Ramillies 1706 by Michael McNally

Author:Michael McNally
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ramillies 1706: Marlborough’s tactical masterpiece
ISBN: 9781782008248
Publisher: Osprey Publishing

La Ferme de la Château, between Taviers and Franquenée, one of the potential ‘choke points’ that Marlborough feared would hinder the advance of his left wing, hence his decision to send Werdmüller to sweep the Mehaigne Valley clear of enemy troops. (Copyright and courtesy of Seán Ó’Brógáín)

FIRST BLOOD

With the final approach of his marching columns, and their gradual movement into line of battle, Marlborough decided to secure his left flank by detaching a brigade of troops to clear any enemy forces from the settlements in the Mehaigne Valley and thus facilitate the eventual deployment of his left-wing cavalry. As a signal honour to his Dutch allies, he gave the task to Hans Felix Werdmüller, colonel of the Albemarle regiment of foot. An experienced officer, the Swiss had begun his career as an officer in a French cavalry regiment in 1676, transferring into the Gardes Suisses three years later. In 1688 he was obliged to quit French service when the cantonal government of Zurich enacted a law which prevented its citizens from serving Louis XIV. Five years later he entered Dutch service as a major in a Swiss subsidy regiment, eventually being promoted to Colonel-Commandant of the Albemarle regiment, later serving at the sieges of Bonn and Trarbach and the battles of Blenheim and the Schellenberg.

To accomplish the task, Werdmüller was given three regiments of foot: the two-battalion ‘Oranje Friesland’ and the single-battalion ‘Salisch’ and ‘Slangenberg’ regiments, to which were added two light guns for direct support. Marching south from Jandrenouille to the Mehaigne, Werdmüller first secured Branchon and then Boneffe, dominated by the remains of its 13th-century abbey. However, as the column continued farther along the valley, the advance was brought to an abrupt halt by an eruption of musketry from the walls and hedges that lined the farmhouse at Franquenée, occupied by dragoons of the ‘Pignatelli’ and ‘Rohan-Chabot’ regiments who had been placed there to give advance warning of any Allied attempt to force the Mehaigne. Deploying off the road, the Dutch infantry began to advance towards the enemy position, pausing on the word of command to fire rippling volleys in the direction of the concealed enemy. The firefight was short and one sided as the Bourbons were greatly outnumbered with nothing that could answer Werdmüller’s artillery detachment, and as riders were dispatched to the Comte de Guiscard, commanding the right-flank cavalry, the Bourbon troops withdrew towards Taviers. This was the next settlement on the enemy’s line of march and one that – according to Villeroi’s plan of battle – should already be held in sufficient numbers to blunt the Allies’ advance.

Taviers, standing above the confluence of the Mehaigne and the Vissoule stream, was the key to the Bourbon right flank. Situated on the northern slopes of the river valley, it consisted of a dozen or so buildings congregated around the parish church. With this higher area surrounded by hedged fields, in contrast to the river valley that was a sodden morass, it was a natural bottleneck that could choke Marlborough’s flanking manoeuvre before it could even develop.

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