Battle of Fontenoy

The Battle of Fontenoy was a major engagement of the War of the Austrian Succession, fought on 11 May 1745 near Tournai in modern Belgium. A French army of 50,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of roughly the same size, led by the Duke of Cumberland. At the beginning of 1745, the French were struggling to finance the war but held the initiative in the Austrian Netherlands, which offered the best opportunity for a decisive victory. In late April 1745, Saxe besieged Tournai, whose position on the upper Scheldt made it a vital link in the North European trading network, and thus meant the Allies would have to fight for it. Leaving 22,000 men in front of Tournai, Saxe placed his main force about 8 kilometres away in the villages of Antoing, Vezon and Fontenoy, along a naturally strong feature strengthened with defensive works.

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