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.