The Battle of Malplaquet Memorial (11 September 1709) in Taisnieres-sur-Hon (Nord), France
The Battle of Malplaquet was fought near the border of France on 11 September 1709 and was a major engagement of the War of the Spanish Succession. It pitted a French army, commanded by Marshal Duke of Villars and Marshal Duke of Boufflers, against an allied army, led by the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. After a string of defeats, failure of the harvest and the prospect of invasion, Louis XIV of France had appealed to French patriotism, recruited fresh soldiers and instructed Villars to use the country's last army to give battle against Marlborough's formidable force. After a series of manoeuvres, Villars settled on a position in which both of his flanks were anchored in woods. Even though the French were outnumbered, Marlborough's familiar tactics of flank attacks to draw off troops from the centre incurred serious attrition by massed French musketry and skillful use of artillery. When Marlborough's assault on the denuded enemy centre came, his Allied army had been so badly weakened that the Allies made no attempt at pursuit when the French retreated in good order. The Allies lost 20,000 men, twice as many as the French, which was regarded by contemporaries as a shocking number of casualties. That caused Britain to question the sacrifices that might be required for Marlborough's campaign to continue. The Battle of Malplaquet is often regarded as a Grand Alliance pyrrhic victory due to the casualties suffered by the allies, which delayed them considerably and ensured that the British and Dutch governments would never again allow their armies to engage in field battles on such a scale for the remainder of the war. At Malplaquet, the Allies were left in control of the battlefield and went on to capture Mons but Villars and Boufflers' ferocious efforts in the battle turned out to have effectively prevented an invasion of France by the Grand Alliance and the French position stabilised.
Size: 3840px × 5760px
Location: 1 Chemin du Chateau Vert, 59570 Taisnieres-sur-Hon, Nord, France, Europe
Photo credit: © DE ROCKER / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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