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Disposition of the Forces
(click map to view full size) The position taken up by the French army extended from the North West, at the village of La Folie, which marked the extreme left of their line, across the undulating meadows running South East to the Chausee Brunehaut road and the Wood of Lainieres, which secured their right flank. Across the entire front of this line Villars had constructed field works and entrenchments, which included, in the centre, five redoubts. The Wood of Laineres had been fortified with lines of breastworks, and abbatis placed forward to slow down the attacking columns. In front of the French left wing stretched the Wood of Sars (also sometimes called the Wood of Taisnieres). Villars had incorporated the southern tip of this wood within his main battle position, and, as with the Wood of Laineres, had prepared it for defence by building breastworks and earthworks also protected by lines of abbatis. Villars had been joined by Marshal Louise Francois, Duc de Boufflers, whom he now gave command of the French right wing. Here were ranged some 63 battalions of infantry. On the extreme right, occupying the fieldworks and Wood of Laineres was General D'Artagan with 46 battalions and a six-gun battery. A small depression in the ground crosses the battlefield from near the village of Aulnois and cuts its way into the French position at this point, and as well as incorporating the re-entrant which this made into the line of his entrenchments, Villars also made it into an ideal place within which to conceal a twenty gun battery so as to enfilade any troops attacking across its front. On D'Artagan's left, occupying the breastworks that overlooked the Farm of Biairon, General De Guich was positioned with 18 battalions, with a twenty-gun battery on his left at the point where the first of the five redoubts covering the French centre was situated. Here thirteen battalions held the line of redoubts, with four more in support. Thirty cannon had been sighted in front and to the flanks of this these works. To the left again came the projecting tongue of the Wood of Sars, which was occupied by General Albergotti with 21 battalions lining the entrenchments within, and at the forward edge of the wood itself. A five-gun battery was placed at the centre, and in close support of this line. To the left again came General Goesbriand with 17 battalions of the extreme left wing. To the rear of the infantry lines Villars deployed his cavalry, which included the Maison du Roi and the Gendarmerie. In all some 180 squadrons. Villars stationed himself near the village of Malplaquet. Marlborough and Eugene reconnoitred these strong fortified lines on the 10th of September, and decided upon using the same overall tactics that had brought them victory at Blenheim. The French right and left flanks would come under heavy attacks causing Villars to draw off troops from his centre to contain them. When the French centre became suitably weakened, the allied infantry reserve would advance to occupy the central redoubts, allowing the massed squadrons of their cavalry to pass through and secure victory. To this end 40 allied battalions under General Schulenburg, in three huge, deep and compact lines, would move against the northern face of the Wood of Sars. This attack was supported by a twenty-gun battery, plus a contingent of 1,900 men called in from the siege of Mons who would march into the woods even further north to cover the allied right flank. On Schulenburg's left, General Lottom with 22 battalions, and supported by a forty gun battery and 30 squadrons of cavalry under The Prince of Auvergne, would march as if to attack the French central redoubts, but at the last moment he would make a turn to his right, throwing his whole weight against the French troops of General Albergotti holding the tongue shaped salient of the Wood of Sars, at its southern extremity. The Allied centre under the command of Lord Orkney, consisted of 15 battalions of infantry including 11 British, were stretched in a single line from Lottums left, across to the small wood of Tiry, and were backed by a powerful force of some 179 squadrons of cavalry. The allied left wing was commanded by the young Prince of Orange, but tempered by the sage- like, if not always welcome, advice of generals Tilly and Oxenstiern. Much debate has occurred over the actual roll that was to be played by the Dutch forces on this wing. Certainly the Prince of Orange himself was under no illusion, and considered that his part in the battle consisted of penetrating and destroying the French to his front. It does indeed seem that the task allocated to this wing was to have originally been far greater, and the Prince may be forgiven for thinking that his main objective was to drive-in the French right flank. His original force was to have been 49 battalions and 32 squadrons, supported by eighteen cannon, but 19 battalions under General Withers, together with 10 squadrons commanded by General Miklau had been diverted to the extreme allied right wing to be used in a flanking attack against the left and rear of the French line, in itself a novel idea during this period. Unfortunately for the Dutch Prince, Marlborough was not one to confined his plans to his subordinates, and it is quite possible that, like the attack on the Wood of Sars by Schulenburg and Lottum, the Prince of Orange took it for granted that his part in the battle was to do all he could to overrun the French right wing, not merely contain it? The Allied front covered some 6,000 meters and, unusually for those times, the views across it were very restricted owing to the various woods and coppices, which reduced the field of vision greatly for both armies. Marlborough himself took station behind Orkney's British battalions, while Prince Eugene marched at the head of Schulenburg's second line.
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