Third Silesian War

The Third Silesian War (German: Dritter

Schlesischer Krieg) was a conflict
between Prussia and Austria (together
with its allies) that lasted from 1756 to
1763 and confirmed Prussia's control of
the region of Silesia (now in south-
western Poland). The war was fought
mainly in Silesia, Bohemia and Upper
Saxony and formed one theatre of the
Seven Years' War. It was the last of three
Silesian Wars fought between Frederick
the Great's Prussia and Maria Theresa's
Austria in the mid-18th century, all three
of which ended in Prussian control of
Silesia.
 Third Silesian War
Part of the Seven Years' War and the
Silesian Wars

Prussian grenadiers advancing at the Battle

of Leuthen, as depicted by Carl Röchling

Date 29 August 1756 – 15 February

1763

Location Central Europe

Result Prussian victory

Belligerents
 Prussia  Habsburg
Monarchy
 Saxony
  Russia (until 1762)
 France (until 1758)
Commanders and leaders

King Frederick II Archduchess

Maria Theresa
Hans von Lehwaldt
Count Kurt von Maximilian
Schwerin  † Ulysses Browne
 (DOW)
Hans Karl von
Winterfeldt  (DOW) Prince Charles of
Lorraine
Duke Augustus
William of Count Leopold von
Brunswick-Bevern Daun
 (POW) Baron Ernst von
James Keith  † Laudon

Prince Henry of Empress Elizabeth

Prussia
Stepan
Fyodorovich
 Apraksin
Count William
Fermor
Count Pyotr
Saltykov

King Louis XV

Charles, Prince of
Soubise

Casualties and losses

180,000 dead Over 145,000 dead
or missing

This conflict can be viewed as a

continuation of the First and Second
Silesian Wars of the previous decade.
After the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ended
the War of the Austrian Succession,
Austria enacted broad reforms and
upended its traditional diplomatic policy
to prepare for renewed war with Prussia.
As with the previous Silesian Wars, no
particular triggering event initiated the
conflict; rather, Prussia struck
opportunistically to disrupt its enemies'
plans. The war's cost in blood and
treasure was high on both sides, and it
ended inconclusively when neither of the
main belligerents could sustain the
conflict any longer.

The war began with a Prussian invasion

of Saxony in mid-1756, and it ended in a
Prussian diplomatic victory with the 1763
Treaty of Hubertusburg, which confirmed
Prussian control of Silesia. The treaty
resulted in no territorial changes, but
Austria agreed to recognise Prussia's
sovereignty in Silesia in return for
Prussia's support for the election of
Maria Theresa's son, Archduke Joseph,
as Holy Roman Emperor. The conflict
formed part of the ongoing Austria–
Prussia rivalry that would shape German
politics for more than a century. The war
greatly enhanced the prestige of Prussia,
which won general recognition as a
major European power, and of Frederick,
who cemented his reputation as a
preeminent military commander.
Context and causes

Europe in the years after the Treaty of Aix-la-

Chapelle (1748), with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet
and the Habsburg Monarchy in gold

While the Seven Years' War was a global

conflict among many belligerents, its
Central European theatre turned on
lingering grudges from the War of the
Austrian Succession (1741–1748). The
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which had
concluded the latter war, confirmed
Prussian King Frederick II's seizure of the
region of Silesia from the Habsburg
Monarchy through two Silesian Wars.[1]
The defeated Archduchess Maria
Theresa of Austria nevertheless fully
intended to retake the lost province and
reassert Austria's hegemony in the Holy
Roman Empire; after peace was restored,
she set about rebuilding her armed
forces and seeking out new alliances.[2]

Unresolved conflicts …

Though France and Great Britain

recognised Prussia's sovereignty in
Silesia under the Treaty of Aix-la-
Chapelle, Austria ultimately refused to
ratify the agreement, and Maria Theresa's
husband, Holy Roman Emperor Francis I,
withheld the Holy Roman Empire's
guarantee for Prussian control of the
contested province. Prussia, in turn, still
withheld its assent to the Pragmatic
Sanction, thus challenging Maria
Theresa's legitimacy as head of the
Habsburg Monarchy.[1] Despite dynastic
links, British King George II viewed
Prussia as an ally and proxy of the
French, while Empress Elizabeth of
Russia saw Frederick's kingdom as a
rival for influence in the Polish-Lithuanian
Commonwealth and feared that Prussia's
growing power would obstruct the path
of Russia's westward expansion.[3] The
political and diplomatic conditions that
had led to the previous Silesian Wars still
held, and further conflict seemed likely.[1]

In 1746 Maria Theresa formed a

defensive agreement with Elizabeth
known as the Treaty of Two Empresses,
which aligned Austria and Russia against
Prussia; a secret clause guaranteed
Russia's support for Austria's claims in
Silesia. In 1750 Britain joined the anti-
Prussian compact in return for
guarantees of Austrian and Russian
support in the case of a Prussian attack
on the Electorate of Hanover, which
George also ruled in personal union.[3] At
the same time, Maria Theresa, who had
been disappointed with Britain's
performance as her ally in the War of the
Austrian Succession, followed the
controversial advice of her Chancellor
Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz by pursuing
warmer relations with Austria's
longstanding rival, the Kingdom of
France.[4]

Diplomatic Revolution …

Britain elevated tensions in 1755 by

offering to finance the deployment of a
Russian army that would stand ready to
attack Prussia's eastern frontier. Alarmed
by this encirclement, Frederick began
working to separate Britain from the
Austrian coalition by allaying King
George's concern for Hanover. On 16
January 1756 Prussia and Britain agreed
to the Convention of Westminster, under
which Prussia now undertook to
guarantee Hanover against French
attack, in return for Britain's withdrawal
of its offer of military subsidies to
Russia. This move created a new Anglo-
Prussian alliance and incensed the
French court.[5]

Austria was now seeking warmer

relations with France to ensure that the
French would not take Prussia's side in a
future conflict over Silesia. King Louis XV
responded to Prussia's realignment with
Britain by accepting Maria Theresa's
invitation to a new Franco-Austrian
alliance, formalised with the First Treaty
of Versailles in May 1756. This series of
political manoeuvres came to be known
as the Diplomatic Revolution.[6][7] Russia,
likewise upset by the withdrawal of
Britain's promised subsidies, drew closer
to Austria and France, agreeing to a more
openly offensive anti-Prussian coalition
in April 1756. As France turned against
Prussia and Russia separated from
Britain, Kaunitz's plan thus matured into a
grand anti-Prussian alliance between
Austria, Russia, various lesser German
powers, and France.[8]
Preparations for war …

Map of the Central European region, prior to

Prussia's seizure of Silesia, where the bulk of the
war was fought

As Austria and Russia made open

preparations for renewed war, Frederick
became convinced that Prussia would be
attacked in early 1757. Rather than wait
for his enemies to move at a time of their
choosing, he resolved instead to act
preemptively, beginning with an attack
against the neighbouring Electorate of
Saxony, which he correctly believed was
a secret party to the coalition against
him.[9] Frederick's broad strategy had
three parts. First, he meant to occupy
Saxony, gaining strategic depth and
using the Saxon army and treasury to
bolster the Prussian war effort. Second,
he would advance from Saxony into
Bohemia, where he might set up winter
quarters and supply his army at Austria's
expense. Third, he would invade Moravia
from Silesia, seize the fortress at Olmütz,
and advance on Vienna to force an end
to the war.[10] He hoped to receive
financial support from the British, who
had also promised to send a naval
squadron into the Baltic Sea to defend
Prussia's coast against Russia, if
necessary.[11]

To begin, Frederick divided Prussia's

armies in three. He placed a force of
20,000 under Field Marshal Hans von
Lehwaldt in East Prussia to guard against
any Russian invasion from the east, with
a reserve of 8,000 standing in Farther
Pomerania; Russia should have been
able to bring irresistible force to bear
against East Prussia, but the King trusted
to the slowness and disorganisation of
the Russian army to defend his north-
eastern flank. He also stationed Field
Marshal Count Kurt von Schwerin in
Silesia with 25,000 men to deter
incursions from Moravia and Hungary.
Finally, in August 1756 he personally led
the main Prussian army of around 60,000
into Saxony, beginning the Third Silesian
War.[12]

Methods and technologies …

European warfare in the early modern

period was characterised by the
widespread adoption of firearms in
combination with more traditional bladed
weapons. Eighteenth-century European
armies were built around units of
massed infantry armed with smoothbore
flintlock muskets and bayonets.
Cavalrymen were equipped with sabres
and pistols or carbines; light cavalry were
used principally for reconnaissance,
screening and tactical communications,
while heavy cavalry were used as tactical
reserves and deployed for shock attacks.
Smoothbore artillery provided fire
support and played the leading role in
siege warfare.[13] Strategic warfare in this
period centred around control of key
fortifications positioned so as to
command the surrounding regions and
roads, with lengthy sieges a common
feature of armed conflict. Decisive field
battles were relatively rare, though they
played a larger part in Frederick's theory
of warfare than was typical among his
contemporary rivals.[14]

The Silesian Wars, like most European

wars of the eighteenth century, were
fought as so-called cabinet wars in which
disciplined regular armies were equipped
and supplied by the state to conduct
warfare on behalf of the sovereign's
interests. Occupied enemy territories
were regularly taxed and extorted for
funds, but large-scale atrocities against
civilian populations were rare compared
with conflicts in the previous century.[15]
Military logistics was the decisive factor
in many wars, as armies had grown too
large to support themselves on
prolonged campaigns by foraging and
plunder alone. Military supplies were
stored in centralised magazines and
distributed by baggage trains that were
highly vulnerable to enemy raids.[16]
Armies were generally unable to sustain
combat operations during winter and
normally established winter quarters in
the cold season, resuming their
campaigns with the return of spring.[13]

Course

1756 …

Invasion of Saxony …
The Central European borders of Brandenburg–
Prussia (blue-green) and the Habsburg Monarchy
(red) in 1756, at the outbreak of the Third Silesian
War

Prussian troops crossed the Saxon

frontier on 29 August 1756.[17] The
Prussian army marched in three
columns: on the right were about 15,000
men under the command of Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick; on the left were
18,000 men under the command of the
Duke of Brunswick-Bevern; in the centre
was Frederick himself, with Field Marshal
James Keith commanding a corps of
30,000 troops. Prince Ferdinand was to
advance on the town of Chemnitz and
proceed to Leipzig, while Bevern was to
traverse Lusatia to seize Bautzen.
Meanwhile, Frederick and Keith would
advance through Torgau to attack the
Saxon capital at Dresden.[10][18] Saxony
and Austria were unprepared for
Frederick's preemptive strike, and their
forces were scattered; as Prussians
streamed into the Electorate, the main
Saxon army fortified itself at Pirna, and
the Prussians occupied Dresden on
9 September against little
resistance.[19][20]
Frederick and the main Prussian army
pressed on into northern Bohemia,
looking to engage the Austrians under
General Maximilian Ulysses Browne
before they could join forces with the
Saxons. Browne took up a defensible
position by the village of Lobositz, where
the two forces fought the Battle of
Lobositz on 1 October.[21] The
engagement ended inconclusively, with
the Austrians inflicting significant losses
on the Prussians and then retreating in
good order; Frederick thus prevented
Browne from reinforcing the isolated
Saxons, but Browne stopped Frederick's
advance into Bohemia.[22] Turning back
to the north, the Prussians fully occupied
Saxony, even taking Prince-Elector
Frederick Augustus II of Saxony prisoner,
although he was allowed to withdraw to
his other realms on 18 October. The
Saxon army was briefly besieged at Pirna
and surrendered on 14 October, after
which its men were forcibly incorporated
into the Prussian army under Prussian
officers.[23] Saxony's treasury was
emptied and its currency debased to help
fund the Prussian war effort.[24]

1757 …

Winter diplomacy …
Over the winter of 1756–1757 the
belligerents worked to secure their
respective alliances and coordinate
strategy with their allies. In February
William Pitt, the new Leader of the House
of Commons and a determined foe of
France, persuaded the British Parliament
to firmly and finally commit to the
Prussian cause against Austria and
France, after which Britain began
delivering supplies and badly needed
subsidies to Berlin. Parliament also
approved the deployment of an army of
observation to defend Hanover (and
Brandenburg) against the coming French
invasion from the west,[25] and Frederick
again called for a British naval
deployment in the Baltic to deter Russia
and an increasingly unfriendly Sweden,
though nothing came of it.[26]

However, Prussia's aggressive attack on

Saxony galvanised the Austrian coalition,
and in particular increased France's
commitment to offensive war against
Prussia. The Imperial Diet met in January
in Regensburg, where Maria Theresa won
enough German princes to her cause that
the Holy Roman Empire declared war on
Prussia on 17 January; the Diet called for
a 40,000-man Reichsarmee to be
assembled and put at Austria's disposal
for the liberation of Saxony.[27] In May
1757 the Second Treaty of Versailles
strengthened the Franco-Austrian
Alliance, with the French agreeing to
contribute 129,000 soldiers to the
fighting in Germany, along with subsidies
of 12 million livres per year until Austria
had recovered Silesia.[28]

In return, Austria promised that after the

victory was won it would grant France
control of the Austrian Netherlands, a
long-coveted prize for the French. Russia
also committed 80,000 men to the
conflict, hoping to seize East Prussia and
then exchange that territory with Poland
for control of Courland. Sweden also
agreed to invade Prussian Pomerania,
looking to recovering the territories lost
to Prussia after the Great Northern War.
In all, then, the Austrian coalition sought
a total partition of the Kingdom of
Prussia,[28] all while portraying Frederick
as the aggressor for making the first
move to open war.[29]

Bohemian campaign and Battle of

Kolín …

Prussian Field Marshal Kurt von Schwerin dying of

wounds at the Battle of Prague, as depicted by
Johann Christoph Frisch
After wintering in Saxony, Frederick
decided to immediately invade Bohemia
again, before French or Russian forces
could reach the area and support the
Austrians.[30] On 18 April 1757 the main
Prussian army advanced in multiple
columns through the Ore Mountains,
seeking a decisive engagement with
Browne's forces,[31] while the Silesian
garrison under Schwerin advanced from
Glatz to join them.[30] On 21 April Bevern's
column encountered an Austrian corps
led by Count Königsegg near
Reichenberg; the ensuing Battle of
Reichenberg ended in a Prussian victory,
and the Prussian forces continued to
advance on Prague.[32]
The invading columns reunited north of
Prague, while the retreating Austrians
reformed under the command of Prince
Charles of Lorraine to the city's east, and
on 6 May the two armies fought the
Battle of Prague. Both sides suffered
heavy casualties, and both Browne and
Schwerin were killed, but the Prussians
forced the Austrians back into the
fortified city, which the invaders then
besieged.[33] Learning of the attack on
Prague, Austrian commander Count
Leopold von Daun advanced from the
east with a force of 30,000 men.[34] Daun
arrived too late to join the Battle of
Prague, but he collected thousands of
scattered Austrians who had escaped
from the battle; with these
reinforcements he slowly moved to
relieve the city.[35]

Trying to simultaneously besiege Prague

and face Daun, the Prussians were
compelled to divide their forces.
Frederick led 5,000 troops from the siege
to reinforce a 19,000-man army under
Bevern at nearby Kolín and assess the
situation.[36] Without sufficient force to
resist Daun's advance, Frederick decided
to withdraw more men from the siege
and preemptively attack the Austrian
position. The resulting Battle of Kolín on
18 June ended in a decisive Austrian
victory; the Prussian position was ruined,
and the invaders were forced to lift the
siege and withdraw from Bohemia
altogether, pursued by Daun's army,
which was enlarged by the Prague
garrison. The failure to take Bohemia
meant the ruin of Frederick's strategy,
leaving no prospect of a march on
Vienna.[33]

East Prussia and Pomerania …

Prussia's reversal in Bohemia paralleled

the entry of new belligerents on the
Austrian side. In mid-1757 a Russian
force of 75,000 troops under Field
Marshal Stepan Fyodorovich Apraksin
invaded East Prussia and took the
fortress at Memel.[37] Advancing further,
the Russians engaged and defeated a
smaller Prussian force led by Lehwaldt in
the Battle of Gross-Jägersdorf on 30
August. However, the victorious Russians
were unable to take Königsberg, having
expended their supplies at Memel and
Gross-Jägersdorf, and retreated soon
afterwards; recurring difficulties with
logistics limited the offensive capabilities
of the large Russian army and allowed
East Prussia to hold out longer than
might have been expected.[38] Sweden,
too, declared war on Prussia in
September, invading Prussian Pomerania
on 13 September with 17,000 men and
beginning the Pomeranian War.[37] The
need to defend core territories on these
fronts reduced Prussia's offensive
capacity in Bohemia and Silesia.[39]

Battle of Rossbach …

The Battle of Rossbach, where a portion of Prussia's

army destroyed the united French and Imperial
armies in a 90-minute battle

In mid-1757 Austrian forces gradually

pushed into Prussian-controlled Lusatia,
while a combined French and
Reichsarmee force under the Prince of
Soubise approached the theatre from the
west.[40] On 7 September the Austrians
under Daun and Prince Charles,
advancing into Upper Lusatia, defeated a
Prussian force under Bevern and Hans
Karl von Winterfeldt at the Battle of
Moys, during which Winterfeldt was
killed.[41] Prince Charles's army then
proceeded westward, hoping to link up
with Soubise's force after the latter had
traversed Saxony,[40] while Bevern and his
army retreated eastward to defend Lower
Silesia.[42]

Deterred by the overwhelming Austrian

force in Lusatia, Frederick instead led a
Prussian army westward into Thuringia
to seek a decisive engagement with the
approaching Franco-Imperial army before
it could unite with Prince Charles and
Daun. The Imperials evaded the
Prussians, however, and on 10
September Hanover and the British army
of observation surrendered to France
with the Convention of Klosterzeven,
further exposing Prussia's western
flank.[43] Meanwhile, between 10 and 17
October a small hussar force under
Hungarian Count András Hadik ranged
ahead of the main Austrian force to
briefly occupy Berlin, ransoming the city
for 200,000 thalers and then
retreating.[44] In late October the Prussian
army reversed course and moved back
eastward to Leipzig to defend Prussia's
core territory against the various threats
it now faced.[43]

After this series of manoeuvres, on 5

November a Prussian corps under
Frederick located and engaged Soubise's
much larger force near the village of
Rossbach in Saxony. The ensuing Battle
of Rossbach ended in a stunning
Prussian victory, in which Frederick lost
fewer than 1,000 men, while the Franco-
German force under Soubise lost around
10,000.[45] This victory secured Prussia's
control of Saxony for a time, and its
effect on the morale of both sides was
dramatic. After the embarrassing defeat
at Rossbach, French interest in the
Silesian War declined sharply, and French
forces were soon withdrawn from the
Silesian theatre, leaving Rossbach as the
only battle between the French and
Prussians during the war.[40]

Battle of Leuthen …

Prussian grenadiers storming the parish church

during the Battle of Leuthen, as depicted by Carl
Röchling
While Frederick's army manoeuvred in
western Saxony and Thuringia, the
Austrian army of Prince Charles and
Daun pressed eastward into Lower
Silesia. In November they reached
Breslau, where they were opposed by the
Silesian garrison under Bevern.[46] The
Austrians had overwhelming numbers,
and in the Battle of Breslau on 22
November they drove the Prussians from
the field. Bevern himself was taken
prisoner, and the bulk of his remaining
forces retreated toward Glogau, leaving
behind some thousands to garrison the
city against a siege; the commander of
the garrison surrendered Breslau to the
Austrians on 25 November in return for
safe passage.[47]

When Frederick learned of the fall of

Breslau, his 22,000 men marched 274
kilometres (170 mi) in twelve days to
regroup with the retreating Prussian
troops from Breslau at Liegnitz. The
augmented army of about 33,000 men
arrived near Leuthen, 27 kilometres
(17 mi) west of Breslau, to find 66,000
Austrians in formation around the village.
Despite his troops' fatigue from the rapid
march, Frederick engaged the superior
Austrian force on 5 December and won
another unexpected victory in the Battle
of Leuthen.[48][49] The Prussians pursued
Prince Charles's defeated army all the
way back to Bohemia, while the Austrian
and French forces still within Breslau
were besieged until their surrender on
19–20 December, bringing the bulk of
Silesia back under Prussian control.[50]

Winter manoeuvres …

After this major defeat, Prince Charles

was removed from his command and
replaced by Daun, who was now
promoted to Field Marshal. Frederick
hoped the major victories at Rossbach
and Leuthen would bring Maria Theresa
to the peace table,[51] but she was
determined not to negotiate until she had
retaken Silesia.[52] Prussia had already
exhausted its treasury in the 1757
campaign, and it now devalued its
currency while imposing fresh taxes on
occupied Saxony and on the Catholic
Church in Silesia to raise funds for the
new year.[53] With the Saxon–Silesian
front stabilised, Frederick ordered the
bulk of his East Prussian forces under
Lehwaldt to reinforce Pomerania,
predicting that no new Russian advance
would come until after the winter. The
enlarged Prussian army quickly drove the
Swedes back, occupied most of Swedish
Pomerania, and blockaded its capital at
Stralsund through the winter.[54] Prince
Ferdinand, now made commander of
Hanover's army, launched a series of
winter offensives that ended the French
occupation of Hanover and eventually
drove the French out of Westphalia and
across the Rhine, securing Prussia's
western flank for the duration of the
war.[55]

1758 …

Moravian campaign …

Frederick the Great leading the Prussians to a costly

victory at the Battle of Zorndorf, as depicted by Carl
Röchling
In January 1758 a Russian army
commanded by Count William Fermor
again invaded East Prussia, where the
few remaining Prussian troops put up
little resistance.[40] Frederick abandoned
the province to Russian occupation,
judging it strategically expendable and
preferring to concentrate on achieving
another decisive victory in the Silesian
theatre to force the Austrians to the
peace table.[56] In March France greatly
reduced its financial and military
commitments to the Austrian coalition
with the signing of the Third Treaty of
Versailles.[57] As Prince Ferdinand's
Prussian–Hanoverian army gradually
forced the French out of northern
Germany, Prussia and Britain quarrelled
over the exact terms of their alliance,
with Frederick demanding the
commitment of British troops to
Germany and the delivery of the long-
promised naval squadron in the Baltic,
while Pitt insisted on conserving Britain's
resources for the wider global war.[58]

At length, on 11 April the British

formalised their alliance with Prussia in
the Anglo-Prussian Convention, in which
they committed to provide Prussia with a
subsidy of £670,000 annually (equivalent
to £95 million in 2019) and to make no
separate peace, as well as deploying
9,000 troops to reinforce Prince
Ferdinand's army in the Rhineland.[59]
Frederick decided that the time had
come to invade Moravia and seize the
fortified city of Olmütz, as he had
planned the previous year, as soon as the
last Austrians could be driven from
Silesia. Schweidnitz, the last Austrian-
occupied stronghold in Silesia,
surrendered on 16 April, after which
Frederick led a field army into Moravia,
reaching Olmütz on 29 April and
besieging it on 20 May.[60][61]

Olmütz was well defended, and the siege

was slow and difficult.[62] Frederick
hoped to provoke an Austrian counter-
attack, but Daun chose to avoid direct
engagements with the Prussian force,
focusing instead on harassing its supply
lines. By late June the city's defences
were badly damaged, but the besieging
army's supplies were acutely low. On 30
June Austrian forces commanded by
General Ernst von Laudon intercepted a
massive supply convoy from Silesia
bound for the Prussian army at Olmütz
and destroyed it in the Battle of
Domstadtl. After this loss, the Prussians
were forced to break off the siege and
withdraw from Moravia, abandoning their
final major invasion of Austrian territory
during the war.[63]
Battles of Zorndorf and Hochkirch …

Wounded Prussians retreating after Austrian forces

surprised and defeated the main Prussian army at
the Battle of Hochkirch, as depicted by Carl Röchling

Frustrated in Moravia, the Prussians

fortified Saxony and Silesia, while
Frederick led an army northward to repel
the advancing Russians, who had by then
reached the borders of Brandenburg,
where they besieged and burned Küstrin.
The Prussian troops who had besieged
Stralsund through the winter now
withdrew to bolster Frederick's force,
joining them near the ruins of Küstrin on
22 August.[64] On 25 August a Prussian
army of 35,000 men under Frederick
engaged a Russian army of 43,000 under
Fermor just east of the Oder in Neumark
at the Battle of Zorndorf.[65] Both sides
fought to exhaustion and suffered heavy
casualties, but the Russians withdrew,
and Frederick claimed victory.[66]

The Prussians regrouped and marched

back to Saxony, where they manoeuvred
against Daun's advancing Austrians
through September and into October,
probing the Austrians' communications
but avoiding any decisive
engagement.[67] On 14 October Daun
surprised the main Prussian army led by
Frederick and Keith near Hochkirch in
Lusatia, overwhelming them in the Battle
of Hochkirch.[68] The Prussians
abandoned much of their artillery and
supplies, and Keith was killed in action,
but the survivors retreated in good order,
and Daun declined to pursue them.[69]
The Prussians hastily regrouped and
entered Silesia to break an Austrian siege
of Neisse on 7 November. After this they
returned westward to reinforce Dresden
in case of an attack by Daun, but the
Austrians withdrew to the west without
further attacks.[70]
Winter-quarters …

After taking heavy losses at Zorndorf,

Fermor's Russian army pulled back to the
Baltic coast and across the Vistula,
making no further attacks against
Prussia in 1758.[71] The withdrawal of
Prussian soldiers from Swedish
Pomerania led to a renewed Swedish
offensive in September, which
progressed as far as Neuruppin; but,
after failing to unite with either Russian
or Austrian forces, the Swedes fell back
to Swedish Pomerania for the winter for
supplies.[72] Despite their victory at
Hochkirch, Daun's Austrians, too,
ultimately made little strategic progress
in Saxony and were unable to retake
Dresden. Eventually, the Austrians were
forced to withdraw into Bohemia for the
winter, leaving Saxony under Prussian
control,[69] while the decimated Prussian
army worked to rebuild itself in Saxony
and Silesia.[73]

1759 …

Battle of Kunersdorf …
Austrian General Ernst von Laudon surveying the
field at the Battle of Kunersdorf, where his army
combined with Russian forces to defeat Frederick's
Prussians, as depicted by Siegmund l'Allemand

In April 1759 Frederick led his main army

from Saxony into Lower Silesia to keep
the Russian army in western Poland
separated from Daun's Austrians in
Bohemia. Meanwhile, a smaller Prussian
force under Frederick's younger brother,
Prince Henry, remained in Saxony to
harass Bohemia through the Ore
Mountains, winning the Battle of
Peterswalde and a series of other minor
engagements, as well as destroying
several Austrian ammunition dumps and
bridges before retreating into Saxony.
The Russians continued to press into
Neumark; on 23 July the new Russian
commander, Count Pyotr Saltykov, led
47,000 men in defeating 26,000
Prussians commanded by General Carl
Heinrich von Wedel at the Battle of
Kay.[74] The Russians advanced
westward toward the Oder, while
Frederick led reinforcements northward
to join Wedel and face Saltykov, leaving
Prince Henry and General Heinrich
August de la Motte Fouqué to see to the
defence of Saxony and Silesia,
respectively.[75]
On 3 August Saltykov reached and
occupied Frankfurt an der Oder, where he
received significant Austrian
reinforcements sent from Daun under
Laudon's command.[74] Determined to
drive back the Russians, who were now
within 80 kilometres (50 mi) of Berlin,
Frederick joined with the survivors from
the Battle of Kay and on 12 August
attacked the Russian position around the
village of Kunersdorf, east of Frankfurt.
The resulting Battle of Kunersdorf was a
crushing Russo-Austrian victory, totally
scattering the Prussian army and
clearing the way to Berlin for the invading
coalition.[76] After the battle Frederick
believed the war to be totally lost, yet the
allies again did not pursue the defeated
Prussians or occupy Berlin.[77]

Heavy Russian casualties at Kunersdorf

and disagreement between the Russian
and Austrian leadership led the cautious
Count Saltykov to hold back his forces,
giving the Prussians time to regroup.[78]
The Russian army's tenuous supply lines
through Poland made it difficult to press
home the victory so deep in enemy
territory,[38] and Prince Henry's
manoeuvres in Saxony threatened to cut
the Austrians' supply lines, upon which
the Russians also partially depended. In
September, despite the coalition's
overwhelming superiority of force in
Brandenburg, both the Russians and
Austrians withdrew into Silesia. The
coalition's internal conflicts and hesitant
leadership had given Prussia a second
chance, an event that Frederick later
termed the "Miracle of the House of
Brandenburg."[79]

Saxon campaign …

In early September Austrian forces in

Bohemia pressed into Saxony, which had
been largely emptied of defenders in
preparation for Kunersdorf, forcing the
surrender of Dresden on 4 September
and quickly occupying most of the
electorate.[80] Prince Henry's force
marched west to contest Saxony again,
where a contingent under General
Friedrich August von Finck sharply
defeated a larger Austrian force at the
Battle of Korbitz on 21 September.[81] In
response, Daun sent a relief force of his
own into Saxony, only to have it
destroyed by Prince Henry's Prussians on
25 September at the Battle of
Hoyerswerda. Chagrined at the prospect
of losing Saxony again, Daun then moved
his own main force westward into
Saxony,[82] leaving behind the Russians,
who withdrew into Poland for the
winter.[78]

In November, while the Prussian army

worked to rebuild itself in Brandenburg
and Silesia, a Prussian corps under Finck
positioned itself at Maxen to harass
Austrian lines of communication
between Saxony and Bohemia. Austrian
forces under Daun and Count Franz
Moritz von Lacy surrounded and
overwhelmed Finck's Prussians on 21
November in the Battle of Maxen, forcing
the surrender of the entire Prussian
corps.[83] Another smaller Austrian
victory in Saxony at the Battle of Meissen
on 4 December ended the campaigning
year.[84]

1760 …

Lower Silesian campaign …

In early 1760 Laudon was given his own
command in Silesia, independent of
Daun,[85] and began campaigning there in
March. After an inconclusive
engagement with the Prussian garrison
near Neustat on 15 March,[86] Laudon's
Austrians gradually advanced through
Lower Silesia, besieging Glatz on 7 June.
De la Motte Fouqué led a force to relieve
the fortress, but Laudon engaged and
destroyed them on 23 June at the Battle
of Landeshut, taking de la Motte Fouqué
prisoner. The principal Prussian force
under Frederick started eastward to
defend Silesia, but it reversed course
upon learning that Daun's main army was
moving in the same direction.[87]
Temporarily abandoning Silesia to
Austrian siege, Frederick led his army
back into Saxony and besieged Dresden
from 13 July.[88] The Prussians hoped
either to take Dresden quickly or at least
to divide the Austrians' attention; instead,
Daun's army marched westward and
forced the Prussians to lift the siege and
withdraw on 21 July.[87]

Glatz was taken by the Austrians on 29

July, followed shortly by Liegnitz and
Parchwitz, and the Austrian armies of
Daun and Lacy returned to join with
Laudon's force in Lower Silesia. The
Prussians under Frederick and Prince
Henry attempted to unite and seek a
decisive engagement, while Daun moved
to attack Frederick's force with
overwhelming numbers.[89] Laudon's
corps, moving ahead of Daun's main
army, attacked Frederick's position near
Liegnitz on 15 August. The resulting
Battle of Liegnitz ended in a Prussian
victory, with the Prussians defeating
Laudon before Daun's larger force could
arrive to support him. This reversal
disrupted the Austrians' manoeuvres and
restored Prussian control of Lower
Silesia,[90] as Daun moved his army back
into Saxony.[91]

Battle of Torgau …
Russian and Austrian troops plundering Berlin in
October 1760, as depicted by Alexander von
Kotzebue

A secondary Prussian force under

General Johann Dietrich von Hülsen
repulsed an Austrian advance into
Saxony on 20 August in the Battle of
Strehla.[90] The Prussians and Austrians
spent September skirmishing and
manoeuvring in Silesia, while Saltykov's
Russians held back in western Poland.[91]
With Prussian forces concentrated in
Silesia and Saxony, Brandenburg was left
largely undefended. In early October a
Russian corps under General Gottlob
Heinrich Tottleben advanced through
Neumark and joined Lacy's Austrians in
briefly occupying Berlin, where they
demanded ransoms, seized arsenals and
freed prisoners of war. However, the
Russians soon pulled back to Frankfurt
an der Oder for want of supplies,[78] while
Lacy's force moved south to support
Daun as he sought a decisive
engagement with Frederick in
Saxony.[92][93]

The main Prussian and Austrian armies

under Frederick, Daun and Lacy finally
faced each other on 3 November near
Torgau, where the succeeding Battle of
Torgau proved very costly for both sides.
In the end the Prussians controlled the
field and claimed victory, but both armies
were badly weakened and soon retreated
to winter quarters. Prussia's pyrrhic
victory at Torgau resulted in few strategic
gains, since Daun still controlled
Dresden, and Laudon's army still had the
run of Silesia;[94] the Prussian currency
had to again be devalued over the winter
to stabilise the army's finances.[95] On the
other hand, the Austrians, who had
hoped to decide the war once and for all
at Torgau, were bitterly disappointed to
have suffered still another defeat at the
hands of a smaller Prussian force, and
Maria Theresa's deteriorating finances
were beginning to constrain the Austrian
war effort. The battle left the war-making
capacity of both sides so depleted that
neither retained any realistic prospect of
bringing the Silesian War to a decisive
close without outside help.[94]

1761 …

Dwindling resources …

By early 1761 neither side retained the

men or supplies needed to mount a
major offensive. Prussia could field only
104,000 troops, many of them raw
recruits, and there were shortages of
even basic supplies like muskets for the
infantry. The Prussian army was no
longer fit for the sort of aggressive
manoeuvers that had previously
characterised Frederick's tactics,[96] and
the kingdom's situation was
desperate.[97] Daun, the chief Austrian
commander, also ruled out major
offensives for the year and made no
plans to even attempt to reconquer
Silesia, preferring to concentrate his
efforts in Saxony against Prince Henry.
Austria's finances were in a state of
chaos, and its economy was choked by
heavy war taxes. Cooperation between
Russian and Austrian forces was
breaking down, as the two allied powers
grew less willing to pursue each other's
goals in the field.[98]

Russian advances …

Defeated Prussians withdrawing as Russians take

control of Kolberg, as depicted by Alexander von
Kotzebue

Russian Marshal Alexander Buturlin, the

new commander of Russia's forces in the
theatre, coordinated with Laudon's
Austrians to begin an advance in
southern Silesia in April.[99] The Prussian
garrison under General Karl Christoph
von der Goltz dug in around Schweidnitz,
while field armies under Frederick,
Laudon and Buturlin engaged in a
prolonged campaign of manoeuver with
no major engagements. The allies ended
the campaign with a modest victory by
storming the fortress at Schweidnitz on
1 October, after which the Prussians fell
back to winter quarters in northern
Silesia and Brandenburg.[100]

Meanwhile, Russian forces under Zakhar

Chernyshev and Pyotr Rumyantsev had
besieged and blockaded the Prussian
Pomeranian port of Kolberg beginning on
22 August. The town was strongly
defended and held out well, but several
Prussian attempts to break the siege
were unsuccessful. In October Frederick
ordered much of the garrison to withdraw
to Berlin and defend Brandenburg; the
weakened town finally capitulated on 16
December. The fall of Kolberg cost
Prussia its last port on the Baltic Sea,[101]
and it gave Russia a way to supply its
armies in Central Europe by sea, rather
than overland through Poland. The
resulting benefits to Russian logistics
threatened to tip the balance of power
decisively against Prussia the following
year.[102]

1762 …
The "second miracle" …

As 1762 began, the Prussian armies had

dwindled to only sixty thousand men, and
it was doubtful whether they could
prevent a renewed Russian and Austrian
advance to Berlin. A total Prussian
collapse seemed imminent; the British
now threatened to withdraw their
subsidies if Prussia did not offer
concessions to secure peace, a threat
made good later that year by the new
British prime minister, Lord Bute.[103]
Then, on 5 January 1762, the ailing
Russian Empress Elizabeth died. Her
nephew and successor, Tsar Peter III,
was an ardent admirer of Frederick's, and
he at once reversed Elizabeth's foreign
policy and ordered a ceasefire with
Prussia.[104]

Peter agreed to an armistice with Prussia

in March and lifted the Russian
occupation of East Prussia and
Pomerania, redirecting his armies to
Mecklenburg to threaten Denmark with
war over his claims on the Duchy of
Holstein-Gottorp. On 15 May Russia and
Prussia formally ended their war with the
Treaty of Saint Petersburg, confirming
Prussia's pre-war borders in the north
and east. Peter went on to mediate the
22 May Treaty of Hamburg, ending the
Pomeranian War between Prussia and
Sweden, with all of Prussia's Pomeranian
territory preserved. After signing a new
alliance with Prussia on 1 June, he even
placed Chernyshev's corps of 18,000
Russian troops under Frederick's
command; a second "Miracle of the
House of Brandenburg" had occurred.[105]

Meanwhile, French morale had been

sapped by prolonged British blockades,
defeats in North America and India, and a
lack of progress in the Rhineland.[106][107]
After Russia's about-face and Sweden's
withdrawal, King Louis realised that
France was unlikely to gain its promised
reward of the Austrian Netherlands.
Austria was virtually bankrupt, and
without French subsidies Maria Theresa
could not afford a new invasion of
Silesia; with France similarly exhausted,
Louis was no longer willing to finance his
ally's war. Since France had never
formally declared war on Prussia, he
agreed to a ceasefire with Frederick and
evacuated Prussia's territories in the
Rhineland, ending France's involvement
in the war in Germany.[108]

Final campaigns …

Prussian and Austrian lines facing off at the Battle

f F ib
of Freiberg

With its flanks now secured, Prussia

concentrated all of its remaining strength
against Austria. The Prussian army,
swollen by forces recalled from the north
and soon to be augmented by
Chernyshev's Russians, could once again
match the Austrians' strength in the field,
and in June the Prussians marched again
to contest Silesia.[109] However, on 9 July
Peter was deposed and replaced by his
wife, Empress Catherine II (later to be
known as Catherine the Great); Catherine
immediately withdrew from the alliance
her husband had formed with Prussia,
but she did not rejoin the war on the
Austrian side.[104]

Despite the loss of their Russian

auxiliaries, the Prussians engaged Daun's
army on 21 July near Burkersdorf, north-
east of Schweidnitz. Frederick persuaded
Chernyshev to support the attack, not by
actually fighting, but merely by remaining
in the area and presenting a potential
threat to the Austrians. The resulting
Prussian victory in the Battle of
Burkersdorf led to the recovery of most
of Silesia from Austrian control.[110]
Daun's forces withdrew to Glatz, and the
Prussians besieged Schweidnitz,
recapturing it at length on 9 October.
Prussia had won its final Silesian
campaign.[111]

In the following months Prince Henry led

a secondary army into Saxony, where he
engaged the Austrian defenders of
Dresden near Freiberg on 29 October; the
Battle of Freiberg saw the defenders
shattered and pursued back to Dresden,
after which Prussian forces occupied the
majority of Saxony.[112] Prince Henry's
army pursued some Reichsarmee forces
into Franconia and raided pro-Austrian
principalities in the Holy Roman Empire
in November and December.[113] In
November Maria Theresa proposed to
open peace negotiations, to which
Frederick immediately agreed; on 24
November the two belligerents declared
an armistice in Saxony and Silesia,[112]
and formal peace talks began in late
December.[114]

Stalemate …

By the end of 1762 Prussia had

recovered nearly all of Silesia from the
Austrians, and after the Battle of Freiberg
it controlled most of Saxony outside of
Dresden; Austria still held Dresden and
the southeastern edge of Saxony, along
with the County of Glatz to the south of
Silesia. The warring powers in Central
Europe had essentially fought to a
stalemate. Prussia's finances were
stable, but the country had been
devastated by battle and enemy
occupation, and its manpower was
spent.[115] Austria was facing a severe
financial crisis and had to reduce the size
of its army, greatly decreasing its
offensive power; without Russian troops
or French subsidies, it had little hope of
reconquering Silesia.[116] The other
belligerents in the wider Seven Years'
War had already begun peace talks; now,
negotiators from Austria, Prussia and
Saxony convened on 30 December at
Hubertusburg palace, near the front lines
in Saxony, to discuss terms of
peace.[113][117]
1763 …

Treaty of Hubertusburg …

Frederick had earlier considered offering

East Prussia to Russia in return for
Peter's support for his seizure of Saxony,
but Catherine's withdrawal meant that
Russia was no longer a belligerent and
did not participate in the negotiations.
The warring parties eventually agreed to
simply restore their respective conquests
to each other: Austria would withdraw
from Glatz, restoring full Prussian control
of Silesia, in exchange for Prussia's
evacuation of Saxony, which would be
returned to Frederick Augustus, who
would receive no other reparations from
Prussia. With these swaps, the borders in
the region arrived precisely back at the
status quo ante bellum.[113] Austria made
a further concession by formally
renouncing its claim to Silesia; in return,
Prussia committed to support Maria
Theresa's son, Archduke Joseph, in the
forthcoming 1764 Imperial election. With
that, the belligerents agreed to end the
Third Silesian War with the Treaty of
Hubertusburg, signed 15 February
1763.[117]

Outcomes
Contemporary engraving celebrating the restoration
of peace in Germany, by Johannes Esaias Nilson

The return to territorial status quo ante

meant that none of the belligerents in the
Silesian War gained the prize it had
aimed at: Prussia failed to keep any part
of Saxony, while Austria was unable to
recover its lost province of Silesia, nor
did Russia gain any territory at Prussia's
expense. Nonetheless, the outcome of
the war has generally been considered a
diplomatic victory for Prussia,[118] which
not only retained Silesia, but also
compelled Austria to acknowledge its
sovereignty in the province, forestalling
any further Silesian Wars. More
fundamentally, Prussia showed itself to
be a credible rival to Austria by
successfully surviving intact what could
have become a war of
partition.[28][107][113]

Prussia …

Prussia emerged from the war as a new

European great power,[113] establishing
itself as the leading power of Protestant
Germany.[119] The kingdom won general
recognition of its sovereignty in Silesia,
putting a stop to Austria's attempts to
recover the province. Frederick the
Great's personal reputation was
enormously enhanced, as his debts to
fortune (Russia's about-face after
Elizabeth's death) and to British financial
support were soon forgotten, while the
memories of his energetic leadership and
tactical successes were strenuously kept
alive.[120] Prussia had held its own while
being simultaneously invaded by Austria,
Russia, Sweden, and France, an
accomplishment that appeared
miraculous to contemporary
observers.[121] After 1763, armies around
the world sent their officers to Prussia to
learn the secrets of the state's outsize
military power, making Prussia one of the
most imitated states in Europe.[120]

Though sometimes depicted as a key

moment in Prussia's rise to greatness,
the war nonetheless left the kingdom's
economy and population devastated, and
much of the remainder of Frederick's
reign was spent repairing the damage. To
mitigate population losses, the King
continued his father's policy of
encouraging Protestant refugees from
Catholic realms to resettle in Prussia.[122]
The repeated currency devaluations
imposed to finance the conflict had led to
rapid inflation and great economic
disruption in Prussia (and in Saxony).[123]
After the war the state began using its
network of military grain depots and the
excise on grains to stabilise food prices
and alleviate grain shortages. Prussia
also established a rudimentary social
welfare system for impoverished and
disabled veterans of the Silesian
Wars.[122]

Prussia's armed forces had experienced

heavy casualties in the war, with around
180,000 men killed,[124] and the officer
corps was severely depleted. After the
peace the state had neither the money
nor the manpower to rebuild the army to
what it had been before the war.[125] By
1772 Prussia's standing army was
restored to 190,000 men, but few of the
officers were veterans of the Silesian
Wars.[126] In the succeeding War of the
Bavarian Succession (1778–1779) the
Prussians fought poorly, despite again
being personally led by Frederick, and the
Prussian army did not fare well against
revolutionary France in 1792–1795. In
1806 the Prussians were shattered by
Napoleon's French at the Battle of Jena;
only after a series of reforms motivated
by the disasters of 1806–1807 did
Prussian military power again begin to
grow.[127]
Austria …

The war left the Habsburg Monarchy

deeply in debt,[128] and its armed forces
were greatly weakened, with more than
145,000 men dead or missing in the
conflict.[124] Austria was not able to
retake Silesia or realise any other
territorial gains, but it did preserve
Saxony from Prussian control, slowing
the growth of its new northern rival. Its
military performed far more respectably
than during the War of the Austrian
Succession, which seemed to vindicate
Maria Theresa's administrative and
military reforms since that war. Thus, the
war in great part restored Austria's
prestige and preserved its position as a
major player in the European system.[129]
By agreeing to vote for Archduke Joseph
in the Imperial election, Frederick
accepted the continuation of Habsburg
preeminence in the Holy Roman Empire,
though this was far less than Austria had
hoped to win in the war.[130]

Prussia's confirmation as a first-rate

power and the enhanced prestige of its
king and army were long-term threats to
Austria's hegemony in Germany.[129] The
Silesian Wars made clear that the
Habsburg Monarchy would need
sustained reform if it was to retain its
dominant position in European power
politics.[131] After the disappointment of
the Third Silesian War Maria Theresa
finally abandoned the hope of recovering
Silesia, focusing instead on domestic
reforms to better prepare the realm for
future conflicts with Prussia. In 1761 the
Habsburg Monarchy implemented newly
centralised administrative and
policymaking bodies to streamline what
had often been a chaotic executive
process. The 1760s and 1770s saw
vigorous efforts to improve tax
collection, particularly in Lombardy and
the Austrian Netherlands, which led to
significant increases in state
revenues.[132] In 1766 the crown
promulgated its first common code of
laws, the Codex Theresianus, in an effort
to unify the realm's various legal
systems.[133] Aiming to increase the
peasantry's ability to contribute to the
state's tax base, Maria Theresa issued a
series of Robot Patents between 1771
and 1778 restricting forced peasant
labour in her German and Bohemian
lands, and her son would carry the
process further with his Serfdom
Patent.[134] The state also implemented
compulsory primary education and
established a system of secular public
schools.[135] Beginning with these so-
called Theresian reforms, wide-ranging
efforts to modernise the Habsburg
Monarchy over the next half century grew
out of Austria's defeat.[136]

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120. Marston (2001), p. 90
121. Clark (2006), p. 200
122. Clark (2006), pp. 212–214
123. Redman (2014), p. 425
124. Clodfelter (2017), p. 85
125. Clark (2006), pp. 210–213
12 . Duffy (1985), p. 245
127. Clark (2006), p. 313
12 . Ingrao (1994), p. 198
129. Clark (2006), p. 216
130. Hochedlinger (2003), p. 346
131. Clark (2006), p. 212
132. Ingrao (1994), pp. 198–200
133. Vocelka (2000), pp. 157–158
134. Ingrao (1994), pp. 208–210
135. Ingrao (1994), pp. 210–212
13 . Hochedlinger (2003), p. 267
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External links
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"Seven Years' War"  . Encyclopædia
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