page_title: Battle of Assietta
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Assietta / Background
context_page_description: The Battle of Assietta was a significant engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession and pitted a numerically superior French force of 25,000 men under the command of Louis Charles Armand Fouquet against a Sardinian army of 15,000 men led by Giovanni Bricherasio. The French were soundly defeated and their commander, Fouquet, killed during the course of the battle. The siege was part of the Italian campaign of the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Habsburgs and Bourbons contested for domination over Northern Italy and the various Italian states. The Kingdom of Sardinia joined the war on the side of the Pragmatic Allies in 1742 and rallied itself to Maria Theresa's cause. There also were concerns about growing French influence in its territories. The war in Italy had already been going on for seven years, and the Sardinian army had already suffered several defeats in the field, leading to them opting for a more defensive approach. The French led several expeditions in Italy during the war, combining their forces with the Spanish Bourbons to accomplish their political aims.
context_section_description: The cause of the War of the Austrian Succession was Maria Theresa's alleged ineligibility to succeed to the hereditary lands of her father, Emperor Charles VI, because Salic law precluded royal inheritance by a woman. This became the key justification for the Kingdom of France and the Kingdom of Prussia, joined by the Electorate of Bavaria, to challenge Habsburg power. Maria Theresa was supported by the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Electorate of Saxony. Since 1739, Spain had been fighting the separate War of Jenkins' Ear with Britain, which primarily took place in the Americas. It joined the war in Europe, hoping to recapture its former possessions in Northern Italy, now held by Austria. Having previously re-gained the Kingdom of Naples in 1735, doing so would restore the territories the Spanish lost under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.  
  In the late phase of the War of the Austrian Succession, France had decided to eliminate the Sardinian army, which they considered a threat due to the strong strategic position the Sardinians held. King Louis XV of France had already dispatched forces into Sardianian territory, besieging Cuneo and engaging the Sardinians at Madonna dell'Olmo and Bassignana, winning both battles but gaining little strategic advantage overall. A French army comprising one hundred and fifty infantry battalions, seventy-five cavalry squadrons and two artillery brigades, under the command of Marshal Charles Louis Auguste, duke of Belle-Isle, and Marquis De La Mina, was dispatched into Italy. The two commanders had different views on how to conduct the campaign: Belle-Isle favoured menacing Turin directly via crossing the Alps, while his Spanish colleague instead wished to send troops to relieve the Austro-Sardinian siege of Genoa. Belle-Isle's ideas prevailed and the French troops occupied Antibes as well as the county of Nice. However, they were halted by the strong Sardinian defence of the southern Alpine passes. Belle-Isle's brother, the Chevalier de Belle-Isle, led an army of fifty infantry battalions, fifteen cavalry squadrons and numerous cannons, and advanced towards the northern Italian mountain passes.
caption: The war started over a dispute of the ascension of Maria Theresa to the throne of the Hapsburg dominions.
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