Battle of Chiari

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Battle of Chiari
Campaign in Northern Italy 1701
Campaign in Northern Italy 1701
date September 1 , 1701
place Chiari , Italy
output Imperial victory
Parties to the conflict

Imperial Army

France Kingdom 1792France France Savoy Spain
SavoySavoy 
Spain 1506Spain 

Commander

Eugene of Savoy

France Kingdom 1792France François de Neufville

Troop strength
22,000 38,000
losses

150

3,000

Battles of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714)

The Battle of Chiari on September 1, 1701 was a battle between the Imperial and French during the War of the Spanish Succession .

prehistory

At the beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession, Spanish-French troops under the command of Marshal Catinat occupied almost all of Northern Italy and secured the passports to Austria. The Austrian army, led by Eugene of Savoy , won the battle of Carpi and thus gained access to the valley of the Mincio and thus also to northern Italy. Since Catinat did not succeed in preventing Eugene of Savoy from his advance on Milan, the French King Louis XIV had him replaced by Villeroi as commander in chief .

battle

When Eugene of Savoy heard of the change in command of the French troops, he expected an attack soon. Therefore, he broke off his advance on Milan and instead holed up in Chiari. Villeroi ignored the warnings of his generals regarding the strong Austrian defensive positions and ordered them to be stormed on September 1st. The attacking French suffered heavy losses from the shelling of the well-entrenched Austrians and finally had to break off the attack. At the end of the battle they had suffered a loss of about 3,000 dead and wounded, while the Austrian troops had only lost about 150 men.

After the repulsed attack, the French troops moved into a fortified position not far from Chiari. Both armies then remained in their camps without risking another attack. Eventually the supply situation in both camps became very poor. The French therefore gave up their position in mid-November and retired to a winter camp in the Duchy of Milan.

literature

  • David Eggenberger: An Encyclopedia of Battles. Accounts of over 1,560 Battles from 1479 BC to the Present. Courier Dover Publications, New York NY 1985, ISBN 0-486-24913-1 , p. 93, ( restricted online version in Google Book Search - USA ).
  • Joseph Humphrey Sacret: Bourbon and Vasa. A textbook of European history, 1610-1715. Clarendon Press of Oxford University Press, Oxford 1914 ( online copy in the Internet Archive ).

Web links