Chapter 59: Tragedy and Triumph (1745-47)
The Siege of Prague, September 1745. [Leonardo AI, from a period painting reference pic]
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September 1745 to January 1746: Bohemian Rhapsody
The Frisian war for Dortmund (and other North German territory) with a Habsburg-led coalition (small c) had begun in August 1743 still raged two years later, with the death toll steadily rising through combat and attrition. And the best and worst were yet to come.
By mid-September 1745 three more Bohemian provinces would be invested by Friesland, including mighty Prague (Praha) itself, whose fort would require a long siege to subdue.
The Frisian alliance’s total strength now far outweighed that of its enemies, but they had also suffered far higher casualties, mainly from the attrition all the siege warfare brought about. The bulk of the enemy’s losses had come in field battles. Attacker morale was high all around (now that the unfortunate Bavaria was out of the war), while that of the enemy was poor or failing.
On land Scandinavia had borne by far the heaviest load, followed by Friesland and Savoy for the attackers, while Savoy and Aragon had some heavy losses at sea. For the defenders, it was Austria, Cologne and Naples bearing the heaviest total burden in the field and Naples losing heavily at sea.
In October 1745 The Savoyard army investing Trier was ambushed by a larger Austrian army. Already under the pump in terms of numbers and the amazing shock value of Austrian Franz Karl I by 6 October, the leaderless Savoyard army was crushed after Colognian reinforcements struck them in the flank three days later.
After taking some toll of the attackers, the entire friendly army was either killed or captured the next day. This would not be the last tragedy to strike the Frisian Alliance in this bloody war.
The long Scandinavian siege of Vienna (Wien) had been under way for some time when they were assailed by a massive peasant rebel force originally consisting of over 80,000 men! By 10 October, the better armed and led Scandinavians were firmly in control of the battle.
They would eventually win the battle (no detailed readout is available) but their 67 regiments were now down to a total of around 36,400 men. By 16 November word reached the Federal Republic that they had broken their siege and were heading eastwards out of Austria through Pressburg.
At around the same time, two more Bohemian provinces had been occupied by Friesland. By 26 October the Scandinavians had won their battle against the Austrian rebels and were still besieging Vienna – though as we have seen they would break off a few days later.
With Austria and Cologne causing problems around Trier, Scandinavian assistance was requested to see if the enemy might be dislodged following the Savoyard disaster there the month before. One of the Frisian armies had been despatched from Bohemia and was already making its way across Germany to assist.
And it looked like one of the Scandinavian armies
might be responding, but the rest appeared to be heading north-east to the Baltic coast, where Austrian and Bohemian armies had been reducing their holdings. Others might be heading south-east, towards the enemy Genoan enclave in Crimea. In Bohemia, Brno would fall to Friesland on 12 December.
In other German affairs, Brandenburg was annexed by Magdeburg on 28 November 1745 as the consolidation of Germany continued.
And the Pope provided a nice Christmas gift to President Martena when a third Frisian cardinal was ordained, this time in Hamburg. A little Papal influence was exerted to (for the first time by Friesland) to see if they could begin building a case to be the next controller of the Curia.
In early January 1746, the large Austrian army that had fought Savoy in Trier the year before had moved onto besiege Gent. It was being chased by Leger Neubrandenburg, which was now ordered to rendezvous with L.v. Goslar (a reserve army already waiting in the capital).
Up on the Baltic coast, the Scandinavians were busy tidying up the enemy’s mischief in their coastal provinces.
January to April 1746: Thunderbolt and Lightning
Unfortunately, the absence of Leger Neubrandenburg and the obstacle of the fort in Prague to L.v. Latgalia led to an unpleasant shock for the Frisian ‘half army’ in Ostrava under Geldulf Sems. On 23 January he was hit by an Austrian army almost twice their size under the formidable Franz Karl I.
However, the enemy were attacking over a river and for now, in the fire phase at least, the Frisians were holding their own and indeed their morale was higher than that of the enemy. On the outside chance they might reach them in time – or visit bloody vengeance on the Austrians if they couldn’t – L.v. Latgalia broke its siege of Prague and began a round about march through Franconia and Bohemia to aid them.
If the surprise in Ostrava was the thunderbolt, the lightning was the Frisian attack on the Austrians in Gent just four days later. After linking up on 24 January, it was but a short march for the combined Frisian armies to Gent, where the Austrian Whitecoats would be unable to escape.
The initial Frisian volley was devastating and the Austrians would never recover. By 8 February it was all over, with the entire Austrian army of over 35,000 men either killed or captured. It was one of if not
the biggest ever Frisian victory against a major European opponent. Commanding General Luidgod Ripperda would bask in the glory for the rest of his career.
Frisian fusiliers press the attack during the triumphant Battle of Gent, 27 January 1746. [Image from Leonardo AI]
But over in Ostrava, even as the glory in Gent was unfolding, the tide had turned badly against the Frisians. By 31 January the Austrians had already taken a clear edge when horrible news came of a large Neapolitan army of over 50,000 led by the ruthless Albrecht VII von Habsburg approaching from the south.
They hit the Frisians in the flank on 2 February and, despite an attempt to withdraw, the whole army was wiped out by the 9th. 23,000 men had been swept off the board for the loss of around 8,500 enemy troops. Triumph and tragedy had struck within a day of each other.
When news of this disaster reached L.v. Latgalia they turned around and made for the relative safety of North Germany. The invasion of Bohemia was over and any remaining territory occupied there would be at the mercy of the enemy.
By then, Savoy had at least returned to invest Trier and Julich and Gent had been purged of the enemy in emphatic terms. These two major events roughly balanced each other out, but the additional manpower loss to Friesland was grievous.
Immediate steps were taken to recruit 22 new regiments to replace the troop losses (ten each of infantry and artillery, two of cavalry) in the homeland. This reduced reserve manpower to around 89,600.
As a follow-up operation, L.v. Goslar headed south to evict their namesakes from Brügge. Despite some spirited resistance, the enemy was soon overwhelmed, with Flanders cleared of all enemy troops by 15 February.
While that was happening, the enemy had begun a similar exercise in Bohemia, with over 130,000 of their troops infesting their ally’s occupied territory. Brno would be the first to be retaken on 24 March.
At this stage, a peace deal with Dortmund even ceding just that province remained out of reach
[84 positive to 122 negative reasons], mainly due to Dortmund’s resistance to being fully annexed. But other members of the enemy alliance would negotiate, so the Federal Republic did so while they still had the leverage.
From 19 February to 23 March, Berg, Dithmarschen and Münster all came to terms, the latter two being fully annexed. Friesland simply didn’t care any longer about the reputation for aggressive expansion this engendered. They decided it was time to grab their own stake in the consolidation of Germany.
By 24 March, there was less leverage on Dortmund to force them out of the war
[73 to 125] now the other peace deals had been made. The war would continue, but in the meantime there were more enemy nations willing to deal.
First Bohemia (reparations and ongoing payments) and then Austria (a large one-off payment) were split away, followed by little Goslar. Though at least they retained their homeland. Of these powers, the Austrians had taken the lion’s share of casualties along the way.
Naples still held out, despite a Savoyard army having been ranging across their homeland for months now.
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May 1746 to March 1747: Will you do the Fandango?
The last act of the Landtag expired on 11 May 1746 and debate was begun on the extension of officer commissions. A number of political deals (known colloquially as ‘Dancing the Fandango’) were done first up, but President Martena baulked at the last few: he claimed that “his dance card was full”. The final votes to see the bill passed would have to wait.
"Martena, Martena, will you do the Fandango?"
All three of the Javanese provinces acquired in the previous Pajang war had become a formal part of the Frisian patrimony the day after the Landtag vote reached deadlock.
At that time, other than the last throes of the Frisian-Dortmunder War, the only other known conflict in the world was the large and long-running 2nd Deccan-Bengali Imperialist War. And Friesland now only faced Cologne, Lorraine Dortmund, Genoa and Naples.
As May 1746 ended, Göttingen in Cologne was occupied while Friesland and its allies besieged five other forts across north-western Germany and other allied armies were ranging south through Bavaria.
Genoa – now a single expatriate enclave on the Sea of Azov – continued to refuse peace terms. However, it seemed an avalanche of Scandinavian armies was about to descend upon them. The sledgehammer was about to crack the nut.
Ravensberg was occupied on 9 June while the army moved onto the fortress of Paderborn and the Scandinavians took Berg in July. While a little closer again, any favourable settlement was still some way off. Dortmund was not yet in the mood for a dance.
But Genoa was: they too were forced to make terms and pay reparations and tribute to the victors (presumably mainly Scandinavia, who had gone out of their way to humble them).
The war meandered on until late December, when Paderborn fell – but still Dortmund refused to bend the knee, though they were starting to waver.
As this slow agony played out and no-one was prepared to spare the humble soldiers’ lives from this monstrosity, a new mission was sent to London to once more shore up the relationship with Great Britain in late January 1747.
And more consolidation in Germany seemed on the cards when Mainz declared a nationalist war on the weakened Bohemia. But perhaps their real target was closer to home, in Halle.
In any case, Köln fell to Scandinavia on 19 March 1747 and this was the final nail in Dortmund’s coffin. A hard bargain was made. Dortmund was no more, while Cologne paid the price of its loyalty to their ally by being forced to cede three provinces, including Köln itself.
Around 950,000 soldiers had died on both sides in this horrendous war, around one tenth of them from Friesland. The Federal Republic had expanded widely into north-western Germany and Cologne had been significantly diminished as a regional power. And Friesland’s reputation as expansionist aggressors had plumbed previously unknown depths.
Peace might now reign over an expanded Friesland, but the severe overextension would need to be managed. As would increased liberty desire among the inhabitants of colonial New Friesland, where local officials were soon sending warnings that ‘something must be done’!
These were tunes President Martena
was ready to dance to. Steps were taken to include Berg, Dortmund and Köln in the patrimony. Ravensberg would have to wait for more administrative effort to be available.
For New Friesland, a diplomatic mission was re-established to again foster friendly relations. War exhaustion was also addressed to decrease national unrest. And perhaps most importantly tariffs were reduced to appease the merchants of New Friesland.
Together, these initiatives would be enough to take unrest there below the critical level – for now, at least. But nothing could now be done to repair the once close relationship with former ally Franconia. Recent Frisian aggressive expansion into HRE-controlled areas was bad enough: Franconia now rabidly coveted the new provinces Frisia had added to the Republic.
It may not come at once – if Friesland could help it – but a showdown with the other major expansionist in Germany seemed inevitable to the future. At least Friesland still maintained a powerful alliance network, which had shown its formidable potential in the recent war. Franconia was not yet so blessed.
The end of the war saw Friesland maintaining its place in the global pecking order and it may eventually pass the Deccan Empire once the new territories had been absorbed, depending on how the Deccans fared in their own large regional war.
