Battle of the Schellenberg

The title of this article is ambiguous. For a similar battle in Transylvania in 1599 see Battle of Schellenberg

Battle of the Schellenberg

Part of: War of the Spanish Succession

The Battle of Schellenberg, tapestry by Judocus de Vos

date	July 2, 1704
place	at Donauwörth
output	Grand Alliance Victory

Parties to the conflict
England United Netherlands Imperial Army	Bavaria France
Commander
Duke of Marlborough Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden	Count of Arco Marchese di Maffei
Troop strength
about 22,000 men	approx. 13,000 men and 16 cannons
losses
1,342 dead, 3,699 wounded	approx. 5,000 killed or drowned, approx. 3,000 prisoners

The Battle of Schellenberg during the War of the Spanish Succession took place on July 2, 1704 on the Schellenberg near Donauwörth . The troops of the Grand Alliance under the command of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough , and Ludwig of Baden-Baden defeated the Bavarian army . With this victory and the subsequent taking Danube Woerth was Danube line broken and the Electorate of Bavaria abandoned to access the Allies.

background

French-Bavarian operations

On September 8, 1702, the Bavarian Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel intervened in the War of the Spanish Succession on the French side by occupying Ulm . In the spring of 1703, Bavarian and French associations united in the Black Forest , but military cooperation did not take place, as Marshal Villars feared that an advance of his army to the east could lead to supply problems. Cooperation was also hindered by the fact that the Bavarian elector had secret negotiations with the emperor about an armistice . Instead, it was agreed that the Bavarians should unite with the French Marshal Vendôme in northern Italy . A revolt by the Tyroleans prevented this project. Despite the victory in the Battle of Höchstädt , Villars was recalled and replaced by Ferdinand de Marsin . In the winter of 1703/04, Bavarian troops conquered Augsburg and Passau and threatened Vienna . The Frenchman Camille d'Hostun de la Baume, duc de Tallard successfully besieged Landau in the Palatinate .

The Marlborough campaign

The military successes of the Bavarians and the French had created an unfavorable situation for the Kaiser and the naval powers in southern Germany. A plan by the English Captain General John Churchill Duke of Marlborough promised a remedy . He intended to move south along the Rhine with his units in the Netherlands and to unite there with the Imperial Army and the troops of Prince Eugene of Savoy . What made him do this is controversial. However, the historian Marcus Junkelmann believes it is likely that a diplomat in the service of the Habsburgs asked the naval powers for help, which was a good thing for the ambitious Briton Marlborough, who felt rather hindered in the Dutch theater of war by officers who were in his eyes overcautious. Junkelmann, however, doubts (citing a dissertation by Franz Mathis ) that the " spiritus rector " of this idea was Prince Eugene personally. It is undisputed, however, that further imperial failures would have had serious consequences for the further course of the war. On May 20, 1704, 21,000 men set out under the command of Marlborough and marched south. They reached Heidelberg via Cologne , Koblenz , Mainz and Darmstadt . The French reckoned that the maritime campaign was aimed at a threat to the Upper Rhine front and were therefore surprised when the army, which had now grown to 40,000 men, turned to the east. Not only the British fought in this army, but also the Dutch, as well as the Danes and Germans who were paid for by the sea powers. On June 29th, the Danube was crossed at Ulm, after having united with the troops of Ludwig von Baden shortly before. As a result, the Great Alliance had now achieved numerical preponderance in the southern German theater of war. Although the Bavarian elector recognized early on what Marlborough was planning, his requests for reinforcements from Louis XIV went unanswered for a long time. The Bourbone gave Marshal Tallard the order to march towards Bavaria on June 23, 1704 .

Allied considerations

Ludwig von Baden, the Duke of Marlborough and Eugen von Savoyen laid down the following strategy : The latter was supposed to prevent the French troops from southwest Germany from reaching the Bavarian theater of war, the former was supposed to either decisively defeat the Wittelsbacher or at least make him submissive by devastating the country .

The battle at Donauwörth

Battle of Schellenberg, 1704. After Marlborough's attack, Baden's troops storm the poorly defended western lines.

Marlborough and Ludwig Wilhelm moved with meanwhile 50,000 men along the northern bank of the Danube to the east to force a passage over the river. On the south bank, 35,000 soldiers, who were in the service of the French king and the Bavarian elector, also marched east and moved into an entrenched camp near Dillingen at the end of June . Johann Baptist Graf von Arco was ordered to Donauwörth with 13,000 men to secure the city and, above all, the strategically important bridge there. 10,000 soldiers subordinate to the Arco were supposed to defend the Schellenberg. In order to facilitate this, entrenchments were built, which, however, were not yet completed when the British attacked. Allied units reached the Wörnitz Valley on the morning of July 2, 1704, and Marlborough ordered the attack on the same evening. He wanted to get the Danube crossing quickly because he expected the Bavarian-French main army to arrive. Two British-Dutch attacks were repulsed, but then the Margrave of Baden bypassed the Bavarian positions and fell into Arco's flank . The Bavarians withdrew and suffered heavy losses from being pursued by enemy cavalry . 4000 of the Bavarian soldiers died and 1000 were taken prisoner. The enemy lost around 6,000 men, including the Imperial Field Marshal Hermann Otto II of Limburg-Styrum , who died of an injury on July 9, 1704. Donauwörth was evacuated after the magazines were set on fire by the retreating Bavarian soldiers. In Augsburg Marsin and Max Emanuel waited with their troops for Tallard to arrive .

consequences

By conquering Donauwörth, France's opponents had taken a strategically important river crossing. But since there was not enough artillery to besiege Augsburg, this victory could not be exploited. Instead, they started to devastate the country in order to force the Bavarian ruler to the negotiating table. In the judicial district of Rain alone (later: Rain Regional Court ), which extended directly to the Danube and Lech, 856 residential buildings, 521 barns, 9 mills, 13 manors, 3 castles and 3 churches were burned down. Similar devastation has been passed down from the neighboring districts of Aichach and Schrobenhausen .

But there are also reports of the looting of 1704, which were recorded in various churches in Upper Bavaria, such as B. in Erdweg , Petershausen , Markt Indersdorf and Dachau . The villages of Viehbach and Bachenhausen (near Fahrenzhausen , about 30 km north of Munich) also recorded the looting and fires. When the enemy avoided their villages, they saw it as a miracle and they swore a vow to forever keep mass on St. Florian's Day (May 4th) to remember their liberation. The proclamation can still be seen in the old village church in Viehbach.

But just as this tactic was having an effect, Max Emanuel received the long-awaited reinforcement, which increased his self-confidence. On August 13, 1704, he and his French allies took part in the battle of Höchstädt , lost and went into exile .

Web links

Commons : Schlacht am Schellenberg  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Siege of the city of Donauwörth (Deutsche Fotothek)
• Plan of the Battle of Schellenberg (Deutsche Fotothek)

literature

• “The Battle of Höchstädt - The Battle of Blenheim” (exhibition catalog), p. 55 ff., P. 191 ff., Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2004, ISBN 3-7995-0214-9

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Schertl, church historian, Haimhausen. http://kirchenundkapellen.de/kirchenpz/viehbach.php