On 26 July 1757 a French army under Marshal d'Estrées attacked the allied army of the Duke of Cumberland at Hastenbeck, near Hameln on the Weser, to conquer Hanover, the German electorate of Britain's King George II. The French turned Cumberland's left and took his main battery. A surprise counterattack threw them into such confusion that d'Estrées briefly ordered a retreat, but Cumberland had already broken off the fight. He fell back north, and in September he agreed at Kloster-Zeven to disband his army.
An army to defend Hanover
When the Seven Years' War began, Hanover was ruled by George II of Britain, Prussia's ally, and so lay open to France. In the spring of 1757 the French gathered a large army on the lower Rhine under d'Estrées to occupy it. To meet them Cumberland, George II's son, took command of an army of Hanoverians, Hessians and Brunswickers; the Russian Military Encyclopedia of 1911 to 1915 gives it 48,000 men, the Dictionary of National Biography about 40,000. The French force that marched on Hanover was much larger: about 70,000 men with 300 guns according to the encyclopedia, double the duke's strength according to the dictionary.1 › Battle of Minorca, 1756
The Dictionary of National Biography says that Frederick the Great wanted the army to advance toward the Rhine, but the Hanoverian ministers who advised the duke insisted it stay on the defensive in the electorate. As the French crossed into Westphalia and then over the Weser, Cumberland fell back to a position behind the village of Hastenbeck, with his right under the guns of Hameln, his left on wooded heights and a swamp in front.2
Turned, then saved
The French advanced on 24 July, and after outpost fighting their columns closed on the position; the Russian Military Encyclopedia says that on 25 July General Chevert drove the Brunswick troops out of the village of Afferde on the allied left. Early on 26 July Chevert attacked again, working through the woods against the heights, and the French went over to a general attack. They turned the allied left and captured Cumberland's principal battery, and the allied line set fire to Hastenbeck and began to fall back.3
Then the battle swung. The encyclopedia credits the Hereditary Prince of Brunswick, using the broken ground, with leading two battalions unseen onto the height on the French right and retaking the battery. The Dictionary of National Biography describes three Hanoverian battalions sent round the woods that struck the flank of the French columns. Both say the blow caused such confusion that the French too began to withdraw, and the dictionary adds that d'Estrées at one moment ordered a retreat. But Cumberland had already used the moment to break off the battle, and by the time d'Estrées restored order the allied army had left the field in good order.4
From Hastenbeck to Kloster-Zeven
The losses were modest for a battle that decided a campaign. The Dictionary of National Biography says Cumberland lost only 1,200 men; the Russian Military Encyclopedia gives 2,500 allied and up to 2,000 French casualties, and adds that the fortress of Hameln surrendered to the French the next day.5
Cumberland made no further stand. Under the king's instructions he retreated north toward Stade on the lower Elbe, where the Hanoverian archives and treasury had been placed, while the French, now under the Duke of Richelieu, followed with far greater numbers. Cut off from British ships and facing surrender, he signed the Convention of Kloster-Zeven on 8 September 1757, agreeing that hostilities would cease and his army would be broken up. The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica records that George II refused to be bound by the terms, and that Cumberland, disgraced, resigned his offices and retired into private life.6
Also on this day
- 1476: Battle of Valea Albă. At Valea Albă, also called Războieni, Stephen the Great and his Moldavian army faced an Ottoman invasion led in person by Sultan Mehmed II.
