Political manoeuvrings were at least as important as military operations during a tumultuous period on the peninsula
Italy was to provide a complex subplot to campaigning in other regions. Though hostilities stretched out over the entire course of the war, it was a strangely subdued theatre. Many of the Italian states had no interest whatsoever in the argument over who should take over the Habsburg throne, and most (including Venice and Tuscany) remained neutral. The pope made it clear he wasn’t taking sides either.
Fighting in Italy was therefore rather detached from (and undertaken for different purposes than) the fighting in Germany and the Low Countries. One of the principal goals, in fact, was the securing of an Italian principality for the younger child of the Spanish queen,Elizabeth Farnese. Don Philip, it was thought, would look good on the throne of Parma.
The two Italian states that did get involved chose different sides. Charles Emmanuel of Savoy-Piedmont (Sardinia) and Charles VII of Naples each had their reasons for taking up arms: Charles VII, the elder son of Elizabeth Farnese, was bluntly ordered into the war by his parents, while Charles Emmanuel (having initially been on the Bourbon side of the argument) formed a hasty alliance with the Austrians when he became alarmed by the numbers of Spanish troops moving into the Italian peninsula.
The first phase of the war was inconclusive and the vast majority of losses on both sides were due to desertion and disease – acombined Spanish-Neapolitan force in central Italy, initially 37,000-strong, was whittled away to 25,000 without a shot being fired. Modena made a tentative foray into the war, supplying 5,000 men to boost this dwindling army, but an Austrian-Sardinian force quickly knocked Modena out of the war. With this first Spanish army stymied, a second was organised to enter Italy through French territory. Commanded by Don Philip himself, this made little progress at first but switched its focus from Piedmont to Savoy, suddenly making quick progress and forcing the duchy’s capitulation.
This set off a chain of events that saw the initiative shift. First, Charles Emmanuel abandoned his operations with the Austrians to rush back to protect Piedmont. This gave the Spanish-Neapolitan army the upper hand, but in August 1742 a British naval squadron arrived to threaten Naples with bombardment, forcing Charles VII to abandon his operations with the Spanish. The mad rush of forces left the situation in central Italy neatly balanced, and neither side attempted anything for the rest of the year.
A change of general in the Spanish force in central Italy changed the situation in early
