Battle of Kolin
On 18 June 1757 Frederick the Great suffered his first major defeat of the Seven Years' War at Kolin in Bohemia, where Field Marshal Daun's Austrian army repulsed a Prussian attack and inflicted over 13,000 casualties — nearly a third of Frederick's force. The defeat shattered the myth of Prussian invincibility that had been building since the victories of the War of Austrian Succession and forced Frederick to abandon the siege of Prague, retreat from Bohemia, and face coordinated attacks from multiple directions. Kolin was the low point that gave rise to Frederick's most celebrated qualities: resilience and the capacity to absorb catastrophic setbacks and fight on. Facing France from the west, Austria from the south, Russia from the east, and Sweden from the north, Frederick had no choice but to keep his smaller army moving at extraordinary speed, defeating each enemy in detail before they could combine. Rossbach and Leuthen — his two greatest victories — came in the very months after Kolin's near-disaster. For Austria, Kolin was a vindication: proof that the Prussian army could be beaten in the field and that the alliance assembled by Kaunitz was capable of reversing the humiliation of Silesia. Maria Theresa was so moved that she personally instituted the Military Order of Maria Theresa — Austria's highest military decoration — to be awarded on the anniversary of the battle.
- Year: 1757 CE
- Category: Military
