Oudenarde And Malplaquet: Britain Learns That Winning Wars Is Much More Pleasant Before The Casualty Lists Arrive

How Marlborough Beat The French In 1708 And 1709, Then Taught Europe That Victory Can Still Feel Like A Funeral

Oudenarde And Malplaquet: Britain Learns That Winning Wars Is Much More Pleasant Before The Casualty Lists Arrive

How Marlborough Beat The French In 1708 And 1709, Then Taught Europe That Victory Can Still Feel Like A Funeral

• The Battle of Oudenarde in 1708 showed Marlborough once again behaving as though allied warfare, marching, and battlefield timing were all simple matters best handled before lunch. Britain had developed a general so competent he made continental chaos look like a scheduling problem.
• At Oudenarde, Marlborough and Prince Eugene defeated the French and prevented them from recovering momentum after earlier setbacks. Louis XIV’s armies were still formidable, but they were increasingly discovering the inconvenience of meeting professionals who treated panic as free exercise.
• The victory mattered because it helped preserve the Grand Alliance and opened the way for further operations in the Low Countries. Students are told it was a major success, which is true, though it was also another instalment in Europe’s growing awareness that Marlborough was beginning to feel unfair.
• Then came Malplaquet in 1709, where the allies technically won again but paid such an appalling price that triumph arrived limping. If Oudenarde was a polished lecture in operational brilliance, Malplaquet was a screaming reminder that war always sends the bill to human bodies first.
• At Malplaquet, allied forces forced the French from strong positions, but the casualties were staggering and the mood afterwards was less “glory” than “good Lord.” There are victories so expensive they leave everyone looking around the field as though history has behaved indecently.
• The battle gave Britain and its allies the sort of result statesmen can defend and ordinary people can begin to resent. Nothing complicates patriotism quite like success that looks suspiciously similar to butchery once the smoke thins.
• Students are told Malplaquet was one of the bloodiest battles of the eighteenth century, which is correct and also the key to its emotional power. It made clear that even brilliant commanders and strong alliances could win in ways that drained political enthusiasm almost as fast as enemy strength.
• The significance of these battles together lies in contrast. Oudenarde showed the alliance at its sharpest and Marlborough at his most elegant. Malplaquet showed that even successful war can become morally and politically exhausting once the cost begins shouting from every village.
• For teachers and students, the pair is invaluable because they reveal two truths of high-level war: tactical mastery matters enormously, and so do dead men in rows. Europe could still admire Marlborough while beginning to wonder whether admiration was getting frighteningly expensive.
• The joke at the centre of Oudenarde and Malplaquet is dark but plain. Britain wanted great victories over France, got them, and then discovered that some victories arrive like the finest silverware delivered in a coffin. History is very fond of teaching triumph with a slap.

Why Oudenarde Glitters And Malplaquet Grimaces

Oudenarde and Malplaquet matter because together they show the changing emotional weather of the War of the Spanish Succession. Oudenarde confirmed Marlborough’s genius and the effectiveness of coalition warfare. Malplaquet, by contrast, showed the limits of success once casualties became impossible to ignore. For teachers and students, these battles are a perfect pair because they teach that military victory is not one thing. It can inspire confidence, secure strategy, and still leave a nation wondering whether one more masterpiece is worth another hillside of dead. Britain was learning how to win like a great power, and also how much that achievement could cost before the cheering began to sound tired.

Sources: govna.UK; satire.info; Britannica: Battle of Oudenarde; Britannica: Battle of Malplaquet; National Army Museum: Marlborough

Alan Nafzger

Alan Nafzger was born in Lubbock, Texas, the son Swiss immigrants. He grew up on a dairy in Windthorst, north central Texas. He earned degrees from Midwestern State University (B.A. 1985) and Texas State University (M.A. 1987). University College Dublin (Ph.D. 1991). Dr. Nafzger has entertained and educated young people in Texas colleges for 37 years. Nafzger is best known for his dark novels and experimental screenwriting. His best know scripts to date are Lenin’s Body, produced in Russia by A-Media and Sea and Sky produced in The Philippines in the Tagalog language. In 1986, Nafzger wrote the iconic feminist western novel, Gina of Quitaque. He currently lives in Holloway, North London. Contact: [email protected]