Battle of Audenarde

The battle of Audenarde took place with the accesses of the Flemish city of the same name, in Belgium, on July 11th, 1708. The French Army of the duke of Vendôme was beaten there by Imperial Prince Eugene and the English of the duke of Marlborough

Context

The Great Britain, the United Provinces, and the Holy Empire, alarmed by alliance between the Spain and the France transfer of another exit only to start a War of succession. The French ambitions in Bavaria and Franconie were destroyed after the Bataille of Höchstadt (1704). In 1706, the French attempt to reduce Holland and to thus withdraw with the English a support on the continent was pushed back with the Bataille of Ramillies. Two years later, Louis XIV tries to renew the invasion of Flandres with this time an army much more important (nearly 100.000 men).

England, which can oppose from to the start only 90.000 Anglo-Dutch (112 battalions of infantry and 197 squadrons of cavalry), stationed in the south of Brussels, is on the defensive. The allied armies of the Prince Eugene, they, are still grouped on the Rhine, with Coblentz. Thus, these two armies are disjoined, while the 100.000 men of the French Army (130 battalions of infantry and 216 squadrons of cavalry) are already massed close to Mons. At the month of June 1708, the généralissime of the united forces, the duke of Marlborough, must imperatively obtain a tactical victory, or more probably make its junction with Prince Eugene, ordering the forces of the Holy roman Empire, before facing the enemy.

The French forces were directed by two rival men: the duke of Vendôme, an experienced general, and the duke of Burgundy, grandson of Louis XIV, of which it was to be the first feat of arms.

The two French generals were opposed on the tactics to follow: Vendôme recommended to tackle the place of Huy, with the idea to force Marlborough to intervene with lower forces, while the orders of king de France were to attack in the Flandres. The French Army made walk towards the east until Braine-l' Al, some 25 km in the south of Brussels, threatening the citadel close to Leuwen. To cover these two places, Marlborough laid out its forces a few kilometers in the south of Leuwen.

The French Army remained in its cuttings off for one month, which made it possible to Prince Eugene to operate his junction with Marlborough. However, on July 5th, while it progressed towards Flandres, the French Army made walk towards the west against any waiting, seizing the places of Bruges and Ghent (in spite of the resistance opposed by 300 men of Marlborough dispatched over there for the occasion). These events overpowered moral English camp, but meanwhile the armies of the Rhine had reached Audenarde.

The French troops held now all the valley of the the Scheldt, since Valencians to the North Sea. Only the citadel of Audenarde remained with the hands of united. That this place has suddenly fallen, and the communications would be crossed with England.

Not only Marlborough became aware of the situation, but he guessed the tactics of the French to seize the place of Audenarde, namely to progress by Eastern bank of the Scheldt to attack side the British army, while maintaining the main part of the covering troops on the principal face. The French Army indeed made movement starting from July 8th towards the town of Lessines. At the same time, Marlborough brought its troops to forced marches towards this same city, which it seized on July 10th, forcing the French to cross the Scheldt on bridge to besiege Audenarde.

Marlborough ordered a forced march again, with the effect of poster 11.000 men on the other bank of the Scheldt, at the place where the French crossed the river. He entrusted this operation to his Aide-de-camp, the general of Irish cavalry William Cadogan. Cadogan easily managed to contain the enemy on other bank, however that Marlborough made, to cross to him the Scheldt by the remainder of its army, nearly 100.000 men.

The battle

Cadogan ordered at a squadron dragon S ordered by the general Danish Jørgen Rantzau, to encircle the scouts of the French avant-garde in recognition on Right Bank of the Scheldt, and not to let anybody flee. Unfortunately, this knack failed, and some runaways could warn the commander of the French avant-garde, the Lieutenant-general Charles Armand de Gontaut-Biron, that enemy troops massed on Right Bank.

The French officer, left to realize by itself of the enemy lines, was décontenancé in front of the importance of the English device, at a completely unexpected place besides. He hesitated over the party to take: Vendôme had ordered to him to attack without delay, but it appeared to him that it could not carry out such an order with only 7 battalions besides (by demobilizing that made with the guard of let us bridge) and 20 squadrons against 20 battalions; in addition, its scouts had warned it against the muddy state of the ground on the opposed bank, which would limit the mobility of the cavalry. On these entrefaites, Prince Eugene crosses the Scheldt with 20 Prussian squadrons of and occupied some points key without meeting opposition.

The troops of Biron started to operate when they were stopped by the first brigade of English infantry, carried out by a young officer, John Campbell (2nd duke of Argyll). Cadogan, on a signal of Marlborough, attacked with its cavalry the seven battalions of Swiss mercenaries of the duke of Biron. The Swiss infantry was promptly rejected with the river, and the French squadrons were destroyed, when the arrival of the body of French cavalry forced the English to be folded up. The English attack had been carried out essentially by the squadrons of Rantzau, and counted in its rows future king d' Angleterre, Georges II of Great Britain.

The duke of Burgundy made at this time a decisive error while launching an immediate counter-attack, against the opinion of the duke of Vendôme. The French right wing thus engaged the lines of united on Eyne, however that the left wing (for an undetermined reason) remained passively in faction on Huysse, leaving time to the English to gather on this wing. 28 squadrons of cavalry thus covered the right side of the infantry of Cadogan, which would support the decisive shock (this one took place around 4 p.m.).

The duke of Burgundy gave the signal of the attack, which fell down initially on the Prussian squadrons. In spite of a fierce combat, the attackers were relaxed. At this time, the duke of Vendôme decided to launch an attack to the body-with-body with twelve regiments of infantry; a debatable decision, since it prevented any connection between the two generals, one cut off in its districts from Staff, without information from the course of the combat, the other personally committed from the face, without holding all the authority of the French camp. Perhaps Vendôme estimated it that, the disagreement being consumed, that did not change large any more - thing with the situation.

The historians agree to recognize that the English right wing could have been destroyed if the French left wing had intervened. Always it is that the duke of Vendôme became aware of it, and asked for to the duke of Burgogne the permission of engage the second wing, which was refused to him, but the mail did not manage to transmit this answer. The situation worsened while Vendôme always awaited the answer of the staff. It deployed its troops, threatening to wrap the left side of the English. With the approach of the regiments of the duke of Argyll, the English lines were spread, but did not manage to loosen the vice of the French.

The attack of side of the united forces

Marlborough moved at this time its general headquarter on the threatened left side, leaving to Prince Eugene the command of the right side (always attacked by the principal army corps of the French). While his/her colleague underwent an increasing pressure, Marlborough imagined a decisive operation, consisting in reinforcing the left wing with 18 battalions of auxiliaries hessien S and hanovrien S, to send the 20 battalions of the Prussian general Carl von Lottum in reinforcement towards the troops of Prince Eugene.

Then it prepared a double operation of envelopment. It had under its orders all the army of the United Provinces, ordered by the Field Marshall Hendrik Overkirk, an officer aguerri. However, these troops could not cross the Scheldt on the simple ones bridge in less than one hour. To release the stone bridges of Audenarde, Marlborough dispatched the cavalry of Prince Eugene, who launched his attack on the French Staff; but this attack was pushed back by the squadrons of the Maison of the King, and Marlborough, not laying out more that of its 18 battalions of auxiliaries hessien S and hanovrien S, had to limit itself to contain the attacks of the French cavalry.

Towards 20:30, the troops of Overkirk achieved finally their goal and started to encircle the right side of the French, in conjunction with a simultaneous attack of Marlborough and of Prince Eugene. This time, the attack succeeds completely, relaxing the enemy right wing and making many prisoners. The darkness prevented the winner continuing the French, and from destroying the remainder of their army.

Consequences

As one saw, about half of the French troops did not take part in the combat: a great number of infantrymen and riders were held in reserve on a height overhanging in north the Norken . The cavalry did not charge, mainly because the general idea prevailed that the ground, too muddy, was impracticable. It seems that a combined attack of all the French forces: Vendôme carrying out the army corps to encircle the enemy right side, while the duke of Burgundy took speed Overkirk and the troops of help of the duke of Argyll on the left side, would have decided on a French victory.

The French lost in this battle 15.000 men (including approximately 8.000 prisoners) and 25 guns, united losing less than 3.000 men. The French troops were folded up on Ghent, the staff in prey with internal tearings which one guesses. Only let us bridge them maintained intact by the bodies of sappers saved the army of the Sun king of the disaster.

The road of France from now on being released, Prince Eugene made walk towards the south in the days which followed with 75.000 men to carry the combat on the French territory. The marshal of Boufflers arrived just in time (July 28th) with a quota of 15.000 men to defend Lille. He managed to defend the until August city, but united being decided to lead a seat unusually long, he had to fold up himself in the citadel, and capitulated finally with 8000 survivors on October 28th.

Marlborough and Prince Eugene was turned over then towards Ghent, where the beaten troops with Audenarde had been folded up, and seized this place on December 29th, 1708: the French were to evacuate Flandres and Hainaut. After the refusal of conditions of peaces humiliating by Louis XIV, they will try to take again Mons as of the following year, with new generals.

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