Qualla: Battle of Lauffeld

Battle of Lauffeld: Introduction

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Berthold Werner, CC BY-SA 4.0. On the morning of 2 July 1747, on the rolling ground between Tongeren and Maastricht, Sir John Ligonier of the British cavalry watched the Duke of Cumberland make a series of decisions that would cost the day. Cumberland had ordered the villages of Vlytingen and Lauffeld - where his infantry had spent the previous night - to be burned and abandoned. Ligonier, who two years earlier had seen Marshal Saxe use exactly such villages at Fontenoy to grind British troops to pieces, urged the Duke to put soldiers back into the smoking ruins. Cumberland eventually agreed. The change in orders moved through the chain of command unevenly. By 12:30 that afternoon the French had taken Lauffeld for good, and by evening Ligonier was a French prisoner - delivered to Louis XV by Marshal Saxe with the wry introduction, "the gentleman who ruined my plans."

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Image: Berthold Werner | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Lauffeld: Why the armies were here

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Demeester, CC BY-SA 3.0. The War of the Austrian Succession was in its seventh year, and the Austrian Netherlands had nearly all fallen to France. Marshal Saxe, illegitimate son of the Elector of Saxony and arguably the most gifted general of his generation, had taken city after city between 1744 and 174...

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Image: Demeester | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Lauffeld: The Allied line

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas Sandby, CC0. Cumberland's army of roughly 80,000 stretched across the gentle slopes north of the Meuse with the Austrians under Batthyany on the right, holding the villages of Grote and Kleine Spouwen near modern Bilzen, protected by a steep ravine. The Dutch States Army under Prince Waldeck ...

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Image: Thomas Sandby | CC0

Battle of Lauffeld: The village changes hands

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Paul Hermans, CC BY-SA 3.0. Around 10:30, Saxe - reading the abandoned villages as evidence that Cumberland was retreating across the Meuse - sent his infantry forward to occupy them. Vlytingen was indeed empty. Lauffeld, however, had been reoccupied by Frederick of Hesse-Kassel's troops just in time. Over ...

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Image: Paul Hermans | CC BY-SA 3.0

Battle of Lauffeld: Ligonier's two charges

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Traveler100, CC BY-SA 4.0. Roughly 150 squadrons of French cavalry were assembling around the village of Wilre to roll up Cumberland's exposed flank. Ligonier, with 60 squadrons, charged them first. It was one of the most celebrated cavalry actions in British military history; Saxe later said only that cha...

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Image: Traveler100 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Battle of Lauffeld: Stupid as the peace

Sat, 16 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Jean Housen, CC BY 3.0. Total casualties for the day ran somewhere between 5,000 and 11,000 on each side. Saxe, as so often, could not exploit the victory; his critics whispered that he was prolonging the war for his own glory. The French did capture Bergen op Zoom that September and Maastricht the foll...

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Image: Jean Housen | CC BY 3.0