The Battle of Freiberg was the last great battle between Prussia and Austria during the Seven Years' War, fought in October 1762 in Saxony.
In 1762, Emperor Peter III of Russia made peace with King Frederick the Great before his own assassination by his wife, Empress Catherine the Great, thus allowing for Frederick to focus his efforts against the Austrians in Saxony and Silesia. Prince Henry of Prussia and 22,000 second-line Prussian Army soldiers was sent to take the offensive, and the Reichsarmee dug in at Freiberg, which blocked all approaches to the Saxon capital of Dresden. Initial Prussian assaults on the Austrian entrenchments were met with heavy resistance, but the shift of the Reichsarmee to meet a charge of Prince Henry's grenadiers enabled Prussian general Joachim Friedrich von Stutterheim to attack the weakened Austrian force on his front, causing the Austrian infantry to crumble. Wilhelm Sebastian von Belling's Prussian hussars charged through the Austrian infantry, who broke and were cut down as they fled. The Reichsarmee was forced to withdraw to Dresden with heavy losses, allowing the Prussians to occupy the majority of Saxony. In October, the Prussians recaptured Schweidnitz in Silesia, and Austria's severe financial crisis - not helped by the withdrawal of Russian and French financial and military power from the war - forced the downsizing of the Reichsarmee, effectively ceding Silesia to the Prussians. On 30 December 1762, Prussian, Austrian, and Saxon diplomats met near the front lines in Saxony to discuss peace, and the war came to a close on 15 February 1763 with the Treaty of Hubertusburg. While Prussia failed to conquer Saxony, Austria formally acknowledged Prussian control over Silesia.