First battle near Höchstädt

First battle near Höchstädt (1703)

Part of: War of the Spanish Succession

Schematic representation of the battle on the northern bank of the Danube

date	September 20, 1703
place	Höchstädt on the Danube
output	Victory of France and Bavaria

Parties to the conflict
Imperial Army of Prussia	France Bavaria
Commander
Count of Limburg-Styrum Leopold I (Anhalt-Dessau)	General Claude de Villars, Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel
Troop strength
10,000 Habsburgs 6,000 Prussians	24,000 men
losses
Habsburg > 3,000 dead, wounded and prisoners Prussia 138 dead and wounded 800 prisoners	1,000 dead and wounded

The First Battle of Höchstädt in the War of the Spanish Succession from 1701 to 1714 took place on September 20, 1703 near Höchstädt on the Danube in Bavaria. The battle resulted in a Franco-Bavarian victory under the command of General Villars against imperial and Prussian troops under the command of the imperial general Count of Limburg-Styrum .

prehistory

On September 5, 1703, imperial troops under the command of Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden surprisingly occupied the neutral Augsburg . This enabled the Danube to be bypassed and the Electorate of Bavaria to be threatened directly from the west. The French General Villars and the Bavarian Elector Max Emanuel followed the enemy, but did not dare to attack him in his entrenched position near Augsburg. At Haunsheim, north of the Danube, the margrave had left a corps of 16,000 men under the command of Count Styrum. This corps, consisting of 26 battalions and 48 squadrons, began to advance down the Danube to the east on September 18, 1703. It reached Höchstädt on September 19th. Learned as general Villars and the Bavarian elector Max Emanuel of this movement, they sat immediately their south of Donauwörth standing troops in march and crossed the Danube to attack with their 17,000 Limburg-Styrum from the east, while at Dillingen standing French corps d 'Usson with 7,000 men should grab the enemy in the rear.

Course of the battle

The large-scale concentric approach initially failed because the Corps d'Usson attacked too early and was repulsed with superior strength by the imperial general Limburg zu Styrum. But then the main power arrived under the command of Villars and Max Emanuel, and the tide turned. The Imperial Army was rolled up before it was able to withdraw and take up a new position.

It was only thanks to the 6,000 strong Prussian rearguard under Prince Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau that the Austrian Styrum reached the protective Nördlingen with the remaining army .

aftermath

The losses of the Imperial Army amounted to about 4,000 men, the greater part of them prisoners. 37 guns and almost the entire train fell into the hands of the French and Bavarians . Their losses amounted to around 1,000 dead and wounded.

See also

• List of wars and battles in Prussia
• Second battle near Höchstädt

Individual evidence

1. ^ Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army . Vol. 1: From the 15th century to 1740 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, p. 454.
2. ^ Curt Jany: History of the Prussian Army . Vol. 1: From the 15th century to 1740 . Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, p. 452.
3. ↑ Werner Schmidt: Friedrich I. - Elector of Brandenburg King in Prussia , Heinrich Hugendubel Verlag, Munich 2004, p. 165

literature

• John B. Hattendorf : The Origins of the Spanish War of Succession . In: Bernd Wegner (ed.): How wars arise. On the historical background of conflicts between states . Schöningh, Paderborn 2000 (= War in History , Vol. 4), p. 109 ff.
• Karl Staudinger: History of the Bavarian Army under Elector Max II. Emanuel. 1680-1726 . J. Lindauer, Munich 1904–1905 (= History of the Bavarian Army , Vol. 2, 1/2)
• Curt Jany : History of the Prussian Army . Vol. 1: From the 15th century to 1740 . New edition of the first edition supplemented by Eberhard Jany in 1914. Biblio Verlag, Osnabrück 1967, there pp. 450–455.