The battle of Ramillies was one of the great victories won by the John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, a great English general during the war of the Spanish succession.

Background

The war of the Spanish succession, fought between France and her allies against a coalition of nations intending to stop her from uniting the French and Spanish empires under one rule, had been going badly for the allies of the Anti-French coalition until the battle of Blenheim. Here, the Duke of Marlborough won his greatest victory, his first of several. Unfortunately, for the Allies, the fruits of the victory at Blenheim over the French and Bavarians that the Duke of Marlborough had won for their arms were thrown away. The “indifference” of the Germans, and the “parsimony of England and Holland” spoiled the plans of Marlborough to capitalize on his victory, and all the benefits of the battle of Blenheim were lost. The battle of Blenheim only stirred King Louis XIV of France and his government to greater exertions to undo the damage the battle had cost them, and they took the field in greater force than their allies, in spite of the losses they had sustained, which forced the allies to act defensively in the next campaign. Nevertheless, French morale had suffered badly, and Marlborough, partly through this, was able to win several minor battles, but the Dutch generals remained a thorn in Marlborough’s side, and they caused him to miss at least one opportunity to win a victory which would have been as resounding as Blenheim.

Thanks to the Dutch, therefore, no substantial results were made in the next campaign, and the end of 1705 found matters in nearly the same state as they had been in 1704.

Elsewhere, the war had gone badly, both on the Rhine and in Italy, while in Flanders the Allies could only hold their ground. Marlborough now put his army into winter quarters, visited the capitals of Vienna, Berlin, and the Hague, and used his influence to sooth over the jealousies, bitterness, and effect cooperation between the Allied powers. By this time, the terrible conduct of the Dutch generals had caused such a stink that by pressure of public opinion, several of Marlborough’s most antagonistic Dutch generals were replaced. It seemed that the campaign of 1706 was to open under far more conditions. Marlborough proposed to go the aid of the Imperialists in Italy, with an army of 40,000 men, but the Prince of Baden would not cooperate, and neither would the cabinets of Berlin and Copenhagen, which began quarreling among themselves and refusing to supply their contingents of troops. Marlborough found his plans once again frustrated.

There was to be no southern campaign. The most he could do for the Imperialists was to persuade the Dutch to send 10,000 troops across the Alps to assist Prince Eugune there, under the promise that he would defend Flanders with the English and the Dutch troops.

On May 19^th, the campaign of 1706 commenced, as Marlborough joined his army encamped on the Dyle, on the French frontier. The Danish sent a contingent at the last minute, and Marlborough’s army was boosted by their arrival, to a size of 60,000 men and 120 guns: 73 battalions and 123 squadrons.

Across the Dyle, the French commander, Marshal Villeroi had under his command, 62,000 men, in 74 battalions and 128 squadrons, with 130 guns. Thus numbers, the two sides were relatively equal, but the French had the advantage of having a homogenous command, made of up troops of one nationality, while the Duke of Marlborough’s allied army was a conglomeration of the troops of three nations, England, Holland and Denmark, speaking different languages, and who, in many cases, had never served together in the field.

Marlborough opened the campaign by moving towards Tirlemont, intending to lay siege to Namur, but Marshal Villeroi, anxious to cover the city, moved his army out from their quarters on the Dyle, to interpose against him, and bring on a general engagement.

Prelude

The French took up a strong position atop Mont Saint Andre, an elevated plateau, which was the highest ground in Brabant. From the plateau, four rivers, the Great Gheet, the Little Gheet, the Mehaigne and the Dyle, took their rise, flowing in different directions. The descents from the summit of the plateau to the Great Gheet were steep and abrubt, but the other rivers rose in marshes and mosses, which were impassible in some places. Marlborough was aware of the strength of the position, and had attempted to get there before the French, but Villeroi, having less ground to cover, had gotten there first, and he had his troops in battle array before Marlborough’s army appeared in sight.

Villeroi’s troops occupied the front of a curve facing inward, and overhanging the sources of the Little Gheet. The troops were posted on the crest of a ridge above the marshes, the village of Autre Eglise in front of the extreme left, while the villages of Offuz and Ramillies were opposite the center. The French left was on the crest, extending to the village of Autre Eglise, while the French right overlooked the sources of the Mehaigne river. The village of Taviers, on the right, was strongly held, and Ramillies and Offuz were garrisoned by not less than twenty batallions of foot soldiers. The infantry was drawn up in two lines, the villages in front of them being defended strongly by separate detachments of foot soldiers. The bulk of the French cavalry were arranged in two lines on their right, the extreme right resting in front of the tomb of the ancient German hero Ottomond, which sat on the highest point of the ridge, and which commanded the field of battle.

General Overkirk

Marlborough reconnoitered the ground with the Dutch General Overkirk,a “a loyal and gallant old man,” as Henty has written, and formed his plan of attack.

His own troops were divided into ten columns, his cavalry being placed in two lines on each wing, the infantry in six columns in the center. He saw at once that the French right, where the tomb of Ottomond was, was the key to the French position, and he resolved to make his attack there. To conceal his attack, he decided to conduct a ruse against the village of Autre Eglise on their left, to deceive the French into thinking that it was on their left that the main blow would fall.

Marlborough formed up a heavy column of attack opposite the French left, threatening the village of Autre Eglise. This conspicuous massing of troops did not go unnoticed by Marshal Villeroi, and he pulled a large body of his infantry from the center behind Offuz and marched them to the left to reinforce it against the threatened point on his left. When Marlborough saw that his ruse had been successful, and Villeroi was shifting troops to where he though Marlborough would attack. He took advantage of rising ground in front of his column of attack, by directing a large portion of troops to withdraw via a dip just behind it, screened by the front line of his advance, which obstructed the French view of what was going on. The troops were shuffled into the rear of the left center. Twenty squadrons of Danish cavalry, under the Duke of Wirtemberg were placed in the same spot. The smoke of the advance, and the nature of the ground, helped conceal these movements from Marshal Villeroi who directed heavy artillery fire against the oncoming column marching toward Autre Eglise.

Battle

Up the slopes from the banks of the Little Gheet, the oncoming Allied column marched, to the edge of the plateau, where they halted, deployed in line, and opened fire, concealing under their fire, the transference of infantry and cavalry in their ear to the Allied left. When these units reached the left, the real attack began. Five Dutch battalions and advanced against Taveirs, while, with a strong reserve, twelve more battalions moved to attack Ramillies in columns of companies. The vehemence of the assault was enough to convince Villeroi that this was the real attack, but he had no reserve of infantry to support the troops in the villages, every available man having already been sent to the left. Therefore, he ordered fourteen squadrons of dragoons to dismount, and, supported by two Swiss battalions, he moved them to the support of the troops in Taviers. They arrived too late, however, for before they got there, the Dutch battalions, with great gallantry, had carried the village, and Marlborough sent the Danish cavalry under Wirtemberg against the flank of the dismounted dragoons, as they were marching up in column. The Danes struck the Swiss in flank and cut them to pieces, hurling them back on the French cavalry, which were advancing to charge.

General Overkirk now charged the French cavalry with the first line of Allied horsemen, and his charge was so hard hitting that the French were broken and hurled back, but at this moment, as the Allied cavalry fell into disorder after their successful repulse of the French, the second line of French and Bavarian horse came up, and counterattacked, driving back Overkirk’s men without difficult, nearly restoring the battle in their favor in that quarter.

Marlborough’s army was in grave danger, lest the French, having cleared the open ground of their foes, wheel about attack the twelve battalions presently engaged in attacking Ramillies from the rear. Marlborough observed the danger, for his eye seemed to be scanning everything on a battlefield, and put himself at the head of seventeen squadrons of cavalry, while he sent an aide-de-camp to order up twenty more squadrons still in reserve. The seventeen squadrons, Marlborough at their head, now charged the French horse. But the French batteries on the heights behind Ramillies poured in a devastating fire, and to make matters worse, Marlborough was recognized at the head of his men, by some French troopers with whom he had served previously in other wars. Naturally, Marlborough was indispensable to the Allied army, and the French knew it. Quickly, they endeavored to capture him. The French cavalry made a dash at Marlborough and surrounded him. Before any of his troops could ride to his rescue, however, Marlborough managed to extricate himself from his predicament by cutting his way free of them, sword in hand. As his horse tried to leap a wall, it fell, and the French troopers again fell upon him.

A few troopers, only and a few staff members were close enough to give any aid. Marlborough mounted another his horse, even as a cannonball carried away the head of Marlborough’s hapless aide-de-camp. As Marlborough’s staff and a handful of troopers attempted to stay off his capture against the French horse that pressed around him, the twenty squadrons of Allied cavalry now came to the rescue, recovering from the disorder into which the French cannon fire had thrown them. Upon them, the whole cavalry reformed, and with loud shouts, threw themselves against the French, who were disheartened and fled. The Allied horse swept away all resistance, and pressed up the slope to the tomb of Ottermond, where they were visible to the whole army, and it was obvious that victory on the right had been achieved.

Thus far, the twenty French battalions in Ramillies under the Marquis Maffie had fought determinedly. Maffei put up a good fight, and it had a near-run thing. Two Swiss battalions stood their ground well, and Maffei had rallied two regiments of Cologne guards to a hollow leading up from the village to the plateau, where he checked the Allies, and regained a part of the village. Marlborough, seeing this, ordered up twenty battalions which had been placed in reserve behind the center, and these speedily cleared the village. Being driven out of the village, Maffei’s men were struck in flank by the Allied cavalry, and almost all his men were captured or killed, with Maffei himself being made a prisoner.

The battle had raged for three hours now, and victory was complete on both the right and left. The confusion caused to the Allies, was however, great. Cavalry, infantry, and artillery were thrown into confusion, and Marlborough had to halt and reform them, before he advanced to the final attack. Villeroi too strenuously attempted to reform his troops and fall back on a new line. But the roads were choked with baggage wagons and artillery, and this impeded the progress of the Frenchmen. Marlborough, seeing this, elected to give his enemy no chance to recover from the disaster he was inflicting. Again, sounding the charge, he led the infantry and cavalry in an advance against the enemy’s center. The French troops did not wait for the British wave to break over them, but turned and fled, panic stricken. Offuz was abandoned, and the cavalry pursued the fugitives, which covered the plateau of Mont St. Andre in a panic-stricken rush. The Spanish and Bavarian cavalry made a gallant attempt to stem the tide and cover the flight of the fugitives, but the English horse-guards charged them, and immediately cut them to pieces. Retreat became rout. “In frightful confusion,” wrote Archibald Alison, in his military biography of Marlborough, “a disorganized mass of horse and foot, abandoning their guns, streamed over the plateau, poured headlong, on the other side, down the banks of the Great Gheet, and fled toward Louvain, which they reached in the most dreadful disorder at two o’ clock in the morning.”

The British cavalry did not slacken their pursuit until they reached near that fortress. The battle of Ramillies was a great victory for the Duke of Marlborough, and for the Allied arms. The French lost 7000 killed, and 6000 wounded, plus 52 guns, and their whole baggage and pontoon train, as well as all their caissons, and eighty standards. On the Allied side, the loss came to 1,066 killed, and 2,567 wounded.

Aftermath

The consequences of the victory to the Allied cause were even more important then the numerical figures of the casualties. Brussels, Louvain, Mechlin, Alost, Luise, and all the important towns of Brabant fell into the hands of Marlborough, surrendering to him. Ghent, Bruges, Darn, and Oudenarde did likewise. Only Flanders, Antwerp, Ostend, Nieuport, and Dunkirk, alone held out against the Allies.

The Duke of Marlborough now marched his army to reduce them. Antwerp, his first target, surrendered without a shot being fired, and the French garrison afforded the full honors of war. Ostend didn’t submit quietly, however, and it cost the lives of 1400 men, mostly British, to seize the place. Dindermande and Ade fell next, and the Allied army now went into winter quarters, after a campaign as successful, with far more important results, than that of Blenheim.

Bibliography

Archibald Alison The Military Life of Marlborough (New York, New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1848)

G.A. Henty The Cornet of Horse: A Tale of Marlborough’s Wars (New York, New York: Silver Scroll Publishing, 2015) [1902 Reprint]