Owning just two provinces – Liguria and the island of Corsica - Genoa made up in ferocity for what it lacked in size. In April of 1781, when Saxony was still preoccupied with its campaign in England, a Genoan force of 15,000 men invaded Nice from the sea. Our defending force of several thousand men was slaughtered to the last man. Nice, so recently recaptured from the French, was again under siege.
The only immediate consolation was that we had finally found a navy that we could defeat. Half a dozen Saxon ships of the line – sailing from ports along the Balkan coastline - soon had Liguria and Corsica under blockade. Several Genoan vessels were sent to the bottom of the Meditteranean.
In the meantime, our loyal allies in Milan and Bavaria provided invaluable support in taking the war to the treacherous Venetians. By June, as Saxon troops occupied neighbouring Trent, Bavaria won a three-month siege in Friuli, forcing the garrison’s surrender.
While all this was going on, our diplomats had been busy repairing relations with our former vassal, France. After many gifts, we were able to renegotiate a military access agreement which cleared a path for Saxon reinforcements to begin a march south in support of embattled Nice, still under siege and running out of water. The Saxon troops ran into a Venetian force in the French province of Piedmont, which they defeated, although the battle fatally delayed their arrival in Nice. At the same time, a seaborne force of 8,000 troops sailed from the Balkans to either re-take Nice or invade Corsica.
Sadly, Nice fell in October before help could arrive. But Genoa’s triumph proved to be shortlived. By December, our Balkan transports had landed the Saxon invasion contingent in Nice. It was reinforced by more Saxon soldiers arrriving from the north. The Battle of Nice was an especially brutal affair with Genoa bringing in thousands of troops under Stadtholder Donato Spinola. In the end, Saxony had more than 16,000 troops pitted against Spinola’s force of about 13,000. Losses were huge on both sides. But the result was a clear Saxon victory.
The garrison in Nice, already weakened by repeated sieges, only held out briefly before surrendering to Saxony’s assault force. Milanese troops soon had Liguria under siege and Saxon armies again boarded transports in preparation for the invasion of Corsica. Genoa’s lunacy in attempting to humble a weakened Saxony had been demonstrated for all to see.
In the interim, Venice, realising the futility of its position, accepted our generous peace terms. The Venetians were only required to pay the paltry sum of 75 ducats. For the moment, Saxony wanted peace more than land. It also wanted to isolate Genoa.
Then, in February, came another European ultimatum demanding that our country “surrender unconditionally” in return for a ‘cleansing’ of its abhorrent reputation. We would have to pay nearly half of our annual taxes and cut our manpower levels by 50%.. all for 15 years. This time, Ernst listened. It was self-evident that the alternative would be an unceasing spiral of ruin as one nation after another declared war on our homeland. With war exhaustion now at virtually unmanageable levels
(34.8%), Saxony had little alternative. With the unanimous backing of Cabinet, the King signed the ‘surrender’ document, gritting his teeth so hard that he bit his tongue and drew blood. The deed was done.
Our standing among foreign princes showed instant and dramatic improvement. Saxony’s diplomats soon reported that the country’s reputation was now widely viewed as only ‘slightly tarnished.’
Foreign espionage attacks against Saxony largely came to a halt. Our diplomats were now only spat upon occasionally. The huge morale boost also negated much of our armies’ war exhaustion (reducing it to under 10%), although our manpower reserve was still zero. We were already far in excess of our reduced ceiling of roughly 86,000 troops, although many were in no condition to fight. Nonetheless, our land forces totalled roughly 375,000 men. Our weakened navy, however, could only muster around 85 ships, including a dozen East Indiamen.
Soon, we received word that Saxony would once again be received with full courtesies in the courts of European monarchs, a most gratifying development. It was regrettably true that we were unlikely to ever regain France as a vassal but at least we would now be able to pursue the occasional diplo-annexation of other provinces thanks to our vastly enhanced reputation. Our war with Genoa, meanwhile, was unaffected.
In March 1782, a Saxon invasion force of 6,000 men came ashore in Genoa’s rugged island province of Corsica, easily defeating its defenders. Our beachhead was soon bolstered by the arrival of Greek troops, aided by escorts from Milan’s navy. But while we waited for Corsica to surrender, a Genovese army popped up in Lombardia, led by the persistent Donato Spinola. It wiped out to a man a Saxon holding force of 1,600 troops, forcing us to divert several thousand infantry and horse units to Lombardia to contain the threat. But this was a sideshow. By July, Spinola’s army was a spent force, scattered in defeat.
By this time, Liguria had fallen to a combined Milanese and Saxon siege lasting well over a year.
Corsica held out until October when it too surrendered. But despite total defeat, Genoa refused to accept our very generous peace terms, which included vassaldom and the ceding of Corsica to Saxony.
Around this time, our faithful ally, Greece, requested our aid in a defensive war against the insignificant nation of Candar. We sent over a few token armies, which succeeded in occupying Candar's province of Sinope. Our fleets also took pleasure in destroying what remained of Candar’s insignificant navy.
Then, in December 1783, Genoa at last accepted Saxony’s peace terms, agreeing to become our vassal and ceding us Corsica.
Almost at once, however, a European delegation demanded that we give back the province. Ernst was so pleased to be popular again in foreign courts that he relinquished Corsica immediately rather than incur the slightest risk of European displeasure. Several of us felt privately that it was not his finest hour. Nontheless, Saxony’s reputation was now bordering on ‘respectable’.
(BB 2.94/23.00).
In February 1783, we sued for terms with Candar, having gone through the motions of loyal service to our ally, Greece. A White Peace was negotiated. Saxony – after years of constant warfare, internal rebellions and international condemnation – had finally reached an end to all hostilities. But with combat by now virtually ingrained in the Saxon psyche, none of us was sure whether this unfamiliar situation would last.