Napoleon's Campaigns in Italy

mmm MILITARY

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

257

NAPOLEON'S . CAMPAIGNS IN ITALY

PHILIP HAYTHORNTHWAITE RICHARD HOOK

EDITOR: MARTIN WINDROW ~ MILITARY

MEN-AT-ARMS SERIES

257

NAPOLEON'S CAMPAIGNS IN ITALY Text by PHILIP HAYTHORNTHWAITE Colour plates by RICHARD HOOK

NAPOLEON IN ITALY

THE EARLY WARS At the commencement of the French Revolutionary Wars, most of the important early campaigning occurred on the French frontiers with Germany and the Netherlands; but it was inevitable that conflict would also take place on the Franco-Italian frontier, due to the presence there of France's enemies-most notably the Austro-Hungarians, whose emperor was a driving force being the first coalition which sought to reverse the effects of the French Revolution. Italy was divided into a large number of states, and had beel) relatively peaceful since the Treaty of Aix-Ia-Chapelle had ended the War of the Austrian Succession in 1748. The Austrian Habsburg possessions in the north were considerable: Austria, in the person of the emperor, ruled Lombardy, including the duchies of Milan and Mantua; and although the grand-duchy of Tuscany was nominally independent, its ruler was the son of Emperor Leopold II (1747---()2), who had himself possessed the state until he succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor in 1790. The Spanish Bourbons ruled the 'Kingdom of the Two Sicilies' ( aples and Sicily) which extended north to the Papal States, ruled by the Vatican. The house of Savoy ruled Piedmont, Savoy, ice and Sardinia; and the declining republics of Venice and Genoa were independent. Although the south was beset by feudalism and oppression, and despite the relatively liberal regime in the Austrian territories, most internal unrest was present in Piedmont, initially among the most affected by the spread of Jacobinism from France, and Milan. With the hostile territories of the house of Savoy on their borders, the French were initially more concerned with securing their frontier than in exporting republicanism into Italy. Nevertheless, in 1792 Savoy and ice were invaded by the French and seized with some ease, as the Piedmontese administration and forces were in no state to wage war, and the ruler, Victor Amadeus III, was but a pale shadow

Napoleon Bonaparte as he appeared at the beginning ofthe Italian campaigns, wearing the I796-pattern

coatofa general en chef. (Engraving by W. Greatbatch)

of his famous warrior father Charles Emmanuel III. Savoy was incorporated as a province of France, but no immediate further conquest was attempted. In 1793 France was beset by royalist risings in the south, Toulon was occupied by an Anglo-Spanish force, and until the autumn the situation of the French on the northern frontiers was parlous in the extreme. From January 1794 the French 'Army of Italy' was commanded by General Pierre Dumerbion (1737-