Ah Maria, “But That All Lay in the Future.”

It has been said that the War of the Austrian Succession was, in fact, the first world war. By the time it ended with the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in October of 1748, not only had all of Europe been pulled into it to one extent or another, but fighting had taken place all over the globe.

Because of Spanish involvement there was fighting in South America. Fighting between France and England in North America and Asia. Most of this fighting had nothing whatsoever to do with Austria. The end result of all this fighting, for Austria, was nothing. At least, nothing that anyone in Austria at that time considered a gain.

Silesia was now almost in Prussian hands. What bits of it that were not were threatened. The Austrian Netherlands had fallen to France. On the face of it, things were grim for Austria. However, Austria herself was still intact. In fact, Maria Theresa had wrought something of a miracle.

Not only was Austria intact, but her army had been reorganized into a (for that time) modern military organization. The same could not be said for it’s command structure, unfortunately. The countries finances were on a much better footing. The government had, at most every level, been re-organized and made better.

The Austria inherited by Maria eight years earlier had been on the verge of collapse. Now Austria was on the verge of becoming a modern, centralized power.

But all this lay in the future. Meanwhile, back at the ranch; Vienna was under the gun, all seemed lost. Maria’s ministers were in despair and begging her to surrender. The citizens of Vienna had thrown up barricades, ready to go down fighting if need be.

A miracle would be needed. And one occurred. Actually, two miracles seemed to occur, but only one of them was an actual miracle; the other was just one of those things that seemed to happen with cynical regularity in European politics of the 18th century.

The first was Maria’s convincing the Hungarians to fight on the side of a Hapsburg Empire they had no reason whatsoever to trust. Truly a miracle. The second was the decision of Charles Albert to ignore Vienna entirely and attack Prague instead.

This was considered by the citizens of Vienna to be a Really Nice Thing. For Maria, it was a mixed blessing. Vienna was saved, but Bohemia was now under threat. She had nothing to stop Charles with. All she could do was watch Bohemia go under.

And then the seeming miracle occurred. Who should decide to ride to Maria’s rescue but Frederick! He was more than happy to romp through the daisies hand in hand with the French and Bavarians, but his strategic goal of securing Silesia had been achieved. What the French wanted was something else altogether.

The French were happy to back Charles. Saxony, which had lately joined the parade, was right behind him. Frederick didn’t care for that at all. Those Bavarian and Saxon fellows were getting a little to self-important to suit Frederick. They were getting above their station. And there were the French, encouraging them every step of the way for their own reasons. This was not in Prussia’s best interests at all.

Frederick had an idea. He approached Maria, through diplomatic channels, with it. Maria was deeply suspicious of it, but it offered her what she needed most at that time, so she jumped on it.

The idea was simple. Prussia would stop fighting and go home. France and the others wouldn’t like that one little bit. Nosirreebob, they wouldn’t like that at all. So…Frederick and Maria would have to do a bit of play acting. If Maria agreed to secede lower Silesia and the fortress city of Neisse, Frederick would go home. But… the French and the others must never find out! Not never! So… Austria and Prussia would continue to APPEAR to be fighting. Troops would march out and be dramatic, a lot of yelling and guns fired, after a suitable interval, Maria would call “enough” Frederick would declare himself the winner then go home.

If the French asked, and they would, he could claim; “Hey, she surrendered everything I wanted. Are you gonna pay me and my army to fight for stuff you guys want, but I don’t?” He could claim, with a strait face, that he had fulfilled his treaty obligations to France and go home, leaving a far from spent Austrian army at the rear of Charles Albert’s army.

For Charles Albert, this was a very bad thing. Very bad. It would have been disastrous for the Bavarians and their allies had Austria pursued this God- sent opportunity. They didn’t. But not for the lack of Maria trying to light a fire under her commander to get his butt in gear and win a great victory.

Less than three weeks after Frederick left them in the lurch, the Bavarians, French auxiliaries and Saxons were at the gates of Prague. Frederick had fully expected the Austrians to do what he would have done to such a target; fall on the enemies rear and smash them to tiny bits.

But that didn’t happen. The Austrian army, commanded by Maria’s husband, took it’s sweet time closing with the enemy. In fact, it never did close with the enemy, which made defeating the enemy problematic in the extreme. It also made the loss of Bohemia a dead certainty. Charles took Prague and declared himself King of Bohemia.

The Austrian army had, meanwhile, placed itself in a very bad position. It had strong enemy forces, victorious ones to boot, dead ahead while a French army under Marshal Belle-Isle was closing in on it’s rear. Frederick, after watching all this, reconsidered his position. After, I would imagine, laughing himself sick at Austrian incompetence, re-entered the fray and set his army on the road to Vienna.

— Mr. Al