Battle of Arras (1654)

Coordinates: 50°17′23″N 2°46′51″E / 50.2897°N 2.7808°E / 50.2897; 2.7808
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Battle of Arras
Part of the
Arras (present-day France
)
Result French victory
Belligerents  France  SpainCommanders and leaders
Vicomte de Turenne
Kingdom of France Duc de La Ferté
Kingdom of France Marquis d'Hocquincourt
Prince de Condé
Strength

20,000-25,000

25,000[2]
63 gunsCasualties and losses 300-1,000 killed and wounded[3][1] 2,000 killed or wounded[1]
5,000 captured[1]
63 guns
9,000 horses
2,000 wagons
6,000 tents

The Battle of

Prince de Condé
.

The place, held by a French garrison, was besieged by the Spaniards under the Great Condé. A relief army under Turenne, d'Hocquincourt and de la Ferté attacked the Spanish lines and totally routed them with a loss of at least 7,000 men.[1] Condé succeeded in rallying the remainder of his army and made a masterful retreat to Cambrai.

Before the battle, Turenne risked exposing himself and his officers in order to reconnoitre the Spanish lines. He was criticised for taking such risks by some of his officers, but the

King James II of England, later observed that these officers realised their error after they realised that Turenne had worked out where to attack during these reconnaissances. Turenne attacked at night, two hours before daybreak on 25 August. D'Hocquincourt attacked the troops from Lorraine, Turenne attacked the Spanish and provided support for de la Ferté, whose attack was less successful. In the morning Condé counter-attacked, falling on French troops who were pillaging the former Spanish camp. De la Ferté panicked and abandoned some high ground. Turenne rode up and placed some cannon on the high ground, forcing Condé to retreat. [4] The young Louis XIV visited the battlefield and saw the disparity between the numbers of French and Spanish dead.[5]
This was Louis XIV's first victory against a foreign army.

Cyrano de Bergerac, who is the subject of the classic French play Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
, participated in a siege of Arras in 1640, and not the battle of 1654.

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e Bodart 1908, p. 82.
  2. ^ Jervis 1998, p. 368.
  3. ^ Cockayne 1853, p. 65.
  4. ^ Histoire des princes de Condé pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Volume 6 (Calmann Lévy, 1892) pp. 411.
  5. ^ Général Maxime Weygand - Turenne (Flammarion, 1929) pp. 76-8.

Bibliography

  • d'Orleans Aumale, H. (1892). Histoire des princes de Condé pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Volume 6.
  • Bodart, G. (1908). Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905).
  • Chandler, David G. (1965). A Traveller's Guide to the Battlefields of Europe: Western Europe.
  • Jervis, William Henley (1998). A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Second Empire in 1870. J. Murray.
    ISBN 978-1502884633
    .
  • Cockayne, Thomas Oswald (1853). The Life of Marshal Turenne. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans.

50°17′23″N 2°46′51″E / 50.2897°N 2.7808°E / 50.2897; 2.7808

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