Battle of Rethel

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Battle of Rethel
Battle of Rethel
Battle of Rethel
date December 15, 1650
place Sommepy , Saint-Etienne-à-Arnes and Semide
output French victory
Parties to the conflict

Grand Royal Coat of Arms of France & Navarre.svg Kingdom of France

Fronde des Princes
Royal Coat of Arms of Spain (1580-1668) .svg Kingdom of Spain

Commander

César du Plessis-Praslin

Henri de Turenne

Troop strength
75 regiments on foot and on horseback 52 regiments on foot and on horseback

The Battle of Rethel took place on December 15, 1650 during the Franco-Spanish War as part of the fighting against the uprisings of the Fronde and ended with a victory for the royal army against the insurgents, who were supported by a Spanish contingent. The battlefield was in the Sommepy , Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes and Semide area .

Circumstances of the battle

In her Mémoires (Chapter 8, relating to the year 1650) Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans reported that Cardinal Mazarin had insisted on naming the battle after "Rethel". The army was commanded by the Maréchal du Plessis-Praslin , but the cardinal was at that moment in Rethel, seven Lieues (approx. 22 km) away. Mademoiselle de Montpensier, not a friend of Mazarin's, accused him of having chosen this name only in order to be able to pin the merit of victory on his own flags. On this subject she also wrote:

“He claimed the merit of victory for himself [...] without the absence of the victorious, it would not have cost us any more [...] he led our troops on a campaign [...] like a minister preaches [...] Monsieur le Cardinal won the battle."

The royal troops were able to win the battle, partly because of their numerical superiority.

Various gentlemen in the French army attracted attention, including Antoine d'Aumont de Rochebaron (grandson of Maréchal Jean VI d'Aumont , marquis de Villequier). His services, which contributed much to the victory, earned him the title of Maréchal de France in the following year. The Marquis d'Hocquincourt and the Marquis de Villequier were appointed lieutenant-général .

The losers were the (then) follower of the Fronde, Henri de La Tour d'Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne , commanding commander of the Spanish troops of Leopold Wilhelm of Austria . Of the officers on Turenne's side, his cousin, Philip of the Palatinate , as Mestre de camp of a cavalry regiment and Lieutenant-General Charles-Christophe de Mazancourt , died in the battle . The Lieutenant-général La Fauge, the Marquis Jacques-Henri de Durfort , the Marquis Gabriel Henri de Beauvau, the Marquis Aimery-François de Béon du Massés, the Marquis Charles de Sainte-Maure, duc de Montausier , and the Comte de Ligneville were wounded.

After the Spaniards had occupied Rethel in 1653, they were driven out by Turenne (who had meanwhile changed sides) with the help of Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre after a four-day siege.

Desolation

The villages of Sçay and Puiseux near Semide remained as so-called devastations , which were destroyed in the course of the battle and not rebuilt. The same applies to Somme-Arne with its abbey, a neighboring village of Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes .

literature

  • La bataille de Rethel. 1650. In: Henri Fleury, Louis Paris: La Chronique de Champagne. Volume 3. Jacquet, Reims 1838, pp. 301-309 ( full text in the Google book search).
  • Relation de la bataille de Rethel. Extraite des mémoires de Puységur. Tome 2, page 393. In: Alexandre Petitot, Louis-Jean-Nicolas Monmerqué: Collection des mémoires relatifs à l'histoire de France. Volume 57. Foucault, Paris 1827, pp. 449-464 ( full text in the Google book search).
  • Jean-Nicolas-Isidore Louis: Histoire de Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes. Chapter 13: Bataille dite de Rethel (December 15, 1650). In: Travaux de l'Académie nationale de Reims. Issue 106, 1898–1899, Volume 2. F. Michaud, Reims 1902, pp. 134–148 ( digitized on Gallica ).

References and footnotes

  1. ↑ Claude Buirette writes (in: Histoire de la ville de Sainte-Ménehould et de ses environs , Poignée-Darnauld, Sainte-Ménehould 1837, p. 389; full text in the Google book search):

    “Actually it should be called the Battle of Sommepy or the White Hills , since the battle took place there. However, the term battle at Rethel has established itself because the king's army had its headquarters there. "

  2. ↑ 1 lieue de Paris (valid until 1674) corresponded to 3.248 km.
  3. ^ Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, duchesse de Montpensier : Mémoires, 1627−1693. Volume 1. Charpentier, Paris 1858, p. 288 ( full text in the Google book search; digitized on Gallica ). New editions: Librairie Fontaine, Paris 1985; Mercure de France, Paris 2005, ISBN 978-2-7152-2521-3 .
  4. ↑ This was a so-called Mazarinade , a political mockery song named after Cardinal Jules Mazarin , against whom the mockery was mainly directed.
  5. ↑ View in the cadastre of Semide from the year 1819, in which the property conditions are listed.
  6. ↑ To be seen in the cadastre of Saint-Étienne-à-Arnes from 1819, in which the property conditions are listed.

Web links

  • Le 15 December 1650 - La bataille de Rethel. D'après "La Chronique de Champagne" - H. Fleury - 1838. In: Au fil des mots et de l'histoire (blog). December 29, 2013

Coordinates: 49 ° 16 ′ 31 ″  N , 4 ° 31 ′ 18 ″  E