Battle of Oudenarde

Significance

The Battle of Oudenarde, fought on 11 July 1708 near the city of Oudenaarde in the Spanish Netherlands, was a major engagement of the War of the Spanish Succession in which an Anglo-Dutch force under the Duke of Marlborough, Lord Overkirk, and Prince Eugene of Savoy defeated a French army under the Duc de Bourgogne and the Duc de Vendôme. French casualties, estimated between 9,000 and 14,000, substantially exceeded those of the Grand Alliance, which suffered between 3,000 and 6,000. The victory delivered a significant strategic and tactical advantage to the Grand Alliance at a late stage of the war, securing the fall of various French-held territories in the region. The War of the Spanish Succession had been set in motion by English, Dutch, and Habsburg concern over the prospect of a Bourbon monarch uniting the Spanish and French crowns and empires; Oudenarde reinforced the Alliance's capacity to press that objective and constrain French ambitions in the Spanish Netherlands.

Forces & casualties

Commanders (5)