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Ramillies (1706)
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The Battle of
Ramillies was fought under the command of the Duke of Marlbourgh during
the War of the Spanish Succession.
He
led his Army of 60.000 British, Dutch and Danish Troops against Villeroy's
slightly larger army of French, Spanish and Bavarians. The two armies met
on the great plain of Flanders, the plain of Waterloo and Mons, and the
focus of their meeting was Ramillies. It was on Whit Sunday, May 23rd
1706, that Marlbourgh's Army marched to battle through a dark night of fog
and rain. At ten in the morning, when they had been marching for six
hours, the mist cleared away, and the advance party halted on rising
ground and saw spread before them the whole of Villeroy's army in battle
order.
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| Marlbourgh
began with a feint, advancing the British foot on his extreme right
against the French left wing. The feint was effective, for Villeroy drew
off many units from other parts of his line to reinforce his left. The
British foot were then withdrawn carefully behind some high ground, and
returned to the centre, out of sight of the enemy. The first phase of the
battle was fought by the cavalry, charging and counter-charging. During
this Marlbourgh was nearly captured. Whist this was taking place the
Infantry fought a long battle at Ramillees itself.
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It was a strongly
defended position on high ground, and the access was steep and broken,
except on one side, where a long, gradual slope gave the defenders a
perfect field of fire. The Infantry fought their way up this slope in
spite of heavy casualties, fought their way into Ramillies itself, and
finally, after furious hand-to-hand fighting, drove the French out. After
this action the Infantry took part in the pursuit, they marched far into
the night, slept for an hour or two by their arms, and at three in the
morning they were on the move again., they overtook broken enemy units and
stragglers extracting the last ounce from their victory. This became the
Regiments first Battle honour.
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