The Bourbon Position
Following the battle of Bassignana and the splitting of the Austrian and Piedmontese armies, the Spanish and French armies co-ordinated their plans. Spain viewed either the capture of Turin and Milan desirable, but, since France wished to negotiate with Charles Emmanuel, this left Spain only with Milan. Therefore on 28 November 1745 De Gages began the Spanish invasion of Lombardy. The Austrian commander Prince Josef Wenzel of Liechtenstein retired before the Spanish advance lest he commit his undermanned army to destruction. Milan submitted peacefully, and by the end of the year most of Lombardy was in Spanish hands.
The situation facing Austria in early 1746 was this. The Bourbon armies occupied all of Lombardy save Mantua, and approximately 1/5 of Charles Emmanuel's realm of Piedmont-Sardinia. The French court now began negotiations with Charles Emmanuel in the hope of detaching Piedmont from its alliance with Austria whilst at the same time Marshal Maillebois was pressing the siege of Alessandria. By all reckoning the Infant Philip was now master of his new realm, and the Bourbons had been triumphant in Spain.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Piacenza
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