page_title: Battle of Les Avins
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Battle of Les Avins / Background
context_page_description: The Battle of Les Avins or Avein took place on 20 May 1635, outside the town of Les Avins, near Huy in modern Belgium, then part of the Bishopric of Liège. It was the first major engagement of the 1635 to 1659 Franco-Spanish War, a connected conflict of the Thirty Years' War.
  France supported the Dutch Republic in its war of independence from Spain, but avoided direct involvement. In February 1635, the two countries agreed to divide the Spanish Netherlands and in May, a French army of 27,000 entered the Bishopric of Liège, intending to link up with the Dutch at Maastricht and attack Leuven.
  Outside Les Avins, they ran into a Spanish force of between 8,500 to 13,000; the French made a frontal assault and over-ran their positions, inflicting around 4,000 – 5,000 casualties, including 1,500 prisoners.
context_section_description: 17th century Europe was dominated by the struggle between the Bourbon kings of France, and their Habsburg rivals in Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. In 1938, historian CV Wedgwood argued the 1618 to 1648 Thirty Years War and the 1568 to 1648 Dutch revolt formed part of a wider, ongoing European struggle, with the Habsburg-Bourbon conflict at its centre. Now generally accepted by modern historians, this makes the Franco-Spanish War a connected conflict, which is essential to understanding strategic objectives.   
  Habsburg territories in the Spanish Netherlands, Franche-Comté, and the Pyrenees blocked French expansion, and made it vulnerable to invasion. Occupied by domestic Huguenot rebellions from 1622 to 1630, France looked for opportunities to weaken the Habsburgs, while avoiding direct conflict. This included supporting the Dutch against Spain, and financing Swedish intervention in the Empire, starting in 1630, when Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded Pomerania. 
  When Spain restarted the Dutch War in 1621 at the end of the Twelve Years' Truce, they initially won a series of victories, but by 1633 they were on the retreat again. The powerful Amsterdam mercantile lobby saw this as an opportunity to end the war on favourable terms, and although negotiations ended without result, the Dutch peace party grew in strength. At the same time, defeat at Nördlingen in September 1634 forced the Swedes to retreat, while most of their German allies left the war after the 1635 Treaty of Prague.
  Concerned by the prospect of the Habsburgs making peace on favourable terms in both the Empire and the Netherlands, Louis XIII and his chief minister Richelieu decided on direct intervention. In February 1635, they signed an alliance with the Dutch, agreeing to divide the Spanish Netherlands, and in April, the Treaty of Compiègne with Sweden.
caption: Louis XIII, French ruler from 1610 to 1643
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