On 11 April 1677, a French army under Philippe of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV, defeated William of Orange near Cassel in Flanders as William marched to relieve the besieged town of Saint-Omer. William lost all his artillery, and Saint-Omer surrendered little more than a week later. On 11 April 1917, Australian troops attacked at Bullecourt.
Battle of Cassel
11 April 1677 · 349 years ago
Two sieges and a relief march
In March 1677 Louis XIV took Valenciennes and then besieged Cambrai himself, while his brother Philippe of Orléans laid siege to Saint-Omer. According to Rousset, William of Orange chose Saint-Omer as the easier of the two places to relieve and marched toward Ypres.1
Sir William Temple writes that William came with part of the forces of the States alone, without troops or even guides from the Spaniards, "resolute to raise that siege with the hazard of a battle, at what disadvantage soever".2
According to Rousset, battalions from the royal camp before Cambrai and cavalry from the garrisons of Flanders were sent to Monsieur, and Marshal Luxembourg hurried to join him with the two companies of musketeers, so that within days Monsieur was to have 38 battalions and 80 squadrons. Temple also writes that Luxembourg reinforced Monsieur on the way "with all the troops the French King could send out of his army". Leaving a small force in the siege lines, Monsieur marched to meet the enemy.3
Two streams at Noordpeene
The Dutch appeared on 10 April, and the last French reinforcements arrived that night; Rousset judged the armies roughly equal in number, and Lenihan also describes a French army of about the same size. The battle was fought on the plain by the village of Noordpeene, below Mont Cassel.4
Humières commanded the French right, Luxembourg the left and Monsieur the center. Facing them, Count Horn led the Dutch right, Nassau the left and William the center, with Count Waldeck.5
Lenihan writes that William had not scouted the ground and found not one but two streams across his line of advance, and quotes the Earl of Castlehaven: William was "fighting on ground he knew not and where he met with rivers and defiles or narrow ways that he never heard of". In a letter of 13 April to the States General, given in French by de Smyttere, William wrote that after crossing the first stream his army was surprised to find another, lined with hedges, between it and the enemy.6
After a first fight for the abbey of Peene on the French left, William still meant to make his main effort on his right, so he moved troops (most of the squadrons, according to Rousset) from his left, which was covered by hedges and entrenchments, behind his front line to the other wing; the French saw the movement. Humières obtained Monsieur's order to attack the weakened wing. Lenihan writes: "They quickly attacked the allied left wing. That precipitated a Dutch stampede".7
According to Rousset, Humières sent the musketeers on foot against entrenchments held by two battalions of William's guards; a volley at point-blank range left forty of them killed or wounded, but the rest forced their way in, remounted and, with the other squadrons, fell on the exposed flank of the Dutch infantry.8
At the head of the battalions
In the center the French first line crossed the stream and began to throw the Dutch infantry into disorder, until William sent part of the cavalry of his right against its flank and drove it back to the bank, Rousset writes. Monsieur ran to the infantry of the second line and brought it up at the double. Charging at the head of the battalions "like a captain of grenadiers" (our translation), he saw twenty officers of his staff fall around him, and a ball dented his cuirass.9
De Smyttere also has him rally battalions that were giving way, with a musket shot striking his armor, and quotes Président Hénault that he had a horse killed under him. According to de Smyttere, Monsieur rushed to the wavering troops crying: "You are running away and you see me: and where is the honor of France?" (our translation). The Musée de l'Armée says that Philippe, generally known for his effeminacy, bravely charged the enemy and turned the threat of defeat into victory.10
On the other side, Temple writes, when the first Dutch regiment began to break, William went to it at once, rallied the men several times and renewed the charge. At last, borne down by the flight of his men, he fell among them sword in hand, cut the first across the face and cried out, in the English printed beside his French words in Temple's text: "rascal, I’ll set a mark on thee at least, that I may hang thee afterwards". Lenihan also has him laying about him with his sword in the throng, trying to rally the fugitives.11
Counting the cost
Rousset, citing an account of the battle dated 11 April and letters written in the following days, gives the Dutch losses as 3,000 dead, 4,000 to 5,000 wounded and 2,500 prisoners, with 40 colors, 14 standards and all their guns, and the French losses as 1,200 dead and 2,000 wounded. Lenihan writes that William lost up to 10,000 men killed or captured, and all his artillery and baggage.12
De Smyttere, who gathered the figures in 1865, notes that the authors vary a good deal: Pellisson says 6,000 Dutch were left on the field, Larrey gives 5,000 dead and 2,500 prisoners, and the Dutch historian Van Loon wrote that, if the French were to be believed, the allies lost more than 4,000 dead and over 2,000 prisoners.13
Rousset held that if the victorious cavalry had not come upon the Dutch baggage and plundered it, everything left of William's army would have been taken. Temple writes that William, with the troops that still stood firm, "made a retreat that wanted little of the honour of a victory". Louvois wrote to Luxembourg on 15 April: "You have plundered the baggage of the Prince of Orange... I do not ask you for his money or his plate, but I ask you for his maps" (our translation).14
A victory the king did not share
The citadel of Cambrai capitulated on 17 April, Rousset writes, and he ends the siege of Saint-Omer on 19 April; de Smyttere has the town surrender on the 20th, and Temple puts the surrender of both Saint-Omer and the citadel of Cambrai "about the twentieth of April". Rousset and de Smyttere both have the garrison of Saint-Omer march out on the 22nd. The French heritage database Mérimée says the battle led to the annexation by France of Valenciennes, Cambrai, Saint-Omer and Cassel; de Smyttere links the union of this part of Flanders with France to the Peace of Nijmegen the following year.15
Louis XIV answered the congratulations of the Prince of Condé on 15 April: "Had I won it in person, I would not be more moved by it, whether for the greatness of the action or for the importance of the moment, above all for my brother's honor" (our translation). Yet Monsieur never commanded an army again. Voltaire wrote that the king seemed jealous of his brother's glory, spoke little to him of his victory and did not even go to see the battlefield, though he was close by.16
In 1679 and 1680 Joseph Parrocel painted the battle for the north-western dining hall of the Invalides. According to the Musée de l'Armée, he placed Louis XIV, who was not on the battlefield, in the foreground, and Monsieur, whose glory could not be allowed to overshadow the king, slightly in the background.17
Also on this day
Battle of Suffolk (Hill's Point)
11 April 1863 · 163 years ago
Near Suffolk, Virginia, Confederate troops under James Longstreet besieged a strongly fortified Union garrison under John J. Peck in the American Civil War. The siege brought no decisive result, and Longstreet withdrew to rejoin Robert E. Lee's army.
1512: on Easter Day a French army under Gaston de Foix defeated the Spanish and papal army of the Holy League outside Ravenna, but Foix himself was killed. Guicciardini writes that he fell while charging the Spanish infantry, which was withdrawing in good order.18
1917: the 4th Australian Division attacked the Hindenburg Line at Bullecourt in support of the Arras offensive; the tanks meant to support the Australians failed, and the two attacking Australian brigades were driven back. The Australian War Memorial names the British 62nd Division as a second attacker; the British official history has the Australians assault alone, with the 62nd to follow once Bullecourt fell. The Australian War Memorial puts the casualties of the two brigades at over 3,300 and says that 1,170 Australians were taken prisoner; the British official history gives 2,258 lost by the 4th Brigade and 909 casualties in the 12th. The wider battle is told in our article on the Battle of Arras.19
