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Malplaquet By: Hilaire Belloc (1870-1953) |
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[Illustration: Malplaquet. Frontispiece. ]
MALPLAQUET
BY
HILAIRE BELLOC
LONDON
STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD.
10 JOHN STREET, ADELPHI
1911
CONTENTS
PAGE I. THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET 9 II. THE SIEGE OF TOURNAI 27 III. THE MANOEUVRING FOR POSITION 45 IV. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE 52 V. THE ACTION 65
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE Sketch Map showing how the Lines of La Bassée
blocked the advance of the Allies on Paris,
and Marlborough's plan for turning them by
the successive capture of Tournai and Mons 19 Sketch Map showing how the Allies, holding
Lille, thrust the French back on to the
defensive line St Venant Valenciennes, and
thus cut off the French garrisons of Ypres,
Tournai, and Mons 28 Sketch Map showing complete investment of
Tournai 34 Sketch Map showing the lines of woods behind
Mons, with the two gaps of Boussu and Aulnois 48 The Elements of the Action of Malplaquet,
September 11th, 1709 66 Sketch Map showing the peril the French centre
ran towards noon of being turned on its left 79 Sketch Map showing Marlborough bringing up
troops to the centre for the final and
successful attack upon the entrenchments 84
MALPLAQUET
I THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET
That political significance which we must seek in all military history,
and without which that history cannot be accurate even upon its technical
side, may be stated for the battle of Malplaquet in the following terms. Louis XIV. succeeding to a cautious and constructive period in the
national life of France, this in its turn succeeding to the long impotence
of the religious wars, found at his orders when his long minority was
ended a society not only eager and united, but beginning also to give
forth the fruit due to three active generations of discussion and combat. Every department of the national life manifested an extreme vitality, and,
while the orderly and therefore convincing scheme of French culture
imposed itself upon Western Europe, there followed in its wake the triumph
of French arms; the king in that triumph nearly perfected a realm which
would have had for its limits those of ancient Gaul. It would be too long a matter to describe, even in general terms, the
major issues depending upon Louis XIV.'s national ambitions and their
success or failure. In one aspect he stands for the maintenance of Catholic civilisation
against the Separatist and dissolving forces of the Protestant North; in
another he is the permanent antagonist of the Holy Roman Empire, or rather
of the House of Austria, which had attained to a permanent hegemony
therein. An extravagant judgment conceives his great successes as a menace
to the corporate independence of Europe, or upon the other view as the
opportunity for the founding of a real European unity. But all these general considerations may, for the purposes of military
history, be regarded in the single light of the final and decisive action
which Louis XIV. took when he determined in the year 1701 to support the
claims of his young grandson to the throne of Spain. This it was which
excited against him a universal coalition, and acts following upon that
main decision drew into the coalition the deciding factor of Great
Britain. The supremacy of French arms had endured in Europe for forty years when
the Spanish policy was decided on. Louis was growing old. That financial
exhaustion which almost invariably follows a generation of high national
activity, and which is almost invariably masked by pompous outward state,
was a reality already present though as yet undiscovered in the condition
of France... Continue reading book >>
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