Whither Spain: The relief of Milan

[lord of the mark]

Late Spring, 1654. A hill, several miles east of the city of Milan, province of Lombardy.

Even as he focused on the precarius battle below, Colonel Rodriguez reflected on the odd twists of fate that had placed him, a mere colonel, a commoner, and a lifetime soldier, in command of what was, at least temporarily Spain's premier army, a force of over 45,000 men, including 3000 of cavarly.

Leadership

Leaders. Spain was short of leaders. That was what the Duke of Olivares had said (1). He had been reprimanded for saying so by the Don de la Frontera, who suggested that at a time when he was pushing further centralization of the Spanish govt, it was particularly awkward to make statements that alienated the high nobility. (2)

And it wasnt just a question of the nobility, but of military leadership. In the aftermath of the English wars, no great military leaders had arisen in Spain. The constable, under the direction of the DDLF, had refused to give promotions to general or admiral in the absence of outstanding leadership.

The Colonel

This hadnt bothered Col. Rodriguez. He wasnt the political sort who could easily wangle a generalship anyway. He was a hardbitten Castillian soldier, a man who had risen through the ranks of the Tercios, an old infantryman. Most of his service had been in America. While he had fought in Italy during the rebellions of 1640, after that he had gone to America for rest of the English war. When that was triumphantly concluded, he had served with valour in the crushing of the many rebellions. The outbreak of the war with Turkey had found him home in Castille, and (with his Italian experience) he was quickly dispatched to take command of the relatively small force in Mantua. That was expected to be a minor command, as the war with Turkey was expected to be primarily naval, with perhaps raids on Libya. It would be Austria (who had dragged Spain into this unwanted war) who would bear the brunt of land fighting. He had been specifically told to keep his force IN northern Italy, and NOT to respond to Austrian requests for help in the Balkans, not without explicit consent from Madrid.

How the war began

Then had come the war with France. The Austrian DOW on Verona had taken Madrid by surprise, the rumors said. War with Verona meant war with France. Spain had been watching France nervously for years and had expanded the army in Europe, but had never quite caught up to France. Now whose fault was THAT. The Don de la Frontera's, without a doubt. The DDLF was a man of peace, who much preferred to invest in his administrative and colonial schemes, keeping only as much of an army as he thought necessary to deter war. Well, even great men, from ancient families, can make mistakes. (3) Still, to betray the alliance with Austria, Portugal, and the Papacy would shake Spain's European policy to its foundations. If Spains arms could hold the French off, Spains economy would make possible a military expansion that would ultimately lead to victory. Thus, the battle was joined.


Preparations

The French had initiated the war with two big moves. They had executed a complex series of maneuvers in the north, culminating an attack on Artois, as well as raids into Lorraine and Franche Comte. And they had steadily gathered their forces in the south for an assault on Lombardy. With a force of over 50,000 headed eastward, Madrid had sent Rodriguez instructions to raise several thousand new troops, but his initial force of less than 10,000 was told to hold in Mantua, and not advance into Lombardy.


Milan had the strongest fortifications in the Spanish empire. Some said there were no stronger fortifications anywhere in the world. The French, under the Prince of Conde, were unlikely to leave a fortress like that in their rear. That meant a siege, probably a long siege. Rodriguez's instructions were to hold, to train and develop his army, including new local recruits, and to await reinforcements. The Colonel obeyed, and sent messages to the commanders in Sienna and Naples, to coordinate plans.

There were few more distressing days in the Colonel's life then when the messengers returned, and informed him that Naples had fallen to Veronese assault, and that the small Spanish force in Sienna had been annihilated by Veronese troops, who were now besieging the city. He immediately sent word to Madrid asking for new instructions - he tried to veil his shock and anger.

Madrids reply was elaborate and sympathetic, yet did not entirely calm him. He received it shortly after receiving word that the French besieging force at Milan had grown to almost 100,000 troops, mainly cavalry!!!!.
Madrid informed him that a new force was assembling in (papal) Apulia. It would include new troops being raised in Sicily, the survivors from Naples, and troops gathered from around the Med islands (usually that would be small, but 5,000 troops earmarked for Libya had been diverted to Italy). When this force was large enough it would move north, and would bypass Naples (for now) and attempt to relieve Sienna. Thought had been given to besieging Verona, but it appeared that the Papal troops (heretofore ineffective) were likely to take the lead there, under Austrian leadership.

Meanwhile, according to Madrid, he should not think that France was being left unmolested on other fronts. The battle in Artois had been won, and the forces in Belgium were playing a game of maneuver, raid, and counter raid, with the slightly superior French forces in the North. Meanwhile the Spanish assault on southern France was being expanded and reorganized. With the capture of Jamaica, forces were also on the way from the new world to reinforce the position in Europe. Austria, unfortunately, was focusing on Turkey.

Operations

The colonel kept in steady touch with the commander in Apulia, Colonel Fuentes. As the winter advanced Milan held, and the forces in Mantua grew toward 18,000. Still far to few to even think of throwing against the french, even as their army suffered from illness and desertion in it massive siege lines outside Milan. Fuentes force thus became more crucial. The colonel was very pleased, therefore, when Fuentes began his march up the peninsula with 24,000 men, and others behind him in Sicily.


Now the Colonel was an aggressive soldier and had floated two further ideas - one, to attack the French province of Emilia, the other to join Fuentes in the relief of Sienna. The first was definitively vetoed by Madrid, who did NOT want a field battle against French troops now. Milan was holding, and as long as it did, french troops were attritting away. And other things were brewing, or so Madrid promised. As to Sienna, Madrid suggested waiting until Fuentes was closer, but approved planning for the operation.

Fuentes was in Rome, and Col. Rodruiguez was preparing to move when the ill news was recieved that Sienna had fallen to the Veronese. Madrid, said not to worry. Fuentes would instead be dispatched directly to Mantua. The papal and Austrian forces had finally smothered the March, and the lost provinces could be dealt with later. In fact it was feared that a retaking them might tempt Austria to open peace negotiations too soon. Also, things had gone well enough in the north, that 5000 troops had been dispatched over the Alps and would be arriving in Mantua shortly.

Meetings

Col Rodriguez embraced Fuentes when he arrived in Mantua. Word had come from Milan that losses were severe, and that the city could NOT hold out indefinitely. Though he had not heard from Madrid in some time, he was sure that a relief expedition would now be launched. There were over 45,000 troops in Mantua, just larger than the depleted French force in Lombardy, though the French had many more cavalry, and the experienced Prince of Conde at their head. The Colonel asked Fuentes if he had directions to begin the relief, and what orders he wished to give. Fuentes had responded "what, you havent received word from Madrid?" "nothing for weeks" "the message must not have gotten through then - they have asked you to take command, not me - they are evidently very pleased with how you have managed the build up of forces here - but yes, they want an immediate relief expedition - Milan must NOT fall - even if it means the sacrifice of our army to weaken the French. The Colonel was more shocked then delighted, and immediately set to work.




Notes

(1) He actually did say it in OTL. Though in OTL he was Count Duke Olivares. And in OTL he was the dominant figure in the Spanish govt for a couple of decades. In this TL the Don de la Frontera is (as usual) the preeminent figure in the govt, though Olivares is still quite influential.
(2) The irony here is that Olivares, in OTL, had struggled to centralize the govt of Spain, and had failed dismally. In this Timeline, the DDLF has largely succeeded - but then there have been many differences that made this possible, in particular the much longer period of "rational" central leadership, and the long peace in the late 16th century.
(3) while the DDLF's seem ancient to Rodriguez, since they have dominated the spanish state for 120 years, in fact they are still looked down on by some Spanish magnates. In fact they were quite obscure before the rise of King Ferdinand, and it is rumored that they even had some converso blood.

[Spiffor]

Great read LOTM I really like it

[lord of the mark]

(Thanks, Spiff.)



Battle


Col Rodriguez paced nervously on the hilltop. He was not used to commanding a battle from such a distance - he was the sort of officer who liked to be right in there amidst the ranks leading the soldiers forward. But with an army of 45,000 it would be folly to lead from the front. Not to mention that his battle plan required a good overview of the battle, so as to best utilize his reserves.

He had placed his staunch Mantuans on the left. A body of Spanish troops (who had been stationed in Italy and the islands) held the center. The south Italians, under Fuentes, were on the right. They were strong troops, but he hadnt trained them personally, and they had to be considered the ones to worry about most in a long battle. He held the 5000 experienced Spanish troops who had come down from Franche Comte in reserve. Along with his 3000 cavalry.

He had marched the troops forward on the road to Lombardy. If the French didnt engage, he would continue to their siege lines where his infantry would be at an advantage. But he expected they would come out when they heard he was moving. A battle in the plains was to their advantage. Also he had several thousand more troops on the way north from central Italy, and the French had no way of knowing how far they were. They would want to crush him before further reinforcements came up. When he encountered the French vanguard, he set his men out, and took up his position on the hill.

The French wasted no time. While their infantry engaged the Spaniards in the center, their well trained cavalry hit the Italians on each flank with charge after charge. The pikemen held, and the musketeers took a terrible toll of the French cavalry. Rodriguez wished his troops had the bayonets the Austrians were rumored to use, but well, Spain was behind and there was nothing he could do about that.

As the day wore on the French horsemen continued their brave charges. One charge on the right (on the Sicilians) had left its flank sloppily exposed on the open ground - the Colonel had the cavalry charge at that moment - the sabre wielding Spaniards were making mincemeat of the French chevaliers, in a swirling battle, until yet another regiment of French horse come on, and massacred the Spaniards. Seeing this, the Sicilian infantry began to break. There was no choice but to commit the reserve, who went in grimly, as they had on so many fields of battle around the globe. This stabilized the right for a little while. Meanwhile the left was under pressure - the colonels own Mantuans. They were very tough and well trained, but were steadily losing men - it was no longer a question of gaps in the ranks, but whole ranks missing. They gave ground slowly. which, unfortunately, left a gap between them and the Spaniards on their right - a gap quickly exploited by the French cavalry. Soon the Spaniards were giving ground as well. The French then turned on the Sicilians on the right - who were soon surrounded. Few who were on the right wing lived to tell the tale - and Col Fuentes was NOT among the survivors.

At this point Col. Rodriguez had no choice but to retreat, and save the remnant of his army, which was in dissary any way. He could only hope the French had been too weakened to maintain an effective siege. And that reinforcements would come soon.

Scouts

The next morning the colonel sent for Captain Javier Lopez (hereinafter JLo) The colonel had managed to gather up the remnants of his army which had retreated to Mantua in more or less good order - reports from officers, totaled up, indicated barely 10,000 effectives reporting for duty - less than one - quarter of the original force. A disaster indeed. OTOH he knew the french had been hurt as well, though he didnt know how badly. He also didnt know if they had continued the siege or not. If they had too few to continue the siege, the ever aggressive Prince of Conde might well decide a better use for his army would be to pursue into Mantua, to destroy what was left of the Colonels army, and to pillage the province. He HAD to know where the French were and what they were doing. So he gathered up the pitiful remnant of the Spanish horsemen, as a scouting party, and assigned JLo to lead it.

JLo led the scouts up the road toward Milan. They brought along a Mantuan merchant, who knew some back roads in case they needed to leave the main road quickly.

They found no sign of the French anywhere. They arrived at the scene of the previous days battle. The corpses of thousands of Spaniars lay rotting - horrible, but no surprise. What was more odd was that there seemed to be a few French corpses unburied as well, despite evident mass graves. Apparently the field had been left hastily.

They proceeded further - they saw the detritus left behind by the French army, but no French troops. Suddenly a smile broke on JLo's face. "Something brewing" the Colonel had said. JLo was enough of a strategic thinker to put two and two together....


Finally they approached the siege lines outside Milan. No Frenchmen, and little of the encampment they would have expected - a few tents left, scattered supplies, all artillery gone, fires smoldering throughout the camp, as if someone had prepared breakfast and quickly fled. Then from one of the scouts... "Capitan, horsemen from up the road!!!" "Draw sabres!!!!" But no, these men did not ride like trained French Cavalry. They rode like, well, townsmen. Wearing rusty armor, riding nags. One holding the banner of the City of Milan.

"Halt! Who are you?" Jlo cried in Italian. On hearing his thick Spanish accent the approaching horsemen smiled.

"We are sent by the town council of Milan. The French have left"

"When? When??" Jlo asked urgently

"They headed east as if for battle yesterday morning. About half came back last night, slept briefly, and gathered up their camp and artillery before dawn. You have missed their departure by only a few hours"

"Which way??"

"West - the road towards Piedmont"

"Garcia, come here - take a message to the Colonel - tell him the French have departed West as of this morning, and have about half the force they started with - that would be about 25000 troops. Tell him i have dispatched scouts to watch the western road, in case they should head back. " He turned to the Milanese - "you will need food, yes?" "actually, senor, we were coming out to scavenge whatever food we could find in the camp. Conditions in the city are very bad, senor. We could try to forage, but the province has been worked over for some time. " "Garcia, also tell the colonel we need food and medecine here quickly" "Shall I ask him to send troops?" "no, that is for the colonel do decide - I doubt he will though, until we have a clearer picture of what is happening - oh, and tell him to send an officer to releive me, so that i may inform him personally of what I have seen" Jlo very much wanted to find out it was that was brewing that had caused this seemingly miraculous occurence.

[lord of the mark]

Mantua. late spring 1654.

"Captain, the siege is definitely broken then. We have sent food and medecine, and equipment to repair the walls, and a few man to help man them, in case the French should return. "

"So colonel, what has happened that they turned away, and will they come back?"

" not soon I think. They have a Spanish army of 20,000 men in their rear, approaching Lyons. I think they will try to deal with that first - it wont be easy - our army is mainly infantry, and once the French approach Lyons, our forces will lead them a merry chase through the Massif Centrale, or perhaps even the Alps - much of the Massif is already covered, as well as provinces back to the Spanish frontier. they dont seem to have many reserve troops - although i suppose they will recall the troops they foolishly sent to attack Vienna"

"What will we do, then? Here in Mantua I mean?"
"Try to heal this army, gather such reinforcements as we can, maybe see if the famous armourers of Milan can build some siege artillery, and head for the French province of Emilia. Madrid would very much like to hold another Italian province before there is a peace treaty. Emilia, and Jamaica, wouldnt that be feather in the cap for the DDLF?"

"And what of Sienna and Naples"

"we can retake those as well, perhaps with the help of our brave allies"

Jlo spat. "stinking allies. Well, it was more your doing than anyone else's. Surely you shall be rewarded."

"i cant think of that now. I can barely do what i must. I am devasted - in my years of soldiering i have never seen so much death as yesterday. I hope the politicians can turn it to account - I am glad I am not responsible for starting such horrors."