Fontenoy

Background
The Battle
Battlefield Today
Pragmatic Army:
French Army
Photographs
Celebrations

STOP PRESS

260th Anniversary of the Siege of Tournai and Battle of Fontenoy    Details HERE

Introduction

In June I travelled to Belgium to walk the old battlefield of Fontenoy, which is situated about five miles south east  of the city of Tournai in the province of Hainault. My main aim in writing this article, and hopefully others on eighteenth century battlefields in Europe, is to follow the ideas in Chris Scott’s editorial (Battlefield, Volume 6 Issue 4) and try to relate how the ‘field’ influenced the ‘battle’. I may have just managed to cover the most salient points of the Fontenoy battlefield before they disappear forever under a maze of motorway links and conurbation areas, and I hope that this article will instil a sense of urgency on fellow Battlefield Trust members to walk this site before it is too late.

A brief outline of the events leading up to the battle and the positions of the various formations of the opposing armies will set the scene for a discussion of the topography of the ground as it was on that fateful morning of the 11^th May 1745, and the subsequent changes that have occurred to the battlefield over the last two hundred and fifty years.