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Battle of Malplaquet
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession
Malplaquet, woodblock by R Canton Woodville
Date September 11, 1709 Location Malplaquet, present-day France Result Pyrrhic Allied victory
Combatants
Britain Austria United Provinces	France
Commanders
Duke of Marlborough Prince Eugene of Savoy	Claude de Villars Louis Boufflers
Strength
100,000-120,000	90,000
Casualties
25,000 dead or wounded	12,000 dead or wounded

War of the Spanish Succession
Carpi – Chieri – Cremona – Luzzara – Cádiz – Friedlingen – Vigo Bay – Ekeren – Höchstädt – Schellenberg – Blenheim – Málaga – Cassano – Calcinato – Elixheim – Ramillies – Turin – Almansa – Toulon – Oudenarde – Lille – Malplaquet – Saragossa – Almenara – Brihuega – Villaviciosa – Bouchain – Denain – Barcelona

The Battle of Malplaquet was one of the main battles of the War of the Spanish Succession. It was fought on September 11, 1709 between France and a British-Dutch-Austrian alliance (known as the Allies).

Contents 1 Prelude 2 Battle 3 Aftermath 4 External links

After a late start to the campaigning season owing to the unusually harsh winter preceding it, the allied campaign of 1709 began in mid June. Unable to bring the French army under Marshal Villars to battle owing to strong French defensive lines and the Marshal's orders from Versailles not to risk battle, the Duke of Marlborough concentrated instead on taking the fortresses of Tournai and Ypres. Tournai fell after an unusually long siege of almost 70 days, by which time it was early September, and rather than run the risk of disease spreading in his army in the poorly draining land around Ypres, Malrborough instead moved eastwards toward the lesser fortress of Mons, hoping by taking it to outflank the French defensive lines in the west. Villars moved after him, under new orders from Louis XIV to prevent the fall of Mons at all costs - effectively an order for the aggressive Marshal to give battle. After several complicated manoeuvres, the two armies faced each other across the gap of Malplaquet, south-west of Mons.

The allied army (the vast majority of the troops Dutch) and Austrians were led by the Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy, while the French were commanded by Villars and Marshal Boufflers, officially Villars' superior but voluntarily serving under him. Each side had about 90,000 troops, and were encamped within cannon range of each other near the Belgian border. The Austrians attacked at 9am, pushing the French back into the forest behind them. The Dutch broke off to attack the French right flank and succeeded with heavy casualties to distract Boufflers enough so that he could not come to Villars' aid.

Villars was able to regroup his forces, but Marlborough and Eugène attacked again, assisted by the advance of a detachment under General Withers advancing on the French right flank, forcing Villars to divert his reserves to confront them. At around 1 pm Villars was badly wounded by a musket ball which smashed his knee, and command passed to Boufflers. The decisive final attack was made in the centre by infantry under the command the Earl of Orkney, and by 3 pm Boufflers, realising that the battle could not be won, ordered a retreat, which was made in good order. The Allies had suffered so many casualties in their attack that they could not pursue him. By this time they had lost over 20,000 men, twice as many as the French.

Despite Boufflers claim that a few more such French defeats would destroy the allied armies, and the French soldiers' justifiable pride in their stout defence of their position, the fact remains that Malplaquet was a French defeat. Having advanced and given battle in an attempt to save Mons they were driven from the field, and the fortress fell on the 20th October. Nonetheless, news of Malplaquet, the bloodiest battle of the eighteenth century, stunned Europe, and for the last of his four great battlefield victories, Marlborough received no personal letter of thanks from Queen Anne.

• Battle of Malplaquet at Battlefield Anomalies.

• The French Army 1600-1900