In early 1746, the situation in Italy was that the Bourbon armies occupied all of Lombardy save Mantua, and approximately 1/5 of Charles Emmanuel's realm of Piedmont-Sardinia.

The Treaty of Dresden, signed between Prussia and Austria on December 25, 1745, had as much impact on the fighting in Italy as it did for central Europe.

On March 1, however, when the deadline had passed and the Austrian concentration was completed, Charles Emmanuel realized that the time had come to resume the war.

Having successfully disguised his intentions, Charles Emmanuel reopened the war in Italy on March 5, 1746 with an attack on Asti.

Morale plummeted, and by the end of March, Marshal Maillebois' army had lost 15,000 men to desertion, illness or capture.

De Gages' Spanish army sat still at Piacenza, uncertain of what course of action to take in the face of the new danger caused by the Austrian concentration.

In order to concentrate their dispersed forces, the Spanish asked Marshal Maillebois to bring his French army westwards to join with the other Bourbon troops falling back on Piacenza from various directions.

Marshal Maillebois, however, was reluctant to abandon his lines of communication through Genoa and consequently only sent ten battalions forward to Piacenza.

The Spanish King Philip V and his wife Elizabeth Farnese, ordered De Gages to remain at Piacenza.

Rejecting a stand in the crumbling town of Piacenza, Gages ordered ditches and artillery emplacements to be dug which would become a defensive line that the Austrians would have to attack.

Additionally, a Piedmontese army of 10,000 men was approaching from the west which would firmly tip the balance in numbers in favor of the Austrians.

In an unorthodox move, De Gages asked Maillebois to take his troops beyond the extreme right of the line, encircle the Austrian right flank and fall on its rear.

Instead of a clear descent upon the Austrian rear, the marshal was unnerved to see Browne's troops drawn up in front of him behind a canal.

Finally, Browne advanced his troop over the canal and the assault collapsed, many Frenchmen being cut to pieces in the narrow gully.

However, Baron Bärenklau finally managed to draw the Austrian cavalry into the fight causing the Spanish line to break under the pressure.

Following the battle, the Bourbons evacuated Piacenza on June 27, and were shepherded eastwards by the Austro-Piedmontese armies into the republic of Genoa.