126 LA GUERRA DI SUCCESSIONE AUSTRIACA: FEDERICO II TORNA IN CAMPO (1744)

In the autumn of 1744, the War of the Austrian Succession returned to the heart of Central Europe. After the Peace of Breslau in 1742, Frederick II of Prussia had obtained Silesia, one of the richest provinces of the Habsburg Monarchy. But that conquest remained fragile, because Maria Theresa, after initial setbacks, had recovered Prague, strengthened her alliance with England and the Kingdom of Sardinia, and was rebuilding the Habsburg position within the Holy Roman Empire. Frederick therefore decided to strike again. Through the Union of Frankfurt and the treaty with France, he presented his intervention as a defense of Emperor Charles VII of Wittelsbach, but his real objective was to protect Silesia by bringing the war to Bohemia. The campaign began with a resounding success: the Prussian army crossed Saxony, occupied Prague, and forced the Bohemian capital to capitulate on September 16, 1744. From that moment, however, the war changed face. Frederick had to occupy a vast region, defend roads and warehouses, hold the conquered capital, and face the return of the Austrian army led by Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Batthyány, and Traun. This lesson recounts the Bohemian campaign of 1744: the diplomacy that brought Prussia back into the war, the siege of Prague, the advance toward Tabor and Budweis, the Austrian reaction, the war of attrition waged by light troops, the crossing of the Elbe, and the Prussian retreat toward Silesia. A campaign that opened with the conquest of Prague and ended with a political and military reversal: Frederick entered the war to defend Silesia by attacking Bohemia, but by the end of 1744 he had to prepare to defend Silesia because Bohemia had returned to Maria Theresa.