Malplaquet 1709 | 18th Century Europe's Bloodiest Battle

With France at the breaking point, and two of history's greatest generals on its doorstep, who and what will save it?

Music from:

Ben Hayden
Filmstro

Visit my Discord for video previews and updates!

References/Sources:

Falkner, James Great and Glorious Days: The Duke of Marlborough’s Battles 1704-1709
1 Jan 2003 Spellmount Publishers

Morris J. Graham The Battle of Malplaquet Battlefield Anomalies

Nicholas Dorrell, 19 April 2015: Marlborough’s Other Army The British Army and the Campaigns of the First Peninsular War, 1702–1712, Helion and Company

MacDowall, Simon Malplaquet 1709: Marlborough’s Bloodiest Battle
2020 Osprey Publishing Ltd.

Sturgill, Claude C, 1965, Marshall Villars and the War of the Spanish Succession
University of Kentucky Press

Kronoskaf, Project WSS Battle of La Gudina

00:00 Intro

00:47 Strategic Situation

06:44 La Gudina

09:13 The Armies Prepare

11:23 Bois de Sars Attack

17:39 Dutch Attack

20:23 Counterattack Halted

23:00 Cavalry Battle

26:01 Results

[josesevilla]

Inexplicably, the Franco-Spanish victory in the battle of La Gudiña or the Caia River (May 1709), on the Badajoz border with Portugal, is practically unknown or very little valued for its strategic consequences in Spain. Thanks for giving it the spotlight it deserves.

[autokrator_]

“However, they were tired - for unknown reasons - after not even being shot at once.” Haha, love the contempt dripping through that sentence.

[kolerick]

I like the parallel/reflection with the Antique king Pyrrhus saying "another such victory will see us undone" and this from Claude de Villars "another such defeat will see our enemies undone" (paraphrasing)

[Raadpensionaris]

Fun fact. While Tilly was de facto the highest Dutch commander after Overkirk died, he wasn't officialy promoted. This was because the Dutch provinces of Frisia and Groningen rather saw their Stadtholder, the Prince of Orange, in that position. The fact that the Dutch Republic wasn't a unified state made for these kind of messy politics

[thibaudduhamel]

A little known effect of this battle is that a rumor spread in the french army that the duke of Marlborough died at Malplaquet. Although it proved false, it was enough to raise the morale of the troops and civilians alike.
Nowadays, this event is commemorated in France with the children’s song « Marlborough s’en va t’en guerre » (Marlborough went to war)

[blitzcrieg]

Find it interesting how this and the Battle of Poltava happened almost simultaneously. 1709 changed the world as we know it.

[yc]

French and English have a common chant about this battle. The one of the English is a very popular folk song. The one of the French is this one :
Malborough s'en va-t-en guerre mironton mironta mirontaine...
Malbourough s'en va-t-en guerre,
Ne sait quand reviendra (x3)

Which means, Malborough is going to war, don't know when he'll came back !

Effectively, he never got back !

Cheers friends !

[deteon]

It's always exciting to learn about a war of which I know next to nothing in great detail. The quality of the script, audio and animation gets better for every video you make!

Fantastic! 👍🏻

[hocestbellumchannel]

The brighful -beautiful uniforms and the drums almost make you think that were put in to counteract the absolute horridness and brutality of 18th-century warfare.

The carnage must have been unimaginable.

[ashercroy]

Absolutely phenomenal! I watched every second intensely. You are able to portray these battles as the accurate and desperate struggles that they were. The only downside is that now we have to wait until the next video!

[DanNikon]

Amazing video, you are certainly perfecting your craft and niche. I don't think I've seen the Spanish War of Succession covered so well.

[jtcouch]

The scholarship behind this series of videos is exemplary. Well done!

[bofoenss]

Excellent video! It is interesting to see how Marlborough used the same tactic as at Blenheim - attacking the flanks to weaken the French center leaving it open for attack - yet the quality of the French troops proved so good it almost failed here where it had succeeded at Blenheim. It speaks to the quality and dedicated work of raising the morale and quality of the French Army.
Interestingly enough, Napoleon would use the exact same tactic at Waterloo in 1815, only for it to fail like here, and then the overall tactic got lost in the chaos of the latter part of the battle.

[hgramofficial]

Absolutely fantastic content, it doesn't seem that any other YouTuber has done this on this war!

[XDspacemanJD]

I've been waiting for this one. Very much the 18th Century Borodino. Good work Field Marshal. 😁

[mario_]

I just love the clothee of this era. They looked so much better those days.

[nicolasvanhorton]

I have just discovered your channel and I thank you for telling these battles which seem little known to the general public.

[illinoismotionpicturestudi]

“Hey this is very similar to that one YouTube series that has cool animated maps and discussed the American Civil War, I think it was called WarHaw-“

In all seriousness this was an excellent video man, loved seeing the sneak previews for this in the discord server

[Adonnus]

Great documentary on a massive and underappreciated battle.

[siggevibes]

What a battle, it must have been both truly horrifyingly glorious and terribly grand 😨