The Battle of Ramillies (), fought on 23 May 1706, was a battle of the War of the Spanish Succession. For the Grand AllianceAustria, England, and the Dutch Republicthe battle had followed an indecisive campaign against the Bourbon armies of King Louis XIV of France in 1705. Although the Allies had captured Barcelona that year, they had been forced to abandon their campaign on the Moselle, had stalled in the Spanish Netherlands and suffered defeat in northern Italy. Yet despite his opponents' setbacks LouisXIV wanted peace, but on reasonable terms. Because of this, as well as to maintain their momentum, the French and their allies took the offensive in 1706.
The campaign began well for Louis XIV's generals: in Italy Marshal Vendôme defeated the Austrians at the Battle of Calcinato in April, while in Alsace Marshal Villars forced the Margrave of Baden back across the Rhine. Encouraged by these early gains LouisXIV urged Marshal Villeroi to go over to the offensive in the Spanish Netherlands and, with victory, gain a 'fair' peace. Accordingly, the French Marshal set off from Leuven (Louvain) at the head of 60,000 men and marched towards Tienen (Tirlemont), as if to threaten Zoutleeuw (Léau). Also determined to fight a major engagement, the Duke of Marlborough, commander-in-chief of Anglo-Dutch forces, assembled his armysome 62,000 mennear Maastricht, and marched past Zoutleeuw. With both sides seeking battle, they soon encountered each other on the dry ground between the rivers Mehaigne and Petite Gette, close to the small village of Ramillies.
In less than four hours Marlborough's Dutch, English, and Danish forces overwhelmed Villeroi's and Maximilian II Emanuel's Franco-Spanish-Bavarian army. The Duke's subtle moves and changes in emphasis during the battlesomething his opponents failed to realise until it was too latecaught the French in a tactical vice. With their foe broken and routed, the Allies were able to fully exploit their victory. Town after town fell, including Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp; by the end of the campaign Villeroi's army had been driven from most of the Spanish Netherlands. With Prince Eugene's subsequent success at the Battle of Turin in northern Italy, the Allies had imposed the greatest loss of territory and resources that LouisXIV would suffer during the war. Thus, the year 1706 proved, for the Allies, to be an annus mirabilis.
Background After their disastrous defeat at Blenheim in 1704, the French found some respite in next year. The Duke of Marlborough had intended the 1705 campaignan invasion of France through the Moselle valleyto complete the work of Blenheim and persuade King Louis XIV to make peace but the plan had been thwarted by friend and foe alike.Barnett: Marlborough, 140 The reluctance of his Dutch allies to see their frontiers denuded of troops for another gamble in Germany had denied Marlborough the initiative but of far greater importance was the Margrave of Baden's pronouncement that he could not join the Duke in strength for the coming offensive. This was in part due to the sudden switching of troops from the Rhine to reinforce Prince Eugene in Italy and part due to the deterioration of Baden's health brought on by the re-opening of a severe foot wound he had received at the storming of the Schellenberg the previous year.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 154 Marlborough had to cope with the death of Emperor LeopoldI in May and the accession of JosephI, which unavoidably complicated matters for the Grand Alliance.
The resilience of the French king and the efforts of his generals also added to Marlborough's problems.Falkner: Ramillies 1706: Year of Miracles, 18 Marshal Villeroi, exerting considerable pressure on the Dutch commander, Count Overkirk, along the Meuse, took Huy on 10 June before pressing on towards Liège. With Marshal Villars sitting strong on the Moselle, the Allied commanderwhose supplies had by now become very shortwas forced to call off his campaign on 16 June. "What a disgrace for Marlborough," exulted Villeroi, "to have made false movements without any result!"Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 157 With Marlborough's departure north, the French transferred troops from the Moselle valley to reinforce Villeroi in Flanders, while Villars marched off to the Rhine.Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714, 298
The Anglo-Dutch forces gained minor compensation for the failed Moselle campaign with the success at Elixheim and the crossing of the Lines of Brabant in the Spanish Netherlands (Huy was also retaken on 11 July) but a chance to bring the French to a decisive engagement eluded Marlborough.Barnett: Marlborough, 152 The year 1705 proved almost entirely barren for the Duke, whose military disappointments were only partly compensated by efforts on the diplomatic front where, at the courts of Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Vienna, Berlin and Hanover, Marlborough sought to bolster support for the Grand Alliance and extract promises of prompt assistance for the following year's campaign.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 164
Prelude On 11 January 1706 Marlborough finally reached London at the end of his diplomatic tour but he had already been planning his strategy for the coming season. The first option (although it is debatable to what extent the Duke was committed to such an enterprise) was a plan to transfer his forces from the Spanish Netherlands to northern Italy; once there, he intended linking up with Prince Eugene in order to defeat the French and safeguard Savoy from being overrun.Barnett: Marlborough, 158 Savoy would then serve as a gateway into France by way of the mountain passes or an invasion with naval support along the Mediterranean coast via Nice and Toulon, in connexion with redoubled Allied efforts in Spain.Trevelyan: England Under Queen Anne: Ramillies and the Union with Scotland, 102.
However, the monarchs of Denmark, Prussia, and Hanover refused to allow their contingents in Anglo-Dutch pay to march to Italy. Although the Dutch did not oppose Marlborough’s plan in principle, they were unwilling to commit any of their own troops. As a result, Marlborough would have been able to take only his English forces and some 9,000 Hessians to Italy. It seems that the Duke's favoured scheme was to return to the Moselle valley (where Marshal Marsin had recently taken command of French forces) and once more attempt an advance into the heart of France.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 169 But these decisions soon became academic. Shortly after Marlborough landed in the Dutch Republic on 14 April, news arrived of big Allied setbacks in the wider war.
Determined to show the Grand Alliance that France was still resolute, LouisXIV prepared to launch a double surprise in Alsace and northern Italy.Barnett: Marlborough, 159 On the latter front Marshal Vendôme defeated the Imperial army at Calcinato on 19 April, pushing the Imperialists back in confusion (French forces were now in a position to prepare for the long-anticipated siege of Turin). In Alsace, Marshal Villars took Baden by surprise and captured Haguenau, driving him back across the Rhine in some disorder, thus creating a threat on Landau.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 168 With these reverses, the Dutch now also refused to contemplate Marlborough's ambitious march to Italy or any plan that denuded their borders of the Duke and their army.Falkner: Ramillies 1706: Year of Miracles, 33 Marlborough was now again forced to prepare a campaign in the Low Countries.
On the move
The Duke left The Hague on 9 May. "God knows I go with a heavy heart," he wrote six days later to his friend and political ally in England, Lord Godolphin, "for I have no hope of doing anything considerable, unless the French do what I am very confident they will not..."in other words, court battle.Barnett: Marlborough, 160 On 17 May the Duke concentrated his Dutch and English troops at Tongeren, near Maastricht. The Hanoverians, Hessians and Danes, despite earlier undertakings, found, or invented, pressing reasons for withholding their support. Marlborough wrote an appeal to the Duke of Württemberg, the commander of the Danish contingent: "I send you this express to request your Highness to bring forward by a double march your cavalry so as to join us at the earliest moment..."Falkner: Ramillies 1706: Year of Miracles, 38 Additionally, the King in Prussia, Frederick I, had kept his troops in quarters behind the Rhine while his personal disputes with Vienna and the States General at The Hague remained unresolved. Nevertheless, the Duke could think of no circumstances why the French would leave their strong positions and attack his army, even if Villeroi was first reinforced by substantial transfers from Marsin's command.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 170 But in this he had miscalculated. Although LouisXIV wanted peace he wanted it on reasonable terms; for that, he needed victory in the field and to convince the Allies that his resources were by no means exhausted.Trevelyan: England Under Queen Anne: Ramillies and the Union with Scotland, 103
Following the successes in Italy and along the Rhine, LouisXIV was now hopeful of similar results in Flanders. Far from standing on the defensive thereforeand unbeknown to MarlboroughLouisXIV was persistently goading his marshal into action. "[Villeroi] began to imagine," wrote St Simon, "that the King doubted his courage, and resolved to stake all at once in an effort to vindicate himself."Saint-Simon: Memoirs, vol i, 298 Accordingly, on 18 May, Villeroi set off from Leuven at the head of 70 battalions, 132 squadrons and 62 cannoncomprising an overall force of some 60,000 troopsand crossed the river Dyle to seek battle with the enemy. Spurred on by his growing confidence in his ability to out-general his opponent, and by Versailles’ determination to avenge Blenheim, Villeroi and his generals anticipated success.
Neither opponent expected the clash at the exact moment or place where it occurred.Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, 172 The French moved first to Tienen, (as if to threaten Zoutleeuw, abandoned by the French in October 1705), before turning southwards, heading for Jodoignethis line of march took Villeroi's army towards the narrow aperture of dry ground between the rivers Mehaigne and Petite Gette close to the small villages of Ramillies and Taviers; but neither commander quite appreciated how far his opponent had travelled. Villeroi still believed (on 22 May) the Allies were a full day's march away when in fact they had camped near Corswaren waiting for the Danish squadrons to catch up; for his part, Marlborough deemed Villeroi still at Jodoigne when in reality he was now approaching the plateau of Mont St. André with the intention of pitching camp near Ramillies (see map at right). However, the Prussian infantry was not there. Marlborough wrote to Lord Raby, the English resident at Berlin: "If it should please God to give us victory over the enemy, the Allies will be little obliged to the King [Frederick] for the success."Trevelyan: England Under Queen Anne: Ramillies and the Union with Scotland, 104