First Battle of Castiglione | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession | |||||||
View of Castiglione delle Stiviere | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
France | Hesse-Kassel | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Count of Médavy | Frederick of Hesse-Kassel | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
12,000 | 8,000 – 10,000 | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,000 killed or wounded | 1,500 killed or wounded 2,500 captured |
The Battle of Castiglione took place near Castiglione delle Stiviere in Lombardy, Italy on 9 September 1706 during the War of the Spanish Succession. A French army of 12,000 attacked a Hessian corps of 10,000 that was besieging the town and forced them to retreat with heavy losses.
However, the battle did not affect the overall strategic position since Imperial victories elsewhere meant that by the end of 1706, French troops in Lombardy were isolated and their surrender only a matter of time. This led to the Convention of Milan in March 1707, which allowed them free passage to France in return for withdrawing from their remaining garrisons and effectively ended the war in Northern Italy.
By the end of 1705, France and its allies controlled most of Northern Italy, as well as the Savoyard territories of Villefranche and the County of Savoy, now in modern-day France. The Imperial army in Italy was substantially reinforced, with England and the Dutch Republic financing an army of 20,000 German auxiliaries, which included an additional 10,000 troops from Hesse-Kassel as well as renewing an existing agreement with Prussia. [1]
The main French objective for 1706 was to capture the Savoyard capital of Turin; to prevent Imperial forces in Lombardy intervening, Vendôme attacked at Calcinato on 19 April and drove them into the Trentino valley. On 12 May, his deputy de La Feuillade reached Turin with an army of 48,000 men and completed their blockade of the city on 19 June. [2] The Imperial commander Prince Eugene returned from Vienna and took the remaining troops into the Province of Verona to await the German contingents. By early July, there were 30,000 Imperial soldiers around Verona facing 40,000 French spread between the Mincio and Adige rivers. [3]
The French position looked very strong but defeat at Ramillies in May meant Vendôme and any available troops were sent to Northern France. The Siege of Turin continued and although the Hessians had not yet arrived, by mid-July Prince Eugene could no longer delay marching to its relief. The new French commander in Italy, Louis XIV's nephew Philippe II, Duke of Orléans followed him, leaving Médavy and 23,000 men to guard the Alpine passes. [1]
The Hessians finally crossed the Alps in July, under the command of Frederick of Hesse-Kassel, who later succeeded the far more talented Charles XII as King of Sweden. Arriving too late to join the march on Turin, his men were tasked with preventing Médavy from disrupting his supply routes. On 19 August, Frederick sent 2,000 men under Major-General Wetzel to Goito, a small town with a bridge across the Mincio and the French garrison evacuated the town. Castiglione was strongly defended and they had to wait for the heavy artillery to arrive from Arco. Frederick left 1,500 men outside the town with the rest positioned near Medole, allowing him to monitor Médavy's main force at Cremona and the crossing at Goito. [4]
The withdrawal from Goito was part of Médavy's plan to assemble a field army without alerting Frederick by removing garrisons from strongpoints like Cremona. This allowed him to put together a force of 8,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry, which crossed the Oglio river at Marcaria and attacked the Hessians in the afternoon of 8 September. Dividing his corps left Frederick outnumbered; the first assaults were repulsed but a cavalry charge led by the Irish exile Arthur Dillon caught the Hessian left as they were changing position and the line collapsed. Médavy then attacked those outside Castiglione, many of whom surrendered; French casualties were estimated as 1,000 killed or wounded, the Hessians losing around 1,500 killed or wounded plus 2,500 captured. [5]
The remainder fell back on Valeggio; in a letter written to the Duke of Marlborough and dated 11 September, Frederick claimed his forces were weakened by sickness but although they initially drove the French back, lack of artillery forced him to retreat. Marlborough's response dated 29 September is a masterpiece of flattery. [6]
Despite his success, Médavy's victory left the strategic position unaltered; on 7 September, Prince Eugene had broken the siege of Turin and followed up by capturing Milan. This left French forces in Lombardy isolated while France could no longer spare the resources to continue fighting in Italy. Castiglione slightly improved their bargaining position but the capture of Milan by Prince Eugene prevented French garrisons in Lombardy being reinforced and meant their surrender being only a matter of time. [7]
To the fury of the English and Dutch who had financed the Imperial campaign, as well as Victor Amadeus who had expected to gain Milan, in March 1707 Emperor Joseph signed the Convention of Milan. This allowed French troops in Italy free passage back to France while he gained the Duchy of Milan, considered vital to the security of Austria's southern borders, and was spared the expense of reducing the French garrisons one by one. It also meant the collapse of Spanish power throughout Italy and allowed Austria to take over their possessions. [8]
To placate his allies, Joseph agreed to support an Anglo-Savoyard attack on the French naval base at Toulon. Its capture would confirm Allied naval supremacy in the western Mediterranean Sea, support the Protestant Camisard revolt in Southern France, divert Bourbon forces from Spain, and win back the French-occupied Savoyard territories of Villefranche and the County of Savoy. [9] At the last minute Joseph ordered Count Wirich Philipp von Daun to take 8,000 troops allocated for this campaign and capture the Spanish-ruled Kingdom of Naples. This was complete by the end of September although lack of a navy prevented the Austrians from taking the Kingdom of Sicily and ended fighting in Italy. [7]
Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano, better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. Renowned as one of the greatest military commanders of his era, Prince Eugene also rose to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna spending six decades in the service of three emperors.
The War of the Spanish Succession was a European great power conflict fought between 1701 and 1714. The immediate cause was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain in November 1700, which led to a struggle for control of the Spanish Empire between supporters of the French Bourbons and the Habsburgs. Charles named his heir as Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV of France, whose claim was backed by France and most of Spain. His rival, Archduke Charles of Austria, was supported by the Grand Alliance, whose primary members included Austria, the Dutch Republic, and Great Britain. Significant related conflicts include the 1700 to 1721 Great Northern War, and Queen Anne's War.
The Battle of Solferino on 24 June 1859 resulted in the victory of the allied French army under Napoleon III and the Piedmont-Sardinian army under Victor Emmanuel II against the Austrian army under Emperor Franz Joseph I. It was the last major battle in world history where all the armies were under the personal command of their monarchs. Perhaps 300,000 soldiers fought in the important battle, the largest since the Battle of Leipzig in 1813. There were about 130,000 Austrian troops and a combined total of 140,000 French and allied Piedmontese troops. After the battle, the Austrian emperor refrained from further direct command of the army.
The Duchy of Savoy was a territorial entity of the Savoyard state that existed from 1416 until 1847 and was a possession of the House of Savoy.
Castiglione delle Stiviere is a town and comune in the province of Mantua, in Lombardy, Italy, 30 kilometres northwest of Mantua by road.
The siege of Turin took place from June to September 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession. A French army led by Louis de la Feuillade besieged the Savoyard capital of Turin, whose relief by Prince Eugene of Savoy has been called the most brilliant campaign of the war in Italy. The siege is also famous for the death of Piedmontese hero Pietro Micca.
The War of the Mantuan Succession (1628–1631) was a conflict related to the Thirty Years' War and was caused by the death in December 1627 of Vincenzo II, the last male heir in the direct line of the House of Gonzaga and the ruler of the duchies of Mantua and Montferrat. Those territories were key to control of the Spanish Road, an overland route that allowed Habsburg Spain to move recruits and supplies from Italy to their army in Flanders. The result was a proxy war between France, which supported the French-born Duke of Nevers, and Spain, which backed a distant cousin, the Duke of Guastalla.
The Battle of Luzzara took place in Lombardy on 15 August 1702 during the War of the Spanish Succession, between a combined French and Savoyard army under Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme, and an Imperial force under Prince Eugene.
Goito is a comune with a population of 10,005 in the Province of Mantua in Lombardy. Goito is 20 kilometres (12 mi) north of Mantua on the road leading to Brescia and Lake Garda, and straddles the old east–west Via Postumia between Cremona and Verona. The town is on the right bank of the Mincio River at a key crossing. The birthplace of Sordello, Goito is part of the historic region known as Alto Mantovano and was the site of a notable fortress.
The siege of Toulon took place between 29 July to 21 August 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession, when a combined Savoyard-Imperial army supported by a British naval force, attacked the French base at Toulon.
The Battle of Staffarda took place on 18 August 1690 during the Nine Years' War in Piedmont, Northern Italy. The engagement was the first major battle of the Nine Years' War in Italy since Victor Amadeus II of Savoy joined the Grand Alliance against Louis XIV of France earlier that year.
Medole is a comune (municipality) is an Italian municipality of 4,122 inhabitants in the province of Mantua in Lombardy.
The Battle of Cassano took place on 16 August 1705, during the War of the Spanish Succession, near Cassano d'Adda, in Lombardy, Italy. It was fought between a French army of 22,000 commanded by the duc de Vendôme and an Imperial force of 24,000 under Prince Eugene of Savoy.
The Battle of Calcinato took place near the town of Calcinato in Lombardy, Italy on 19 April 1706 during the War of the Spanish Succession between a French-led force under the duc de Vendôme and an Imperial army under Graf von Reventlow. It resulted in a French victory.
The siege of Cuneo was fought on 28 June 1691 during Nine Years' War in Piedmont-Savoy, modern-day northern Italy. The siege was part of French King Louis XIV’s campaign against Victor Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy, who had sided with the Grand Alliance the previous year. The siege was an attempt to gain a foothold on the Piedmont Plain, thus ensuring Marshal Catinat's army could winter east of the Alps. Yet due to the incompetence of the two French commanders – and a timely arrival of Imperial reinforcements – the siege proved a disaster, resulting in the loss of between 700 and 800 men. Although French forces had taken Nice in the west, and Montmélian in the north, Catinat's small, ill-equipped army was forced onto the defensive. Louis XIV subsequently offered Amadeus generous peace terms but the Duke, who had by now received substantial Imperial reinforcements from the Empire, considered himself strong enough to continue hostilities.
The Battle of Chiari was fought on 1 September 1701 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The engagement was part of Prince Eugene of Savoy's campaign to seize the Spanish controlled Duchy of Milan in the Italian peninsula, and had followed his victory over Marshal Catinat at the Battle of Carpi in July. Marshal Villeroi replaced Catinat as commander of the Franco–Spanish–Savoyard forces in the theatre, carrying with him orders from King Louis XIV to push the Imperialists out of Italy.
Jacques Eléonor Rouxel de Grancey, Comte de Médavy was a French military officer and Marshal of France who fought in the Nine Years' War and the War of the Spanish Succession.
The Kingdom of Sicily was ruled by the House of Savoy from 1713 until 1720, although they lost control of it in 1718 and did not relinquish their title to it until 1723. The only king of Sicily from the House of Savoy was Victor Amadeus II. Throughout this period Sicily remained a distinct realm in personal union with the other Savoyard states, but ultimately it secured for the House of Savoy a royal title and a future of expansion in Italy rather than in France. During this period, the Savoyard monarch used his new title to affirm his sovereign independence.
The Convention of Milan, signed on 13 March 1707 during the War of the Spanish Succession, was an agreement between France and Austria which ended the fighting in Northern Italy. The French were allowed to withdraw their remaining forces undisturbed and in return handed control of any towns they still held to the Austrian commander Prince Eugene of Savoy.
Upper Mantua is a geographical area located northwest of the city of Mantua in the province of the same name and bordering the provinces of Brescia and Verona, bordered to the north by the morainic hills of Lake Garda, to the east by the province of Verona, to the northwest by the province of Brescia, and to the south by the plains of Middle Mantua.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)