Battle of ROCROI: Short Summary

The history of humanity is full of warlike events, such as numerous battles. Some pass without pain or glory, but others achieve great fame, often because they bring great consequences. In the case of Spain, there are a series of battles throughout the Modern Age that caused its great military power to decline.

To talk about one of these battles, in this lesson from a TEACHER we are going to discuss the battle of Rocroi with a short summary.

To talk about the battle of Rocroi or Rocroy we must comment on the war to which it belongs, this being the call Thirty Years War. This conflict it happened in Europe between 1618 and 1648, and faced the majority of European powers of the time.

The conflict had several phases, being a religious war, due to the European break that had arisen due to the reform and counter-reform, but with the entry of other countries there were other interests. So although the war was initially between Catholics and ProtestantsThere was a time when countries like France and Spain realized that they could profit from battles.

The 30 years war It is usually divided into 4 phases, and the Battle of Rocroi can be placed in the fourth of these phases, which is usually referred to as the French phase. This part of the war is characterized by the entry of France into the conflict, which faced the union of Germans and Spanish, which had been weakened by so many years of war.

At the same time that the Spanish were fighting against other states, they had a series of problems on the Catalan side, the so-called reapers war, being a great uprising of the Catalans that lasted for almost 20 years, and that was largely responsible for the defeat of the Spanish in The Thirty Years' War.

In 1643, to reduce the great pressure suffered by the Franche-Comté area and the Catalan part, the Spanish attacked the northern part of France, besieging Rocroi, a small town located near the French border and Belgium. Seeing this situation, the French decided to send troops to stop the siege and seek an open field battle. This being the moment when the battle of Rocroi began.

On the one hand, troops sent by the French were led by the Duke of Enghien, who years later would become Louis II of Bourbon. On the other hand, spanish troops, which were less numerous, were led by Francisco de Melo, a Spanish politician who had ruled in Sicily and was then governor of the Netherlands.

After the arrival of the French there was a two-day break, in which neither side attempted any type of attack, preparing for the battle that was to take place. It was at that moment when a deserter from the Spanish army warned the French that they should quickly attack the city, since the Spanish had requested reinforcements and they would not take long to arrive.

Shortly after, in the early morning of May 19, 1643, the French infantry made the first attack against the Spanish, but they failed after a great defense of the Spanish thirds. After that the French sought an attack with their left cavalry, but the Spanish managed to defend themselves and then launch a counterattack with the cavalry, almost defeating the French horses, but being finally repelled thanks to the reserve troops French. But not all were defeats for the French, since the right cavalry was able to defeat the Spanish. Therefore both armies had managed to win on their right but had lost on their left.

The French decided that the best way to win was not by supporting their center and left, but by taking advantage of their victory on the right to continue attacking on that flank. The French right cavalry turned the Spanish troops around and attacked the Spanish right flank from behind, thereby defeating the entire Spanish cavalry. The Spanish infantry was surrounded on all sides by the French, many fleeing from them, while Francisco de Melo asked his thirds to hold out until the reinforcement.

More than half of the French infantry was repelled by the Spanish thirds, but the continuous charges of the French cavalry joined the flight of German soldiers who fought alongside the Spanish, caused the Spanish formations to end up breaking. Finally, the Spanish surrendered, winning the Battle of Rocroi the French.

To conclude this lesson on the battle of Rocroi with a short summary, we should talk about the consequences which brought French victory in battle. Some of the main consequences are the following:

• The defeat marks the beginning of the end of the hegemony of the Spanish thirds, who were considered the strongest troops in Europe.
• Spain was losing its military hegemony, passing the baton to a very strengthened France.
• This defeat was followed by other similar ones that caused Spain to lose the Thirty Years' War.
• The great strategy of Louis II of Bourbon greatly increased his reputation, rising through the French military ranks.
• The defeat in the war brought with it the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, which completely changed the European panorama. In this other lesson from a TEACHER we explain What was the Treaty of the Pyrenees?.