The contemporary military history of Europe included, first, the war
between France and Spain, 1654-59, usually called the Spanish Fronde, of
which the most notable incident was the great battle of the Dunes fought
on the 14th of June 1658 between the French and English under Turenne
and the Spaniards under Conde, in which a contingent of Cromwell's
soldiers bore a conspicuous part. About the same time a war was fought
in northern Europe (1655-60), celebrated chiefly for the three days'
battle of Warsaw (28th, 29th, 30th July 1656), and the successful
invasion of Denmark by the Swedes, carried out from island to island
over the frozen sea (February 1658), and culminating in a long siege of
Copenhagen (1658-59). Between the second and third wars of England and
the United Provinces came the short War of Devolution (1667-68)--a war
of sieges in the Low Countries in which the French were commanded
chiefly by Turenne. In 1668 the French under Conde made a rapid conquest
of Franche-Comte. This was, however, given up at the peace. The war of
1672-78, the first of the three great wars of Louis XIV., was fought on
a grander scale.
_Invasion of Holland, 1672._--The diplomacy of Louis had, before the
outbreak of war, deprived Holland of her allies--England (treaty of
Dover, 1670), Sweden (treaty of Stockholm, 1672) and the emperor, and
when he declared war on the United Provinces in March 1672, it seemed
that the Dutch could offer little resistance. The French army under
Louis in person started from Charleroi and marched down the Meuse
unopposed. The powerful Dutch fortress of Maastricht was masked, and the
French then moved towards Dusseldorf. In the electorate of Cologne they
were in friendly country, and the main army soon moved down the Rhine
from Dusseldorf, the corps of Turenne on the left bank, that of Conde on
the right. At the same time a corps under Marshal Luxemburg, composed of
Louis' German allies (Cologne and Munster) moved from Westphalia towards
Over-Yssel and Groningen. The Rhine fortresses offered but little
resistance to the advance of Turenne and Conde. William of Orange with a
weak field army tried to defend the Yssel-Rhine line, but the French
rapidly forced the passage of the Rhine at Tollhuis (June 12th) and
passed into the Betuwe (between the Leck and the Waal). Conde now
advised a cavalry raid on Amsterdam, but Louis, acting on the suggestion
of the war minister Louvois, preferred to reduce Nijmwegen, Gorinchem
and other places, before entering Utrecht province. Conde's plan was,
however, partially carried out by Count Rochefort, who with 1800
troopers captured successively Amersfoort and Naarden. His further
progress was checked at Muyden, which the Dutch garrisoned in the nick
of time, and he returned to the main army, taking Utrecht _en route_.
Louis now moved on Amsterdam, brushing aside the feeble opposition which
was offered, and it seemed that the French must achieve their object in
one short campaign. But the Dutch people were roused. The month before,
the citizens of Utrecht had refused to raze their suburban villas, and
defence of the fortifications had consequently been impossible. Now, the
dykes were cut and the sluices opened, and Amsterdam was covered by a
wide inundation, against which the invader was powerless. At the same
time the men of Zealand repulsed a French raid from Ath on Ardenburg,
and this infraction of the neutrality of the Spanish Netherlands served
but to raise up another enemy for Louis. Luxemburg too, at first
successful, was repulsed before Groningen. A revolution placed William
of Orange at the head of the government. The alliance of Brandenburg and
the Mainz electorate had already been secured, and Spain, justly fearing
for the safety of her Flemish possessions, soon joined them. The emperor
followed, and Louis was now opposed, not by one state, but by a
formidable coalition.
_War against the Coalition._--In the autumn the war spread to the Rhine.
No attempt could be made on Amsterdam until the ice should cover the
floods. Turenne was therefore despatched to Westphalia and Conde to
Alsace, while a corps of observation was formed on the Meuse to watch
the Spanish Netherlands. But the coalition had not yet developed its
full strength, and Turenne's skill checked the advance of the
Imperialists under Montecucculi and of the Brandenburgers under the
Great Elector. A war of manoeuvre on the middle Rhine ended in favour of
the French, and the allies then turned against the territories of
Cologne and Munster, while William, disappointed in his hopes of joining
forces with his friends, made a bold, but in the end unsuccessful, raid
on Charleroi (September-December 1672). The allies in Germany were now
not merely checked but driven from point to point by Turenne, who on
this occasion displayed a degree of energy rare in the military history
of the period. The troops of Cologne and Munster formed part of his
army, other friends of Louis were preparing to take the field, and after
a severe winter campaign, the elector, defeated in combat and manoeuvre,
was forced back to the Weser, and being but weakly supported by the
Imperialists, found himself compelled to make a separate peace (June
6th, 1673). Turenne then turned his attention to the Imperialists who
were assembling in Bohemia, and made ready to meet them at Wetzlar.
Meanwhile the other French armies were fully employed. Corps of
observation were formed in Roussillon and Lorraine. Conde in Holland was
to renew his efforts against the Amsterdam defences; during the winter
the demands of the war on the Rhine had reduced the French forces in the
provinces to the size of a mere army of occupation.[1] Louis' own army,
originally collected for the relief of Charleroi in December, advanced
on Maastricht, and after a brief siege, in which Vauban directed the
besiegers, captured this most important fortress (June 29th, 1673). But
this was the last success of the French armies in the campaign. Conde
made no headway against Amsterdam, and William retook Naarden (September
14th). Louis, after the capture of Maastricht led his army southwards
into Lorraine and overran the electorate of Trier. But nothing of
importance was gained, and Turenne's summer campaign was wholly
unsuccessful.
_Capture of Bonn._--From Wetzlar he moved to Aschaffenburg, Louis at the
same time keeping back, for the intended conquest of Franche-Comte, many
soldiers who would have been more usefully employed in Germany. Soon the
Imperialists advanced in earnest, greatly superior in numbers. Marching
via Eger and Nuremberg (September 3rd) on the Main, Montecucculi drew
Turenne to the valley of the Tauber; then, having persuaded the bishop
of Wurzburg to surrender the bridge of that place, he passed to the
right bank of the Main before Turenne could intervene. The Imperialists
soon arrived at Frankfort, and the French position was turned.
Montecucculi thus achieved one of the greatest objects of the 17th
century strategist, the wearing down of the enemy in repeated and
useless marches. The French retreat to the Rhine was painful and costly,
and Montecucculi then passed that river at Mainz and made for Trier.
Turenne followed, unable to do more than conform to his opponent's
movements, and took post to defend Trier and Alsace. Thereupon
Montecucculi turned northward to meet William of Orange, who evaded
Conde's weak army and marched rapidly via Venlo (22nd October) on
Coblenz. The elector of Trier, who had not forgotten the depredations of
Louis' army in the spring, followed the example of the bishop of
Wurzburg and gave a free passage at Coblenz. William and Montecucculi
joined forces in the electorate and promptly besieged Bonn. This
fortress fell on the 12th of November, and the troops of the coalition
gained possession of an unbroken line from Amsterdam to the Breisgau,
while Louis' German allies (Cologne and Munster), now isolated, had to
make peace at once. William wintered in Holland, Montecucculi in Cologne
and Julich, and the Spaniards, who had served with William, in their own
provinces of the Meuse. A century after the outbreak of the War of
Independence the Dutch and the Spaniards are thus found making war as
allies, a striking proof of the fact that all questions but those of
dynastic interests had been effectually settled by the peace of
Westphalia. Louis' allies were leaving him one by one. The German
princes and the empire itself rallied to the emperor, Denmark joined the
coalition (January 1674), the Great Elector re-entered the war, and soon
afterwards England made peace.
_1674._--In 1674 therefore Louis reluctantly evacuated those of the
United Provinces occupied by his army. He had derived a considerable
revenue from the enemy's country, and he had moreover quartered his
troops without expense. The resources of the French government were
almost intact for the coming campaign; the corps of observation in
Roussillon was continued, and its commander, Marshal Schomberg, made a
successful campaign against the Spaniards, and the war was carried even
into Sicily. Conde, in the Spanish Low Countries, opposed with inferior
forces the united army of Spaniards, Dutch and Austrians under William,
and held the Meuse from Grave to Charleroi on the Sambre. The war in
this quarter was memorable for Conde's last, and William's first,
battle, the desperate and indecisive engagement of Seneffe (August
11th), in which the two armies lost one-seventh of their strength in
killed alone. The French, however, in the course of the year lost a few
fortresses on the Meuse, including Grave and Huy. The king's part in the
campaign was, as usual, a war of sieges; an army under his personal
command overran Franche-Comte in six weeks, and Louis, aided by the
genius of Vauban, reduced Besancon in nine days. Turenne's Rhine
campaign began with an invasion of Germany, undertaken to prevent
interference with Louis in Franche-Comte. Bournonville, the imperial
commander who now replaced Montecucculi, lay in the Cologne and Trier
electorates. An army of South Germans in the Breisgau, after an
unsuccessful attempt to invade Alsace, moved northward to the Neckar
valley with the intention of uniting with Bournonville, who was moving
up the Rhine to meet them. Turenne determined to attack the southern
army under the duke of Lorraine and Count Caprara before the junction
could be effected. He crossed the Rhine at Philipsburg early in June,
and on the 16th fell upon the inferior forces of Caprara in their
entrenched position of Sinsheim. The result of the battle was a complete
victory for the French, who followed up their success by driving a
portion of Bournonville's army (on which the duke of Lorraine had
rallied his forces) from the Neckar (action of Ladenburg near
Heidelberg, July 7th). Turenne then laid waste the Palatinate, in order
that it should no longer support an army, and fell back over the Rhine,
ignoring the reproaches of the elector palatine, who vainly challenged
him to a duel. This devastation has usually been considered as a grave
stain on the character of the commander who ordered it, but Turenne's
conception of duty did not differ in this respect from that of Cromwell,
Marlborough, Wellington and the generals of the American Civil War. It
was held to be necessary and expedient, and it was accordingly carried
out. Bournonville's army near Frankfort was still to be dealt with, and
the Great Elector and his Brandenburgers were rapidly approaching the
Main valley. After a slight attempt to invade Lorraine, which Turenne
easily stopped, the Imperialists suddenly recrossed the Rhine and
marched rapidly into the neighbourhood of the Strassburg bridge.
_Turenne's Winter Campaign in Alsace._--The magistrates of this city
were not less amenable than had been the bishop of Wurzburg in 1673.
Bournonville obtained a free passage, and Turenne was too late to oppose
him. The French general, however, determined to fight, as he had done at
Sinsheim, to prevent the junction of the two hostile armies. The Great
Elector was still in the Neckar valley when the battle of Enzheim (8 m.
from Strassburg) was fought on the 4th of October. This time it was
indecisive, and Bournonville's superior forces, soon augmented by the
arrival of the elector, spread into Alsace. Turenne steadily retired to
his camp of Dettweiler, unable for the moment to do more, and the
Germans took up winter quarters in all the towns from Belfort to
Strassburg (October-November 1674). But Turenne was preparing for
another winter campaign, the most brilliant in the great commander's
career.
First he placed the fortresses of middle Alsace in a state of defence,
to deceive the enemy. Then he withdrew the whole of the field army
quietly into Lorraine. Picking up on his way such reinforcements as were
available, he marched southward with all speed behind the Vosges, and in
the last stages of the movement he even split up his forces into many
small bodies, that the enemy's spies might be misled. After a severe
march through hilly country and in the midst of snowstorms, the French
reunited near Belfort, and without a moment's delay poured into Alsace
from the south. The scattered Imperialists were driven towards
Strassburg, every corps which tried to resist being cut off.
Bournonville stood to fight at Mulhausen with such forces as he could
collect (29th December 1674) but Turenne's men carried all before them.
The advance continued to Colmar, where the elector, who was now in
command of the Germans, stood on the defensive with forces equal to
Turenne's own. The battle of Turkheim (5th of January 1675) nevertheless
resulted in another and this time a decisive victory for the French; a
few days after the battle Turenne could report that there was not a
soldier of the enemy left in Alsace. His army now went into winter
quarters about Strassburg, and drew supplies from the German bank of the
Rhine and even from the Neckar valley (January 1675).
_1675._--This opening of the campaign promised well, and Louis as usual
took the field as early as possible. In the course of the spring
(May-June) the king's army recaptured some of the lost fortresses of the
Meuse and took in addition Liege and Limburg. The expeditionary corps in
Sicily also gained some successes in this campaign, and Schomberg
invaded Catalonia. On the Rhine was fought the last campaign of Turenne
and Montecucculi. The elector having withdrawn his forces to Brandenburg
(see SWEDEN: _History_), Montecucculi resumed command, and between
Philipsburg and Strassburg the two great commanders manoeuvred for an
advantage, each seeking to cover his own country and to live upon that
of the enemy. At last Turenne prevailed and had the Imperialists at a
disadvantage on the Sasbach, where, in opening the action, he was killed
by a cannon-shot (July 27th). The sequel showed how dependent was even
the best organized army of the time upon the personality of its
commander.
All the advantages won were hastily surrendered, and Montecucculi,
sharply following up the retreat of the French, drove them over the
Rhine and almost to the Vosges. At the same time the duke of Lorraine
defeated Marshal Crequi (August 11th) at Conzer Brucke on the Moselle,
and recaptured Trier (September 6th), which, as a set-off against Bonn,
Turenne had taken in the autumn of 1673. The situation was more than
alarming for the French, but Conde was destined to achieve a last
success--for once a success of careful strategy and prudent manoeuvre.
Luxemburg was left in charge in Flanders, and the prince took command of
the remnant of Turenne's old army and of the fugitives of Crequi's.
Montecucculi's skill failed completely to shake his position, and in the
end the prince compelled him to retire over the Rhine. Conde and
Montecucculi retired from their commands at the close of the year,
Turenne was dead, and a younger generation of commanders henceforward
carried on the war.
_1676._--In 1676 the naval successes of France in the Mediterranean
enabled the corps under Marshal Vivonne in Sicily to make considerable
progress, and he won an important victory at Messina on the 25th of
March. Vivonne was made viceroy of Sicily. Louis himself, with his
marshals and Vauban, conducted the campaign in the north. The town of
Conde fell on the 26th of April, and the king then manoeuvred against
the prince of Orange in the neighbourhood of Valenciennes. An attempt
made by the latter in the summer to besiege Maastricht was frustrated by
Marshal Schomberg with a detachment of the king's army (August).
Rochefort meanwhile covered the Meuse country and Luxemburg. Crequi, who
had now returned from captivity (he had been taken after the battle of
Conzer Brucke) opposed the Imperialists in Lorraine, but he was unable
to prevent the fall of Philipsburg, which occurred on the 17th of
September. The French now laid waste the land between the Meuse and
Moselle for the same reason which brought about the devastation of the
Palatinate in 1674, and the year closed with a war of manoeuvre on the
upper Rhine between the Imperialists under the duke of Lorraine and the
French under Luxemburg.
_1677._--The chief event of the campaign of 1677 in the Netherlands was
the siege of Valenciennes, which fortress was invested by Louis in the
first weeks of the campaigning season. Five marshals of France served
under the king in this enterprise, but their advice was of less value
than that of Vauban, whose plans the king followed implicitly, even so
far as to order an assault _de vive force_ against the unanimous opinion
of the marshals. This succeeded beyond Vauban's own expectation; the
picked troops entrusted with the attack of an outwork forced their way
into the town itself (March 17th). The success was followed by the siege
of St Omer and the defeat of William's relieving army by the duke of
Orleans (battle of Mont Cassel, April 11th, 1677). The summer campaign
was a contest of skill between Luxemburg and William, which resulted in
favour of the French. The prince of Orange failed in an attempt to take
Charleroi, and Marshal D'Humieres captured St Ghislain.
In Germany the credit of the French successes was due to Crequi, who was
no longer the defeated general of Conzer Brucke, but the most successful
of Turenne's pupils. He began by driving back the duke of Lorraine to
the Rhine. Another attempt by the Lorraine family to reconquer their
duchy was thus foiled, and at the same time a second imperial army under
the duke of Saxe-Eisenach, which had crossed the Rhine by Philipsburg,
was shut up in an island of the Rhine and forced to make terms with the
French. A large reinforcement sent by the duke of Lorraine to the
assistance of Saxe-Eisenach was completely defeated by Crequi in the
battle of Kochersberg near Strassburg (October 7th) and the marshal
followed up his successes by the capture of Freiburg on the 14th of
November. During the year there was a brisk war in the West Indies, and
also in Catalonia, where the French maintained the ground won by
Schomberg in the previous campaign.
_1678._--In 1678 Louis took the field in February. The skilful
manoeuvres of the French, whether due to Louis' own generalship or that
of his advisers, resulted in the speedy capture of Ghent and Ypres
(March), and the retention of the prizes in the usual war of posts which
followed. The last battle of the war was fought at St Denis (outside
Mons) between William and Luxemburg on the 14th of August, three days
after the peace of Nijmwegen had been concluded. William sustained
another defeat, but the battle was one of the most fiercely contested of
the whole war. On the Rhine, Crequi began by winning the battle of
Rheinfelden (July 6th), after which he inflicted upon the Imperialists
another defeat at Gengenbach (July 23rd) and took Kehl. In the short
campaign of 1679, before France and the empire had concluded peace, he
was equally successful.
In Spain the French army under Marshal de Navailles had also made steady
progress, and thus the last campaign was wholly in favour of the French.
The peace of Nijmwegen gave Louis many of the Netherlands frontier
fortresses, and little else. He was threatened by the intervention of
England on the side of the coalition, and would have made peace earlier
but for his reluctance to abandon his ally Sweden. The French army had,
however, well established its reputation. Vauban was unique amongst the
officers of his time, and Crequi and Luxemburg were not unworthy
successors of Turenne and Conde. The two marshals added to their
reputation in the "Reunion War" of 1680-84. Crequi died in 1684 at the
age of sixty-one, Luxemburg's greatest triumph was won ten years later
(see GRAND ALLIANCE, WAR OF THE). Vauban retired from active service as
a marshal twenty-five years after the peace of Nijmwegen. But the
interest of the war does not reside wholly in the personalities of the
leaders. There were great commanders before Turenne and Conde. It is as
the debut of a new method of military organization and training--the
first real test of the standing army as created by Louvois--that the
Dutch War of 1672-79 is above all instructive. (C. F. A.)