Koenig Krieg - A (Very) Short History by Greg Perry
The 30 year period covered by Koenig Krieg is by any measure both geographically and culturally diverse. One component of the era, The Seven Years War, has often been considered ‘the First World War’ referring to the quasi global nature of the conflict (Europe, North America, India, Caribbean, Iberian Peninsular and Philippines) from a necessarily Euro-centric view of the world during the period and additionally the constant hot and cold wars fought between France and Britain throughout the period as both countries fought for global supremacy.
The portion of the eighteenth century that most represents the quintessential nature of the period and the Koenig Krieg rules are the years 1733-1763. They are the years in which we, as Koenig Krieg players, are normally most interested. Those years broadly take in the following Wars.
1733 - 1738 War of the Polish Succession
1735 - 1737 Spanish Portuguese War
1736 - 1739 Russo Turkish War
1737 - 1739 Austro Turkish War
1740 - 1742 First Silesian War
1740 - 1748 War of the Austrian Succession
1741 - 1743 Russo Swedish War
1744 - 1745 Second Silesian War
1744 - 1748 King George's War
1745 - 1746 Jacobite Rebellion
1754 - 1763 French and Indian War
1756 - 1763 Seven Years War
1762 - 1763 Spanish Portuguese War
This is not to say re-fighting the smaller battles of the French Indian Wars (with all the colour and interest of the colonials – not to mention the Indians!) and engagements in India are not of great interest or high on the agenda of Koenig Krieg players. Anything but! More, when we think of set-piece battles fought by magnificently uniformed and arrayed armies, all doing the bidding of Kings, Queens, Princes and Generals, in constant pursuit of their own best interests (and in the best interest of their nation, of course) these 23 years are the core of what Koenig Krieg is all about. Oh, and have I mentioned a certain Frederick the Great!
The War of Austrian Succession (WAS) was touched off by the death of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. Charles had made every effort to ensure the succession of Habsburg lands (Austria and her territories) to the eldest daughter Maria Theresa. The simple fact she was a woman, however, gave all the European players an opportunity to find a successor more suitable to their own ambitions. A situation made unintentionally worse by the convenient death in Russia of the Tzarina Ann, which temporarily removed an important Austrian ally from the stage. Meanwhile Frederick (who would become ‘the Great’) King of Prussia, shrewdly sensing the weak position of Maria Theresa took the opportunity to march into the Austrian province of Silesia; thereby nearly doubling the size of the Prussian nation.
Maria Theresa was unimpressed to say the least, and the shooting started.
What followed was a series of major engagements, the first of which (Mollwitz) could have ended Frederick’s career before it began. The Austrian cavalry completely routed the Prussian horse on the right wing, while the still inexperienced Frederick allowed himself to be caught up in the disaster and carried away. Only the steadiness of both the Prussian infantry and Frederick's subordinate commanders saved the day and turned defeat into victory. Though perhaps a blow to Frederick's ego, this victory by an unsung Prussia (considered a minor power at the time) was a sensation throughout Europe and served to bring out sharp knives from all those who wished to take a pound of flesh from a seemingly reeling Austria – not least of all France.
Eager to add lower Silesia to his possessions and with the French supporting the Bavarian Charles Albert for the throne at Maria Theresa’s expense, Frederick struck an alliance with France in an attempt to facilitate the two countries mutually acceptable aims.
Meanwhile Maria Theresa, knowing she could in no way deal with both France and Prussia acceded to Prussian demands allowing Frederick to then secretly throw his new allies, the French, ‘to the wolves.’ This allowed Austria to isolate the French and occupy Bavaria.
The double-dealing does not end there. Frederick, uneasy about this new level of Austrian success, denounced his alliance with Austria and attacked the province of Moravia! Though he made little progress, Frederick won his first personal battle at Chotusitz and in the following treaty of Berlin maintained nearly the whole of Silesia, thus gaining his primary objective.
In 1744, in an attempt to add Bohemia to his growing state, astonishingly Frederick was back in alliance with France. Not surprisingly, the French, in the light of the above desertion rather deliberately failed to act with necessary support. Frederick, without the necessary French backing and impressively outmanoeuvred by the Austrian General Traun was forced to abandon Bohemia.
In other European theatres battles raged unabated, with the French winning the famous victory of Fontenoy against the British, but otherwise with little of lasting influence being achieved. Frederick was to lay further laurels to his military reputation, winning notable victories at Hohenfriedberg and the Battle of Soor. In Italy, a campaign involving no less than the Genoese Republic, France, Austria, Spain, Naples, and Sardinia was in full swing. Austria got the best of it and was masters of Northern Italy for a time, but was unable to hold their gains and ended up holding Lombardy only.
Though Maria Theresa managed to maintain her situation, the acquisition of Silesia by Prussia was the single most important consequence of the WAS. It proved illustrative not just of the rise of Prussian military power, both in the army and of Frederick the Great as a general, but also both in the political and in the economic ramifications for the Prussian state. During the WAS Frederick laid down the foundations for true great power status: now he simply had to keep it!
During the ten year hiatus between wars political manoeuvring continued unabated even if the shooting had stopped. Due to a series of diplomatic blunders, most important of which was an alliance with Britain which enraged the French right into the arms of Austria, Frederick and Prussia were soon to face a coalition of France, Austria, Sweden and Russia, all bent on ending this upstart Kingdom once and for all. The Seven Years War had begun (7YW).
Luckily for Frederick, Britain considered British interests in Hanoverian to be in serious peril from the French. Correspondingly, they provided Subsidies to fund Frederick’s war machine and the allied army in Hanover served to guard his Northern Flank. Frederick himself wrote later that if the French had been more attentive to Prussia and less preoccupied in dealing with the Allies, his cause would have been lost.
In spite of a number of early setbacks at the hands of the Austrians at Kolin: and Berlin itself, being raided!) Frederick won a decisive battle against the French at Rossbach; with a further major victory (Leuthen) against the Austrians, which was to become renowned among military historians for Frederick's first use of ‘the oblique order.’ The two battles saved Prussia from destruction and cast Frederick’s reputation as the finest General of his age.
During the years that followed an astonishing number of major engagements were fought involving all the major protagonists, with varying results on all sides (Reichenberg, Krefeld, Zorndorf, Tornow, Hotchkirch, Kay, Minden, Maxen, Kunersdorf, Landshut, Warburg, Liegnitz, Torgue and Villinghausen to name a few). The 7YW was becoming a war of attrition with the fighting between the Prussians and Russians being notably fierce.
Surrounded by larger hostile powers, Prussia surviving the 7YW is the greatest compliment one can attribute to Frederick the Great. As both a General and a Statesman his attention to detail and the ruthless use of every resource available to the Prussian state (and at times the smaller states nearby) ultimately allowed survival until the political situation became more favourable. Always moving on interior lines, Frederick out marched and manoeuvred with the kind of energy and brilliance that not only helped ensure the survival of his nation, but which also was to be later studied by no less a personage than Napoleon Bonaparte.
Pivotally, an outside and non-military event was to have dramatic consequences to the outcome of the 7YW. The death of the hostile Tzarina Elisabeth and ascension of Tsar Peter III (for whom Frederick was a hero) changed the landscape yet again in Europe. With Russia removed from hostilities the situation for Prussia was vastly improved. France rapidly lost interest in the conflict and the end of the coalition was nigh. Unhindered, Frederick drove the Austrians from Silesia and the status quo was maintained. Events elsewhere were to have more lasting consequences with France losing the colonial struggle and the behaviour of Britain laying the seeds for the American Revolution and the subsequent loss of North America
This is a very brief outline of the fascinating and sometimes bewildering machinations of the major players of both the WAS and the 7YW. As gamers, whether choosing the WAS or the 7YW, the appeal of these pivotal conflicts is undiminished. Brilliant uniforms and ‘battlefield presentation’ aside, the sheer number of nations involved allow those lucky enough to be members of a wargaming club, or even a group of wargaming friends, to each take a major power (or one of the colourful smaller states!), making each battle a unique experience. For those who love to play detailed campaigns involving systems of diplomacy and intrigue in addition to military campaigning, the WAS and 7YW are quite simply a gamers dream come true!
