{ "slug": "oudenarde", "title": "Battle of Oudenarde", "status": "draft", "era": "1600–1760", "date_text": "11 July 1708", "start": "1708-07-11", "end": "1708-07-11", "war": "War of the Spanish Succession", "cdb90_war": "WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION", "place": { "name": "Oudenaarde (Oudenarde), East Flanders, Belgium (then the Spanish Netherlands)", "lat": 50.83, "lon": 3.6, "wikidata": "Q316139" }, "lede": "On 11 July 1708 Marlborough and Eugene raced the French to the Scheldt, crossed at Oudenarde and fought a battle neither side had planned. While half the French army stood idle, Overkirk's Dutch swung round its right and nearly surrounded it.", "result": "Decisive Grand Alliance victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Grand Alliance army (British, Dutch, Hanoverian, Prussian, Hessian, Danish and Imperial troops)", "commanders": [ "Duke of Marlborough", "Prince Eugene of Savoy", "Field Marshal Overkirk (Hendrik van Nassau-Ouwerkerk)" ], "strength": { "value": 80000, "low": 80000, "high": 90000, "source": "s2" }, "casualties": { "value": 3000, "low": 2972, "high": 6000, "source": "s1" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "French army of Flanders (French, Swiss, Spanish, Walloon and Cologne troops)", "commanders": [ "Louis, Duke of Burgundy", "Marshal Vendôme (Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme)" ], "strength": { "value": 85000, "low": 80000, "high": 100000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 14000, "low": 14000, "high": 15000, "source": "s7" } } ], "sections": { "background": "By 1708 the War of the Spanish Succession was seven years old. Blenheim and Ramillies had broken French field armies, but 1707 had been a year of squabbling and indecision for the Grand Alliance: a defeat in Portugal, Prince Eugene's failed invasion of Provence and little gained in Flanders. For 1708 Louis XIV gave his army in the Spanish Netherlands a divided command. A royal prince, the Duke of Burgundy, held it, with Marshal Vendôme beside him, and the two quarrelled over strategy from the start.\n\nOn 5 July the French moved west and took Ghent and Bruges. They now held the Scheldt from the French border to Ghent. Oudenarde, the one Allied fortress left on the river, stood between them and Marlborough's communications with the coast and England. Marlborough, shaken, waited for Eugene, who rode ahead of his own army and joined him in person.\n\nThe French then turned towards Oudenarde and Lessines on the Dender, but Marlborough's forced march reached Lessines first, on 10 July. Beaten in the race, the French called off their move on Oudenarde. Vendôme wanted to catch Marlborough before he crossed the Dender in strength; Burgundy preferred to put the Scheldt between them and the Allies and headed north to cross at Gavere, six miles below Oudenarde. Marlborough saw that if they got across safely they could fall back on their frontier fortresses, and the approach of the Duke of Berwick's army would bring them close to parity. To force a battle in the open he sent his quartermaster-general, William Cadogan, racing for Oudenarde with an advance guard and the pontoon train in the small hours of 11 July.", "forces": "The Allied army had 112 battalions, 180–197 squadrons and 113 guns: British, Dutch, Hanoverian, Prussian, Hessian, Danish and Imperial contingents. Eugene's own troops were still far behind, so he came to the battle in person, without his army. Marlborough himself started the day worn out after a dreadful week. Field Marshal Overkirk, commanding the Dutch, was mortally ill and directed his troops from his coach. Cadogan, the Duke of Argyll, Count Lottum, the Prussian cavalry general Natzmer and the Hanoverian Rantzau led the divisions that did most of the fighting. The 19-year-old Prince of Orange was in his first battle, and the Electoral Prince of Hanover, the future George II, charged with Rantzau's dragoons.\n\nThe French army was larger: 124–130 battalions, 197–216 squadrons and 120 guns, including the household cavalry of the Maison du Roi, the Gendarmerie and good Swiss regiments. Its weakness was at the top. Burgundy held the nominal command, with the Duke of Berry and James Stuart, the Old Pretender, in his entourage. Vendôme was aggressive and liked to lead from the front. Burgundy's staff officers, Puységur and Matignon, were cautious.\n\nThe ground decided how the armies fought. North of the Scheldt it was cut by marshy streams, ditches, hedges and enclosures, poor country for cavalry. Allied infantry fired by platoons, and a French general thought there had never been a firefight like it.", "course": "**The race (1 a.m. to midday).** Cadogan left at 1 a.m. with 16 battalions, 8 squadrons, 32 light guns, the pontoons and pioneers, perhaps 10,000–11,000 men. About eight hours later he was in sight of Oudenarde, with the French still at Gavere; they began their own unhurried crossing there at about 10 a.m. His bridges went down near Eename, just below the town, and his five leading battalions were over by midday. He kept four Prussian battalions at the bridges and formed the rest astride the Ghent road, with Sabine's British brigade on the left and Rantzau's Hanoverian dragoons beyond them.\n\n**Eyne (midday to 3 p.m.).** Rantzau's troopers ran into French foragers and Swiss infantry near Eyne. Biron, covering the French crossing with seven Swiss battalions and some horse, saw the bridgehead and sent word to Vendôme, who was lunching by the roadside. 'If they are there,' Vendôme said, 'then the devil must have carried them. Such marching is impossible.' He ordered Biron to attack, but Puységur and Matignon warned that the marshy Diepenbeek in front of Eyne was impassable, and Biron stayed where he was. Allied cavalry crossed at a trot; the infantry began crossing about 2 p.m. Soon after 3 p.m., the time at which CDB90 starts the battle, Cadogan attacked. His men had filled part of the brook with fascines. Sabine's brigade held its fire until twenty yards from the Swiss, then opened platoon volleys. Three of the four battalions in Eyne surrendered almost at once, and Rantzau cut up the fourth in the open. Rantzau then broke Biron's squadrons on the Ghent road, taking a colonel, standards and kettledrums, before French cavalry between Royegem and Mullem drove him off. The Electoral Prince of Hanover had his horse shot under him.\n\n**The hedgerow battle (4 to 6 p.m.).** About 4 p.m. the French right came down from the Norken. Grimaldi's 16 squadrons found the ground too soft and halted, but some 30 battalions pushed into the hedges around Groenewald, Herlegem and Schaerken, with Vendôme fighting among them, half-pike in hand. At about 5 p.m. he asked Burgundy to throw the left wing against the cavalry on Cadogan's right. Burgundy, told the ground was impassable, refused, and the officer carrying his answer was shot before he could deliver it. Argyll's 20 British battalions came into line on Cadogan's left just in time, then Lottum's 20 on Argyll's left. The French took Schaerken about 5.30 p.m. and Herlegem and Groenewald about 6.15 p.m.\n\n**The envelopment (6 p.m. to dark).** About 6 p.m. Marlborough gave Eugene the whole right and rode to the centre, where 18 Hanoverian and Hessian battalions gave him a reserve; he sent Lottum's Prussians through them to help Eugene. Natzmer's Prussian cavalry charged, broke French squadrons and two battalions, and was thrown back by the Maison du Roi. Overkirk's Dutch had been delayed when a pontoon bridge broke and had to use the town's stone bridges. Two of his brigades went straight in on the Diepenbeek. The rest, with Tilly's Danish and Dutch horse, marched through Bevere onto the Boser Couter, which Lumley's cavalry had found empty, reached Oycke and swung east towards Royegem. The Prince of Orange and the Dutch field deputy Goslinga led the infantry down the slope; Swiss in Dutch service held their fire and stopped a charge of the Maison du Roi with a single volley. Tilly cut the road to Courtrai. By about 8 p.m. the French right was nearly encircled around Diepenbeek. In the dark the two Allied wings fired on each other, and the fighting was stopped. Many French slipped away to the north-west. Eugene had drummers beat the French retreat and Huguenot officers call out French regimental names, and he gathered in prisoners as the stragglers came in.", "aftermath": "The French lost about 5,000–6,000 killed and wounded and 8,000–9,000 prisoners, with 25 guns and about a hundred colours and standards, and more deserted on the retreat. The Allies lost about 3,000. Marlborough is reported to have said that another hour of daylight would have let him finish the war. That night Vendôme and Burgundy quarrelled on the Ghent road. Vendôme wanted the untouched left wing to fight the next day; Burgundy said it was too scattered and short of ammunition, and the army fell back towards Ghent.\n\nAt a council of war on 12 July Eugene proposed the siege of Lille. Marlborough wanted to march on Paris, but the allies would not take the risk. The town of Lille, the strongest fortress in Europe, surrendered on 22 October and Boufflers gave up the citadel in December. The Allies beat off an attack on Brussels and retook Ghent and Bruges, and the French were driven out of almost all the Spanish Netherlands.\n\nThe argument began at once. Vendôme blamed Burgundy for leaving half the army idle; Saint-Simon put the moment when Vendôme understood the danger as late as 2 p.m. Most accounts blame the paralysis of the French left, though one modern account argues that the warnings about the Diepenbeek were not as foolish as they are often made to seem. For Marlborough and Eugene the day confirmed a famous partnership: 'Prince Eugene and I,' Marlborough wrote, 'shall never differ about our share of the laurels.'", "wargaming": "Oudenarde is the classic horse-and-musket meeting engagement: two armies arriving in column on a field neither chose, and a game decided by the arrival schedule. At brigade level with 30-minute turns, 3 p.m. to nightfall takes about a dozen turns on a table showing the Scheldt bridges, Eyne, Heurne, the Diepenbeek, the Norken and the Boser Couter ridge to Oycke. Cadogan's attack on Eyne also makes a good evening's game at battalion and squadron level.\n\nThree things make it work. First, timed arrivals for the Allied columns (Argyll, Lottum, Overkirk), with a chance that a bridge breaks. Second, terrain that breaks up cavalry: hedges, enclosures and marshy brooks, where infantry fire dominates and squadrons are best used for counter-charges and threats. Third, the French command. The French player should not control the whole army. Burgundy's left wing should move only on a successful command roll, or be given to a second player with different victory conditions; lost or intercepted messages are an obvious mechanic.\n\nThe what-ifs are good ones. Vendôme attacks Cadogan before 1 p.m., when only the advance guard is across. Burgundy releases the left wing at 5 p.m. against the thin Allied right. French dragoons hold the Boser Couter. Night falls an hour later." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Battle oudenarde.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "Oudenarde, 11 July 1708: Cadogan's bridgehead at Eyne, the fighting along the Diepenbeek and Overkirk's march over the Boser Couter.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Battle_oudenarde.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2e/Battle_oudenarde.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_oudenarde.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "", "credit": "", "width": 721 }, { "file": "File:Kaart van de slag bij Oudenaarde, 1708 Plan de la Bataille d'Oudenaerde du 11 Juillet 1708 (titel op object), RP-P-OB-83.289.jpg", "kind": "map", "caption": "A contemporary Dutch plan of the battle, published between 1708 and 1714.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0f/Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Oudenaarde%2C_1708_Plan_de_la_Bataille_d%27Oudenaerde_du_11_Juillet_1708_%28titel_op_object%29%2C_RP-P-OB-83.289.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Oudenaarde%2C_1708_Plan_de_la_Bataille_d%27Oudenaerde_du_11_Juillet_1708_%28titel_op_object%29%2C_RP-P-OB-83.289.jpg/960px-Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Oudenaarde%2C_1708_Plan_de_la_Bataille_d%27Oudenaerde_du_11_Juillet_1708_%28titel_op_object%29%2C_RP-P-OB-83.289.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaart_van_de_slag_bij_Oudenaarde,_1708_Plan_de_la_Bataille_d%27Oudenaerde_du_11_Juillet_1708_(titel_op_object),_RP-P-OB-83.289.jpg", "licence": "CC0", "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en", "artist": "Rijksmuseum", "credit": "http://hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.473210", "width": 5914 }, { "file": "File:Low Countries 1700 and entrenched lines.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The Low Countries during the war, with the French lines and frontier fortresses.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Low_Countries_1700_and_entrenched_lines.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Low_Countries_1700_and_entrenched_lines.png/960px-Low_Countries_1700_and_entrenched_lines.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Low_Countries_1700_and_entrenched_lines.png", "licence": "CC BY-SA 3.0", "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0", "artist": "Rebel Redcoat", "credit": "Own work", "width": 1520 }, { "file": "File:The Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Oudenaarde (1708) by John Wootton.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "John Wootton, The Duke of Marlborough at the Battle of Oudenaarde.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/The_Duke_of_Marlborough_at_the_Battle_of_Oudenaarde_%281708%29_by_John_Wootton.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1a/The_Duke_of_Marlborough_at_the_Battle_of_Oudenaarde_%281708%29_by_John_Wootton.jpg/960px-The_Duke_of_Marlborough_at_the_Battle_of_Oudenaarde_%281708%29_by_John_Wootton.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Duke_of_Marlborough_at_the_Battle_of_Oudenaarde_(1708)_by_John_Wootton.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "John Wootton", "credit": "Sotheby's", "width": 1800 }, { "file": "File:Herzog von Marlborough in der Schlacht von Oudenarde.jpg", "kind": "illustration", "caption": "Marlborough at Oudenarde: one of the Brussels victory tapestries at Blenheim Palace, after a design by Lambert de Hondt.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Herzog_von_Marlborough_in_der_Schlacht_von_Oudenarde.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/99/Herzog_von_Marlborough_in_der_Schlacht_von_Oudenarde.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Herzog_von_Marlborough_in_der_Schlacht_von_Oudenarde.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Lambert de Hondt (Kartonmaler) und Judocus de Vos (Bildwirker) in Brüssel [2]", "credit": "British Batlles.com", "width": 490 }, { "file": "File:Louis Joseph Duc de Vendome, 7B489115.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Louis Joseph, Duke of Vendôme, engraved by Pierre Dupin.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/31/Louis_Joseph_Duc_de_Vendome%2C_7B489115.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/31/Louis_Joseph_Duc_de_Vendome%2C_7B489115.jpg/960px-Louis_Joseph_Duc_de_Vendome%2C_7B489115.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Joseph_Duc_de_Vendome,_7B489115.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Dupin, Pierre (French designer and engraver, ca. 1690-1751) (artist) (graphic artist)", "credit": "https://libis-kul.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/collectionDiscovery?vid=32KUL_KUL:KULeuven&collectionId=81531994540001488&lang=en&sortItemsBy=date_a&query=any,contains,7B489/115", "width": 3688 }, { "file": "File:Hyacinthe Rigaud (Werkstatt) - Louis de France, Duc de Bourgogne - 3806 - Bavarian State Painting Collections.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "Louis, Duke of Burgundy, the nominal French commander; workshop of Hyacinthe Rigaud.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Hyacinthe_Rigaud_%28Werkstatt%29_-_Louis_de_France%2C_Duc_de_Bourgogne_-_3806_-_Bavarian_State_Painting_Collections.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Hyacinthe_Rigaud_%28Werkstatt%29_-_Louis_de_France%2C_Duc_de_Bourgogne_-_3806_-_Bavarian_State_Painting_Collections.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hyacinthe_Rigaud_(Werkstatt)_-_Louis_de_France,_Duc_de_Bourgogne_-_3806_-_Bavarian_State_Painting_Collections.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "Hyacinthe Rigaud", "credit": "https://www.sammlung.pinakothek.de/en/bookmark/artwork/A0GOMlJ7xd", "width": 590 } ], "sources": [ { "id": "s1", "title": "Battle of Oudenarde", "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Oudenarde", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s2", "title": "Battle of Oudenarde (BritishBattles.com)", "url": "https://www.britishbattles.com/war-of-the-spanish-succession/battle-of-oudenarde/", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s3", "title": "1708-07-11 – Battle of Oudenarde (Project WSS, kronoskaf.com)", "url": "https://kronoskaf.com/wss/index.php?title=1708-07-11_%E2%80%93_Battle_of_Oudenarde", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s4", "title": "The Battle of Oudenarde, 1708 (Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum)", "url": "https://www.royalhampshireregiment.org/about-the-museum/timeline/battle-oudenarde-1708/", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "War of the Spanish Succession (National Army Museum)", "url": "https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/Spanish-succession", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "'The Devil Must have Carried Them: Oudenarde Part I', WarHistory.org (2021; author not named)", "url": "https://warhistory.org/article/the-devil-must-have-carried-them-oudenarde-part-i", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "'The Devil Must have Carried Them: Oudenarde Part II', WarHistory.org (2021; author not named)", "url": "https://warhistory.org/article/the-devil-must-have-carried-them-oudenarde-part-ii", "kind": "article" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Graham J. Morris, 'The Battle of Oudenarde', Battlefield Anomalies (2008)", "url": "https://battlefieldanomalies.com/18th-century-battles/the-battle-of-oudenarde/", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s9", "title": "David Chandler, Marlborough as Military Commander (Batsford, 1973; Spellmount reprint 2003)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s10", "title": "Winston S. Churchill, Marlborough: His Life and Times, vol. II (Harrap, 1936)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s11", "title": "John A. Lynn, The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714 (Longman, 1999)", "url": null, "kind": "book" } ], "cdb90": [ 52 ], "order": 22, "url": "https://battles.georgewyrd.com/oudenarde/", "oob": [], "oob_lwtv": [], "scenarios": [], "orbat": null, "orbat_lwtv": null, "reading": { "prose": [], "history": [], "fiction": [], "poetry": [] }, "reading_lwtv": { "prose": [], "poetry": [] }, "photos": [], "photos_kind": "photographs", "newspapers": null }