Frederick the Great. A Military Life

144 THE SEVEN YEARS WAR, 1756-63

allies were diminished by more than 10,000 men, most of whom were

probably taken prisoner, whereas the Prussian losses amounted to less

than 550. Seydlitz sustained a light wound in the arm, which never-

theless kept him from duty for four months. He was consoled by the

attentions of a kindly lady at Leipzig, and by his promotion to

lieutenant-general.

How did contemporaries rate this victory? It was evident that,

after his first surprise, Frederick had seized and maintained initiative

and control until the end of the action. Gaudi harboured no grudge for

the harsh words in the Rossbach Herrenhaus, and he explained that

if the king was able to turn the tables so masterfully in his

favour, if he managed to counter the deadly designs of the

enemy with such skill and speed, he owed it entirely to his own

considerable talents. On the day of this battle he showed

himself in his true greatness, as will be testified by all informed

observers who were present at the event. Oany, 1901, 10)

The French foreign minister, Cardinal Bernis, appreciated that Ross-

bach was also a victory for the Hohenzollern style of leadership: 'We

must not forget that we are dealing with a prince who is at once his

own commander in the Field, chief minister, logistical organiser and,

when necessary, provost-marshal. These... advantages outweigh

all our badly executed and badly combined expedients' (to Choiseul-

Stainville, in Volz, 1926-7, II, 196).

Frederick was too much the cosmopolitan to rejoice in one aspect

of his triumph. Like Prince Henry, he was genuinely distressed at the

misery he had inflicted on his spiritual brothers in the French officer

corps: 'I can never get used to looking on the French as my enemies'

(Archenholtz, 1840,1, 116). These sentiments were not shared by the

native Prussian private soldier:

Another circumstance which was of great advantage to us on

this day was the natural hate which the ordinaiy Germans, but.

especially the men from Magdeburg, Brandenburg and

Pomerania, harbour for everything that is French... they

fought with real bitterness, as we could see most clearly in the

behaviour of our cavalry when they were hacking into the

enemy infantry. It was only with great difficulty that the

officers were able to prevail on the common soldiers to give

quarter. (Gaudi, in Wiltsch, 1858, 256)

The victory at Rossbach was of decisive importance in securing
Frederick's western strategic flank. King George II of Britain was
thereby encouraged to disavow the shameful treaty of Kloster-Zeven,
and on 16 November a new chapter opened in the Seven Years War