Although the British accusations of cowardice on the Dutch side were overblown, since the Dutch stormed a strong entrenched position and since most troops had fought well, there was also some unhappiness in high Dutch command about their performance. You see; Dutch infantry had a name to live up to. During the Wars of Louis XIV Dutch infantry was considered the best in Europe. During the Nine Years War an English officer asked himself why this was the case: "We have a common notion, that this sang froid, or Obedient Quality in the Dutch, is owing chiefly to their Nature, by their having a greater Proportion of Phlegm in their constitution than the English, by which their minds are not so soon as agitated as ours. But I look upon this way of reasoning, to be a rather plausible excuse for our own neglect, in not bringing our men to the same perfection of discipline, than the product of any natural cause in the Dutch. But, allowing that nature does contribute something towards it, yet, it is evident, Art has the greatest share, since their troops are generally composed of different nations." This was proved in for example the Battle of Malplaquet, were the Dutch, despite suffering very heavy casualties, kept assaulting the strong French positions in perfect order. Although the cowardice accusations were thus overblown; Malplaquet stood in stark contrast with Fontenoy. Cronström, the Dutch commander of the 2nd division, who had also been part of the Dutch army that had fought at Malplaquet, wrote that "these troops are not like those in the previous war" and Waldeck questioned were the "famous old Dutch courage" had gone. These conclusions led to an extensive training of the troops and they performed better at Rocoux, and even recieved praise.

Finally, a channel that prefers the first British empire and the first half of the long 18th century like I do. Who's not going to look at everything as a lead up to either the American or French revolutions. They weren't, history didn't know that They were going to happen. I love the long 18th century and most especially the first, half 9 years War to the seven years War, but the wars of succession And they're American theaters are my favorite. Great channel. Keep up the good work

Vous n'imaginez pas à quel point je suis heureux de trouver une chaine comme la votre. Je suis passionné par l'histoire militaire du XVII/XVIIIe, mais je n'ai jamais vraiment trouvé de contenu de ce genre jusqu'ici. Sachez qu'un français vous remercie chaleureusement pour votre travail !

The battle of Fontenoy was very well narrated!

Good video man. Really appreciate your work. The periods you cover really deserve more attention

The most detailed and compelling video on Fontenoy on all of the internet. I salute you Sir!

The french irish regiment "Le Royal Irlandais" have a very good reputation, at this time. 👍

Absolute excellence! Fantastic animation, narration and great writing! I admire the length of the video as well! De Saxe made some brilliant decisions. A nice watch, and the best one so far!

Excellent video. Great graphics and perfectly captures the ebb and flow of the battle. Loved it!!

I find it amazing how much you have improved. It makes me happy to see that your channel is in good health, considering the amount of views and subscribers. Keep the good work!

Well done!! In a landscape devoid of vids on these wars and campaigns, Field Marshal is a breath of fresh air. Animations, artwork and narration were outstanding. Can't help but think if your army is "pragmatic" you're doomed to lose. A bad plan made worse by lack of coordination and communication was the plan or so it seems. Absolutely outstanding. Worth the wait and looking forward to the collab with Warhawk too. Cheers from Tennessee

Maurice de Saxe is such an underrated general. Are you planning on covering the battle of Dettingen at some point?

A battle masterfully led by Maurice de Saxe and which remains a very fine French victory (one more). thank you for excellent épisode.

For a very long time, the French fought practically alone against coalitions of European countries. They were during these decades the best military power !

Jokes aside excellent work on this one, easily the best vid yet. Can’t wait for the next one 👍

Well done sir and thank you!

Outstanding Video. You become better and better with each one.

I enjoyed this video. The combined use on narration, graphics, and pictures brought this battle to life. I lived in this area of Belgium for six years and familiar with many of the towns and villages mentioned. I wish I had your videos then, so I could the battlefield.

Truly amazing work

Interesting content on a little covered war. Thank you for uploading.

Great description of history, very well done

The gap between de Saxe and Cumberland ‘s strategic skill is flabbergasting.

This is so well done

This was SUPERB!!!

Amazing video 🔥

Great work

Well done for this video, very accurate and detailled animation. Very easy to understand the whole manoeuvre. I have just one remark: the unit size sign on the "NATO type" unit symbols (here battalions for the infantry and regiments for cavalry) shows the direction the unit faces... so here the french army seems to face west instead of facing the anglo-dutch army. Anyway, thank you very much for this great video.

great stuff !

Can’t wait to see it

Awesome. Merci from France

Very cool to watch this channel grow, not just in terms of subscribers, but in the quality of the video and presentation of the subject matter as well. It is also heartening to find a KZfaqr willing to cover this often overlooked period of history. Hats off to you, sir! If I had to give a reccomendation, it would be concerning your audio - sometimes words are cut off in mid sentence or in the beginning of the sentence. Other than that, two questions: what topics do you plan on covering in the future and could you make a habit of making some community posts with book reccomendations? I am very interested in the long 18th century (edit: although anything starting from the 15th century works as well), specifically military and diplomatic history, but am having a hard time finding good books (other than on Napoleon).

félicitations chère ami pour votre travail ! d'une qualité rare , vous étes digne de la maison du Roi de France

Great job done by the Household heavy cavalry of King Louis and by the Irish brigade

The Duke of Cumberland was recalled to England to put down the rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie who sought to overthrow the Hanoverian Dynasty and restore the Stuart's claim to the throne. He won a victory at Culloden and his harsh reprisals earned him the nickmane the Bloody Butcher. Scotsman to this day still consider him nothing less than a War criminal. I hope one day you do a video of that battle.

Wonderful work showing detailed research on the battle and preliminary moves. Well composed and clearly explained. Good quotes and detailed positions of every regiment throughout much of the battle. A source of inspiration for a wargamer looking for a new battle to build a new collection and play. Unfortunately, I could not find a reference list. Could the authors recommend some good book source(s) for all those details? (Not a long bibliography, please: just a couple of best books one could delve into).

Excellent dans tous les aspects

Thanks I learned a lot about mid 18th Century warfare. The French defence was far too strong, the Allies were uncoordinated and careless. The French got the upper hand on both flanks and inevitably, were able to counter attack in the centre. The Allies needed to put more in the woods, win their right flank and neutralise the French cannon positions. Also exploit the gap in the French right of centre, in between the village fortress and the French cannon battery. An Allies column attack there, instead of their broad line attack, would’ve caused disarray and panicked the French. The Allies could then exploit the opportunity, to attack on the other side of the village, to neutralise the other cannons facing the centre. Simultaneously making the centre push, to pin down the French line, or force them to withdraw, as they did so. Then the Allies could’ve supported their centre on both flanks and minimised their casualties from the French guns. This would’ve prevented the French organising their general counter attack and enveloping the British square column. The Allies also didn’t deploy their cavalry at all. They should’ve been used to support and assist the flank attacks, to maximise the chaos for the French and prevent them regrouping to counter the Allies flank attacks. This way the British would’ve had a lot more left to give and been able to press onwards, instead of going defensive and finally retreating. Also the Allies/British pulling back their cannon line was the stupidest blunder of all. They should’ve been used to blast the Frenchie’s second line, to protect a possible retreat and as a rallying point for a retreat. This was a very strange battle, almost as if the Allied commander knew they were going to lose from the start. Literally every move the Allies made was absurd. Even asking the French to shoot first was insane. The French knew they had the longer term advantage. That’s why they told the British to shoot first and King Louis XV didn’t withdraw. “A scene like Againcourt.” - Not really, they had longbows at Againcourt, not muskets.

Thank you. Merci.

30:35 and the legend of the blackwatch is born.

Great video, been hoping for a history channel to cover fontenoy! Question, are you going to cover Rocoux and Lauffeld next?

Epic!

Vive le roi

Hey man. Really great job. You'll probably want to revisit this for the graphic when you have more experience, but the content is great. This, I believe, is part of the First Silezian War - a not very well related subject on Yt. Do you plan on doing some more on that conflict? (No general things please - what you did now is perfect). I'm a phantom viewer myself, but this deserves a like and subscribe.

Great!

Please set up a Patreon!!! I love these time frames and want more!!!

Really good animation. There were two other great battles between the Pragmatic army and the French afterwards, Lauffeld and Rocoux, will you be covering them as well? (they are also victories of Saxe). I had family who were in a regiment that traces its heritage back to Fontenoy (Pulteney's). Dettingen is worth a look aswell as Osprey has published a book in the past few years that challenges some of the notions about it (IIRC the cavalry duel may have been more important)

Dettingen is interesting to us Brits in that it was the last battle at which the King lead the army in the field. Although much maligned. espescially by many Scots, Cumberland was a very good organiser and both he and General Wolf went a long way to improving the British soldiers lot.

Vive le Roi!

Thanks for the very clear narration and detailed units naming. I wonder how infantry could resist cavalry charge repeatedly, in this time preceding the formation in squares? Probably command and control of cavalry was poor (hence the multiple spontaneous charges), the regiments charging headlong instead of outflanking infantry.

Very nice use of contemporary pictures for the commanders. Pfaffenhofen had little to do with the peace of Füssen. The death of emperor Charles VII was a lot more important and the unwillingless of the French to send more troops to Bavaria. Besides the Hessians refused to fight the Austrians effectively. It would be nice if you would go similar in depth as you did for the WSS. You will find a lot of information on my blog about the campaigns in Germany.

I lived in Belgium for a number of years, near those battlefields yet had no knowledge whatsoever of this amazing European power games

pog

Nice! Love your videos. I hope Austria wins...

Excellent video with great graphics. As an Irish man who had heard very little about the Wild Geese it was very interesting to see them featured in the battle.

The fields of Flanders - where Europe goes to fight its wars.

A lot of War of the Spanish Succession references here

hurrah 100k views

We always enjoyed fighting our ancient enemies....Ireland

the p in Campbell is silent, it's pronounced Cambell

"screams of the dead and..." how does that work exactly? Very interesting overview however, thank you

kinda weird hearing my lego officer sound educated for once,,,,,e,e,e,e,,,e

Something awesome about the 18th Century European military. Both heroic and rational at once.

Very informative and well narrated, as well as animated. Not too interpretative, although I think supposed "overconfidence" is not quite accurate. Of course any general can perceive of defeat. The Pragmatics were skillfully misled in part, playing on seeming weakness. I don't think they weren't aware of the French capacities, which had been proven so many times. Confidence is a good thing, arrogance is not. Cumberland's attack on the center had a touch of the latter, perhaps... but got far bc of the former. There is no "over-confidence" (trust in what is there), there is arrogance (assuming something that isn't factual).

"Messieurs les anglais, tirez les premiers" "Messieurs les maîtres, ajustez vos chapeaux et vos rubans de queue, nous allons avoir l'honneur de charger"

Campbell ( Cam-Bell...P is silent) Lille ( LeeL) Ligonier (Lea-go-ny-A) was a French exile.

Umm... Campbell is pronounced in such a way as to rhyme with "gamble" or "ramble", etc.😁 Otherwise, the whole presentation was thoroughly enjoyable!

Who’s here because historymarches video randomly privated at the climax of the video? 💀

Small thing; the Dutch flag you use has the wrong colour blue. It is too light. Instead of the Dutch flag it resembles the flag of Luxemburg.

"Sir, would you care to fire first"

'screams of the dead and dying'...well, the dying, anyway.

Why was another succession war unnecessary? Interesting observation but I'd like to understand why it was unnecessary.

Campbell is pronounced' Kambell'. The 'p' is silent.

The most peculiar of alliances! The 'Pragmatic army' is a euphemism for irrational. The British Hanoverian Kings were certainly competent but it was a shame European attitudes were not more enlightened. Especially in America values were evolving and nationalism had become more sophisticated and, thanks partly to Thomas Paine (1736-1809), populist.

"the screams of the dead" 47:28, hmmm

Campbell is pronounce Camble. Rhymes with amble. Also, Lille is not pronounced Lily.

Remind me again how 18th-century warfare was supposed to be more positional and not as vicious as Napoleonic warfare?

One serious mistake is not giving the number of troops in the French army during the battle

Will you ever cover Asian conflicts in this channel? Like Nader Shah ( napoleon of the east ) he destroyed a 300k Mughal army

You have to admit the Brits were tough to beat.

Is he really saying Camp Bell?

We will never forget our Irish soldiers ie the "Wild Geese " who fought and gave their countrymen their pride back after the loss of their culture and country after years of oppression in Ireland 🇮🇪.

The allies command were fools.

Hi, I drew the picture you used in your thumbnail, just wanted you to know if you ever want to ask to use some of my art this account is where to find me.

The narrators mispronunciation is echoed in the comical spelling of the subtitles!,

Your map is not correct, Lille, Tournai and Leuze are on the same line; whereas on the map you are using Tournai is much further downstream on the Escaut.

The first fire was english side. "Messieurs les anglais, tirez les premiers."

The mangled mispronunciation of placenames and surnames, often with the wrong syllables stressed, too, is painful to listen to. You can't even get the Scots name "Campbell" right!

Messieurs les anglais tirez les premiers !

damn 49 minit i dont have time for this

the greatest French victory over the British ... one of the few.

"Sav Wah"?? Suh Voy.

Cumberland was best suited fighting highlanders and not actual real soldiers. He was fucking awful.

another one of the infinite number of absolute french victories against the sissies european coalitions

So if Saxe had 50000 men then they far outnumbered the allies. The dutch are not exactly revered for their prowess at war.

Don't forget the Austrians did nothing !

For a guy who does a lot of research on battles the narrator sure doesn’t put any effort into learning how to pronounce the names correctly 😂

Dissappointing that even common British names (EG. Camp-bell for Campbell.) were badly butchered. I get that Europe is more varied with names & languages etc but it was hard to follow who, what & where were being discussed with such haphazard pronunciations. I feel it also shows a level of disrespect.

Bloody AI voiceover. Most of the lesser placenames are mispronounced. If you can't even set the field correctly, why should we believe anything else? Lill-le, for example. Dauphin, Campbell, names too.

Strangely flat and dull narration , as if the speaker is fed up with work after a thousend videos.

Well, that was a bloodpath. Reminds me of angaco