Battle of Neerwinden (1693): The French Victory at Landen Explained

The Cannonade Begins The Battle of Neerwinden began on the morning of 29 July 1693 with one of the most violent artillery exchanges of the war. The Allied guns held the advantage at first, firing from prepared positions against dense French formations advancing across open ground. The French centre was particularly exposed. Luxembourg had arranged his troops in tightly packed lines, and the Allied artillery tore into them as they moved forward. One French observer compared the cannonade to fighting at sea — so continuous and intense was the thunder of the guns. The bombardment was already causing heavy casualties before the main assaults began. Count Solms, a senior Allied infantry commander, was mortally wounded during this opening phase. But the French army did not stop. Luxembourg’s plan depended on pressure: attacks in several sectors, repeated until the Allied line could no longer shift troops quickly enough to reinforce the point of danger. The First Assault on Laar and Neerwinden Between eight and nine in the morning, the first major French attack struck the Allied right. Twenty-eight French battalions advanced in several columns toward Laar and Neerwinden. Among the officers leading the assault was James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick, a future marshal of France and the illegitimate son of James II of England. Laar fell relatively quickly. Neerwinden was another matter. The village had been turned into a fortress of walls, hedges, gardens, houses, and barricades. Every lane became a firing position. Every building had to be taken separately. French soldiers forced their way forward, but the defenders refused to collapse. Berwick’s troops reached the edge of the village, while the French units on either side struggled to keep pace. Their attack began to lose its shape. The situation became even more dangerous when French cavalry, having captured Laar, crossed the Laar Brook and attacked Spanish cavalry on the Allied flank. The Spanish were driven back at first, but then counterattacked and forced the French horse across the stream again. The fight around the villages was turning into a savage contest of short advances and sudden reverses. William reacted quickly. He sent English battalions from the centre toward Neerwinden, and Maximilian of Bavaria led a counterattack against the exposed French formations. The Allied assault drove the French out of the village. Laar was also retaken. Berwick was captured, and the French commander Montchevreuil was killed. The first French attack had failed. But it had achieved one important result: it had shown Luxembourg exactly where the Allied line was strongest — and where it might still be broken. Attacks Across the Front While the battle raged around Neerwinden, Luxembourg ordered supporting attacks against the Allied centre and left. These assaults were not intended to achieve an immediate breakthrough. Their purpose was to keep William’s troops in place and prevent them from reinforcing the right. French troops attacked Rumsdorp and Neerlanden. Rumsdorp fell, but the entrenched line behind it held. At Neerlanden, French dragoons fought their way into the village twice and were thrown out twice. Allied artillery switched to canister — metal balls and fragments fired at close range — and inflicted terrible losses on the French infantry in the narrow streets. The attacks were costly, but they were not pointless. Every battalion William sent toward Neerwinden was a battalion no longer available elsewhere. Every French assault forced the Allies to reveal their reserves. Luxembourg now prepared a second blow. The Second Assault Near midday, the French regrouped and attacked Laar and Neerwinden again. The pattern repeated itself. Laar was captured first, while Neerwinden resisted behind its walls and hedges. French troops penetrated slowly into the village, but the Allied defenders — including English Guards, Scottish Guards, and Dutch units — held on with extraordinary stubbornness. William once again rode toward the crisis and brought English battalions from the centre. He personally led the counterattack that forced the French back from most of Neerwinden. Laar was recovered as well. The villages had now changed hands repeatedly. Their streets were clogged with dead and wounded. The defensive works were broken, repaired, and broken again. Officers were falling at a rate that shocked even armies accustomed to terrible losses. Luxembourg’s subordinates advised him to stop. His infantry had suffered heavily, the Allied artillery remained dangerous, and the French attacks had twice been repulsed. But Luxembourg still possessed a powerful reserve, including elite troops of the Maison du Roi, and his cavalry remained largely intact. He decided to attack for a third time. The Third Assault This time, Luxembourg drew troops from other parts of the field and concentrated them against the Allied right. The French would attack with their full available strength, while the pressure continued elsewhere to prevent William from pulling back units in good order. The assault began with renewed fury. Laar and Neerwinden finally fell. The defenders had been weakened by hours of fighting, and many Allied units were running low on ammunition. French troops pushed through the villages and reached the Allied entrenchments. The fighting now became a struggle for the entire defensive line. French cavalry of the Maison du Roi charged Hanoverian cavalry but was checked by Dutch infantry. The Dutch then came under attack from French and Swiss Guards and were forced back. As the Allied formations shifted to meet the pressure, gaps began to appear in the line. At the same time, French forces moving from Rumsdorp found that the centre was dangerously thin. The French seized the opportunity. Infantry crossed through the weakened sector and began forming cavalry on the far side of the Allied entrenchments. The Allied guns, threatened with capture, finally withdrew. At approximately three in the afternoon, the French broke through. The Retreat to the Gete An hour later, William ordered the Allied army to retreat across the Gete. The withdrawal was extremely dangerous. Much of the Allied artillery had been placed inside earthworks and could not be removed quickly. Dozens of guns were abandoned. The French cavalry now surged through the breach. More than a hundred squadrons crowded into the space behind the Allied line, and the retreat threatened to become a complete collapse. Maximilian’s German and Spanish troops were overwhelmed as they attempted to cross the river. Some cavalrymen drowned in the confusion. William refused to let the army disintegrate. He personally led repeated cavalry charges against the French, buying time for the retreating infantry to reach the crossings. At one point he was nearly captured. His rearguard fought desperately around the bridges, holding back the French long enough for the main army to escape. The Allied left under Henry Casimir withdrew in better order. Dutch and Danish troops fought their way through French attacks over several kilometres before reaching the river. A small group of isolated Dutch and Danish battalions conducted a stubborn rearguard action near Rumsdorp and eventually crossed safely. By around five in the afternoon, most of the Allied army had reached the far side of the Gete. The battle was a French victory, but William’s rearguard action had prevented it from becoming a catastrophe on the scale Luxembourg had hoped for. The French held the field. The Allies had lost their guns. But the army itself had survived. National Army Museum — “Nine Years’ War. Wikipedia — “Battle of Neerwinden. Wikipedia — “Battle of Landen. Belgium Battlefield — “First Battle of Neerwinden, 1693.” De vergeten veldslagen van de lage landen Mart de Kruif, Théon Minten, Tom de Kruif (book)

William Chooses to Stand The first turning point came before the battle began. William had been caught in a dangerous position, with the Little Gete behind him and the French approaching in superior numbers. A night retreat might have saved the army from battle, but the movement would have been difficult to organize and vulnerable to French cavalry. William chose to remain and fortify the villages. That decision gave the Allies a strong defensive position — but it also placed their only reliable line of retreat behind the right flank. If Neerwinden and Laar fell, the entire Allied army would be forced toward a narrow series of crossings. The Villages Hold The second turning point was the failure of the first two French attacks. Neerwinden and Laar were not taken easily. The Allied defenders used walls, hedges, houses, and prepared earthworks to turn the villages into killing grounds. William’s personal intervention repeatedly restored the line. These failed assaults cost the French thousands of men and gave the Allies time to counterattack. But they also fixed the battle in place. Luxembourg kept the Allied army focused on the right while his troops elsewhere maintained enough pressure to prevent large-scale reinforcement. The villages saved the Allied army — until they no longer could. Luxembourg Refuses to Stop The third turning point was Luxembourg’s decision to launch a third assault after two costly failures. Many commanders would have broken off the attack. Luxembourg recognized that the French still possessed fresh reserves and that the Allied defenders were becoming exhausted. He concentrated additional troops against the right and attacked again with overwhelming force. The French did not win because the first assault succeeded. They won because Luxembourg was willing to keep attacking after it had failed. The Cavalry Breakthrough The decisive moment came when the French broke through the Allied entrenchments after Neerwinden and Laar finally fell. French cavalry poured through the gap and formed behind the Allied line. The Allied army was now caught while attempting to change position. French horsemen struck the exposed columns, scattering them before they could reform. The entire battle suddenly changed character: what had been an infantry struggle around fortified villages became a desperate cavalry battle behind the defensive line. National Army Museum — “Nine Years’ War. Wikipedia — “Battle of Neerwinden. Wikipedia — “Battle of Landen. Belgium Battlefield — “First Battle of Neerwinden, 1693.” De vergeten veldslagen van de lage landen Mart de Kruif, Théon Minten, Tom de Kruif (book) The breakthrough did not destroy William’s army only because the king personally organized the retreat and led repeated countercharges. Victory Without Annihilation The final turning point came after the French victory. Luxembourg had forced the Allies from the field and captured most of their artillery, but exhaustion prevented a full pursuit. The French army had paid an enormous price for its success, and its soldiers were too battered to turn the retreat into total destruction. Neerwinden was therefore a great tactical victory, but not the decisive strategic victory Louis XIV wanted. William had lost the battlefield, yet he had saved the army — and an intact army could fight again.

The Cost of Victory The French victory at Neerwinden was one of the bloodiest battles of the Nine Years’ War. The French army had entered the battle with roughly 70,000–80,000 troops and 70 guns, while the Allied army — made up of Dutch, English, German, and Spanish troops — numbered around 50,000–60,000 men with 80–100 guns. The Allies suffered approximately 12,000–20,000 killed, wounded, and captured, as well as losing most of their artillery. French losses were also severe, with around 12,000–15,000 men killed or wounded. The result was therefore sometimes described as a Pyrrhic victory: a victory so costly that it weakened the army that won it almost as severely as the army that lost. The French had captured the Allied position and driven William’s army from the field, but Luxembourg’s troops had paid an enormous price for the success. A Victory That Could Not End the War Louis XIV had hoped that a major victory would split the Grand Alliance and force William to negotiate. Neerwinden did nothing of the sort. William quickly replaced his losses, and the Allied army remained capable of defending the Spanish Netherlands. Luxembourg’s army was too exhausted to exploit the victory by marching on Brussels or Liège. The French had won the battlefield, but they had not destroyed the Allied army or forced the coalition out of the war. The military situation therefore remained unresolved in the years that followed. Neerwinden had defeated William’s army, yet it had not removed William from the war or opened the road to the Dutch Republic. The Road to Charleroi Instead of advancing on Brussels or Liège, Luxembourg and Louis XIV settled for a more limited objective. The French army moved against Charleroi, a strategically useful fortress in the Spanish Netherlands. Its Spanish garrison resisted for more than a month before surrendering on 13 October 1693. It was a respectable gain, but not the collapse of the Grand Alliance that Louis XIV had wanted. Neerwinden had been a major French victory, but its price had been so high that France could not turn it into the decisive breakthrough Louis desired. William’s Answer William understood the lesson immediately. The Allied armies were too small to protect every fortress and frontier at once, especially against France’s enormous forces. In the following years, England and the Dutch Republic increased their military commitment in the Low Countries. The response was gradual, but effective. In 1694 the Allies recovered Huy. In 1695 William captured Namur, the fortress that Louis XIV had taken three years earlier and strengthened under the direction of Sébastien de Vauban. The recovery of Namur became William’s greatest triumph of the war. Neerwinden had shown the Allies how dangerous French concentration could be. It also convinced them that survival was not enough; they needed larger armies capable of taking the initiative. The Last Battle of a Great Marshal Neerwinden was the final great victory of Marshal Luxembourg. He had defeated William at Steenkerque and again at Landen, proving himself one of the most formidable field commanders of the age. But he died in January 1695, only months after the battle. His death removed one of Louis XIV’s finest commanders at the moment France most needed experienced leadership. The French would continue to fight successfully, but the war was increasingly becoming a struggle of resources rather than a contest that could be decided by a single battlefield victory. The Nine Years’ War ended with the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697. France retained some gains, but Louis XIV was forced to recognize William as the legitimate king of England and surrender several important conquests. The central issues behind the war remained unresolved, and Europe would soon be dragged into another enormous conflict over the Spanish succession. National Army Museum — “Nine Years’ War. Wikipedia — “Battle of Neerwinden. Wikipedia — “Battle of Landen. Belgium Battlefield — “First Battle of Neerwinden, 1693.” De vergeten veldslagen van de lage landen Mart de Kruif, Théon Minten, Tom de Kruif (book)

The battle of Neerwinden (1693) or the battle of Landen The Battle of Landen and the Battle of Neerwinden are two names for the same battle, fought on 29 July 1693 during the Nine Years' War. "Landen" refers to the nearby town, while "Neerwinden" is the village where most of the fighting actually happened — so historians and history books use the names interchangeably. If you've seen both floating around, you haven't stumbled onto two different events; you're looking at the same French victory over William III's Allied army. Two Battles of Neerwinden: 1693 vs 1793 Confusingly, Neerwinden hosted two major battles almost exactly a century apart. The 1693 clash between France and William III's Allied forces is the one covered here — often called the First Battle of Neerwinden to tell it apart from its sequel. In 1793, Austrian troops defeated a French Revolutionary army on almost the same ground, in what's now known as the Second Battle of Neerwinden. Same village, same name, completely different war. William III Narrowly Escapes Capture at Neerwinden In the chaos of the retreat, French troops came within reach of capturing William III outright. He got away, but just barely — and it easily could have gone the other way. Nanden was already a French victory; if William had been taken prisoner too, the shockwaves across European politics could have been massive. Wikipedia — Battle of Landen. Wikipedia — Battle of Neerwinden . Wikiwand - Battle of Landen Wikpedia - Slag bij Neerwinden 1793