Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries.) MALPLAQUET [Illustration: _Malplaquet._ _Frontispiece._] MALPLAQUET BY HILAIRE BELLOC LONDON STEPHEN SWIFT & CO., LTD. 10 JOHN STREET, ADELPHI 1911 CONTENTS PAGE I. THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET 9 II. THE SIEGE OF TOURNAI 27 III. THE MANOEUVRING FOR POSITION 45 IV. THE PRELIMINARIES OF THE BATTLE 52 V. THE ACTION 65 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Sketch Map showing how the Lines of La Bassée blocked the advance of the Allies on Paris, and Marlborough's plan for turning them by the successive capture of Tournai and Mons 19 Sketch Map showing how the Allies, holding Lille, thrust the French back on to the defensive line St Venant-Valenciennes, and thus cut off the French garrisons of Ypres, Tournai, and Mons 28 Sketch Map showing complete investment of Tournai 34 Sketch Map showing the lines of woods behind Mons, with the two gaps of Boussu and Aulnois 48 The Elements of the Action of Malplaquet, September 11th, 1709 66 Sketch Map showing the peril the French centre ran towards noon of being turned on its left 79 Sketch Map showing Marlborough bringing up troops to the centre for the final and successful attack upon the entrenchments 84 MALPLAQUET I THE POLITICAL MEANING OF MALPLAQUET That political significance which we must seek in all military history, and without which that history cannot be accurate even upon its technical side, may be stated for the battle of Malplaquet in the following terms. Louis XIV. succeeding to a cautious and constructive period in the national life of France, this in its turn succeeding to the long impotence of the religious wars, found at his orders when his long minority was ended a society not only eager and united, but beginning also to give forth the fruit due to three active generations of discussion and combat. Every department of the national life manifested an extreme vitality, and, while the orderly and therefore convincing scheme of French culture imposed itself upon Western Europe, there followed in its wake the triumph of French arms; the king in that triumph nearly perfected a realm which would have had for its limits those of ancient Gaul. It would be too long a matter to describe, even in general terms, the major issues depending upon Louis XIV.'s national ambitions and their success or failure.