Chapter 37 – The Stadtholder’s Director’s War (1710-1712)
The Muddy Somme
By late March of the new year all the preparations had been made. For the moment resistance to the coup was under control, and General van Atrecht’s army was at its peak. 35,000 soldiers waited restlessly along the Maas, with another half dozen mercenary regiments ready in Calais. This was Director Brandt’s last, best chance at knocking the French out of the war. The uncooperative weather was still cold and blustery, but Brandt could not afford any further delays. On March 28 the Army of Flanders set out southward, long columns of troops tramping down muddy highways towards the French.
Over 27,000 French soldiers had spent the winter besieging the cities of Atrecht and Loos in Artois, intent on cracking the Dutch fortress line. Like Brandt and van Atrecht, the French commander had been forced to spread his men throughout the province to find provisions as the seiges dragged on. Some intrepid foraging bands ventured as far north as Ghent, only 30 miles from Antwerpen. French cavalry patrols had kept a steady eye on Dutch preparations along the Maas and Schelde. But when the rain and thaw of March turned the roads into quagmires the patrols were cut back rather than risk losing horses and riders to the the treacherous roads.
The Dutch weren’t as reliant on their cavalry as the French, a fact that Brandt hoped to capitalize on. Outpacing their mired baggage and artillery trains, the Dutch infantry marched south along the Ghent highway under the cover of rain and fog. Meanwhile, the British mercenary force in Calais slipped south, evading the French pickets left to mind them. They circled around behind the French position with the intention of cutting off any potential retreat.
The Battle of Atrecht, March/April 1711
Luck was with the Dutch. No alarm was raised until the first columns reached Tournai and Lille, almost three days of hard marching from Antwerpen. Attacking off the march, van Atrecht’s forces defeated a French detachment outside the town of Douai before turning to engage the main French army. The French were well dug in outside of Atrecht, but the weeks of rain left the ground too marshy for their heavy cavalry to sally forth. An infantry fight was just what General Atrecht wanted. Braving French artillery fire the Dutch assaulted the enemy lines, quickly overwhelming the defenders. The French siege was broken and scattered. With the route south blocked by the British mercenaries, the remnants retreated northward to St. Omer and Dunkirk, pursued by the recently arrived Dutch cavalry. Only the far right flank managed to escape south to Amiens, where they met up with reinforcements from Paris.
The Army of Flanders followed to the north bank of the Somme, halting just short of the city. With the weather improving General Atrecht decided to wait for his artillery to catch up. Shortly after its arrival he led the army against the remaining French forces defending the city. With four to one odds on his side, the battle was quickly over. The surrender of Amiens left the road to Paris open.
The Sack of Paris, Summer 1711
Not to be denied once again, van Atrecht left his lieutenants in charge of mopping up French resistance in Picardie and rushed south with the majority of his troops. The medieval walls of Paris were still damaged from van Atrecht’s previous siege. After a week of heavy shelling they were finally breached, and Dutch soldiers flooded into the city. For the next three days chaos reigned as the Dutch and British mercenaries ransacked the city. Much of the North Bank was burnt by out of control fires, and only the luck of the wind kept the blaze from crossing the Seine. Van Atrecht made sure to seize the city treasury and royal residence to hold as collateral against the French king. Once the pillaging ended, the Army left the city and split up, spreading out across the undefended countryside of Normandy and the Loire Valley.
Elsewhere in the East
While van Atrecht put northern France to the torch, to the east General Barhydt struggled to hold the line. His political opposition to Brandt’s coup meant that he was effectively on his own, without support from the government. He was not without resources however. Retreating from the nearly forgotten battlefields of the east, the Armies of Hesse and Cleves joined Barhydt’s forces around Nancy to wait out the winter. Leading them was Herbert Lippstadt, a prosperous noble from eastern Hesse. With connections to the banks in Frankfurt, Lippstadt was able to secure a line of credit for the combined forces. For the next few months, at least, Barhydt could continue paying his soldiers’ contracts.
Further good news came with the return of General Kraichgau in February. Since October the German cavalryman and his 12,000 mercenaries had raided throughout the Franche-Comte, one step ahead of the French. His return not only gave Barhydt a much needed screening force for the spring campaign, but he also brought back two thousand Swiss and Savoyard patriots willing to fight against the French. The added reinforcements were a godsend, bringing Barhydt’s Army of Brabant up to 28,000.
Barhydt needed all the men he could get. He faced three French armies that threatened him on three sides – 17,000 to the north, 19,000 in the Meuse valley and 22,000 to the south, until recently busy chasing Kraichgau’s raiders. There was also the ever-present threat of Imperial forces arriving from the east. Surrounded by enemies, the fate of Lorraine rested in the hands of God.
Barhydt decided to strike first, not waiting for the arrival of spring. Still hoping for the opportunity to march north and pressure Brandt into resigning, he sent the German regiments to secure a route back into the Netherlands through Luxembourg. Meanwhile, Barhydt and Kraichgau took their combined forces across the Meuse to deal with the first French army. Outnumbered and outmaneuvered, the smaller French force fought gallantly, but in vain. Kraichgau chased the survivors north up the river while Barhydt took the Army of Brabant back into Lorraine.
But while the two general were busy clearing the Meuse, the French army to the south took the opportunity to march behind them into Lorraine. The cunning maneuver resulted in the capture of Nancy, Barhydt’s base of operations. He was now tied up with dealing with the southern threat and recapturing the city before the French could penetrate further into Lorraine.
The End of One War, the Beginning of Another
By summer the French were slowly but surely coming undone. Paris was firmly under Dutch control, nearly all resistance between the Somme and the Seine had been eliminated, and Nancy was retaken after heavy fighting. The French king had hoped that the increasing Imperial threat to the United Provinces might force the Dutch to withdraw, but Brandt was seized with a determination to win in the south. A retreat would only give France time to rebuild for another attack.
The defeat of France’s last major army in the north at Cambray signaled the end. Atrecht’s marauding companies were in the process of razing half the country to the ground, while the king’s inability to even try and retake Paris threatened to topple his rule. A meeting of envoys in Châteauroux ended with a truce after France agreed to surrender claims beyond the Authie and Meuse rivers. The Dutch refused to return Luxembourg, given the fortress’ vital importance in the ongoing war with Austria. The French protested the move but were left with few options to contest the move.
It was now the height of summer, 1711. The armies of the Netherlands were spread across the landscape of France, 300 miles from the capital. The Austrians were much closer.