Battle of Lauffeld 1747
Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 2 July 1747 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1747 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | Early modern (1500–1799) | derived from year |
| Location | Belgium | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | War of the Austrian Succession | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | Kingdom of Great Britain | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 50.8286, 5.6183 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
The Battle of Lauffeld took place on 2 July 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession. Fought between the towns of Tongeren in modern Belgium, and the Dutch city of Maastricht, a French army of 136,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of 100,000, led by the Duke of Cumberland.
Arguably the most talented general of his generation, Saxe had conquered much of the Austrian Netherlands between 1744 and 1746. In early 1747, Cumberland planned an offensive to retake Antwerp, but was forced to fall back when the French threatened to cut him off from his supply base at Maastricht. When the two armies met at Lauffeld, a series of mistakes by Cumberland compromised his position, and only counterattacks by the Allied cavalry under Sir John Ligonier prevented a serious defeat.
Initially, Cumberland had order Lauffeldt to be burnt, with the British troops forming a battle line behind the village. However, Ligonier persuaded the Duke to reoccupy the burnt ruins and turn it in to a strongpoint.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Lauffeld (revision 1370447310), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; shortened by selecting paragraphs and trimming at a sentence boundary; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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Other battles of the War of the Austrian Succession
- Raid on Lorient 1746
- Siege of Antibes 1746
- Siege of Brussels 1746
- Siege of Genoa (1746) 1746
- Siege of Namur (1746) 1746
- Battle of Assietta 1747
- Second Battle of Cape Finisterre 1747
- Siege of Bergen op Zoom (1747) 1747
- Siege of Genoa (1747) 1747
- Siege of Maastricht (1748) 1748
All 32 battles of the War of the Austrian Succession →
Browse more: battles in Belgium · Europe · Early modern battles