Velletri 1744. La mancata riconquista austriaca delle Due Sicilie

By Virgilio Ilari, Giancarlo Boeri

Subjects: Velletri, Battle of, Velletri, Italy, 1744, Military History, Austrian Succession, War of, 1740-1748, History

Description: Order [email protected]. Italy was involved in the war of Austrian succession (1740-1748) by the Spanish attempt to reconquer the Lombardy lost in 1708. The Spanish expedition of Montemar (1742-43) was rejected on the Panaro by the Austrians thanks to the intervention of the Sardinian army, and Austria took advantage of it to try in turn to resume the Kingdom of Naples, which ten years before had been conquered by Charles of Bourbon, son of the Royals of Spain. In the summer 1744, the Austrian pursuit of the Spanish retreat, stopped in front of the entrenched camp created in Velletri by the Spanish and Neapolitan armies commanded by King Charles. Since neither Austrians nor Bourbons wanted to risk a field battle, there followed a long standstill, hardly paid by the population, with various diplomatic background and Austrian attempts, partly supported by English ships and by reactionaries hostile to King Charles's reformism, to win indirectly (first with a raid in Abruzzo, then with a coup against Velletri for the purpose, failed by a whisker, to capture the king). The campaign ended with the Austrian retreat in Rimini and the solemn entrance of King Charles to Rome, celebrated by the pope. Based on an impressive bibliography, the work reconstructs the context and details of the campaign in a new way, analyzing the Fabian strategy (cunctatio) aimed at wearing down the opponent with the maneuver and its auxiliary elements (seapower, logistics, propaganda, intelligence, diplomacy, treatment of civilians); as well as the itineraries and events between the Po and the Liri-Garigliano and between the Adriatic and the Tyrrhenian Sea; the relations between the military and civilians; the composition of the Staffs; the recruitment; the organization, the armament and the uniforms and flags of the three armies (Austrian, Spanish and Neapolitan). The work is richly illustrated with 70 full-page pictures (portraits of the protagonists, original maps of the routes and fights, and uniforms and flags based on a new research).