The War of the Two Churfursts Part 5

The Wars of the Two Churfursts

(Hohenzollern versus Wittelsbach)

Chapter 5 The Battle of Rosstal

Field Marshall Lottum with additional allies from the Franconian Circle had the numerical superiority he deemed necessary to recapture the Duchy from the Bavarians.  He therefore advanced resolutely south and south west from Nurnberg until he found the position that the Count de Maffei had fortified and planned to defend the Duchy from.  The photo below shows the initial placement of the Bavarian forces:

As can be seen Maffei kept the balance of his good infantry in the center of the valley, posted behind a row of boar spears embedded into posts to serve as an obstacle to the larger Brandenburg cavalry contingent.  These were stored in nearby Ingolgstadt in any case when the troops had returned from the Turkenkreig campaigns.  The artillery was behind some quickly dug out positions while the cavalry covered the left flank (the easiest to approach) and some new infantry were posted on the hill to his right.

As Lottum surveyed the scene from his advanced location in the spire of the Vierzehnheiligen Kirche he would have seen the following:

Determined to take the bull by the horns he deployed his Brandenburg troops to assault the center with his much stronger cavalry massed to his right, and the Franconian forces covering his left.

The straight ahead advance was only interrupted by the Bavarian heavy artillery which irritated the Brandenburg foot but then went on to destroy the advancing Brandenburg artillery in short order.  (We were surprised by this but the DBAHXT QRS clearly shows that artillery when out-piped, even when not doubled, is Destroyed. Here is another case where various DBX versions differ in some ways). 

The Franconians due to their perhaps less than enthusiastic interest, promptly rolled a 1 on three of their first five pip dice so were slower to advance than their Brandenburg allies.

The first major crossing of fire over the row of boar spears was about a wash, both sides seeing some units rebuffed backwards, but the Bavarians were able to recover and man the line more quickly and soon the Brandenburg forces were halted by losses of four stands to one.  The image below shows the Brandenburg contingent as it closed to effective range.

Note that Maffei is already having his reserve force move towards his right flank as the approaching, but delayed Franconians come forward on the far side of the ridgeline.

With the halting of the Brandenburg forces the issue would be decided by the efforts between the Bavarians and the Franconians on the right.  Both sides had units fall back but come forward again into the firefight.  The skill level on either side was not very high but eventually the Bavarians found Fortuna and they stopped the Franconian advance late in the afternoon.

Although a minor action and a minor victory Maffei realized that at any time his forces would have been defeated if only the Franconians would have been able to seize a 6 from the dice instead of the several rolls of 1 that seemed to roll out of their musketry volleys…

We agreed to continue this irregular series of battles between these two less than super powers of the period and our next effort will be when the Brandenburgers switch the scene of their assault and come at the Duchy from the west and under a new Field Marshall.  De Maffei also was glad to retire to his properties on the Stammerklammer lake and will be replaced by another grizzled veteran of the Turkenkreig period.

The War of the Two Churfursts Part 4

The Bavarians defend the Duchy of Anspach after it is awarded to Bavaria by the Reichskommission.

The Wars of the Two Churfursts

(Hohenzollern versus Wittelsbach)

Chapter 4 The Battle of Cadolzburg

Field Marshall Lottum brought his forces across the Zenn stream (here barely a stone throw across) in good order to find the Bavarians under General de Maffei deployed to both sides of the chausse leading southwestwards towards Cadolzburg  with his defense centered on the hamlet of Unter Vestling.  All the cavalry force of the Bavarian army was on the right thrown out and forward to give advance notice of any turning movement from that direction.

The field of battle was open rolling countryside with the ground sloping gently to the northeast, the direction from which the Brandenburgers were approaching as they made the long easy uphill climb from the Zennfluss.  De Maffei initially posted troops in the village and to the right of it but left a reserve his second line in column of march upon the chausee directly behind the village so as to be able to react to the Brandenburg maneuvers.  The Bavarian artillery was in two sections, one adjacent to and left of the village and one on the supporting at a distance his cavalry vanguard.

Lottum placed his own and slightly smaller cavalry force to his left as a counter to the Bavarian horse and then sent his infantry forward in two largish bodies across some open fields to his front.  His artillery was broken up into two groups, one to support each of the infantry masses but they were still deployed as the range was too distant yet for close support work.  Lottum was worried about his cavalry as the trend towards largish men on very large horses had begun under the new Elector and his troops seemed to move ponderously and without spirit.  He himself observed several troopers falling from their horses when the simplest maneuvers were attempted.

Here is the view from the Bavarian side of the advance of the Brandenburg right wing of infantry.

And here is the view of the Brandenburg left wing of infantry.

Whilst his right wing stepped off promptly his left wing found the ground extremely boggy and difficult to traverse in anything but a march column.  Poor reconnaissance from the Brandenburg staff corps thus ensured that each of his infantry wings would be committed but not supported by the other.

The deep frown on Lottum’s visage tells the story as surely as any narrative.

Responding quickly, de Maffei brought his reserve up on line to counter the Brandenburg right while waiting until only part of the Brandenburg left had emerged from the muddy fields when he then sent his own right against them.  Although their fire discipline remained excellent, both Brandenburg wings found themselves outflanked with additional Bavarian units being able to pour supporting fire into the general combat area without reply.  Sensing some disorder also in his own right wing Lottum withdrew it in part behind his second line but the continual excellent fire from the Bavarian troops who now were spirited by the Brandenburg retirement, was too much for the Field Marshal and he had to order his troops to retire towards the Zenn River in order to regain their order and determine another approach to engage the Bavarians.

Although but a small scale battle Lottum’s confidence was dealt a blow and it took him several weeks to replenish losses, re-drill his cavalry until it was fit to see action and receive some additional forces from the Franconian Circle (FrankenKreise) which the Emperor had granted as a reinforcement of the Brandenburg initiative.

During this period de Maffei was able to dispatch additional small columns to bring most of the rest of the Duchy under Bavarian control and to secure his forces in an excellent position near where the Zenn runs into the Regnitz, on high ground which was partially fortified in the manner of the times with a few small redoubts and the local woods being cut down so as to block any large scale passage by troops.

It was here that de Maffei expected to fight the next battle in the wars of the Churfursts.

We continue to play out these small scenarios between our forces organized around a 'battalion on a base' rules and have been using the latest DBA-HXT 3.0 Humberside extension rules as our latest in house rules for the period.  In the next match the stalwart Bavarians will be entrenched on a high slope with both flanks secured by impassable woods whilst the craven Brandenburhers will have to advance from the foot of the hill in a swamp to meet them.  At least that's how I remember the scenario unfolding....

The Wars of the Two Churfursts Part 3

Here is the third chapter in this ongoing series:

The Wars of the Two Churfursts

(Hohenzollern versus Wittelsbach)

Chapter 3

After the Battle of Erlangen, the Brandenburg forces were marched directly off to Speyer and incorporated into the army under Prinz Eugen.  During the long war that followed Max Emanuel was forced to abandon his ancestral lands and served as the Viceroy of the Spanish Netherlands.  His forces likewise were moved to the Low Countries and served with distinction as allies to the Bourbons.

The long history of that war has no place in the current narrative except that it explains the length of time separating the battles between the two Churfursts.  During 1705 the small garrison in the ‘Alte Veste’ of  Kulmbach was approached by the Austrian troops who had occupied all of the Bavarian lands of the Churfurst and asked to surrender the fortress or be starved out during the coming winter.  The garrison of 27 men and 6 reserve artillerists had no choice as they could scarce cover the gates and man the walls on any kind of routine basis.  With the return of the Veste the province was able to be controlled by the Brandenburg representative, Count Dohna.

Under the terms of the Treaties of Utrecht and of Rastatt and other documents signed by Max Emanuel he was finally restored to his Electorate and returned to Munich to reign in 1715.  It was particularly galling that Frederik III had achieved the distinction of King in Prussia from the Holy Roman Emperor as part of the settlement and had been crowned at King in Prussia in 1701.

Frederick I Elector of Brandeburg and King in Prussia

The death of Frederick I in 1713 saw the next of the Churfursts of the Brandenburg line achieve the electorship of Brandenburg as Elector of Brandenburg and King in Prussia.

Frederick William I

One of the first acts of Frederick William I was to renew the dispute before the Reichskommission over the lawful succession over the Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach.

The Reichskommission had withheld any action on any proposal regarding this during the late wars and they were reluctant to once again try to unravel this spool of intrigue and in-family matters.  Under the request of the Emperor, however, they were bound to do so and it was speculated that the decision would serve as another punishment for Bavaria who had taken sides against the Empire during the late wars.

Little did the world anticipate the decision granted by the Kommission in 1717 to award the tile of Margrave to  Bavaria claiming the agreement with the widow of George Frederick II supplanted any other action that Brandenburg had made.  The fact that the commission was held in Cologne under the auspices and influence of Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, brother to Max Emanuel and who was even then trying to build a Family Compact among all the various Wittelsbach branches, should have made Frederick William concerned but apparently he did not at first voice opposition to the ruling.

Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, Archbishop of Koln, Trier and Koblenz

While Frederick William dithered, Max Emanuel ordered General Allesandro, Marquis deMaffei to once again occupy the Margrave and this was done promptly without interference by the Emperor or the Diet at Frankurt.  Schwabach and Windsbach were occupied with no problem, the city of Anspach managed to form a deputation to greet FZM De Maffei and remind him of the Imperial Rights held by the city and their expectation that Max Emanuel would honour them.  Once secure in this they placed the keys to the city in his hand and passed under the Blau/Weiss banner once again.

In Berlin the court council finally decided that something would have to be done and Graf Lottum the new Field Marshal was appointed to lead the forces that would regain the Duchy for the House of Brandenburg.

Recently recalled from his assignment as Governor of Cleves, he hastily assembled the forces assigned for the Liberation of Anspach consisting of several of the regiments he had led to success in the late War of the Spanish Succession.  While weak in artillery the force was a balanced one of 6 regiments of foot and 4 regiments of horse or approximately 15,000 men.  This was felt to be sufficient based on projections of the Bavarian forces in the area.

So in the month of May the Prussians made the march through the Franconia uplands and descended from Bamberg using the Regnitz River as a supply source.  The initial plan called for a maneuver to seize Nurnberg but the failure of Erlangen to provide sufficient supplies lead to a situation where De Maffei was able to select a good position covering the approaches to the Duchy and offer battle.  The results will be reviewed in the following chapter.