Oudenarde, Battle of

Battle site in East Flanders, West Belgium, during the War of the Spanish Succession, where the French were defeated by an Allied army of British, Hanoverian, Prussian, and Dutch troops on 11 July 1708.

The Duke of Marlborough marched on the town with a combined army of about 30,000 to raise a siege laid by some 40,000 French. Marlborough ordered an attack as soon as his advance party was in position and the battle began while the rest of the Allied force was still crossing the river. Confined in the angle between the two rivers, the action was almost entirely decided by infantry, and the French found themselves pressed against the rivers with their flanks crumbling. The French left wing was able to rally and stave off the Allied advance while the remainder of the French crossed the river and made off under cover of nightfall. Allied losses amounted to about 3,000 killed and wounded, but the French sustained some 15,000 lost, including prisoners.