Editing Battle of Malplaquet (section)

==Battle==
[[File:Nederlandse troepen tijdens de Slag bij Malplaquet (cropped).jpg|upright=1.1|thumb|left|Dutch troops at Malplaquet led by the [[John William Friso|Prince of Orange]], by [[Charles Rochussen]].]]

At 07:00 on 11 September, the battle opened with an allied artillery bombardment. This ended at 08:30, when their right wing, led by [[Count Albrecht Konrad Finck von Finckenstein|Count Finckenstein]], [[Carl Philipp, Reichsgraf von Wylich und Lottum|Lottum]] and [[Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg|Schulenburg]], assaulted French troops based in Sars Wood. During three hours of fighting, both sides suffered many losses, while Prince Eugene was slightly wounded but refused to leave the field. Around 09:00, Dutch infantry under [[François Nicolas Fagel]], moved against the French right with 13 battalions, including Swiss mercenaries and the [[Scots Brigade]]. When their initial attack was repulsed, the Prince of Orange and [[Sicco van Goslinga]] sent another 17 battalions to support Fagel by attacking French positions around Blairon Farm.{{sfn|De Graaf|2021|pp=159–174}}{{sfn|Van Nimwegen|2020|pp=314–315}}

Although Blairon Farm was captured, there were over 5,000 Dutch casualties, including many senior officers.{{Sfn|Chandler|1996|p=294}} Despite breaching the defensive line in several places, French reinforcements forced the Dutch back to their original positions, covered by their cavalry. Boufflers, in command of the French right, had over 60 battalions at his disposal, but made no attempt to launch a counterattack, a decision which has been criticised. A pause of approximately an hour and a half occurred on this flank, action being limited to musket and artillery fire, with severe losses inflicted on the badly positioned elite {{lang|fr|[[Maison militaire du roi de France|Maison du Roi]]}} cavalry.{{Sfn|Wijn|1959|p=531–533}}

Pressure from Prince Eugene forced Villars to keep moving troops from the centre to prevent the collapse of his left wing. Withers and the detachment from Tournai arrived too late to support the Dutch, and were instructed instead to make a flanking move north of the French lines in Sars Wood. This manoeuvre took over two hours to complete, by which time the fighting had largely ended, but their approach forced Villars to reinforce his left with another twelve battalions.{{sfn|Lynn|1999|p=333}} By midday, this left nine French battalions and sixty cavalry squadrons in the centre, facing twenty-three and eighty respectively.{{sfn|Chandler|Beckett|1996|p=84}} In the early afternoon, Villars was badly wounded, and transferred command to Boufflers, with Puységur taking over the left.{{Sfn|Holmes|2008|p=431}}

[[File:Battle of Malplaquet, 11 September 1709.png|thumb|upright=1.0|''Battle of Maplaquet'' by [[Louis Laguerre]]; allied troops enter the French positions]]

Despite their losses, the Dutch assaults prevented the French right reinforcing their centre. This was now over-run by Orkney's infantry, while the Prince of Orange led another assault against the French right. The Dutch cavalry under [[Frederik Sirtema van Grovestins|Grovestins]] broke into the French rear, before being attacked by the Maison du Roi cavalry under Boufflers.{{efn|According to Quincy, [[James Francis Edward Stuart]], under the pseudonym Chevalier de St. George, rode with the {{lang|fr|Maison du Roi}} as a volunteer during this charge.{{Sfn|Sevin de Quincy|1726|pp=197, 202}}}} Superior numbers forced the Allied cavalry back, before the French in turn were repulsed by Orkney's infantry. The allies advanced once again, and engaged the French in what was the largest cavalry action of the 18th century.{{sfn|De Graaf|2021|pp=173–174}}{{Sfn|Wijn|1959|p=544}} As this unfolded, the French left finally started to crumble under pressure from Withers and Schulenburg.{{Sfn|Holmes|2008|p=433}}

Puységur now ordered his troops to withdraw. Meanwhile, the Dutch infantry, after initially making some progress, had once again been repulsed. It was only when Grovestins’ cavalry threatened the French rear that they were finally forced to abandon their entrenchments.{{Sfn|Wijn|1959|p=537}}{{efn|[[Sicco van Goslinga]] about the Dutch casualties: "Yesterday, the princes and generals saw [...] with horror how our men lay against the field fortifications and entrenchments, still in the rank orders as they had fallen. Our infantry is dilapidated and ruined [...] Tilly will draw up a list [of the dead and wounded] in accordance with the advice of the generals and colonels. [...] It does not suit us to jeopardise our Republic so many times [...], but the good Lord has preserved it, at the cost of a river of blood shed by the bravest people in the world."{{sfn|De Graaf|2021|p=184}}}} At 15:00, when Boufflers realized that his cavalry was unable to resist for much longer, he ordered a general retreat towards [[Le Quesnoy]], some {{cvt|25|km}} away, with the allies too exhausted to pursue.{{sfn|Penant|2019|p=222}}{{sfn|Dee|2024|p=213}}{{Sfn|Holmes|2008|p=433}}