Siege of Capua ( 1734 ) The Siege of Capua was the last major military action of the War of the Polish Succession in the Kingdom of Naples . Austrian forces of the Habsburg Monarchy , under the command of the Austrian Marshal Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun , withstood for seven months a blockade begun in April 1734 by Spanish and French forces under Count Marsillac . General Traun surrendered the fortress of Capua in November 1734 with full honors of war , primarily because of exhausted provisions and ammunition , but also because it was clear no relief was coming to the isolated garrison . Background . Following the outbreak of the War of the Polish Succession in the fall of 1733 , and news that Bourbon allies France and Spain were planning operations against the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily , Habsburg military and political leaders began planning the defense of Naples against the expected invasion . Hampered by a lack of resources , Marshal Otto Ferdinand von Abensberg und Traun and the Count of Caraffa disagreed on how to best defend Naples . Caraffa wanted to minimally garrison the country ' s fortresses and concentrate Austrian forces into a single army that could either avoid or force confrontation with the Spanish , while Traun , whose opinion prevailed , wanted to strongly garrison the fortresses and force the Spanish to besiege them . Major garrisons were placed at Pescara and Gaeta , and Traun himself took command of 3 , 500 men and occupied the fortress at Capua , near the northwestern border between the kingdom and the Papal States . Caraffa was responsible for the defense of the city of Naples and the safety of the Austrian viceroy . Prelude . The army of Charles of Parma , numbering about 21 , 000 , marched south from Tuscany where it had been assembled , and reached the northern border of Naples on March 28 , 1734 . Traun had taken most of the Capua garrison , and constructed a fortified line at Mignano , at which he expected conflict with the Spanish forces . However , on March 30 , the Spanish , aided by sympathetic locals , sent 4 , 000 troops through narrow mountain passes , threatening to flank Traun ' s position . When Traun learned of this , he ordered a precipitous retreat to Capua , abandoning armaments and camp equipment along the way . The Spanish the proceeded southward toward Naples , bypassing Capua , and entered the city on May 10 after securing the surrender of its fortresses . About 6 , 000 troops were stationed to blockade Capua cutting off its communications and access to the land for provisions . While Charles ' army was marching south , a Spanish fleet had landed forces on the islands of Ischia and Procida in the Bay of Naples . Austrian garrisons from these islands had been brought to the mainland , where the joined the garrison at Capua ( before it was blockaded ) , raising the size of Traun ' s garrison to about 6 , 000 . The Austrians were hoping to be relieved by the forces of Florimund Mercy in northern Italy , but these were occupied with the Franco - Sardinian army . Following the destruction of the Austrian army at Bitonto in May , Spanish forces turned to besiege the three remaining Austrian outposts : Pescara , Gaeta , and Capua . Pescara was the first to surrender , on July 29 , with Gaeta surrendering in August . Charles was then able to detach troops for the conquest of Sicily , and focus the remaining troops on Capua . Defenses . The fortress of Capua was a substantial construction , although it had not been maintained well in the years immediately preceding this conflict . It had numerous weaknesses , the principle of which were : The garrison , under the command of Marshal Traun , consisted of 6 , 000 men , including 10 battalions of infantry from the regiments of Heister , Göldlin , O ' Nelly , Carl Lothringen , and Schmettau , 6 grenadier companies , and companies of horseless cuirassier s from the regiments of Pignatelli and Kokoržowa . Traun may also have benefited from a long - standing friendship with Count Marsillac , the commander of the besieging forces . The two had fought together in previous campaigns , and even shared the same tent on occasion . Siege . While the Austrians had intended to provision the fort sufficient to keep a garrison of 5 , 000 for five months , the supplies present in April were only sufficient to keep the garrison for two months . Traun organized a corps of volunteers that engaged in foraging operations during the months of the blockade . Their forays were successful enough that in mid - July the Austrians still had one month ' s supplies . His prospects for relief , however , were dampened by news that Marshal Mercy had died in the Austrian defeat at Parma and that the Austrians had retreated afterwards . On August 10 Traun launched an elaborate sortie against the Spanish blockade , which had grown to over 15 , 000 men . In addition to raiding Spanish supplies , he targeted a boat bridge the Spanish had set up across the Volturno River . Sending several battalions out the Naples and Rome gates in the middle of the night , they spent several hours attempting to reach and destroy the bridge . The Spanish were able to fend off the attacks , but they were only cover for the true operation , in which a picked company of 500 successfully raided the countryside . Around dawn , this force returned with 150 cows , 90 water buffalo , 1 , 000 sheep . The attempt on the bridge had cost the Austrians over 300 casualties , although they killed more than 350 Spanish and took 52 prisoners ( who Traun promptly released ) . The siege continued into November , and conditions in the blockaded city became progressively more severe . On November 20 Traun and the Spanish command reached an agreement that Traun would capitulate if relief had not arrived by November 30 . On that day , the Austrian garrison , reduced to about 5 , 000 men , marched out with the full honors of war , including two field pieces , and boarded Spanish ships to be transported to Triest and Fiume . The only term of the surrender that the Spanish denied was permission for the troops to assist in the northern Italian campaign .