Summary

The War of Polish Succession took place in the first half of the 18th century and was fought between the major European powers.

After the death of Augustus II of Poland, a civil war broke out in Poland over succession to the throne that soon turned into a continental-scale conflict. Indeed, other European powers took advantage of the country's dynastic crisis to pursue their own national interests, rekindling earlier hostilities.

In fact, the conflict was largely a new clash between the Bourbons and the Habsburgs, who had already fought each other in the previous War of the Spanish Succession, the great European conflict that had broken out thirty years earlier.

France and Spain, the two major Bourbon powers, acted with the intention of threatening Habsburg power in Western Europe, as did the Kingdom of Prussia, while Saxony and Russia mobilized to support the candidate for the throne who was later victorious. The fighting in Poland led to the coronation of Augustus III, supported politically by the Habsburgs as well as Russia and Saxony.

The main military campaigns and battles of the war took place outside Poland. The Bourbons, supported by King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, moved against the isolated Habsburg territories in Italy.

The conflict led to major territorial rearrangements, mainly in southern Italy and the French eastern borders. In the Rhineland, France captured the Duchy of Lorraine, in Italy Spain regained control of the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, lost in the War of the Spanish Succession, while territorial gains in northern Italy were limited, despite the bloody campaigns that took place in this theater. Despite having signed a defensive treaty with Austria in 1731, Britain was reluctant to support Habsburg power, thus demonstrating the fragility of the Anglo-Austrian alliance.

Although a preliminary peace was reached in 1735, the war formally ended with the Treaty of Vienna (1738), in which Augustus III was confirmed king of Poland and his opponent Stanislaus I was awarded the Duchy of Lorraine by France. Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine, received the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as compensation for the loss of his possessions. The Duchy of Parma went to Austria, while Charles III of Spain obtained the crowns of Naples and Sicily, resulting in territorial gains for the Bourbons. Poland also ceded rights to Livonia and direct control over the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which, while remaining a Polish fiefdom, was not integrated into Poland proper, suffering strong Russian influence that ended only with the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.

In the aftermath of the signing of the Treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714), which had ended the War of Succession to the Kingdom of Spain, a two decades marked by great instability in relations between all the European powers that had just emerged from the conflict opened.

The instability was essentially due to the fact that the agreements signed had left almost all signatories dissatisfied, albeit for different reasons. In fact, some nations had an interest in maintaining the peace based on the Utrecht and Rastatt commitments mainly to restore their drained finances, as in the case of France, or to consolidate the economic-commercial gains they had achieved, as in the case of Britain and the Netherlands; others, on the other hand, such as Spain and Austria, albeit for still different reasons, tended to call into question a good part of the commitments they had signed. Spain, at the hands of its new prime minister Cardinal Alberoni, had adopted an aggressive policy toward the other countries co-signing the treaties, and its motivations for doing so were essentially twofold. First was the new king's dissatisfaction with the loss of all European possessions, albeit in exchange for a throne. The second reason lay in the fact that the queen, Elisabeth Farnese, had had two sons, Charles and Philip, from Philip V, who were precluded from any possibility of succession to the throne, a privilege due, in fact, only to the sons the sovereign had in his previous marriage to Maria Louise Gabriella of Savoy, the third-born daughter of Victor Amadeus II. This preclusion prompted the new queen of Spain to try to procure fiefs to assign to her own, legitimate children, possibly through the partial recovery of territories ceded at the conclusion of the war of succession.

Austria, for its part, was agitated by another problem, that of succession to the throne, due to the fact that Charles VI intended to ensure not only the right of succession to his own direct descendants, but also possibly according to a female line, contrary to what had always happened in the past. This problem was solved by Charles VI in the year 1713 through the issuance of a "prammatic sanction" by which, upsetting precisely all the established internal arrangements of the House of Habsburg, he transferred the line of succession to his own descendants, including by female line. Which required, however, domestic and international recognition, to obtain which Charles VI was forced to make many concessions in the course of the many diplomatic negotiations that characterized his reign.

However, this political and diplomatic instability manifested itself through a series of conflicts of rather limited scope, that is, such that they did not involve all the states of Europe at the same time, as had been the case with the previous great conflict. Spain was the first to move militarily, first occupying Sardinia, in Habsburg hands, then the newly acquired Savoy territory of Sicily. This move provoked the formation of an entirely atypical triple alliance (1717) between France, England and Holland, which was later joined by Austria. The alliance a year later gave its first results, through the achievement of an important victory at Cape Passero, where the Spanish fleet was heavily defeated (1718).

In the same year the war ended with the Peace of London and, subsequently, with the Treaty of the Hague there was a change of Italian islands between the Habsburgs and the Savoy: to the former went Sicily (then richer than the Sardinian island) and the royal title of Victor Amadeus II changed from King of Sicily (the Savoy would carry this title until the unification of Italy. Otherwise there were no other substantial changes from the Treaty of Rastatt (1714).

This new situation provoked the rapprochement between Philip V and Louis XV that was to be sealed by Louis' marriage to one of the King of Spain's daughters and, at the same time, with the formalization of France's support for Don Charles' claims to the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.

Nor did this arrangement produce any concrete effects, due to the failure of the planned nuptials: when the King of France reached adolescence, it was decided that it was urgent to have him quickly married (to the Polish princess Maria Leszczyńska) in order to produce a legitimate heir, while the Spanish princess was still a child. The consequence was a rapprochement of Spain with Austria, which was also sterile. Spanish interests in Italy, in fact, were poorly reconciled with the Habsburgs' desire to maintain their dominance on the peninsula.

This further failure of alliance was followed by others, until, in 1731, with the extinction of the Farnese dynasty, the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza passed into the hands of Don Carlo by virtue of the 1729 Treaty of Seville, signed between France, Spain and England. Which provoked Austrian military intervention and the Duchy had to undergo Habsburg occupation.

However, this occupation did not produce any significant military consequences because of Britain's refusal to intervene in the affair and France's subsequent disengagement, dictated by French diplomacy's intuition that there was a tacit agreement between Britain and Austria. The simultaneous disengagement of France and Britain enabled the agreement between Spain and Austria under which Austria ceded Parma, Piacenza and Tuscany to Don Carlo in exchange for Spain's recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction.

Two initial goals had been achieved: Elizabeth Farnese had finally obtained a throne for her eldest son and Charles VI had secured Spain's recognition of his daughter Maria Theresa's succession, although, formally, this agreement had not yet been signed.

While these events were taking place, another serious dispute arose between all the major powers of Europe, this time also involving Russia and Prussia. The affair, known as the "War of Polish Succession," began in the year 1733 with the death of King Augustus II belonging to the Wettin dynasty.

Before delving, however, into the events related to the new war of succession, it is necessary to provide some background on the type of monarchy operating in Poland. Otherwise, the Polish War of Succession remains difficult to understand.

In brief and taking a small step back, with the death without legitimate heirs of Sigismund II Augustus of Poland in the year 1572, the Jagelloni dynasty that had ruled the Polish throne for about two centuries had been extinguished, and the so-called period of the Chosen Kings had begun, dynastic heredity having been abolished. This period lasted until the French Revolution. During this time there were alternating sovereigns belonging to the Valois, Vasa, Sobieski, Wettin, and Poniatowski dynasties, who were elected by a Diet at each succession opening, coinciding with the death of the sovereign.

That said, it is easy to understand how the problem related to the succession of Augustus II of Saxony in Poland was quite different from the problem related to the succession of Charles II in Spain. That is to say, while in the case of Spain the dispute arose out of the appetites of the dynasties, which were interested in the direct acquisition of Spanish possessions possibly even through the dismemberment of the kingdom; in the case of Poland the interest of the ruling dynasties in Europe was, on the other hand, to install on the throne a monarch who would gravitate his kingdom to a certain zone of influence rather than another and who, at the appropriate time, in the event of conflict or diplomatic negotiations would increase the weight of one alliance rather than another. In other words, it was a matter of installing on the Polish throne a monarch, we would say today, with limited sovereignty, that is, under tutelage.

The political situation in Europe in the year 1733 saw the triple alliance formed in the previous year between Tsarina Anna Ivanovna of Russia, King Frederick William I of Prussia and the House of Austria represented by Charles VI of Habsburg lined up on one side. This alliance was also known as the "Treaty of the Three Black Eagles." On the other was the alliance between Louis XV King of France and Philip V King of Spain, both Bourbons and bound by the old pact that had already seen their respective thrones united during the previous "War of the Spanish Succession."

Preparation for war

Throughout the spring and summer of 1733, France amassed forces along its northern and eastern borders, while the emperor deployed troops on the Polish borders, reducing garrisons in the Duchy of Milan for this purpose. Although the elderly Prince Eugene of Savoy, then 71 years old, had recommended a more bellicose attitude to the emperor against potential French actions in the Rhine valley and northern Italy, only minimal steps were taken to improve the imperial defenses on the Rhine.

Marquis de Monti, the French ambassador in Warsaw, convinced the rival Potocki and Czartoryski families to unite behind Stanislaus. Teodor Potocki, primate of Poland and interrex after Augustus' death, convened the sejm in March 1733. Its delegates passed a resolution forbidding the candidacy of foreigners; this would have explicitly excluded both Emmanuel of Portugal and Augustus II's son, Frederick Augustus the Elector of Saxony.

Frederick Augustus negotiated agreements with Austria and Russia in July 1733. In return for Russian support, he agreed to renounce any remaining Polish claims in Livonia, and promised Anna of Russia her choice of successor to the Duchy of Courland, a Polish fiefdom (of which she had been duchess before her accession to the Russian throne) that would otherwise come under direct Polish rule upon the death of the current duke, Ferdinand Kettler, who had no heirs. He promised the Austrian emperor recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a document designed to guarantee the inheritance of the Austrian throne to Maria Theresa, Charles' eldest daughter.

In August, Polish nobles gathered for the election sejm. On August 11, 30,000 Russian troops under Field Marshal Peter Lacy entered Poland in an attempt to influence the decision of the sejm. On September 4, France openly declared its support for Leszczyński, who on September 12 was elected king by a sejm of 12,000 delegates. A group of nobles, led by Lithuanian magnates including Duke Michael Wiśniowiecki (the former Lithuanian grand chancellor appointed by Augustus II), crossed the Vistula to reach Prague and for the protection offered by Russian troops. The group, consisting of about 3,000 people, elected Frederick Augustus II king of Poland on October 5 as Augustus III. Although this group was a minority, Russia and Austria, intent on maintaining their influence within Poland, recognized Augustus as king.

On October 10, France declared war on Austria and Saxony. Louis XV was then joined by his uncle, King Philip V of Spain, who hoped to secure territories in Italy for his sons by his second marriage to Elisabeth Farnese. In particular, he hoped to secure Mantua for his eldest son, Don Carlo, who was already Duke of Parma and had the expectation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, and the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily for his youngest son, Don Filippo. The two Bourbon monarchs were also joined by Charles Emmanuel of Savoy, who hoped to gain advantages from the Austrian duchies of Milan and Mantua.

Austrian isolation

When hostilities broke out, the Austrians had hoped for aid from the maritime powers, Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. They were disappointed, as both the Dutch and the British chose to pursue a policy of neutrality. British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole justified Britain's non-intervention by insisting that the Anglo-Austrian alliance agreed upon in the 1731 Treaty of Vienna was a purely defensive arrangement, while Austria was in this case the aggressor. This position was attacked by the pro-Austrian British who wanted to help the Austrians against France, but Walpole's dominant position ensured that Britain stayed out of the conflict. The French, not wanting to provoke Britain, carefully chose not to cross into either the territory of the Austrian Netherlands or that of the Holy Roman Empire, which could have drawn either power into the conflict.

On Austria's southern border, France in November 1733 negotiated the secret Treaty of Turin with Charles Emmanuel and prepared for military operations in northern Italy. It concluded the (also secret) Treaty of the Escorial with Spain, which included promises of French assistance in the Spanish conquest of Naples and Sicily. France also made diplomatic overtures to Sweden and the Ottoman Empire in an unsuccessful attempt to involve them in the conflict in support of Stanislaus.

The Austrians thus remained largely without effective external allies on their southern and western frontiers. Their Russian and Saxon allies were occupied by the Polish campaign, and the emperor distrusted Frederick William I of Prussia, who was willing to provide aid. Divisions within the empire also influenced the increase in troops in 1733, as Charles Albert of Bavaria, who harbored ambitions of becoming the next emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, signed a secret agreement with France in November 1733, and tried, with little success, to dissuade the other rulers of the empire from the Wittelsbach family from providing troops to the emperor under treaty obligations. While Britain itself did not provide support, the electorate of Hanover, where George II also reigned as Imperial Elector, proved willing to help. On April 9, 1734, a Reichskrieg (imperial war) was declared against France, forcing all imperial states to participate.

At the time of the opening of the succession, France, which had badly digested all the concessions made through the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastadt (1714), tried to regain some of its lost power by attempting to impose the candidacy of Stanislaus Leszczyński, whose daughter Louis XV had married, and who also gathered the support of the Polish Diet. But this candidacy was opposed by that of Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, who was supported by the triple alliance, but above all by Russia, which had already for some years been appearing on the western borders of its empire with the aim of making the weight of tsarist power felt in the heart of Europe.

Poland

In a clever maneuver, the French prime minister, Cardinal Andrea de Fleury, managed to place Leszczyński on the throne, however, Russian intervention turned the tables:

The Russians, commanded by Peter Lacy, crossed the border on July 31, 1733, and appeared near Warsaw on September 20. In early October, they arrived in the vicinity of Prague near the village of Kiszkowo, here under the protection of the Russians, the outnumbered Saxon party succeeded in electing Augustus as heir.

Initially, Austrian and Saxon forces were to play the main role during the intervention in the country, and a Russian corps would eventually support them. However, the outbreak of war with France forced the Habsburgs to transfer their forces to Lorraine, and Austria pushed Russia to assume the entire burden of the intervention. The Russians directed three army corps toward the borders of the Republic. Troops under the command of Peter Lacy, who was given overall command of the Russian forces, prepared for operations in Livonia . The corps under the command of General Artemija Zagriażski instead concentrated its troops in the vicinity of Smolensk. The third of the corps under the command of General Weissbach concentrated in the vicinity of Kiev. In total, the strength of the three corps can be estimated at 75-90,000 soldiers. An additional corps under General Izmailov, however, was in reserve. Lacy's army marched through the territory of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until it reached Warsaw without encountering much resistance; in fact, the Lithuanian magnates were favorable to the candidate of the House of Wettin. Moreover, the commander stationed in the Grand Duchy, Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki, had only three thousand men at his disposal and therefore decided not to intervene.

Józef Potocki, commanding Polish crown troops concentrated near Warsaw, initially intended to defend the capital from the Russians, trying to stop them in the act of crossing the Vistula. But he changed his mind, fearing that he would be defeated and lose his army, which was the sole guarantor of his power. After several demonstrative attacks against the Russian embassy, Potocki withdrew the army to Radom, making no attempt to resist the enemy. Leszczyński and the magnates who supported him, as well as the nobility and state officials, were forced to leave Warsaw because of Potocki's behavior.

The opportunity to at least temporarily stop the Russians on the river was squandered; this if it had happened could have had a great psychological impact. Potocki divided his forces into several parts and consistently avoided engaging in battle with the Russians. The Crown's forces did not exceed 8,000-9,000. Potocki had to leave some of his troops, including some infantry, dragoons, and artillery, in fortresses in Ukraine, for he feared that the Russians wanted to spark an anti-Polish uprising among the peasants or a haidamaka (uprising of Cossacks and peasants) in the area, which would have seriously complicated the already precarious situation the state was in.

Leszczyński with the royal guards and ministers retreated to Danzig, a friendly city, where he was supported by the citizens, mostly German citizens. Until early July 1734, the city became a center of resistance against the violation of electoral freedom.

On November 15, 1733, Peter Lacy managed to reach as far as Łowicz before winter halted his advance. Meanwhile, in Saxony, preparations for the capture of Krakow were at an end. The capture of the city was the first objective of the Saxon army, as this was the city where the coronation of Polish monarchs took place, and therefore its possession would be used to perform the coronation ceremony of Augustus III.

The task of defending Kraków was assumed by the voivode of Lublin Jan Tarło, who commanded the pospolite ruszenie (militia) of Kraków and Sandomierz. On January 7, General Diemer's Saxon corps crossed the Polish border in the Tarnowskie Góry area. An attempt to stop their march by Tarła's troops ended in a serious defeat. Kraków was conquered. However, that was the end of Saxon successes because Jan Tarło was able to reinforce his forces in the province of Kraków . At the Battle of Miechów, the Poles commanded by Adam Tarła managed to defeat a Saxon unit, which temporarily slowed the Saxon advance on Danzig. However, Tarła failed to recapture Kraków.

On January 16, 1734, Lacy occupied the city of Torun, whose inhabitants swore an oath to Augustus III and accepted the Russian garrison. Lacy managed to bring only 12,000 soldiers to Danzig, which was not enough to besiege it, because the number of besiegers outnumbered the besiegers' forces. In addition to the Poles, the city was also home to French engineers and some Swedish officers. Starting on February 22, the siege of the city began. On March 5, 1734, Field Marshal Burkhard Christoph von Münnich, commanding Russian reinforcement troops, arrived in Danzig and replaced Lacy in command. On March 9 Russian troops succeeded in capturing the city suburbs. On April 18 cannons arrived and the bombardment began, and shortly afterward Saxon reinforcements under the command of John Adolphus II of Saxony also arrived. At the same time, a French naval squadron arrived to rescue Stanislaus, but the landing party did not find an opportunity to enter the city, as Münnich took the Sommerschanz fort, in this way controlling the harbor, so the French boarded the ships and put to sea. In the last days of April Münnich decided to attack the Hagelsberg fort. The assault, however, ended in failure: losses in the action were 2,000 killed and wounded. On May 13, 11 French ships appeared at sea again, landing 2,000 soldiers. On May 16, these attacked the Russian trenches, while the besieged made a sortie out of the city, however, both were repulsed.

In early June, the Russian fleet arrived with artillery, the French naval squadron thus, left the troops at Weichselmünde and withdrew, losing a frigate, which was stranded. Münnich received the artillery, began shelling Weichselmünde, and on June 12 the French surrendered it. The next day, Münde's fortification surrendered. On June 28, 1734, Danzig capitulated, and Stanislaus was forced to flee again: first disguised as a peasant, to Königsberg, the Prussian capital, where King Frederick William I refused to hand him over as the Russians demanded, and then to France. After that most of the Polish magnates sided with Augustus Il, in what became known as the Sejm of Pacification, held in June-July 1736, Augustus was confirmed king of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania.

Having folded the enemy forces, Russian troops nevertheless remained stationed in Lithuania and eastern Poland, as Saxony wished to have troops near its border because of Prussia's insecure position in the war.

The flight of the French candidate was a mortification for France, which was not slow to react by unleashing a war offensive against Austria, its eternal rival as well as an ally of Russia. The chessboard was the same as in the previous war of succession: Italy, the Rhineland and Lorraine.

Rhineland

Having declared war on Oct. 10, France three days later opened hostilities: after invading the Duchy of Lorraine, the French built two bridges across the Rhine, one near Germersheim, the other near Oberhausen. On October 12, 1733, French troops crossed the Rhine at Kehl and attacked the local fortress, defended by 1306 men of the district troops and 106 men of the Austrian infantry, under the field marshal of Württemberg, and Lieutenant Ludwig Dietrich von Pfuhl. The fortress capitulated on Oct. 29; France thus gained control of both objectives set in a matter of weeks.

However, French troops did not advance into enemy territory: unable to attack Austria directly, and unwilling to invade the German states that had intervened, for fear of dragging Britain and the United Provinces into the conflict, France consolidated its position in Lorraine, and withdrew its troops across the Rhine for the winter.

The emperor mobilized his forces in response to French attacks and began the recall of troops from the various states of the empire, establishing a defensive line at Ettlingen, near Karlsruhe. During the winter, imperial troops gathered near Heilbronn, but the assembled army was numerically smaller than the 70,000 men of the French. Baron Gottfried Ernst von Wuttgenau received command of the Philippsburg fortress from Prince Eugene in December 1733.

In the spring of 1734 the French, under the command of the Duke of Berwick, moved up the Rhine valley with a strong army to wrest the Philippsburg fortress from the Imperials. Berwick successfully outflanked the enemy defense line, and Prince Eugene of Savoy was forced to withdraw his forces to the Imperial camp at Heilbronn. This move paved the way for the French army. On June 1, 1734, the siege of the fortress began, and it was surrounded by 60,000 men.

The imperial relief army, consisting of about 35,000 men under Prince Eugene, flanked by Crown Prince Frederick II of Prussia, failed to break the siege: the Savoy made a few attempts to liberate the fortress, but never decisively attacked the besieging army, due to the numerical inferiority and relatively poor quality of the troops at its disposal.

Duke of Berwick during the siege, was killed by a shell, or cannonball while inspecting a trench. Claude François Bidal d'Asfeld was appointed Marshal of France and given supreme command of the Army of the Rhine. On June 22 the new general had a covered path of the fortress attacked, which led to the capture of 60 prisoners and the removal of a bastion.

A month later, on July 18, the fortress surrendered and the garrison was honorably discharged. The imperial commander of the fortress, Baron von Wuttgenau, was promoted to field marshal-lieutenant for his long defense against the overwhelming enemy force. Count Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff, who led the command of the army for some time, distinguished himself as commander of the imperial army, which was now retreating from Philippsburg toward Bruchsal.

In October 1734 Prince Eugene handed over supreme command of the Army of the Rhine to Karl Alexander von Württemberg, who had equipped the fortresses of Freiburg, Breisach and Mainz, still under imperial command, with sufficient troops and supplies for a siege. General von Seckendorff organized the creation of a new defensive position along the Rhine between Koblenz and Mainz and became governor of the latter fortress.

Emperor Charles VI did not accept King Frederick William I's offer to reinforce the imperial army on the Rhine with 50,000 men because he did not want to make concessions to the Prussians in the Jülich-Berg succession. Instead, in the summer of 1735, the emperor authorized the passage of Russian troops through German territory to strengthen the now-threatened Neckar River front. In the summer of 1735 Prince Eugene again went to the front at the emperor's request, to his headquarters in Heidelberg. In late August the first Russian regiments under General Lacy also arrived there.

French forces continued to advance along the Rhine as far as Mainz, but the growing numbers of the imperial army, now also reinforced by Russian regiments, succeeded in preventing France from establishing a siege there. Eugene thus went on the offensive: a force of 30,000 men under the command of cavalry general Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff advanced with 30,000 men over the Hunsrück, crossed the Rhine, and on October 20 repulsed the French troops near Salmbach, pushing them back toward Trier, and finally defeating them at Clausen in October 1735, before preliminary terms of peace were reached with the armistice of November 11, 1735. Until this date, Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff troops held the French in check in the Eifel region and on the Rhine.

Italy

The French and Savoy troops, amounting to more than 50,000 men, under the command of Charles Emmanuel, entered Milanese territory as early as October 24, encountering minimal resistance, as the Austrian forces in the duchy consisted of only 12,000 men. By November 3, the city of Milan itself surrendered, although the Austrian governor, Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, still garrisoned the fortress. The Grand Marshal of France, the Duke of Villars, joined Charles Emmanuel in Milan on November 11. While Villars wanted to move immediately against Mantua to secure control of the Alpine passes against Austrian reinforcements, Charles Emmanuel, wary of his French allies and their relations with Spain, sought to secure control of the Milanese. The army spent the next three months liquidating Austrian opposition in the remaining fortified cities of the duchy. Villars tried to convince Don Carlos of Parma to join the expedition against Mantua, but Carlos concentrated on the campaign in Naples. Villars began moving against Mantua, but Carlos Emanuel resisted and the army made little progress. In early May, an Austrian army of 40,000 men under Count Claude Florimond de Mercy crossed the Alps and threatened to approach the rear of the French army with a flanking maneuver. Villars responded by retreating from Mantua and unsuccessfully attempting to disrupt the Austrian army's crossing of the Po River. Villars, frustrated by Charles Emmanuel's delaying tactics, withdrew on May 27. He fell ill while returning to France and died in Turin on June 17.

Mercy's forces repeatedly attempted to cross the Parma Creek in June, but it was not until the end of that month that they succeeded in crossing the waterway and approaching the town of Parma, where the Allied forces, now under the command of French marshals de Broglie and Coigny, were entrenched. In the battle of Colorno first and in a bloody battle near the village of Crocetta on June 29, the Austrians were repulsed, Mercy was killed, and Frederick of Württemberg, the second in command, was wounded. Charles Emmanuel returned the next day to retake command, and resumed his dilatory tactics, failing to immediately pursue the retreating Austrians. The Austrians retreated to the Po, where they were reinforced by additional troops under the command of Field Marshal Königsegg. After two months of inaction, during which the armies faced each other across the Secchia River, on September 15 Königsegg took advantage of the enemy's laxity and executed a raid on Coigny's headquarters at Quistello, nearly capturing Coigny and taking among other prizes, Charles Emmanuel's porcelain. Two days later the French withdrew to a position near Guastalla in response to Austrian maneuvers, but a detachment of nearly 3,000 men was surrounded and captured by the advancing Austrians. On September 19 Königsegg attacked the Allied position at Guastalla and, in another bloody battle, was defeated, losing Frederick of Württemberg among others. Königsegg retreated across the Po, taking a defensive position between the Po and the Oglio, while the King of Sardinia exploited his victory. When they withdrew most of the Allied army to Cremona, the Austrians advanced on the north bank of the Po to the Adda, before both armies entered winter quarters in December 1734.

In southern Italy, the Austrians, adopting a defensive strategy to protect a large number of fortresses, were soundly defeated. Don Carlos assembled an army composed mainly of Spaniards, but also of French and Savoy troops. Moving south through the Papal States, his army bypassed the first line of Austrian defense at Mignano, forcing them to retreat to the fortress of Capua. Then virtually without a fight he entered Naples welcomed by the city's notables, as the Austrian viceroy had fled to Bari, and the fortresses held by the Austrians in the city were quickly occupied. While maintaining the blockade of the strongest Austrian garrisons at Capua and Gaeta, the bulk of the Allied army concentrated on the remaining Austrian forces. These attempted to resist but were defeated at Bitonto at the end of May. Capua and Gaeta were then properly besieged, while the Austrian fortresses in Sicily were quickly subdued. Gaeta surrendered in August, while Capua held out until November when its commander, Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun, finally negotiated terms of surrender when he ran out of ammunition. The Jacobite pretender to the thrones of the United Kingdom and France, Charles Edward Stuart, who was less than 14 years old at the time, also participated in the French and Spanish siege of Gaeta, making his first exposure in battle. In 1734 with the Bourbon conquest of the Two Sicilies, decided at the Battle of Bitonto, the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily became independent again after more than two centuries of first Spanish and then Austrian political domination.

Armies in northern Italy suffered significantly during the winter, with significant losses from disease and desertions. For the 1735 campaign, Allied forces in northern Italy came under the command of the Duke of Noailles, elevated to marshal after his contributions in the Rhine campaign. Spanish forces, now available after successes in the south, also joined in May. In response to this threat, Königsegg withdrew to the bishopric of Trent, but left the fortress city of Mantua well defended. At this point the divisions between the allies became apparent, as Spain claimed Mantua and refused to guarantee Milan to Charles Emanuel. In response, Charles Emmanuel refused to allow the use of his siege equipment against Mantua. As a result, the Franco-Spanish army could do nothing but blockade the city. When Charles Emmanuel withdrew his forces from the area, the Allies were forced to retreat, and the besieged Austrians took advantage of the opportunity, recovering most of the Milanese in November, finding little opposition.

Military operations were unsatisfactory on all fronts and went on wearily, partly because Charles of Habsburg needed to have the Prammatica Sanzione recognized by the other ruling houses of Europe, including the Bourbons of France and Spain with whom Austria was at war. Charles of Habsburg, therefore, rather than countering, suffered war with France. But even France, having realized that the Polish throne was definitely lost, no longer had any interest in continuing the war with Austria.

All the disputants realized that it was necessary to end hostilities. However, proposals to open peace negotiations were lacking.

The opportunity presented itself when the marriage between Francis Stephen of Lorraine and Maria Theresa of Habsburg was announced. This circumstance offered France the opportunity to propose awarding Stanislaus Leszczyński the Duchy of Lorraine in exchange for recognition of the "prammatic sanction," with the all but concealed goal of preventing Lorraine and Austria from remaining under the same scepter.

But Francis Stephen was still the future husband of the heir to the throne of Austria; which advised against his being deprived of his homeland in the name of reason of state. The impasse prompted the King of Prussia, Frederick William I, to declare himself in favor of the French proposal with the variant of giving Francis Stephen the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as compensation for the loss of his territory. The chancelleries of the powers engaged in the war took such action and brought the conflict to a conclusion.

These events took place in the time span between October 30, 1735 (the date of the so-called Vienna preliminaries) and November 18, 1738 (the date of the Third Treaty of Vienna) and ended with the Peace of Paris on June 1, 1739, which ended the War of Polish Succession.

In the years following the Peace of Paris, Lorraine was gradually absorbed into French territory, becoming a mere province. France lost control of Acadia and Newfoundland; England gained Acadia, Newfoundland, Menorca, Gibraltar and the monopoly on black slaves; the Habsburgs retained the Southern Netherlands and the Duchy of Milan and acquired the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, exchanged by Francis Stephen for Lorraine as a treaty clause and so that he could marry Maria Theresa of Austria.

It is necessary, however, to analyze in more detail the real reasons and events that led to the signing of the Treaty of Vienna in 1738 and the subsequent Peace of Paris, as well as the consequences that the signed agreements brought throughout Europe, by retracing the events described above in light of the political motivations that directed the monarchs in their choices.

Louis XV's foreign policy, following in the footsteps of that of his predecessor and implemented with skillful mastery by his prime minister, was all geared toward the downsizing of Habsburg power, which had undergone a remarkable upsurge after the conclusion of the war for succession to the Spanish throne. For although Spain and its Caribbean and South American possessions had fallen into the French hands of the Bourbons, the Habsburgs had gained so much territory in Europe in return that Austria had become the greatest continental power.

Louis XV's policy was supported by Philip V King of Spain and the latter's second wife, Elizabeth Farnese, who, as mentioned above, saw in the French monarch's strategy the possibility of acquiring territories for their sons Don Carlos and Philip.

By the early 1930s, the King of France, having taken note that he had lost all ascendancy over Poland, which had definitely come under the influence of Russia and Austria at the hands of King Augustus II of Saxony, had been forced to turn his attention to Italy in an attempt to create a levee on the southern front of the Habsburg empire.

At the Treaty of Turin on September 26, 1733, Louis XV signed an agreement with Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, to whom he promised the cession of Lombardy in exchange for the cession of Savoy to France. Immediately afterwards, on November 7, 1733, he signed with Philip V the Treaty of the Escorial by which he promised territories in Italy to both of Elisabeth Farnese's children.

The two treaties, however, did not appear to be in perfect harmony, especially since the Escorial agreement did not fully confirm the commitments made at Turin with the Savoy. On the contrary, they even hinted at the possibility of a hegemony of Spain over the Milanese, reducing the sovereignty and autonomy of the Savoy. A circumstance of which Charles Emmanuel had immediate knowledge in the aftermath of the occupation of Milan by his troops on December 10, 1733.

The alliance relations between France, Spain, and the Savoy underwent, as a result, a considerable downsizing, but not to the point of inducing the Savoy king to reverse the alliance in favor of the imperials. Instead, Charles Emmanuel preferred to wait for the conclusion of direct negotiations between France and Austria, knowing full well that an Anglo-Dutch mediation was underway that also aimed to favor the maintenance of a Savoy state as an interposing force between the Habsburgs and the Bourbons in Italy.

After two years of warlike actions, 1734 and 1735 (on June 29, 1734, at the Battle of San Pietro, which took place near Parma, precisely at Crocetta, a very bloody battle in which thousands of soldiers and the Austrian supreme commander fell; and on September 19, 1734, at the Battle of Guastalla), France and Austria signed a preliminary peace agreement on October 3, 1735, containing the reorganization of the Italian states.

The agreements provided for the assignment of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany to Francis III Stephen of Lorraine, once Gian Gastone, the last representative of the Medici dynasty, had passed away, to compensate for the assignment of Lorraine to Leszczyński.

Austria retained the free port of Livorno but ceded the State of the Presidii, the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily to Don Charles of Bourbon.

The Savoy state was strengthened with the acquisition of the Langhe and the western Milanese territories and was also authorized to build strongholds in the newly conquered territories. Austria was granted the Prammatica Sanzione of 1713 and was given back the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza.

The Vienna preliminaries of 1735, described above, were incorporated first in the Third Treaty of Vienna of 1738 and then in the Peace of Paris of 1739, which settled the Lorraine issue once and for all.

The agreements signed by France and Austria with the Third Treaty of Vienna in 1738 should have constituted for the Italian states a final and stable arrangement within the framework of the politics of balance among all the major European powers in the first half of the 18th century. Instead, Italy's geopolitical arrangement, which came into being at the conclusion of the War of Polish Succession, was to be disrupted again in the space of a few years.

The Peace of Paris, in closing the War of Polish Succession, also sanctioned the downsizing of Habsburg power that had emerged greatly strengthened from the conclusion of the previous war of succession to the Spanish throne.

Indeed, while it is true that the Austro-Russian candidate had ascended the Polish throne, it is equally true that the new ruler sailed more in the Russian orbit than in the Habsburg one. Just as if it is true that Austria was assigned the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as well as the Duchy of Parma and Piacenza, it is equally true that this assignment came at the price of ceding Lorraine to France, the western Milanese territories to Piedmont, as well as the Kingdoms of Naples and Sicily to Don Charles of Bourbon.

The long-awaited peace in Europe seemed to have finally been achieved. It was a short-lived illusion. Within a few years another great conflict would break out, the War of Austrian Succession, which would feature the continent's most powerful dynasty, the Habsburgs.

Sources

1. War of the Polish Succession
2. Guerra di successione polacca
3. ^ Manfred Alexander: Little History of Poland (= Centro federale per l'educazione politica. Serie. 537). Bonn 2005, ISBN 3-89331-662-0 , p. 152.
4. ^ Gottfried Mraz: Prinz Eugen. Ein Leben in Bildern und Dokumenten. Süddeutscher Verlag, München 1985, pag.186. ISBN 3-7991-6224-0.
5. 1 2 Нелипович С. Г. Союз двуглавых орлов. Русско-австрийский военный альянс второй четверти XVIII в. — М.: Объединенная редакция МВД России, Квадрига, 2010. — С. 88. — ISBN 978-5-91791-045-1.
6. 1 2 Нелипович С. Г. Союз двуглавых орлов. Русско-австрийский военный альянс второй четверти XVIII в. — С. 89.
7. Нелипович С. Г. Союз двуглавых орлов. Русско-австрийский военный альянс второй четверти XVIII в. — С. 89—90.
8. ^ Lewinski-Corwin 1917, pp. 266–268.
9. ^ Lodge 1931, pp. 146–147.
10. ^ Ward & Prothero 1909, p. 63.
11. Data podpisania traktatu pokojowego; faktyczny koniec walk w 1735.
12. a b c d e f g h i j k l Szymański, Wojna sukcesyjna polska.
13. Wnioskodawcą projektu był prymas Teodor Andrzej Potocki, interrex i stronnik Leszczyńskiego.