FONTENOY AND GREAT BRITAIN’S SHARE IN THE WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION 1741-48

Cumberland performed poorly as a commander, ignoring advice from his more experienced subordinates, failing to ensure the Bois de Barry was properly cleared and issuing Ingoldsby with conflicting orders. Although praised for his courage, the inactivity of the Allied cavalry was partly due to his participation in the infantry attack, and loss of strategic oversight.
Ligonier and others viewed Fontenoy as a ‘defeat snatched from the jaws of victory’ and although understandable for a 24 year old in his first major engagement, the same faults were apparent at the Battle of Lauffeld in 1747.

Great Britain with her Austrian and Dutch allies fought to ensure that Maria Theresa of Austria should be able to take the throne of the Holy Roman Empire. Ranged against her interests was the might of Louis XV’s France, which strove to weaken Austria by promoting a Bavarian aspirant to the Imperial throne. On 11 May 1745 at Fontenoy in the Austrian Netherlands the two sides met in a ferocious day-long struggle that changed course of the war. Francis Henry Skrine’s narrative gives insight into the Battle of Fontenoy itself and more widely into the nature of warfare in Europe 250+ years ago.