Battle of Rottofreddo
battle of the War of Austrian Succession (1746)
The Battle of Rottofreddo or Rottofreno (10 August 1746) was fought during the War of Austrian Succession between a Habsburg Austrian army and a Bourbon army consisting of Spanish and French forces. The Spanish were led by Jean Thierry du Mont, comte de Gages and the French by Jean-Baptiste Francois des Marets, marquis de Maillebois. The Franco-Spanish army was isolated by the Austrian and Sardinian armies and trying to escape after being badly defeated in the Battle of Piacenza. In a bold move led by Marshal Maillebois, the Bourbon army crossed to the south bank of the Po River west of Piacenza, intending to march west. Austrian forces led by Antoniotto Botta Adorno attacked the Franco-Spanish rearguard, inflicting serious losses, but were unable to prevent the Bourbon army from getting away to Tortona.
Background
The War of the Austrian Succession began on 16 December 1740 when the Kingdom of Prussia invaded Silesia, a province of the Habsburg monarchy. Forceful diplomacy by the Kingdom of France enlisted the Electorate of Bavaria, and the Electorate of Saxony in the anti-Austrian alliance. On 15 September 1741, Linz was captured by a Franco-Bavarian army. With most of Austria's army transferred out of Italy, King Philip V of Spain and his Queen Elizabeth Farnese wanted to seize a domain in Italy for their son Don Philip. Taking advantage of a weak Kingdom of Great Britain naval squadron, Spain landed 14,000 troops in Italy in November 1741 and 12,800 more in January 1742.
“Battle of Rottofreddo” enters the record as battle of the War of Austrian Succession (1746). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Battle, Rottofreddo and battle can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3636601. Authority coordinates are 45.050, 9.550. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1746, 1740, 1741 and 1742.
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This entry incorporates text from “Battle of Rottofreddo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.