Battle of Calcinato

Part of the War of the Spanish Succession

The Battle of Calcinato by Jean-Baptiste Martin.

Date	19 April 1706
Location	near Calcinato, present-day Italy
Result	Two Crowns victory

Belligerents

Kingdom of France

Bourbon Spain

Habsburg Austria

Commanders and leaders

Duke of Vendôme

Christian Detlev Reventlow

Strength

41,000

19,000

Casualties and losses

500 dead or wounded

6,000 dead or wounded

The Battle of Calcinato was fought on 19 April 1706 near Calcinato, Italy, during the War of the Spanish Succession, between the forces of Bourbon France and Spain and those of the Austrian Habsburgs. It ended in a victory for Marshal Vendôme's French and Spanish army.

In Italy the 1706 campaign had, as before, two branches: the contest for Piedmont and the contest between the French forces in Lombardy and the Austrian second army that sought to join Victor Amadeus and Starhemberg in Piedmont. The latter, repulsed by Vendôme at Cassano, had retired to Brescia and Lake Garda, Vendôme following up and wintering about Castiglione and Mantua.

On 19 April 1706, Marshal Vendome marched on the Imperial positions at Montichiari and Calcinato, which had posted themselves in well defended but distant positions, with the latter segment of the Prussian-Imperial army separated from the forces near Montichiari by a distance of 3 leagues (a distance which was at that time equivalent, roughly, to 11 km). With the intention of taking the enemy forces by surprise, and with Prince Eugene nicely separated from his men—Reventlow left in temporary command—Vendome had in the days prior feigned sickness to delay Eugene's return , and preceding the battle marched by the cover of night to surprise the enemy. Arriving at the Canal De Lonato, Vandome at day break pushed the advance-guard of the Imperialists beyond the canal, and in doing so captured a Dragoon who reported upon the weak left flank of the Imperialist forces.

Vandome was now in a position to move his forces to isolate and overwhelm the enemy, allowing him to breach the nearly impenetrable posts the Imperialists had constructed for themselves. Thus, having secured in the early morning the bulk of his infantry on the Calcinato-side of the canal, employing a number of hastily constructed bridges to do so, he posted 200 cavalry to possess a hill just beyond the village. However, the Imperialists, noticing this at sunrise, dispatched the entirety of their horsemen to the same spot, and having driven the French cavalry from the position secured it as their own, allowing eight battalions of Imperialist infantry to reach and reinforce the hill before the Marshal could mount his attack.

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