Armies and Uniforms of the Seven Years War - A Wargamers Guide: Volume 1 Prussia and Allies
By James Woods
88 pages (8 pages colour), 168mm x 248mm, Paperback

On 29th August 1756, Frederick II, King of Prussia, led a pre-emptive strike across his border with the Electorate of Saxony. Frederick's justification for this action lay in the fact that he was made aware that the efforts of Austria to recover Silesia had led to the potential formation of a huge coalition of forces, opposed to Prussia.

Austria had already recruited Russia, to the degree that, in 1753, the Empress Elizabeth had agreed in principle to go to war with Prussia. In order to persuade the French to join them, the Austrians repudiated their historical ties with the British.

When Frederick signed the defensive Treaty of Westminster, on 27th January 1756, with the British, the French saw this as leaving them little option but to join the coalition, since they were already at war with the British. On 1st May 1756, they signed the First Treaty of Versailles, part of which cancelled the French guarantee of Prussian sovereignty over Silesia.

Frederick began mobilization in June 1756 and, as stated above, invaded Saxony in August 1756. This accelerated the coalition forces and, on 2nd February 1757, Austria and Russia signed a military cooperation agreement. On 1st May 1757, the Second Treaty of Versailles drew France into the coalition, along with Saxony and Sweden.

The Emperor of Germany, Francis Stephen, was married to Maria Theresa, and so lots of the southern and western German states formed part of the coalition. Since the Elector of Saxony was also King of Poland, it can be seen that, with the exceptions contained in this volume, Frederick II was at war with most of Europe.

Since the end of the Silesian Wars, Austria, most particularly in the person of Empress Maria Theresa, had been driven by an almost pathological desire to have the province of Silesia returned to Austrian control. While Silesia represented a comparatively rich province, the loss of the revenue from it was unlikely to bring the Hapsburg Empire down, but any erosion of the Imperial boundaries was to be actively discouraged. From his perspective, Frederick II, King of Prussia, would have felt the loss of Silesia more keenly since it represented a more significant percentage of his gross income, as well as being the springboard for his future expansion plans. To assist in achieving its aim, Austria put together, politically, a huge coalition of armies of European nations. While all of these coalition participants each had their own agenda, they were united by a common desire to defeat Frederick and his allies.

This book gives details of those armies which served under the Prussian banner.