Battle of Malplaquet

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Part of the War of the Spanish Succession

Image:Malplaquet1.jpg
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 – Málaga – Friedlingen – Vigo Bay – Höchstädt - Schellenberg – Blenheim – Cassano – Calcinato – Ramillies – Turin – Almansa – Toulon – Oudenarde – Malplaquet – Saragossa – Almenara – Brihuega – Villaviciosa – 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).

The Dutch-British army (the Dutch forming the vast majority of the troops) and Austrians were led by the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugène of Savoy, while the French were commanded by Marshal Villars and Marshal Boufflers. 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 and forced Villars to retreat by 3pm. The Allies had suffered so many casualties in their attack that they could not pursue him. By this time they had lost 20,000 men, twice as many as the French. It was the bloodiest battle of the war, and prevented the Allies from moving on towards Paris.