In the first few month of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria’s reign, she faced invasion, world war, and noble Hungarians. She cut a deal with king Frederick of Prussia that would have allowed her to defeat her enemies, if not for her husband’s military incompetence. How does Frederick respond?
If Maria had few illusions as to what a tricky “friend” Frederick could be, his behavior after their deal, the Klineschnellendorf Convention (Yes, I had to spell check that BY HAND!) certainly confirmed it. As we have seen, Maria’s husband was very tardy in following up the advantage that Frederick had handed the Austrians by suddenly withdrawing from the war. Frederick’s withdrawal left the Bavarian army and their French allies badly exposed while they attacked Prague.
It had been Frederick’s hope that the Austrian army would cut his “allies” down to size, and exhaust themselves doing so, thereby leaving Prussia free to move however Frederick saw fit. In Frederick’s view, weak neighbors were always a good thing, especially if one of them was France.
Austria’s failure to follow up gave him an idea. If the Austrians had gotten themselves between a rock and a hard place outside Prague…hmmm…why not take Vienna? Frederick signed a secret agreement with Charles Albert of Bavaria, who really should have known better, to sell Frederick the county of Glatz at a bargain basement price, in return for Frederick’s electoral vote.
On December 19th, 1741, Charles Albert was crowned King of Bohemia. On the same day, Frederick occupied Trouppau. Two days after Christmas, he took Olmutz, the Moravian fortress and key to Vienna.
This should have pleased everyone. Everyone except Maria, of course. It didn’t please her in the least. In fact, it cheesed her off considerably. None of the power players at the time considered that a matter of importance.
And that probably would have been true had Maria been a dutiful wife and left her husband in charge of her army. But she didn’t. She ordered her husband to return to Vienna, replaced him with his own brother, Charles of Lorraine, and turned to Count Khevenhuller, the fellow she entrusted the defense of Vienna to while she was in Hungary.
Between them they came up with a plan. It was a good one, if it worked. The chances of it not working were excellent. And if it failed? Vienna would be wide open. It had the not insignificant element of surprise. Maria would not only be doing something unexpected, she would be doing something no one thought possible.
While the main Austrian army was bogged down outside a Prague firmly in enemy hands, with the French army moving to block their line of retreat, Maria launched Khevenhuller across the Enns River with all the troops she could muster on short notice.
Not only was the enemy driven out of Austria, but Khevenhuller, with Maria’s blessing, pushed on and captured the Bavarian capital of Munich. What made this especially delightful for Maria was that Charles Albert was in Frankfort at the time, having himself crowned Holy Roman Emperor.
That was the job Maria had tried, and failed, to get for her husband. Now the fellow who did get it couldn’t go home because Maria’s troops occupied his capital. Neh,neh,nah neh,neh.
It also gave Frederick unexpected political cover. He could claim, as only Frederick could, that Maria’s actions had forced him to sally forth with his army to keep the Austrians from…invading France!…maybe. Never mind that Frederick had struck days before Maria made her move. According to one historian; “Maria Theresa was past indignation by now; that could be left to Frederick’s allies.”
Frederick never got closer to Vienna than it’s suburbs. His other strategic objective, freeing up the French troops who found themselves stuck in Bohemia, was not achieved either. Fighting between Prussia and Austria became intense, with the Austrians, under their new commander, fighting much better than they had in the past.
Frederick was growing increasingly skeptical of his allies fighting abilities. The Battle of Chotusic was a Prussian victory, but a dear one. Prussia lost nearly 7,000 troops. The Austrian losses were about the same, but the Austrian army was much larger.
Frederick decided to take his ball and go home. It just wasn’t fun anymore. Before he left, he sent Charles Albert a catty letter blaming the French for his inability to drive the Austrians out of Bavaria. “Terribly sorry, old chap. Good luck getting home.” was the gist of it.
With Prussia withdrawing, again, the French decided to throw in the towel. For the time being. The Treaty of Breslau ended the First Silesian War. Austria regained nothing. But much had changed. Austria may not have won back Silesia, but neither had it been overrun. That had been a very real possibility.
Now, Austria could NOT be overrun. Not even by the all-powerful French. Austria, if not the Hapsburg Empire, had risen from it’s death bed to become a real continental power. And Maria Theresa was the single reason it had done so.
— Mr Al
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