Schematic plan · War of the Spanish Succession

Battle of Malplaquet

11 September 1709
Spanish Netherlands
Victory for England and Holy Roman Empire

All battles The event in the chronicle Wikipedia

A schematic plan, generated from the statistics of the CAA Database of Battles: the armies' size and width, the hours of fighting, the plan of attack and the outcome are as recorded; the ground and the positions are not.

England and Holy Roman Empire (Allied Army, 110,000 men under Marlborough & Eugene) attacked France (Fr & Bav Army, 80,000 men under Villars & Boufflers) in Spanish Netherlands. The CAA Database of Battles records 7 hours of fighting on a front of 8.2 km, a frontal attack against prepared defense, and that England and Holy Roman Empire won. Losses: England and Holy Roman Empire 24,000 (22%), France 12,000 (15%).

This plan is generated from those figures. It shows the shape of the battle the database describes: the size and width of the armies, the plan of attack and the outcome. It does not show where the units actually stood.

The armies

England and Holy Roman Empire

Marlborough · Eugene

Unit	Arm	Men
England left wing	Infantry	20,040
England centre	Infantry	26,720
England right wing	Infantry	20,040
England reserve	Infantry	16,700
England cavalry of the left	Cavalry	12,500
England cavalry of the right	Cavalry	12,500
England artillery (100 guns)	Artillery	1,500
Marlborough & Eugene	Commander	—
In this plan		110,000

France

Villars · Boufflers

Unit	Arm	Men
France left wing	Infantry	12,984
France centre	Infantry	17,312
France right wing	Infantry	12,984
France reserve	Infantry	10,820
France cavalry of the left	Cavalry	12,500
France cavalry of the right	Cavalry	12,500
France artillery (60 guns)	Artillery	900
Villars & Boufflers	Commander	—
In this plan		80,000

What the sources report

	England	France
Strength, this plan	110,000	80,000
Losses, this plan	24,000	12,000

In the CAA Database of Battles

CDB90 no. 53, “Malplaquet”, compiled for the US Army to study what decides battles. These are the figures a what-if engine can be calibrated against.

Fighting: 7 hours
Winner: the attacker
Terrain: Rolling, Mixed
Weather: Dry, Sunny, Temperate, Autumn, Temperate
Defender’s posture: Prepared defense
Front width: 8.2 km (attacker), 8.8 km (defender)

Force	Strength	Losses	Horse	Guns	Plan and outcome
England & Holy Roman Empireattacker	110,000	24,000	25,000	100	Frontal attack; Penetration
Francedefender	80,000	12,000	25,000	60	Defensive/offensive plan; Frontal attack; Withdrew

Attacker’s advantages initiative +1

CDB90 (US Army Concepts Analysis Agency, 1990), tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold; data under ODC-BY 1.0.

Notes

On this reconstruction

Generated automatically from the statistics in CDB90. Frontages, depths, distances, the order of events and the terrain are schematic: they follow the recorded strengths, front widths, hours of fighting, tactical plan and outcome, not maps or accounts of the battle. The sources give no hours; the timing is conjectural.

Sources

US Army Concepts Analysis Agency; tidy edition by Jeffrey B. Arnold, CAA Database of Battles (CDB90), no. 53 · ODC-BY-1.0Strengths, losses, front widths, hours of fighting, tactics and outcome.
Wikipedia contributors, Battle of Malplaquet · CC-BY-SA-4.0

Facts gathered from Wikidata (CC0), Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Wikimedia Commons (licence per file); the plan and its text are timeastra’s own.