Battle of Piacenza

Battle of Piacenza (1746)
Part of the War of the Austrian Succession

The battle at Piacenza in 1746; painting by Karl von Blaas (Museum: Belvedere)
Date16 June 1746
Location
Piacenza, Italy
Result Austrian victory[1][2]
Belligerents
Spain Spain
 France		  Austria
Commanders and leaders
Spain Comte de Gages
Kingdom of France Marquis de Maillebois		 Habsburg monarchy Prince Josef Wenzel
Habsburg monarchy Marquis of Botta d'Adorno
Habsburg monarchy Count Maximilian Ulysses Browne
Strength
25,000 Spanish,
15,000 French[3]		 45,000[3]
Casualties and losses
13,000 dead, wounded and captured[4] 3,400 dead or wounded[4]

The Battle of Piacenza was fought between a Franco-Spanish army and the Austrian army near Piacenza, in Northern Italy on June 16, 1746. It formed part of later operations in the War of the Austrian Succession. The result was a victory for the Austrian forces, led by Prince Josef Wenzel.

Prince Franz Josef I and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm were among the notable combatants.

  1. ^ According to Reed Browning: "Few would have suspected it that day, but in fact the question of domination in Lombardy had now been effectively answered for the next half century". Browning, Reed: The War of the Austrian Succession. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995. ISBN 0312125615, p. 276.
  2. ^ According to Jeremy Black, the battle of Piacenza "ended Bourbon hopes of overrunning northern Italy and set the territorial pattern of the peninsula until the French Revolutionary Wars". Black, Jeremy: European Warfare, 1660–1815. London: Taylor & Francis, 1994. ISBN 185728173X, p. 127.
  3. ^ a b Browning, p. 274
  4. ^ a b Browning, p. 276