The Lines of Brabant

Summer 1705

Background

Louis XIV's strategy of taking control of central-Europe by placing the elector of Bavaria on the imperial throne had suffered an almost irreversible setback in the battle of Blenheim. Of the 150,000 or so French and Bavarian soldiers that had crossed into Germany only about 10% returned, and the myth of the invincibility of French arms had been dispelled. Troops of the Grand Alliance crossed the Rhine and took Landau, Trier and Traarbach. In the same year an Anglo-Dutch fleet captured Gibraltar and took over control of the Mediterranean. Thus all allied positions except those in Hungary and Italy were secure.

Marlborough hoped that in spring 1705 he would be able to march on Paris from the Mosel in the direction of Lorraine, but was disappointed in his initial attempts and by the commander of Trier unexpectedly abandoning his positions thus preventing any further attempts. Marlborough then decided to take action in the Low Countries. As goal of the campaign he chose to force the Lines of Brabant. A line of strong-points, palisades and trenches running from Antwerp to Namur. Such Lines were not manned but could easily be defended by an army that would have the superior terrain in such a case. Forcing the Lines of Brabant would break te status quo in the low countries and thus turn the campaign of 1705 into success.

Participants:

The Allied army under the command of Marlborough consisted of 92 battalions and 160 squadrons, totalling about 70,000 men. Furthermore there were in the English contingent General Chuchill, brother of Marlborough, and in the Dutch contingent as most important Marshall Ouwerkerk (mostly referred to as Overkirk in English), and General Slangenburgh as well as the Field Deputies of the General States. For the better part of the campaign Marlborough let the allied army be divided in the army that had been in the Low Countries and the army he had brought back from the Mosel. These are referred to here as the Dutch and the English army. This makes it understandable that the Officer Count Noyelles who was in Dutch service operated under Marlborough, and not under Ouwerkerk.

The French army was under the command of Villeroy and had 100 battalions and 147 squadrons, totalling about 73,000 men.

The opening of the campaign:

Forcing the Lines of Brabant was of course not a simple matter of approaching the lines and then attacking them. Such a strategy would lead to heavy casualties, because the defending army would almost certainly defend in about equal numbers and thus have a big advantage in position. Any sensible strategy would thus be directed on outmaneuvering the defenders and crossing on a point and time where the lines were undefended. This schematic map shows how this was achieved.

Marlborough opened the campaign by marching the allied armies to the sector of the lines between Mehaigne river and the Meuse near Namur. In this sector the Mehaigne river from the point where it crossed the lines ran some ten kilometres to the east and then turned south towards the Meuse. Attacking in this sector therefore meant crossing this river.

In the early morning the Dutch army commanded by Ouwerkerk crossed the Mehaigne and marched south, even spreading his advanced units to the beginning of the Lines were of course many French troops were present. The French command concluded that the 'English' army would cross the Mehaigne during the night and that the whole allied army would attack on the 18th, and therefore concentrated 40,000 men on the lines running through Merdorp.

The Counter-march:

But the allied armies took a different course. Already at 19:00 PM Count Noyelles had started a counter-march towards St. Trond with 27 Battalions and 38 Squadrons accompanied by Engineers. Marlborough joined this march at 22:00 PM, and Ouwerkerk after nightfall.

The Crossing:

From 4:00 AM onwards the troops of Noyelles crossed the lines on three points: at Orsmael, Wangé and Elixem, surprising the French outposts and turning them to flight, some of them fleeing into the fortress of Léau just north of the crossing. The Allied cavalry then formed a line between the Lines of Brabant they had just crossed and Tienen. The French reacted rather slowly. Lt-General viscount D'Alègre was not informed promptly of the crossing, but ordered 33 squadrons of Bavarians, Spaniards, Colognes and French as well as 11 battalions commanded by Caraman to prepare a counterattack. The little map shows the crossing and the deployment on the other side in Orange. The subsequent attack on the French is shown in black arrows.

The battle near Tienen:

At about 7:00 AM the French forces were deployed in two lines of cavalry with Caraman's infantry about two kilometres behind it. Marlborough, who had just arrived on the scene personally led a charge by the first line of English cavalry that turned the enemy cavalry back to the southernmost of the two hollow roads that crossed the battlefield.

Now the second line of Allied cavalry arrived, and a second, combined charge was made against the enemy cavalry which made it flee the battlefield. Caraman with his infantry then had no choice but tot retreat and this he accomplished in good order.

At about 10:00 AM Ouwerkerk's forces had also crossed the lines, but these were tired by prolonged marches and just had to bivouac. Perhaps the allies could have exploited their success by marching on Louvain, but this was not done, probably due to the lack of intelligence on Villeroy's movements.

The Consequences of crossing the Lines:

The crossing of the Lines of Brabant had broken the stalemate in the Low Countries. The French evacuated Aerschot and Diest, the fortress Léau was soon captured, and the garrison of Tienen surrendered unconditionally. In addition to this the French lost about 5,000 men, and the lt-Generals count D'Alègre and count Horn were captured.

Most important however was that the initiative on the traditionally most important battlefield of Europe had passed to the allies.

The unfought battle on the river IJsche August 1705:

After the initial success Marlborough intended to crown the campaign by destroying the French army. In order to achieve this goal he intended to penetrate deep into enemy territory (for which he ordered supplies) and commandeered a siege train from Liege

First the allied army marched to Corbeek, then to Genappe, and then turned north, passing Waterloo on the road to Brussel, seemingly threatening Brussel, but also (later) secretly marching into the Soignies forest to attack the right flank of the French main force. This was a very unconventional manoeuvre, because it exposed his communications with Liege

The French were concentrated between Brussel and Louvain and reacted by sending Grimaldi with 18 Btns. and 12 Sqdrs. to guard the Brussel road, as well as laying a strong garrison in Louvain. Marlborough had however ordered his brother General Churchill with 20 Btns. and 20 Sqdrs. to march on Groenendal effectively cutting off Grimaldi and in a position to envelop the French right flank or even attack in it's back. The armies facing each other then numbered 100 Btns. and 162 Sqdrs. on the allied side, and on the French side 76 Btns. and 127 Sqdrs. (including Grimaldi). It looked as if all was set up perfectly for a victorious battle.

But then the Dutch decided to hold a council of war, although their commander Ouwerkerk was in agreement with Marlbororough to attack as soon as possible. In this council of war held by the Dutch generals and deputies General Slangenburgh did everything to prevent an attack, and because it could not come to an agreement and held council till far in the afternoon, no attack was made. The whole affair ended with the allied armies marching back to their starting positions

As a consequence of this lost opportunity it became clear to Marlborough and perhaps also the States General, that it was impossible to wage war if the army was led like this. A popular movement pressed to change the army command, Slangenburgh fell 'sick' and retired to Maastricht, never to return to the army. The States General took measures to reinforce the authority of Field Marshal Ouwerkerk.