Battle of Rocroi (1643): France Breaks the Spanish Tercios

The Battle of Rocroi, fought on 19 May 1643 in the Ardennes of north-eastern France, was a decisive French victory over the Spanish Army of Flanders. The 21-year-old Duke of Enghien, later famous as the Great Condé, broke a Spanish siege of the small fortress town of Rocroi and destroyed much of Spain’s veteran infantry. The battle became a legend in France as the moment the feared Spanish tercios were finally beaten.

Background

France and Spain had been at war since 1635, a struggle that ran alongside the Thirty Years’ War in Germany. Both were ruled by branches of rival dynasties, and France under Cardinal Richelieu aimed to break the encirclement of Habsburg Spain and Austria.

In early 1643 France seemed vulnerable. Richelieu had died in December 1642, and King Louis XIII was gravely ill; he died on 14 May 1643, leaving the throne to his four-year-old son, Louis XIV. Spain’s governor of the Netherlands, Francisco de Melo, saw an opportunity to invade northern France and threaten Paris.

Melo’s army, about 25,000–27,000 strong, crossed the border and laid siege to Rocroi, a small but well-placed fortress commanding a route into Champagne. A French army of roughly 22,000–23,000 men under the young Duke of Enghien marched to relieve it.

The town itself had only a small garrison, so time was short. The approach to Rocroi lay through woods and marshy ground, and the French had to pass a narrow gap to reach the plain where the Spanish army was camped.

The commanders

Enghien, Louis II de Bourbon, son of the Prince of Condé, had been given the command largely because of his royal rank. He was advised by the experienced Marshal de L’Hôpital, but he chose to fight rather than wait. His cavalry commander on the right, Jean de Gassion, was one of the most aggressive French officers.

On the Spanish side, the infantry was led by the veteran Walloon general Paul-Bernard de Fontaine, so infirm that he was carried in a chair. The cavalry wings were commanded by the Duke of Alburquerque and Count Ernst of Isenburg. Melo expected reinforcements of several thousand men under General Jean de Beck, but they did not arrive in time.

What happened

On 18 May Enghien led his army through a narrow defile into the open ground in front of Rocroi, which Melo surprisingly did not try to block. Both armies spent the night facing each other in the usual formation: infantry in the centre, cavalry on the wings.

At dawn on 19 May the French right under Enghien and Gassion attacked Alburquerque’s cavalry, partly outflanking it through a wood, and routed it. On the French left, however, the cavalry under La Ferté-Senneterre was beaten by Isenburg, whose horsemen captured French guns and threatened the French centre. The French reserve under Baron de Sirot steadied the line.

Enghien then made the decisive move. Instead of pursuing the beaten Spanish left, he led his cavalry behind the Spanish infantry and fell on Isenburg’s cavalry from the rear, driving it from the field.

The last stand of the tercios

The Spanish infantry was now isolated in the centre. The Spanish and Italian tercios formed squares of pikemen and musketeers and repelled several French cavalry and infantry attacks with heavy losses. Fontaine was killed in the fighting.

With French artillery now firing into their packed ranks and no hope of relief, the surviving Spanish officers signalled a wish to negotiate. In the confusion, firing broke out again and many more men were killed before the survivors finally surrendered with the honours of war. By late morning the battle was over.

Casualties

Losses are disputed, partly because of national pride on both sides. French accounts gave very high Spanish figures, while some Spanish historians argue for lower ones. Estimates of Spanish losses range from about 7,000 to 15,000 killed, wounded and captured; French losses are usually put at around 2,000–4,000. The French captured many guns and standards, and Melo’s army ceased to be a threat for that campaign.

Myths and facts

Myth: Rocroi ended Spanish military power. For centuries French writers presented Rocroi as the end of the Spanish tercios and of Spain’s role as Europe’s leading military power. In reality the Army of Flanders was rebuilt, held its ground in the Netherlands, and won battles later in the war, including at Valenciennes in 1656. Spain’s decline was gradual and mainly financial.

Fact: it was a heavy blow to Spanish prestige. Many of the best Spanish-born veterans were lost, and they were hard to replace. The defeat came as Spain was also fighting revolts in Catalonia and Portugal, so Rocroi did mark a shift in the balance between the two crowns.

Myth: the tercios were obsolete. The tercios at Rocroi fought with great discipline and were broken mainly by encirclement and artillery, not because their formation was useless. The Spanish army had already adopted smaller, more flexible units by the 1640s.

Consequences

Rocroi saved northern France from invasion at a moment of political weakness and gave the regency of Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin a welcome boost. Enghien went on to take Thionville later in 1643 and to win further battles in Germany and Flanders, becoming the Prince of Condé on his father’s death in 1646.

The war with Spain continued after the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the German war but not the Franco-Spanish conflict. During the civil wars of the Fronde, Condé himself rebelled and fought for Spain against France. Peace finally came with the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659.

Legacy

Rocroi quickly became part of French royal legend. Enghien’s victory, won in the first days of a new reign, was celebrated in prints, medals and later paintings, and the town of Rocroi still keeps its star-shaped bastioned walls, rebuilt and strengthened in the following decades. A memorial stone marks the battlefield outside the town.

The most famous literary treatment is the funeral oration for the Great Condé delivered by Bishop Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet in 1687. Bossuet described the young prince’s charge and the stubborn resistance of the Spanish infantry in celebrated passages that fixed Rocroi in French memory as a moment of national glory.

In Spain, the battle came to symbolise the courage of the tercios in defeat. It features at the end of the 2006 Spanish film Alatriste, based on the novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte, and in modern Spanish historical paintings. Military historians in both countries continue to debate the numbers involved and the significance of the battle, which makes Rocroi a good example of how national traditions shape the memory of war.

Timeline

• 1635, May: France declares war on Spain.
• 1642, 4 December: Cardinal Richelieu dies.
• 1643, 14 May: Louis XIII dies; Louis XIV becomes king aged four.
• 1643, mid-May: Francisco de Melo’s Spanish army besieges Rocroi.
• 1643, 18 May: Enghien’s army reaches the plain before Rocroi.
• 1643, 19 May: Battle of Rocroi; the Spanish army is defeated.
• 1643, August: Enghien captures Thionville.
• 1659, 7 November: The Treaty of the Pyrenees ends the Franco-Spanish war.

Why it matters

Rocroi launched the career of one of the great generals of the age and gave France confidence at the start of Louis XIV’s long reign. Its reputation as the end of Spanish greatness is exaggerated, but it remains a symbol of the shift of military leadership in Europe from Spain to France in the 17th century.