THE BATTLE OF FONTENOY 1745: Saxe Against Cumberland in the War of the Austrian Succession

1-220710

The Battle of Fontenoy marked a turning point in the War of the Austrian Succession. This book describes the fighting in graphic detail and sets it in the context of the sequence of wars that determined the shape of Europe during the eighteenth century.

Great Britain with her Austrian and Dutch allies fought to ensure that Maria Theresa of Austria should be able to take the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Ranged against her interests was the might of Louis XV's France, which strove to weaken Austria by promoting a Bavarian aspirant to the Imperial throne. The two sides met on 11 May 1745 in a ferocious day-long struggle at Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands that changed course of the war.