GREAT BRITAIN AND THE DEFENCE OF THE LOW COUNTRIES 1744-1748: Armies, Politics and Diplomacy

1-240750

Explains how the progress of the fighting in the Low Countries influenced politics back in London, and how resulting political decisions affected the course of military operations. Analyzes military campaigns and an examination of their political mismanagement. Military failure now changed the government's preoccupations. With the threat of French invasion and the prospect of a Jacobite uprising, the question was whether home defense or the war in Flanders were to take priority. After further military failures, the pertinacity of the leading proponent of war measures, the Duke of Newcastle, was shaken early in 1748 as the reality of a dire military situation made itself apparent. The progress of peace talks at Aix-la-Chapelle thereafter mirrored exactly the path of impending military catastrophe, with the mighty fortress of Maestricht firmly in French sights.