Battle of Pfaffenhofen The Battle of Pfaffenhofen was fought on 15 April 1745 between France and Austria . The Austrians under Karl Josef Batthyány defeated the outnumbered French under General Ségur , ending the war in Bavaria . Prelude . In October 1744 , the Franco - Bavarian army had succeeded , in coordination with Prussia , to expel the Austrians from Bavaria , and to reinstate Charles VII , Prince - elector of Bavaria and Holy Roman Emperor , in his capital Munich . Here he died 3 months later . < br > His 18 - year - old son and heir Maximilian III Joseph wavered between the " Peace - party " , led by his mother Maria Amalia of Austria and Army Commander Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff and the " War - party " , led by Foreign Minister General Ignaz von Törring and the French envoy Chavigny . This hampered the ongoing peace negotiations , so Maria Theresia ordered the Austrian Army to start a new offensive to put pressure on the Bavarian negotiators . Amberg and Vilshofen were taken and the Bavarian army under Törring and its French , Hessian and Palatinate allies were pushed on the defensive . Törring decided to pull back his Bavarian and Hessian troops behind the Lech River . The French Army commander Henri François de Ségur was not informed of this manoeuver and waited unaware and unprotected near Pfaffenhofen on Palatinate reinforcements under General Zastrow , which arrived on 14 April . The next day Segur decided to also pull back behind the Lech . < br > The Austrians , aware of the isolated French position , had by then reached Pfaffenhofen with a force larger than the French . The battle . First the Austrians attacked the town of Pfaffenhofen and were met by French fire . But the Austrians took the town in house - to - house combat in which the fierce Croatian Pandurs inflicted heavy casualties on the French defenders . Meanwhile , François de Ségur had hastily improvised a defensive position around a hill west of the city . But , when more and more Austrian troops , including the main force under Batthyány , reached the battlefield , de Ségur was forced twice to withdraw his army , to avoid encirclement . When the sign for a general withdrawal was given , panic broke out amongst the Palatinate troops and they fled . de Ségur had the greatest difficulty in preventing the panic spreading amongst his French troops . The retreating army was harassed by the Pandur and Hussar light cavalry , which inflicted many casualties . Only after the French and Palatinates had crossed the Paar river at Hohenwart at 18 : 00 , the Austrians gave up their pursuit . The defeated army reached Rain on the Lech the next day at 11 : 00 at set up camp . But the next morning the Austrian army appeared and the allies fled over the Lech River , leaving all its material behind . Only the burning down of the bridge prevented a total disaster for the allies . de Ségur had lost many troops and material , but his maintenance of discipline had prevented the total destruction of his army . Consequences . The day after the defeat , Törring was dismissed and the " Peace - party " prevailed . One week later , Maximilian III Joseph concluded the Treaty of Füssen with Austria . Maximilian recognized the Pragmatic Sanction . He also abandoned his father ' s claims on Bohemia and the imperial crown and promised to support the imperial candidacy of Maria Theresa ' s husband , Francis Stephen of Lorraine , who in fact became the next Emperor on 13 September 1745 . The Battle of Pfaffenhofen eliminated Bavaria - Bohemia as one of the four theaters of War the Austrians had to fight on , releasing troops for the war in Silesia , Italy and the Austrian Netherlands .