Jean François de Bette, 3rd Marquis of Lede

The Spaniards, this time with thirty thousand men, including four regiments of Dragoons, again led by the Marquis of Lede, and a fleet of three hundred and fifty ships, and over two hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, invade Sicily.

The Spanish forces capture Palermo on July 7, then divide their army in two.

De Lede follows the coast to besiege Messina from July 18, while the Duke of Montemar moves to conquer the rest of the island.

Tensions between Spain and Britain are high.

The Treaty of Passarowitz, which had finally ended the war with the Ottoman Empire on July 21, 1718, leads to the formation of the Quadruple Alliance, with the Emperor now joining the Triple Alliance on August 2, 1718.

A British fleet led by Sir George Byng on August 11 effectively eliminates the Spanish fleet stationed off Sicily at the Battle of Cape Passaro.

The French, Austrians, and British demand the Spanish withdrawal from Sicily and Sardinia.

The attitude of Victor Amadeus II of Savoy is ambiguous, as he accepts an offer to negotiate with the Spanish Prime Minister, Cardinal Alberoni, to form an anti-Austrian alliance.

The British fleet lands a small Austrian army assembled in Naples by the Austrian Viceroy Count Wirich Philipp von Daun, near Messina to lift the siege by the Spanish forces.

The Austrians attack very early in the morning of October 15, taking the Spanish by surprise.

The two Spanish Dragoon regiments (Batavia and Lusitania) stop the attack, to give the rest of the Spanish army time to deploy.

Both regiments are decimated, but their sacrifice gives Lede the opportunity to counterattack.

The Austrians are pushed back and the Spanish pursue the fleeing army, causing many casualties.

The Austrians lose fifteen hundred killed or wounded and three hundred prisoners.

The Spanish loss fifteen hundred killed or wounded and two hundred  prisoners.

Messina is taken by the Spanish, but the Marquis de Lede does not take this opportunity to drive the Austrians completely from the island, leaving them a bridgehead around Milazzo.

This bridgehead, and naval supremacy after the Battle of Cape Passaro, will give the Austrians a chance to send over more troops in the coming year.

The invading army of thirty thousand men under the Marquis of Lede has been isolated on the island of Sicily since the destruction of the Spanish fleet in the Battle of Cape Passaro in August 1718.

The Austrians have by June 1719 moved an experienced army of twenty-four thousand men under the Count Claude Florimond de Mercy from the Balkans to the south of Italy, where they are sailed across the Messina Strait by the British fleet.

The Spanish have abandoned the siege of Milazzo and pulled back to a more favorable position around the village of Francavilla di Sicilia, where they are covered by a river and a monastery on a hill.

The Austrians on the morning of June attack the fortified Spanish positions in three columns.

The first column attacks the fortified village of Francavilla three times, but is pushed back every time.

The second column succeeds in conquering the trenches on the foot of the monastery hill, but are stopped by the second Spanish line.

The Count de Mercy is wounded in this phase of the battle.

The third column attacks the Spanish left flank, drive them off the San Juan hill, but are themselves pushed back under heavy Spanish fire and have to take cover in a crevice, suffering many casualties including general Holstein, who had led the attack.

The Spanish artillery under the Marquis of Villadarias play a crucial role during the battle, causing many casualties and confusion in the Austrian army.

The battle rages until evening, when a counterattack by the Spanish cavalry removes all hopes of an Austrian victory.

The Austrians withdraw, leaving thirty-one hundred dead and wounded.

The Spanish losses are two thousand dead and wounded.

The Marquis de Lede doesn’t pursue the Austrians, giving them the opportunity to recover from this defeat.

Resistance by the Spanish, cut off from their homeland by the British fleet, must soon crumble.

Mercy, victorious in the second Battle of Milazzo, takes Messina in October and ...

...besieges Palermo.