{ "slug": "ramillies", "title": "Battle of Ramillies", "status": "draft", "era": "1600–1760", "date_text": "23 May 1706", "start": "1706-05-23", "end": "1706-05-23", "war": "War of the Spanish Succession", "cdb90_war": "WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION", "place": { "name": "Ramillies, Brabant (now Walloon Brabant), Belgium", "lat": 50.6364, "lon": 4.9153, "wikidata": "Q161325" }, "lede": "On 23 May 1706 Marlborough's Anglo-Dutch army feinted against Villeroi's left, shifted its weight behind a ridge and broke the French on the open plain at Ramillies. In a few weeks almost all the Spanish Netherlands fell to the Allies.", "result": "Decisive Grand Alliance victory", "result_cdb90": "attacker win", "belligerents": [ { "role": "attacker", "name": "Grand Alliance army (Dutch, English and Scottish, Danish and German troops)", "commanders": [ "Duke of Marlborough", "Field Marshal Overkirk (Hendrik van Nassau-Ouwerkerk)" ], "strength": { "value": 62000, "low": 60000, "high": 62000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 3633, "low": 3500, "high": 5000, "source": "s5" } }, { "role": "defender", "name": "Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army (French, Spanish Netherlands, Bavarian and Cologne troops)", "commanders": [ "Marshal Villeroi", "Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria" ], "strength": { "value": 60000, "low": 60000, "high": 60000, "source": "s1" }, "casualties": { "value": 18000, "low": 13000, "high": 22000, "source": "s2" } } ], "sections": { "background": "The War of the Spanish Succession was five years old in 1706, and the Grand Alliance of the Emperor, England and the Dutch Republic had had a poor 1705. Marlborough's invasion along the Moselle had been abandoned, and Barcelona was the year's only real gain. The new year started badly too. Vendôme beat the Imperial army at Calcinato in Italy on 19 April, and Villars pushed the Margrave of Baden back across the Rhine. Marlborough wanted to take his army to Italy, but the Dutch would not agree, so he had to campaign in the Low Countries again.\n\nLouis XIV wanted peace on fair terms, and he thought a victory would get him there. He pressed Marshal Villeroi to seek battle. The memoirist Saint-Simon claimed that Villeroi believed the King doubted his courage, and so resolved to stake everything on one battle. Villeroi left Leuven on 18 May with about 60,000 men and 62 guns, crossed the Dyle, and moved through Tienen towards Jodoigne. One account says the Allies were then hoping to take Namur. Marlborough had gathered his army near Maastricht and marched past Zoutleeuw. On 22 May he camped near Corswaren to let his Danish squadrons catch up.\n\nEarly on 23 May the Quartermaster-General, William Cadogan, was riding ahead to mark out a camp. When the mist lifted for a moment he saw the French about 6 km off, drawn up on the watershed around the village of Ramillies. Prince Eugene was fighting in Italy, so Ramillies was the only one of Marlborough's great battles fought without him.", "forces": "The two armies were almost the same size: about 62,000 Allies against 60,000 French, Spanish and Bavarians. The Allied army was largely Dutch. Field Marshal Overkirk commanded its Dutch contingent. On the decisive southern plain he had 69 squadrons, 48 of them Dutch and 21 Danish under the Duke of Württemberg, supported by 19 Dutch battalions. Dutch Guards and Dutch battalions under Wertmüller attacked the southern villages, and 12 Dutch battalions took part in the assault on Ramillies. Only 19 of Marlborough's 74 battalions were British, and they stood mainly on the right under the Earl of Orkney. The Danes were hired by the Maritime Powers, England and the Dutch Republic.\n\nThe Allies had 90 guns and 20 mortars by Wikipedia's count. Another source gives 120 guns and mortars. A battery of thirty 24-pounders opened the battle.\n\nVilleroi shared the command with the Elector of Bavaria, Maximilian II Emanuel. On the plain the French had about 82 squadrons under de Guiscard. Among them was the Maison du Roi, the elite of the French horse, supported by Bavarian cuirassiers. About 50 squadrons of Bavarian and Walloon horse waited in reserve on the plateau of Mont St André. Ramillies itself was held by some 20 battalions under Maffei, including Irish regiments and the Cologne and Bavarian Guards. Irish, Scots, Swiss and German troops fought on both sides.", "course": "CDB90 records Ramillies as a single engagement, number 51 (RAMILLIES), from 13:00 to 19:00. Villeroi drew up his army in a concave crescent about 6 km long. At its southern end, the villages of Taviers and Franquenée stood beside the marshy Mehaigne. North of them a plain about 2 km wide ran up to Ramillies, which stood on a slight rise. Beyond Ramillies, the villages of Offus and Autre-Église lay behind the Petite Gheete, a stream with steep, slippery banks. The Allies deployed opposite on the plateau of Jandrenouille. From about 11:00 Marlborough saw that the French line was over-extended and that his own, on the outside of the curve, was shorter.\n\n**Taviers (13:00–15:00).** The batteries opened at about 13:00. Four Dutch battalions under Wertmüller took Franquenée, and the Dutch Guards then fought hand to hand for Taviers. By about 15:00 its Swiss defenders had been driven into the marshes. De Guiscard sent 14 squadrons of dragoons to retake the villages. Dutch fire broke the attack, and Württemberg's Danes caught their flank. Colonel de la Colonie, whose Bavarian grenadiers were swept away in the retreat, later wrote that the fighting at Taviers was almost as murderous as the rest of the battle put together.\n\n**The feint on the right (from about 13:30).** Orkney led the British first line across the Petite Gheete against Offus and Autre-Église. Walloon infantry under de la Guiche held them, and the redcoats struggled up the slope. The attack had already done its work, however. Villeroi had moved horse and foot from his centre and right to meet it. Marlborough ordered Orkney back. Cadogan had to ride over and enforce the order. The British withdrew to the high ground east of the stream, leaving colour parties in view. Behind the ridge, out of French sight, Marlborough moved battalions south under Van Pallandt and then squadrons from his right wing. Villeroi kept his reserves on the left.\n\n**The cavalry battle (about 15:30–16:30).** Around 15:30 Overkirk advanced 48 Dutch and 21 Danish squadrons on the plain, in four lines. They drove back the first French line. The Maison du Roi then counter-attacked and scattered ten Dutch squadrons. Marlborough rode in to rally them. French troopers recognised him, and he was thrown from his horse. Major-General Murray's Swiss battalions covered him, and Captain Molesworth gave him a horse. While Colonel Bringfield, his equerry, was helping him into the saddle, a cannonball killed him.\n\n**The breakthrough (about 16:30).** By about 16:30 the squadrons from the north gave the Allies a five-to-three advantage on the plain. Württemberg's Danes swept round the French right by the Mehaigne and struck the Maison du Roi in the flank. De Guiscard's wing collapsed and fled north. Villeroi tried to bring up his reserve squadrons, but baggage and tents left in the camp got in the way. The Allied infantry, now joined by British troops from the north, stormed Ramillies. The Régiment de Picardie was trapped between Borthwick's Scots-Dutch regiment and the British. Borthwick and Lord Clare were both killed, and Maffei's last stand failed.\n\n**The rout (to after midnight).** Orkney's men retook Offus and Autre-Église, and the Scots Greys charged the Régiment du Roi. The whole French line went back, and the retreat became a rout. Fresh Allied cavalry pressed the pursuit for about 20 miles. Marlborough halted his army after midnight near Meldert, 19 km from the field.", "aftermath": "Allied losses were light, about 3,500–5,000 killed and wounded. One regimental source gives 1,066 killed and 2,567 wounded. French losses cannot be counted exactly, and estimates run from about 13,000 to over 20,000, including 6,000–10,000 prisoners. Thousands more deserted in the days that followed. Villeroi lost most of his artillery (52 guns in one count, all 70 in another) and his pontoon train.\n\nThe consequences were enormous. Leuven fell on 25 May, Brussels three days later, then Mechelen, Lier, Ghent, Aalst, Damme, Oudenaarde and Bruges. Antwerp followed on 6 June. Overkirk took Ostend on 4 July, opening a supply route across the Channel. Menin fell after a costly siege on 22 August, Dendermonde on 6 September, and Ath, the last conquest of the year, on 2 October. Louis XIV recalled Vendôme from Italy to take over in Flanders, and Villeroi never held a major command again. Villars called the defeat the most shameful, humiliating and disastrous of routs. With Eugene's victory at Turin in September, 1706 was the high-water mark of the Allied war.\n\nVictory also brought friction. The Emperor offered Marlborough the governorship of the Spanish Netherlands. The Dutch distrusted the idea, and he turned it down for the sake of Allied unity. British regiments remember the battle in the 'Ramillies' cocked hat and the 'Ramillies tail' hairstyle.", "wargaming": "Ramillies is one of the best horse-and-musket battles for a big game. The armies are evenly matched, the front is only about 6 km wide, and the battle lasted about an afternoon. At brigade level, with turns of 20–30 minutes, the whole field fits a large table. At battalion and squadron level the southern half (Taviers, the plain and Ramillies village) makes a superb cavalry scenario.\n\nThe terrain makes the battle. The Mehaigne marshes protect one flank and the Petite Gheete protects the other. Between them lies the open plain, the cavalry country where the battle was decided. The Allies fight on the outside of the curve but hold the shorter line. A game should give them the ridge that hides movement behind it: hidden movement or dummy units let the Allied player shift troops unseen, as Marlborough did.\n\nThe decisions are clear. Can the Allied player make the feint convincing and then call it off? A subordinate who may not obey the recall is an obvious friction rule. The French player has to decide how far to believe it. What if Villeroi had kept his reserves in the centre, or cleared his baggage so the 50 reserve squadrons could reach the plain? And what if the Danes had been held at Taviers, or Marlborough had not escaped when he was unhorsed? Mixed cavalry quality matters too: the Maison du Roi can win early charges, but the Dutch and Danish lines are deeper." }, "images": [ { "file": "File:Battle of Ramillies Initial Dispositions.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "Ramillies, 23 May 1706: initial dispositions, with the French crescent from Taviers on the Mehaigne through Ramillies to Autre-Église.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Battle_of_Ramillies_Initial_Dispositions.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e2/Battle_of_Ramillies_Initial_Dispositions.png/960px-Battle_of_Ramillies_Initial_Dispositions.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Ramillies_Initial_Dispositions.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "United States Military Academy", "credit": "Based on original at http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/dawn_modern_warfare/dawn%20modern%20warfare%20maps/battle_ramilies_initial.gif Originally uploaded to EN Wikipedia as en:File:Battle of Ramillies Initial Dispositions.png by en:User:Raymond Palmer 21 June 2007 and modified by en:User:Raymond Palmer 26 June 2007 and 23 July 2007.", "width": 1108 }, { "file": "File:Battle of Ramillies Manoeuvres.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The manoeuvres: Orkney's attack on the right, and the shift of Allied troops south behind the ridge.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Battle_of_Ramillies_Manoeuvres.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Battle_of_Ramillies_Manoeuvres.png/960px-Battle_of_Ramillies_Manoeuvres.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Ramillies_Manoeuvres.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "United States Military Academy", "credit": "Modified version of original at : http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/dawn_modern_warfare/dawn%20modern%20warfare%20maps/battle_ramilies_manuvers.gif Originally uploaded to EN Wikipedia as en:File:Battle of Ramillies Manoeuvres.png by en:User:Raymond Palmer 5 July 2007, modified by en:User:Raymond Palmer 20 July 2007.", "width": 1108 }, { "file": "File:Battle of Ramillies Breakthrough.png", "kind": "map", "caption": "The breakthrough: the Danish cavalry turn the French right and Ramillies falls.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Battle_of_Ramillies_Breakthrough.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8c/Battle_of_Ramillies_Breakthrough.png/960px-Battle_of_Ramillies_Breakthrough.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Battle_of_Ramillies_Breakthrough.png", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "United States Military Academy.", "credit": "Adapted from the original at http://www.dean.usma.edu/history/web03/atlases/dawn_modern_warfare/dawn%20modern%20warfare%20maps/battle_ramilies_breakthrough.gif Originally uploaded to EN Wikipedia as en:File:Battle of Ramillies Breakthrough.png by en:User:Raymond Palmer 5 July 2007 and modified by en:User:Raymond Palmer 20 July 2007.", "width": 1108 }, { "file": "File:John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough by Sir Godfrey Kneller, Bt.jpg", "kind": "portrait", "caption": "John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, after Sir Godfrey Kneller.", "url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/John_Churchill%2C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%2C_Bt.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=original", "thumb": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e9/John_Churchill%2C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%2C_Bt.jpg/960px-John_Churchill%2C_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller%2C_Bt.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail", "page": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_Churchill,_1st_Duke_of_Marlborough_by_Sir_Godfrey_Kneller,_Bt.jpg", "licence": "Public domain", "licence_url": "", "artist": "After Godfrey Kneller", "credit": "one or more third parties have made copyright claims against Wikimedia Commons in relation to the work from which this is sourced or a purely mechanical reproduction thereof . This may be due to recognition of the \" sweat of the brow \" doctrine, allowing works to be eligible for protection through skill and labour, and not purely by originality as is the case in the United States (where this website is hosted). These claims may or may not be valid in all jurisdictions. As such, use of this image in the jurisdiction of the claimant or other countries may be regarded as copyright infringement . Please see Commons:When to use the PD-Art tag for more information.", "width": 2400 }, { "file": "File:Louis Laguerre (1663-1721) and assistants - The Battle of Ramillies, 23 May 1706, The Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722) with his Staff in the Thic - RCIN 408432 - Royal Collection.jpg", "kind": "painting", "caption": "Louis Laguerre and assistants, 'The Battle of Ramillies, 23 May 1706': Marlborough and his staff in the thick of the fighting. 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Rickard, 'Battle of Ramillies, 23 May 1706', History of War", "url": "https://www.historyofwar.org/articles/battles_ramillies.html", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s5", "title": "The Battle of Ramillies, 1706 (Royal Hampshire Regiment Museum)", "url": "https://www.royalhampshireregiment.org/about-the-museum/timeline/battle-ramillies-1706", "kind": "web" }, { "id": "s6", "title": "David Chandler, Marlborough as Military Commander (Batsford, 1973; Spellmount reprint 2003)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s7", "title": "James Falkner, Ramillies 1706: Year of Miracles (Pen & Sword, 2006)", "url": null, "kind": "book" }, { "id": "s8", "title": "Jean Martin de la Colonie, The Chronicles of an Old Campaigner, trans. W. C. 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