Battle of Oudenarde The Battle of Oudenarde ( or Oudenaarde ) was a key battle in the War of the Spanish Succession fought on 11 July 1708 between the forces of Great Britain , the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire on the one side and those of France on the other . It took place at Oudenaarde ( now in Belgium ) and was a decisive victory for the allies . Prelude . Great Britain , the Netherlands , and the Holy Roman Empire were horrified at the thought of a union between Spain and France which caused them to ally against France , beginning the War of the Spanish Succession . The commander of the allied armies was John Churchill , 1st Duke of Marlborough , whose chief deputy was the commander of the Empire ' s army Prince Eugène of Savoy , who was his close friend . Meanwhile , the two French army commanders were very quarrelsome . Louis Joseph , duc de Vendôme was a seasoned , experienced soldier . The Duke of Burgundy had considerably less experience and owed his position to the fact he was the grandson of the King , Louis XIV of France . Marlborough ' s army consisted of about 90 , 000 men ( 112 infantry battalion s and 197 cavalry squadrons ) just south of Brussels . Eugène ' s forces were assembled at Coblenz , in modern Germany . These two areas were somewhat far apart , while the French army ' s 100 , 000 soldiers ( 130 battalions and 216 squadrons ) were concentrated near Mons , in modern Belgium . At this time , the French commanders began quarrelling . Vendôme wanted to attack the city of Huy , which could draw Marlborough in pursuit . The eventual plan adopted , however , ( under orders from Louis XIV ) was to attack Flanders . The army moved eastward , until they reached the city of Braine - l ' Alleud , which was about 25 km south of Brussels , and also threatened the nearby city of Leuven . Marlborough placed his forces a few miles south of Leuven , in order to cover both threatened cities . The French army then remained inactive for more than a month . This apparently allowed the extremely behind schedule Eugène to bring his army from the Rhine River . On 5 July , however , the French unexpectedly moved west , taking the cities of Bruges and Ghent ( although about 300 British soldiers held out in Ghent for a few days ) . This extremely demoralized Marlborough and his army , and he did not recover until Eugène was at his side . The French army had the entire length of the Scheldt River from the French border to the newly taken city of Ghent . Only one British fortress remained : Oudenaarde . If they took that city , Marlborough ' s army would be cut off from the coast , causing them to lose communications with England . Marlborough detected this objective , and also correctly guessed the method by which the French troops would attempt to take it . They would march down the east bank of the Scheldt ( closer to Marlborough ' s troops ) , while leaving a large covering force between the two opposing armies . The French army marched on 8 July , toward the city of Lessines . However , Marlborough made one of the most inspired forced marches in history , taking the city on 10 July . This forced the French commanders to attempt simply to march across the Scheldt and thereby take the city of Oudenaarde . Again Marlborough ordered a forced march . This time , though , he ordered 11 , 000 troops to hold the main crossing point across the Scheldt , under the command of his Quartermaster General , William Cadogan . Cadogan ' s force built 5 additional pontoon bridges to allow Marlborough to get his 100 , 000 - strong army across the river , until French foragers discovered the allied presence around 09 : 00 AM . Battle . Cadogan , a superb Irish cavalry commander , ordered some dragoon s , under Danish General Jørgen Rantzau , to take prisoners from the French advance guard . Many of those troops escaped and alerted Lieutenant General Charles - Armand de Gontaut , duc de Biron , who commanded the vanguard , of the presence of Allied troops on the west bank . When de Biron advanced , he was disagreeably surprised by the large number of Allied cavalry already across the river , along with the approaching Allied infantry . Although he was ordered to attack by Vendôme , he hesitated upon seeing the reinforced line of 20 battalions ( including the four that had been left to guard the pontoon bridges ) . Biron ' s own forces comprised only 7 battalions and 20 squadrons . He had been given reliable advice that cavalry could not negotiate the marshy terrain in the area , and therefore decided not to attempt a crossing . At this time , Eugène , along with 20 squadrons of Prussia n cavalry , moved across the river , and occupied crucial positions . While Biron ' s troops were manoeuvring , the leading British infantry brigade had arrived , under the inexperienced but gifted John Campbell , 2nd Duke of Argyll . Cadogan , with authority from Marlborough , attacked Biron ' s 7 battalions ( of Swiss mercenaries ) with his soldiers ( mainly cavalry ) . The isolated Swiss mercenaries were immediately pushed back , and the Allied force destroyed Biron ' s squadrons , until they reached a large mass of French cavalry , at which point they were forced to retire , outnumbered . The force which performed this action was Rantzau ' s cavalry , with the future King George II of England among them . Burgundy , making another critical mistake , decided to attack ( over protests by Vendôme ) . The French right wing began to attack the Allied positions near Eine , while the left wing ( for an unknown reason ) remained stationary near Huise . Meanwhile , a very strong position was held by the Allied left wing . 28 cavalry squadrons protected the right flank of Cadogan ' s infantry , which would receive the attack ( which proceeded at about 4 pm ) . Burgundy ordered the assault , which landed on Prussian cavalry squadrons under Dubislav Gneomar von Natzmer . Although hard fighting ensued , the attack was dispersed . Then , Vendôme made a dubious decision . He personally led an attack of twelve regiment s , fighting hand - to - hand with a half - pike . This meant that while one commander ( Burgundy ) was in his headquarters , with no view of the battle , the other was fighting personally , with no possibility of control . Most historians agree that the weakened Allied right flank would have been destroyed , had the French left wing attacked . Vendôme realized this , asking Burgundy for permission to attack with the left wing . Burgundy sent a messenger with a negative reply ; however , this messenger failed to deliver the message . Therefore , the situation worsened with Vendôme believing that an attack would support his hard - fighting troops . His troops were lengthening their line , threatening to envelop the Allied left flank . As Argyll ' s regiments approached , they lengthened the Allied line ; however , this was not done quickly enough , nor to a great enough extent , to prevent the French from threatening such an envelopment . Allied flanking manoeuvre . Marlborough moved his headquarters to the left flank , giving Eugène command of the right flank ( which still checked the left wing of the French army ) . While the right was under pressure , Marlborough made a brilliant command decision : he placed 18 newly arrived Hessian and Hanover ian battalions in the left flank , while replacing 20 of Prussian General Carl von Lottum ' s battalions , moving them to Eugène ' s support . This moved fresh troops to the critical left , while reinforcing the right flank ( and resting Lottum ' s troops ) . Marlborough then began formulating a new plan of double encirclement . He had the entire Dutch Army , under Field Marshal Count Hendrik Overkirk , an experienced military officer . His force was unable to cross the collapsed pontoon bridges near Oudenaarde , forcing him to use the stone bridges in the city , delaying him for an hour . Marlborough went ahead with his plan , having Eugène ' s cavalry charge . It made for Burgundy ' s headquarters . The French Household Cavalry , the Maison du Roi , were able to turn them back , and Marlborough , with only the 18 Hessian and Hanoverian battalions , was unable to do much other than keep the French right in check . At about 20 : 30 , Overkirk ' s troops , who had finally arrived , flanked the French right wing . This was in conjunction with a dual attack by Marlborough and Eugène . Overkirk ' s manoeuvre was completely successful , with much of the French army being routed and / or captured . However , there was not enough daylight to complete the manoeuvre . Aftermath . The French army retired to Ghent , with its commanders furiously quarreling . It can be said that only darkness and a few broken pontoon bridges saved the army from total destruction . For unknown reasons , about half of the French army was kept in reserve , without participating at all . There was a great mass of French cavalry and infantry in some raised ground north of the Norken River , and many of Burgundy ' s troops remained inactive . There were many bad decisions in the French army . The cavalry had remained in reserve , mainly because of the advice that the ground was impassable . The entire left wing ( the troops under Burgundy and the large mass north of the Norken ) was kept in reserve . They could easily have destroyed the rather weak right wing of the Allied army . Had a concerted attack been carried out , with Vendôme attacking with his main body to envelop the Allied right , while Burgundy attacked with the left ( before Overkirk and the rest of Argyll ' s troops arrived ) , the French army could have easily won . The French army lost about 15 , 000 soldiers ( about 8 , 000 of whom were prisoners ) and 25 guns , while the Allies lost fewer than 3 , 000 .