was a
general lack of orders on the subject and the
appearance of regiments depended largely on the
money and stocks of materials available, the tastes
of the colonels, the standard of discipline, and,
finally, on the wearer himself. Hussar officers
might, admittedly, devise their own undress or
off-parade uniform by shedding the dolman and
donning a tricorne. Some of the cavalry too had a
fatigue stable dress. But most troops had only one
pattern of uniform, and this served both as parade
dress and for field service. And the difference
between summer and winter field service uniform
A soldier carpenter, probably of a grenadier unit was simply a matter of with or without greatcoat.
32
 other piece, and this particular plate is of interest
in that it shows the detail of gun, equipment,

ne'Plates chocks, ramrod, charge-rod and linch-pins. The

gunner's pike (Luntenstock) was originally de-
signed for the number one or gunlayer to touch
A 1 Artillery Fusilier, summer field service uniform,off the charge with the heated tip, but by 1740 the
c. 1751 pike had become both a ceremonial badge of
The artillery fusilier wore the distinctive artilleryoffice and a weapon of defence to ward off
uniform of the period except for the infantry- attacking cavalry.
pattern button-up gaiters, and he was armed with
the usual infantry short sabre together with a A3 Gunner (Buchsenmeister) of Artillery, summer field
musket and bayonet, his primary task being to service uniform, c. 175/
give close infantry protection to the guns. The acknowledged founder of Austrian gunnery
Fusiliers had been raised initially because infantry was Joseph Wenzel, Prince of Lichtenstein, for
commanders objected to the whittling away of when he took over responsibility for the artillery
their fighting strength by detaching men to the it had only 800 gunners. Its size soon increased,
artillery. In 1757 fusilier companies were grouped however, so that by '755, when the corps of
into artillery fusilier regiments, a regiment having artillery really came into being, it had three
three battalions, each of eight companies of 116 brigades, each of eight companies, and thirty-
men. In addition to his protective role, the fusilier three independent field and fortress companies.
could also perform the duties of the Handlanger- An artillery brigade was the equivalent of a regi-
dienst, a pool of artillery labour which dug gun ment commanded by a colonel, with a lieuten-
emplacements and fortifications, moved the guns ant-colonel and two Obristwachtmeister (majors)
into action and assisted with ammunition supply. as staff. A company was commanded by a captain
After Hubertusburg the fusiliers were reduced to and consisted ofseventy men. Within the artillery,
one regiment and finally disbanded in 1772. but with an entirely separate corporate existence,
were the bombardiers who manned the howitzers
A2 Artilleryman (Kanonier), winter field service uni- and mortars. The chief bombardier (Ober-
form c. 1740 feuerwerksmeister) was usually responsible for all
Austria entered the First Silesian War with higher gunnery training. The artillery uniform
virtually the same artillery as it had used at colour at this particular time was brown with
Blenheim. In 1740 all artillerymen wore the poppy-coloured (ponceau-rot) facings and linings,
pearl-grey uniform with ponceau-rot facings, together with the black three-cornered hat
together with the black-and-gold-ribboned three- trimmed with gold lace. The weapon common to
cornered hat which, incidentally, was common at all gunners was the short infantry-pattern sabre.
this time to artillerymen of other continental The Biichsenmeister was a first-class gunner who
armies. The brown uniforms were introduced commanded onc or morc gun crews but he was
later. Officers continued to wear the red waist- not a master-gunner in the English sense of the
coat. All artillery, except for horse parties, were term.
clean shaven, and gunners were allowed to wear
side locks not more than 16 em. in length. Officers B Horse-Grenadier, winter parade uniform, c. 1750
wore a pigtail, either a short thick Zopfknown as The foot grenadier was originally a grenade-
the 'cannon' or the long thin Rattenschwanz. thrower, but when the function was extended to
Unter-kanon~ere and their corporals were armed the cavalry, the designation of horse-grenadier
with an infantry musket and cartridge-pouch, but proved to be a misnomer since it was virtually
the Kanonier carried pike and sword and wore a impossible for a mounted man to throw a grenade
leather case (Besteck) for his tools, slung over one any distance, and dragoons were already trained
shoulder. Until 1770 there were more three- in dismounted grenade-throwing. However, the
pounder guns in the Austrian artillery than any Austrian forces, like those of the other continental
33
powers, introduced horse-grenadiers, who soon C I Olficer of German Infantry, summer field service
became light-horse or carabiniers, and a few uniform, c. 1750
decades later the light horse and dragoons were In 1757, at the end of the Third Silesian War,
temporarily amalgamated to form light dragoons. there were fifty-seven regular infantry regiments
Cuirassiers, dragoons and light horse, when in Maria Theresa's army, of which forty-six were
mounted, carried the musket or carbine on a German. There had been great difficulty in com-
broad shoulder-belt, muzzle upwards as shown in pelling the colonels to conform to the dress
this plate. At about this time a cavalry commission regulations, but eventually all regular German
recommended that the carbine and musket of infantry adopted the white half-length coat and
hussars and light cavalry should be carried in the breeches. There was some variation, according
fashion of other armies, suspended from the to regiment, in the colours of the waistcoat
swivel muzzle down, since this enabled the (kamisol) and the coat-linings and facings. The
soldier to fire quickly from the saddle. The results number and the position of buttons were at the
were unfortunate in that the firing mechanism regiment's discretion, except that they were to be
and lock were often damaged by the jolting, and of the standard brass metal issue. The blue of the
the ball fell out of the loaded barrel. Other facings and lining shown in this plate indicate that
recommendations of the commission were morc the officer probably came from the Baden Durlach
pertinent, particularly the abolition of the stiff Regiment (later 27 Infantry Regiment), and his
leather boot-linings (known as Faschinen). For boots and spurs show that he was a major or
though they improved the look of the boot they colonel, for company officers usually wore a white
were a danger to the soldier since they prevented spat form of gaiter. Rank badges were not taken
him from running. The green coat shown here into general use until 1765, when epaulettes and
became traditional for light horse. Achselschlingen were issued for all officer ranks

Sapper'S in ac:tion breaking down a church wall, c. 17~

34
from colonel to Fahnencadett.

C2 Dragoon, summer field service order, c. 1750

It was Maria Theresa's wish that cuirassier regi-
ments should gradually be converted to wearing
white coats with red facings while dragoons
should wear the white tunic (Rock) with blue
facings, as shown on this plate. She was in fact
unsuccessful, partly because of the intervention of
the many wars, but principally because of the
conservatism within the regiments. For the A cuirassier's saddlery, broadsW"ord and carbine (untiI176g)
colonels regarded regiments almost as their own
property, even to the extent of putting their own a cold rain had fallen throughout the previous
heraldic devices on the shabracks instead of the night'. Hungarian efficiency much improved,
imperial double-eagle. And so the Latour and however, under the stricter discipline enforced by
Walloon Dragoons continued to wear their Khevenhiiller. In the year '746 the white coat
historic Netherland green, while the Savoy was taken into use by Hungarian infantry,
Dragoons kept their red and blue; few regiments usually with blue facings on the sleeve and the
did in fact convert to the white, and those that did, back of the collar and up to 1756 waistcoata and
such as the AIthan and the Wallachian Dragoons, trousers were of different regimental colours;
took scarlet instead of blue facings. The dragoon thereafter most were changed to blue as in this
could fight as a cavalryman but he owed his origin plate.
to mounted infantry, and carried a bayonet as well
as a sword; his musket was five inches longer than D Hussar, winter field service uniform, c. 1743
the cuirassier's carbine. Hussars first entered the Austrian service by way
of Hungary, where they had been used in the
C3 Hungarian I'!fantry Soldier, summer field serotee southern frontier areas as light horsemen. The
uniform, c. 1756 hussar had many functions for, although he was
When Maria Theresa came to the throne there used as a line cavalryman, he specialized in
were only three regular Hungarian infantry regi- scouting and outpost duty, in denying the enemy
ments forming part of the Austro-Hungarian reconnaissance and in long-range raiding. He was
armed forces. The Queen was popular in Hun- armed with a carbine, usually carried at his right
gary and recruiting was successful for the '74' side suspended by a broad shoulder-strap, a pair of
war, yet only eight new Hungarian infantry regi- pistols and a sabre, here shown hanging from his
ments were raised. This was considerably short wrist by the sword-knot. He never carried a lance.
of the anticipated number, but difficulties arose His distinctive fur headdress with hanging bag,
since few Magyar reerui (S, however enthusiastic dolman, boots, facings and accoutrements were
they might be, wanted to be infantrymen. In adopted by the hussars of other nations.
accordance with the national temperament all
wanted to be hussars, or, if they could not be EI Soldier oj Frontier InJantry, summer field service
cavalry, then they preferred to join the Frei uniform, c. 1750
Korps or irregulars. Because it was below Hun- Frontier infantry regiments had some specialized
garian dignity to march, the infantry enrolled training in patrol work but they were primarily
were hardly to be compared to the quality of the intended to repel or take the first shock ofinvading
German regiments. The Hungarian lacked the forces; in consequence they were equipped and
mentality to stick at laborious and monotonous trained as line infantry. Like the line, they used
routine and he found discipline irksome; accord- the general service (ordinar) infantry flintlock
ing to the Austrian account, some Magyar infantry musket, first designed in 1722, with a barrel of
deserted at the time of the siege of Prague 'because 18'3 mm. bore, a length of 157 cm. and a weight
3S
of 4.8 kg. Its stock and butt were of beech. This taught to rely on the sabre. All frontier infantry
musket, which remained in service until after wore white trousers, but the colour of the coat
1754, could deliver up to three rounds a minute could be white, brown or wolfsgrau.
when fired by a trained soldier using a paper con-
container cartridge. Fire was usually by volley, £2 Sharpshooter (Schaifschiitz) of Frontier Infantry,
the grand volley (Salvenfeuer), or by Gassen-, summer patrol uniform, c. 1750
Hohlweg-, Hecken-, and Bachfeuer, the type of The border sharpshooters formed a reinforced
fire not being related to the ground but only to company 256 strong in each frontier regiment, and
the deployment formation of the troops. An in- they were in fact snipers and light infantry, expert
fantry line was usually in fours, after 1756 in in patrolling, observation and the provision of
threes. The bayonet was intended primarily for screens. In training and marksmanship they were
defence against cavalry, and although infantry reckoned to be vastly superior to the regular
could and did use it on occasion in close-quarter infantry of the line. Sharpshooters were equipped
fighting, German infantry usually used the butt with a variety of weapons, according to their
of the musket as a club, while the Hungarian was tasks, including high velocity air-guns and rifles.

EUROPE in 1763

POLAND

FRANCE

- - - - HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE BOUNDARV

~ PRUSSIA-BRANDENBURG

'-- lIIIIIIIIIIIII HABSBURG LANDS

100 200
'-- ,'--_ _--', mil .. t4z .j1J OTTOMAN EMPIRE

36
The usual weapon, however, was a double-
barrelled carbine, the upper barrel being rifled
and the lower a smooth bore; forty paper cart-
ridges were carried on each man for the smooth,
and seventy ball for the rifled (the powder for the
latter being kept in a powder-horn). These
expensive weapons were often carried in a pro-
tective leather case, slung over the shoulder. The
pike served both to protect the soldier from cavalry
and as a rifle support when shooting; in addition
the sharpshooter carried a Hungarian sabre but
no bayonet.

£3 Cuirassier, summer field service order, c. 1750

In spite of the unauthorized variation and in-
discipline in dress, cuirassier regiments were
probably more uniform and stricter in detail than
any other horse. The cuirassier's three-cornered
hat was always black with a black cockade, and
usually without coloured edging; his coat was
white and neckerchief black. Facings were usually
red, as were pantaloons, although in one of the
eighteen cuirassier regiments (the Modena),
pantaloons were blue, and in four others (Stam-
pach, Albert von Saehsen, Brettlach, Anhalt-
Zerbst) they were yellow. There was some minor A cuirassier on guard duty, c. 1750
variation in the colour of waistcoats. The heavy
broadsword (Pallasch) had a leather scabbard audience with Maria Theresa. Recommissioned
with the metal scabbard-furnishings, guard and as an Obristwachtmeister he was given authority
hilt of the same colour as the buttons. The trooper to raise volunteers in the Danube-Save area to the
carried a pair of pistols and a short carbine and south. The nature of the leader was such that he
wore the armoured cuirass. When fighting against attracted to his ranks a bloodthirsty band of cut-
the Turks the cuirassier used additional body throats and looters. Recruits received only six
armour and a casque. Kreuzer a day, a Kreuzer being worth abou t a
penny, unless they were in rations when they got
F Trenk'scher Pandour and Carlstiidter Sluiner Croat, less; they had no officer corps but merely a
c. 1756 'harumbasha' in charge of each party of fifty men
Trenck was born in Calabria in 171 I as the son of (and he, too, received no more than the statutory
a colonel in the Austrian service, a baron origin- six Kreuzer). Although they were brought to
ally from Prussia. He joined the Hungarian in- Vienna and given a uniform orsorts, so that Maria
fanlry regimenl Leopold Paltry as a Fahnrich, Theresa could review them, in fact they wore
retiring as a lieutenant to his estate at Brestovac. what they pleased; the only uniformity among
After serving in the Frei Korps in Bosnia he them was that they shaved their heads, leaving
entered the Russian service from which he retired only a topknot of hair rather like a pig-tail. Yet
with the rank of major. He then set up his own from a military viewpoint their value was very
robber band and soon fell foul of the law, fleeing good for they tied down large numbers of Prussian
to Vienna and taking sanctuary in a monastery. troops and took Steyr in '741 and Claus in 1742.
From there he was extricated by Charles of Provided they were paid a bounty on results, their
Lorraine, through whom Trenck gained an tasks could be extended over a wide field. On the
37
 N

Minden .Hsnover
+
• POLAND
.Hastenbeck

Rossbach.
Lutzen.

SILESIA & BOHEMIA 1763

•
Olmutz

C PRUSSIA
'" 0 \\
Po. \i I A

C AUSTRIA-HUNGARY
.Bru"n

HUNGARY
o 50 100
L'-'.I-LI--".....J..--L1 -l'miln LOWER AUSTRIA

other hand, like their leader, they were without built fonress of Carlstadt, under the walls of
discipline and terrified the local population. So which were, so it is said, goo Turkish skulls,
much so that Field-Marshal Neipperg found attracted Croat refugees. By 1634- these were
Trenck an embarrassment, particularly when already providing the Austrians with a number of
Trenck's pandours set on Neipperg's own irregu- cavalry squadrons and seven infantry regiments.
lars commandcd by Menzel. Trenck was arrested, Tn 174-0 the Carlstadter Generalat had a peace
following which his pandours mutinied. Trenck strength of only several hussar and foot companies
and his pandours were then removed to the com- but these had a reserve of men numbering over
mand of Field-Marshal Graf Khevenhuller, who 20,000. By 174-6 it had 800 hussars and 17,000
was a pandour enthusiast, and under whom they foot in the field. The Croat infantry totalled over
recommenced operations. Trenck's pandours had 5,000 men since it consisted offour battalions each
much notoriety and publicity, but there were in of four companies, but the company numbered
fact many others, all owning allegiance to their no fewer than 24-0 men.
local leaders.
Since T535 the Christian Bosnian-Serbian Gl General of Cavalry, winta parade unifomI, C. l760
refugees from Islam, both of the Orthodox and Until 175 I the Austrian generals had freedom to
Roman Catholic faiths, had been allowed to choose their own dress and, more often than nOl,
sellie in the frontier areas, and there they had they wore civilian clothes. The original design
been enrolled as a border guard. The newly shown here was decreed by Maria Theresa in a
38
letter sent to general officers. Headdress, shirt,
trousers and boots were uniform for all ranks of
general, rank badges being shown by the number
of gold-ribboned stripes (Galonnierung) on the
sleeves and lower pockets of the white topcoat
and waistcoat.

G2 Engineer Officer, winter field service uniform,

c. /760
Maria Theresa's corps of tnilitary engineers was
small and its organization and role somewhat
complicated. The main component was the
Engineer Corps, which totalled only ninety-eight
officers, one of whom is shown in this plate. In
addi tion to this corps and part of the mili tary
engineer organization were the Sapper Corps
and the Miner Corps, each with their own officers,
maintained on separate corps lists. Except in

A well-laden carabineer carrying pickets, c. 1,69

certain minor details, however, the dress of all

engineer, sapper and miner officers was the same.
The headdress, not shown here, was the black
infantry tricorne with gold edging; the greatcoat
was dunkelhechtgrau. The Rock half-coat was
cornflower-blue, although dunkelhechtgrau was
sometimes worn. Facings were always red.

G3 Private Soldier of Sappers, winter field sermce

uniform, c. /760
The corps of sappers together with the corps of
pioneers carried out the main engineering tasks
in the field, sometimes at the direction of the corps
of engineers. Entry into the corps ofsappers at this
time was a haphazard business, the other ranks
usually being recruited from infantry regiments
detailed to provide by transfer the required
number of men. In consequence they usually sent
the unwanted. The cap held in the soldier's hand
is the latter pattern infantry headdress with a
high front and plume in red and white.

H/ Fifer of German Infantry, Summer Field Service

Uniform, c. /769
German and Hungarian infantry used the
bayonet mainly for defence against cavalry.
An artillery officer (1750-1,69) For close quarter fighting German infantry were
39
trained to use the ·butt of the musket as a club, trousers and collar shows that the soldier is
wielding it by ,he stock, while I;Iungarirn probably from the Palffy (Ig Regiment) or the
infantry used the short infantry pattenl sabre. :. Forgach (32 Regiment) both of which wore blue
In 1769, when all Austro-Hungarian infantry facings. The cost of the Hungarian infantry was
regiments changed their titles for numbers, the charged to the Hungarian Exchequer except that
grenadier companies were removed and re- weapons, banners, drums and tents were provided
formed as grenadier battalions, nineteen in all. from Austrian stocks. Except that he did not wear
Hungarian grenadiers and line infantry retained gaiters and carried a Hungarian-pattern sabre,
their traditional sabres, and the infantry sabre the Hungarian's equipment was, therefore, the
continued to be worn also by all German same as that of the German. The Hungarian
grenadiers and by German infantry bandsmen. grenadier differed from infantry in that he wore a
The general-service pattern 1754 infantry musket white coat with yellow facings <\nd pale blue
(not shown in the plate) was easily distinguish- trous~rs with a yellow stripe. He had a black tall
able by its upper barrel ring and funnel shaped headdress surmounted by green oakleaves.
ramrod socket. This musician, like those in the
Russian Army service, carried his fife in a metal H] Fusilier of German Infantry, summer field service
container at his belt; his facings show that he uniform, c. 1769
probably came from the Neipperg Regiment, When the grenadiers were removed from the
later 7 Infantry Regiment. infantry regiments, the line infantry were redesig-
nated as rusiliers, the new name having no military
H 2 Private Soldier of Hungarian Infantry, summer field significance. The infantry or fusilier company was
service uniform, c. 1770 stronger than that of grenadiers having a peace
There had been numerous changes in the colour- establishment of 1 '3, and consisted of three
ing of the uniforms of Hungarian infantry. Coats officers and a Fahnrich, a Feldwebel, four
were usually white, but until 1756 waistcoats and corporals, eight Gefreite (first-class privates) and
trousers were of the regimental colour. From 1757 ninety-one Gemeine or fusiliers. The soldier
to about 1762 waistcoats and trousers were all shown in the plate wears the infantry cap, com-
blue, but from then onwards (until 17g8) they mon to both German and Hungarian, and the
reverted once more to the regimental colour. In white uniform and black gaiters worn by all
this plate, therefore, the regimental colour of German infantry.

40
trained to use the ·butt of the musket as a club, trousers and collar shows that the soldier is
wielding it by ,he stock, while I;Iungarirn probably from the Palffy (Ig Regiment) or the
infantry used the short infantry pattenl sabre. :. Forgach (32 Regiment) both of which wore blue
In 1769, when all Austro-Hungarian infantry facings. The cost of the Hungarian infantry was
regiments changed their titles for numbers, the charged to the Hungarian Exchequer except that
grenadier companies were removed and re- weapons, banners, drums and tents were provided
formed as grenadier battalions, nineteen in all. from Austrian stocks. Except that he did not wear
Hungarian grenadiers and line infantry retained gaiters and carried a Hungarian-pattern sabre,
their traditional sabres, and the infantry sabre the Hungarian's equipment was, therefore, the
continued to be worn also by all German same as that of the German. The Hungarian
grenadiers and by German infantry bandsmen. grenadier differed from infantry in that he wore a
The general-service pattern 1754 infantry musket white coat with yellow facings "nd pale blue
(not shown in the plate) was easily distinguish- trous~rs with a yellow stripe. He had a black tall
able by its upper barrel ring and funnel shaped headdress surmounted by green oakleaves.
ramrod socket. This musician, like those in the
Russian Army service, carried his fife in a metal H] Fusilier of German Infantry, summer field service
container at his belt; his facings show that he uniform, c. 1769
probably came from the Neipperg Regiment, When the grenadiers were removed from the
later 7 Infantry Regiment. infantry regiments, the line infantry were redesig-
nated as fusiliers, the new name having no military
H 2 Private Soldier of Hungarian Infantry, summer field significance. The infantry or fusilier company was
service uniform, c. 1770 stronger than that of grenadiers having a peace
There had been numerous changes in the colour- establishment of 1 '3, and consisted of three
ing of the uniforms of Hungarian infantry. Coats officers and a Fahnrich, a Feldwebel, four
were usually white, but until 1756 waistcoats and corporals, eight Gefreite (first-class privates) and
trousers were of the regimental colour. From 1757 ninety-one Gemeine or fusiliers. The soldier
to about 1762 waistcoats and trousers were all shown in the plate wears the infantry cap, com-
blue, but from then onwards (until 17g8) they mon to both German and Hungarian, and the
reverted once more to the regimental colour. In white uniform and black gaiters worn by all
this plate, therefore, the regimental colour of German infantry.

40
(

r·
Men-at-Arms Series

TITLES ALREADY PUBUSHED

THE STONEWALL BRIGADE ]olm Selby TH E COSSACKS Albert Staton
TH E BLACK WATCH\ Charla Grant BLUCHER'S ARMY Peter Young
FRENCH FOREIGN LEGION JHarti" Windrow THE PANZER DIVISIONS Martin Windrow
FOOT GRENADIERS OF THE IMPERIAL ROYAL ARTILLERY W. 1', Carman
GUARD CharllS Grant
JAPA 'ESE ARMY OF WORLD WAR /I
THE IRO. BRIGADE J.h. &lb:J Philip Warntr
CHASSEURS OF THE GUARD p,,,,. r"".g MO 'TCALM'S ARMY .'Hartin Windrow
WAFFEN-55 Marti" IVindrow THE KING'S REGIMENT Alan Shepperd
THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS Charles Grant THE RUSSIAN ARMY OF THE
NAPOLEONIC WARS Albtrt Staton
U.S. CAVALRY John Selby
THE ENCLISH CIVIL WAR ARMIES
THE ARAB LEGION Peter Young
PtUr )"ounC
ROYAL SCOTS GREYS Charles Grant
THE RUSSIAN ARMY OF THE CRIMEA
ARGYLL AND SUTHERL"-ND HIGH· Albtrt Staton
LANDERS William McEIWH THE BLACK BRU lSWICKERS OUo von Pivka
THE CONNAUGHT RANGERS AI.. ShLp/",d
AUSTRO-HUi\GARIAN ARMY Of THE
30th PUNJABIS ]ama Lawford NAPOLEONIC WARS Albert Staton
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S ARMY THE AMERICAN PROVI 'CIAL CORPS
Peter Young Philip Katcher
THE BUFFS Gregory Blax/and WELLINGTON'S Pt-:NINSULAR ARMY
LUFTWAFFE AIRBORN~; AND FIELD Jamts Lawford
UNITS Marlin Windrow FREDERICK THE GREAT'S ARMY
THE SOVIET ARMY Albert Seaton Alhert Staton
THE ARMY OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE
UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS
1870-1688 Albert Staton
John Selby

FUTURE TITLES INCLUDE

WOLFE'S ARMY Gerald Emhldon ARMIES OF THE AMERICAN WAR ,8,.-
THE ROMAN IMPERIAL ARMY 1814 Philip !LaUhtr
Michael Simkins THE KING'S GERMAN LEGION
Otto von Pivka
THE BRITISH ARMY OF THE CRIMEA
]. 1J. R. NiCholson BRITISH TROOPS IN AMERICA '775-'783
NAPOLEON'S POLISH TROOPS Gerald Embleton
Otto von Pivka THE GURKHA RIfLES ]. B. R. NiCholson