FRA 
fefllon of which was necefTary to open them apafflige into 
the Milanefe. But though they obtained a fecond vidtory 
over Charles Emanuel, difeafe pervaded the camp : they 
were compelled to retire from the inaufpicious walls, 
evacuate Piedmont, repafs the Alps, and fhelter the rem¬ 
nant of their followers in Dauphiny. 
Amidft the various viciflitudes of the war, the emperor 
Charles VII, was once more reftored to his capital; 
but his fitnation, on the retreat of the Pruffians, grew 
more precarious every hour. His frame was exhaufted 
by inceffant anxiety, and, in 1745, death delivered him 
from again exhibiting to Europe the fpcftacle of imperial 
mifery. His fon Maximilian Jofeph, a youth of feven- 
teen, concluded, through the mediation of Great Britain, 
a treaty with the queen of Hungary, which eftablifhed him 
in the peaceable poffeflion of the electorate of Bavaria, and 
he rejedted the alliance of France, which had proved fo fatal 
to his father. Louis alfo tempted in vain the ambition of 
Auguftus king of Poland with the imperial crown ; that 
monarch rejed'ted the fplendid allurement, and maintained 
his engagments with the queen of Hungary and the king 
of England ; and the court of Verfailles had foon after 
the mortification of beholding Francis ofLorrain inverted 
with the imperial dignity at Frankfort. Yet France ftill 
obrtinately purfued the war ; and her monarch, accom-' 
panied by the dauphin into Flanders animated his forces 
by his prefence : under count Saxe they laid fiege to 
Tournay, one of the ftrongeft towns in the Auftrian Ne¬ 
therlands. The Englifii, the Dutch, and the Aurtrians, 
commanded by the duke of Cumberland, advanced to the 
relief of that place ; and the plains of Fontenoy were ren¬ 
dered memorable by the bloody and obftinate conflift. 
The allies were at length defeated by the numbers of their 
enemies, and the fuperior (kill of count Saxe; they re¬ 
treated with confiderable lofs, occupied foon after a rtrong 
camp between Bruflels and Antwerp, and remained inac¬ 
tive during the reft of the campaign ; while the French 
reduced Tournay, Oudenarde, Ath, Dendermond, Ghent, 
Qftend, Nieuport, and the principal fortified places through 
Auftrian Flanders. 
The fuccefs of the houfe of Bourbon in Italy was 
equally rapid ; don Philip and marfhal Maillebois prefted 
with their fuperior forces the king of Sardinia and Schu- 
lenberg. Charles Emanuel retired behind the Po, and 
even trembled for the fate of his capital ; while the kin¬ 
dred armies of France and Spain deluged all Italy ; and 
tjon Carlos clofed the campaign with a triumphant entry 
into Milan. Nor were the operations of the king of 
Pruflia lefs brilliant or decifive. In Silefia and Bohemia 
he fucceffively defeated prince Charles of Lorrain ; and 
from the vi&oriesof Fridbourgh and Slandentz, poured 
the torrent of his arms into Saxony. He made himfelf! 
mafter of Drefden; and the king of Poland purchafed 
peace from the victor by the payment of a million of 
crowns. It was the intention of Frederic to proteit, but 
not to aggrandize, the houfe Bourbon ; he had no longer 
any thing to dread from the Auftrian power, and he con¬ 
cluded a fecond treaty with the queen of Hungary, whicli 
confirmed that of Breilaw, and guarantied to him the 
poffeflion of Silefia, on acknowledging the validity of the 
emperor’s eledtion. France wnts aftonifhed and confounded 
at this fecond defertion of the Pruftian monarch ; but 
Louis confoled himfelf in a new enterprife, which pro- 
mifed the moil decifive advantage. The young pretender 
had landed with a few adherents in Scotland ; and no 
fooner was the (tandard of Charles eredted, than it was 
joined by fome thoufands of hardy and ferocious moun¬ 
taineers. He occupied Edinburgh, was folemnly pro¬ 
claimed there with all the forms of legal authority, and 
foon after defeated the royal forces at Prefton Pans. The 
duke of Cumberland, with the whole Britifh army were 
recalled from Flanders tocrufh this formidable rebellion; 
for the fate of which, fee the article England, vol. vi. 
page 717-720. 
in the mean time, Louis, to balance the defeat of the 
Vol. VII, No. 464. 
N C E. 741 
pretender in England, opened the campaign In Flanders 
at the head of one hundred and twenty thoufand men ; he 
inverted and reduced Bruflels the capital of Brabant; 
took Mons and Charleroy ; and rendered himfelf mafter 
of Flanders, Brabant, and Liege. He foon after laid liege 
to Namur; and that city, fituated on the conflux of 
the Sambre and the Meufe, and defended by a garrifon 
of nine thoufand men, was obliged to furrender. The 
confederates, though commanded by prince Charles of 
Lorrain, were alfo defeated by the fuperior addrefs of mare- 
fchal Saxe ; and this viftory, which the advanced feafon 
of the year prevented the marefchal from improving, termi¬ 
nated the campaign of 1746, in the Low Countries. 
In the Euft Indies the honour of the French flag was 
afferted by La Bonrdonnais, who difpoffeffed the Englifh 
of their fettiement of Madrason the coaft of Coromandel; 
but it was in the Netherlands that Louis prepared to make 
the mod vigorous efforts. An army of one hundred and 
fifty thoufand men was affembled under marflial Saxe. 
The French minifterat the fame time prefented a memorial 
to the ftates, declaring that his mafter, meant only to obviate 
the dangerous effedls of the protection that they afforded 
to the troops of the queen of Hungary and the king of 
England. In the mean time count Lowendahl made him¬ 
felf mafter of Sluys, Sandberg, and Hulft;and, having 
taken polleftion of Axtel and Terneufe, was meditating 
a defcent on Zealand, when a Britifh fquadron defeated 
his purpofe, and a revolution in the government of Hol¬ 
land made a retreat neceffary. Struck with confternation 
at the rapid pirogrefs of the French arms, the inhabitants 
of the United Provinces, believing themfelves betrayed, 
tumultuoufly rofe againft the minifters of the republic, 
and compelled the magiftrates to declare the prince of 
Orange ftadtholder ; a dignity which had been laid afide 
fince the death of William III. The beneficial effefts of 
this revolution to the confederates, appeared^ in feveral 
vigorous meafures ; and inftant orders were given by the 
ftates for commencing hoftilities againft France both by 
fea and land, though without any formal declaration of 
war. Louis himfelf foon after joined his army in Flan¬ 
ders, and the fiege of Maeftricht was refolved on. The 
confederates, to preferve that city, determined to hazard 
a general engagement ; the village of Val or Laffeldt was 
the objeCt of their mutual efforts. But though the Eng- 
lift) were compelled to abandon the field with lofs, yet the 
duke of Cumberland in his retreat reinforced the garrifon 
of Maeftricht ; and marefchal Saxe, after amufing the al¬ 
lies with a variety of complicated movements, detached 
count Lowendahl with thirty thoufand men to invert; Ber- 
gen-op-Zoom, the ftrongeft fortification in Dutch Brabant. 
This experienced general now encountered in the fa¬ 
vourite work of Van ban an objcCt worthy his ikill. The 
town was garrifoned with three thoufand men, and could 
be reinforced on the ftiorteft notice by a confiderable 
army of the allies, which took poffeflion of the lines be¬ 
longing to the fortification. The eyes of Europe were 
fixed on the fate of Bergen-op-Zoom ; each inftrument 
of deftrinftion was inceffantly employed on both fides ; 
the town was reduced to afhes ; the trendies were 
filled with carnage ; yet the out-works were in a 
great meafure entire, and the event of the enterprife 
feemed ftill doubtful; when count Lowendahl demon- 
ftrated that there are cccafions when it is necefTary to 
go beyond the eftabliftied rules of art. That general re¬ 
folved to attempt by a coup-de-main thofe works which 
ftill refilled his regular approaches. The attack was 
made in the middle of the night, and at three places at 
once. The befieged, aroufed from their fecurity, in vain 
endeavoured to repel the affailants ; the French grenadiers 
were already in the town ; two regiments of Swifs and 
Scotch who had aflembled in the market-place ftill dif- 
puted the day, and were cut to pieces; the reft, with 
the governor, retired to the lines: the army that had 
occupied thofe, immediately retreated ; and the French 
became matters of the whole navigation of the Scheldt. 
9 C Loitisj. 
