Battle of Rocoux, 1746: Maurice de Saxe's victory outside Liège

The War of the Austrian Succession went badly for the allies in the Low Countries. After defeating them at Fontenoy in 1745, Marshal Maurice de Saxe took Tournai. The Jacobite rising in Britain then forced the withdrawal of most of the British troops and their commander, the Duke of Cumberland, and during the winter of 1745 to 1746 the French took Louvain, Brussels and Antwerp.²

In June 1746 Lieutenant General Sir John Ligonier returned to Flanders with troops freed by the defeat of the Jacobites. He found a grim situation: Saxe lay at Louvain with about 120,000 men, the Prince of Conti threatened Charleroi with another strong army, and the line of fortress towns along the Meuse, Charleroi, Namur, Liège and Maastricht, was in danger.³

An army of many masters

The Pragmatic Army of Dutch, British, Hanoverian and Hessian troops took the field late, on 12 July, and joined Prince Charles of Lorraine's Austrian contingent, bringing it to about 80,000 men. Charles, brother-in-law of the Empress Maria Theresa and commander of the largest contingent, held the overall command, with Ligonier leading the British and Hessians, Marshal Somerfeldt the Hanoverians and the Prince of Waldeck the Dutch. BritishBattles.com notes that the national contingents kept a high degree of independence, which made concerted action difficult.⁴

Saxe marched towards the Meuse. Charleroi fell, and Namur followed in late September. To protect Liège, the next town downstream, the allies crossed the river Jaar and took up a position facing west in a group of villages outside the city. A map from the Duke of Cumberland's collection in the Royal Collection shows their camp of 7 October and records that their rearguard was attacked and cannonaded that day by a French detachment.⁵

The line of villages

Ligonier's British and German troops, 12 battalions of foot and 5 regiments of horse and dragoons, held the center in three villages, Rocoux, which gave the battle its name, Varoux and Liers. The Dutch held the left from Rocoux into the fortified suburbs of Liège, and the Austrians the right towards the Jaar.⁶

On the evening of 10 October Saxe's army approached across the Jaar from the direction of Saint-Trond. The allies, outnumbered, sent their baggage across the Meuse in case they had to retreat. It rained all night, and the morning of 11 October broke in heavy mist as the French advanced in eight columns, four of foot and four of horse, against Liège, the Dutch and the British and Germans. The Austrians were left out of the main attack.⁷

Fifty-two battalions

News arrived that the authorities of Liège had opened their gates and that French troops were marching through the town to take the Dutch in the flank. Waldeck turned his line to meet them, and Ligonier took over the defense of Rocoux. Only now were the villages fortified and two British batteries brought up. The French attack on the Dutch did not begin until about three in the afternoon, and there was heavy fighting around the village of Ance.⁸

Then Saxe turned on the center. A battery of 36 guns pounded the two redoubts, and column after column of French infantry, 52 battalions in all, was thrown into Rocoux and Varoux, each brigade replacing the one before as it was repulsed. Within half an hour the eight British, Hanoverian and Hessian battalions in the two villages were driven out, although the Hanoverian General Zastrow held Liers. Two British battalions in reserve, the 19th and the 43rd, fought hard in a sunken road.⁹

The retreat across the Meuse

As agreed before the battle, the Dutch began to withdraw behind the British and German positions towards the Meuse. When the French infantry came out of the villages into open country, the British and Hanoverian dragoons drove them back in. With the cavalry covering them and reinforcements forming a new flank, the British and German regiments followed the Dutch to the river, and at nightfall the army crossed the Meuse on three pontoon bridges. Saxe made no attempt to interfere. The Austrians withdrew to the right across the Jaar and marched to Maastricht.¹⁰

BritishBattles.com puts French casualties at around 9,000, many of them caused by the mass assaults, and those of the British, Hanoverian and Hessian regiments at about 2,000. The Royal Collection map, drawn from a careful ground survey, records the outcome simply as a French victory.¹¹

It was the last action of the campaign: Saxe went into winter quarters, and the allies fell back to Maastricht and then Venlo. Both sides argued about it afterwards. Saxe's critics at the French court accused him of avoiding a decisive victory, by not attacking the Austrian flank or pressing the retreat, so as to prolong the war for his own benefit. In London King George II blamed Prince Charles and the Austrians for not coming to the help of the center and left, a criticism Ligonier himself thought unfair.¹² › Battle of Dettingen, 1743