Although Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI's marriage was part of Marquis Choiseul's "Diplomatic Revolution," another force behind it was Frederick the Great. Prussia's performance during the Seven Years' War made it difficult for France or the Holy Roman Empire to oppose it alone.
Yet while Prussia won victories, it also suffered losses, especially at the Battle of Zorndorf. That battle profoundly shaped how Europeans of the eighteenth century viewed the Russian army.
It was widely acknowledged as the cruelest and bloodiest battle of the Seven Years' War. Russia sent forty thousand men, but half its army consisted of hastily conscripted "reserves," far inferior to the more than thirty thousand high-spirited Prussian elite led by Frederick the Great, who had just won great victories at the Battle of Leuthen and the Battle of Rossbach.
Austria, part of the anti-Prussian alliance, also sent troops. Thus, the battle's commanders had eighty thousand men under their command, nearly three times Frederick's force.
At five every morning, the church near the battlefield rang its bells, and the anti-Prussian coalition treated it as the signal to attack. The weather and terrain that day favored the Austrians. The starlight was dim, and there was even fog. After leaving camp, the Austrians kept their camp intact and their fires burning. The engineers made as much noise as possible, cutting down trees and building fortifications, creating all kinds of illusions to deceive the Prussian scouts, while the main force quietly advanced beneath this cover toward the Prussian camp, which still seemed sunk in sleep.
Two free battalions were caught in the surprise attack, followed by three grenadier battalions. They fared somewhat better than the free battalions. When the Austrians charged out of the morning fog, some Prussian soldiers had already seized their muskets, but others were still bayoneted to