Italy, Piedmont and the War of the Spanish Succession

The campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession in Flanders and Germany are well known in the English-speaking world. Those are fought in Spain are perhaps less so. However, the Italian front of the conflict is almost unheard of.

Although there were no Allied armies fighting in Italy, William III considered the front more important that the campaign in Spain. After his death in 1702, the English government committed significantly large portions of expenditure to the Italian front. The region was considered so important to the French war effort that Marshal Vendôme was despatched by Louis XIV to oversee the campaign. The Habsburg Empire sent Prince Eugene, considered by many to be their best general, to fight in Italy. Eugene would halt the French advances at Turin in 1706, their worst defeat since Blenheim in 1704.

Dr Paoletti’s book is the first major work in the English language on the subject, and draws heavily on Italian sources inaccessible to the English-language reader.