This fourth and final part of our study concentrates on the early
18th century War of Spanish Succession. It was the largest and most
difficult conflict in Europe since the Thirty Years War and
unsurpassed until the Napoleonic Wars. It started because of
Bourbon France and Habsburg Austria's conflicting candidates to the
Spanish that soon involved other nations such as Great Britain and
the Netherlands. It was mostly fought on three fronts: Flanders,
northern Italy and Spain. Due to various factors, it proved to be a
very difficult period for the Sun King. During the first decade,
there were repeated and massive defeats in Flanders and Germany
where French princes and marshals proved to be unequal to the
genial Duke of Marlborough and the competent Prince Eugene. The
hard-pressed French forces in the northern Italian front eventually
collapsed in 1706. The Spanish front, although it started badly for
Felipe V, the French pretender, things improved and the allied
troops supporting the Austrian Carlos III were decisively defeated
in 1707, again in 1710 and finally at Barcelona in 1714. Meanwhile,
following the hard fought battle at Malplaquet, the main French
armies, that were amazingly resilient reflecting the nation's
tenacity from the Sun King to the humblest folks, now had some
success under Marshal Villars culminating in the strategic 1712
victory at Denain. This led to many previous allied gains now being
lost. This was happening when Great Britain basically withdrew its
support for the war. The treaties signed from 1713 basically gave
the Sun King and France what it most wanted: Felipe V as King of
Spain and its empire. It was a hard fought conflict but, in the
end, France won. The study then discusses the economic and the
serious climactic effects notably brought about by the awful winter
of 1708-1709 in France that was also severe in other countries. The
economic pressure was enormous on the Sun King's government, but it
finally managed to go through it thanks to the amazing resilience
of the French economy. French histories often state it was
catastrophic, yet Britain's economy had a national debt rising up
to four times faster than France's and this was obviously a factor
in Britain's withdrawal from the alliance. The French army's
technical and support services, many of which were the first to be
organised as corps befitting a modern army, are next presented. The
artillery that was totally militarised and its materiel modernised
to standards copied by all other nations. Engineering under the
guidance of Marshal Vauban became peerless and imitated in all
nations. Up to the Sun King's time, old and crippled veteran
soldiers were left to a pauper's miserable survival; he first
introduced a pension system and, in the 1670s, had the splendid
Invalides hospital built in Paris to care for these soldiers. We
will also glance at what religious personnel was attached to army
units and hospitals to care for soldiers broken bodies and souls.
Since Medieval times in France, troops that were considered part of
the army were specifically concerned with controlling bandits and
applying the law under the command of a Marshal. Their original
name of archers remained long after they adopted firearms and they
could be found in all parts of France. They still are today, but
under the name of gendarme in most countries. They were often
veteran soldiers and this section will also feature what
punishments a soldier could expect when condemned of some
wrongdoing. Many towns and cities had their own regular local
troops on duty as garrisons and security corps and we describe a
number of these well appointed and effective soldiers, some of whom
saw action. A fairly large section is devoted to the reserve
forces. France had three types of militias. The best-known is the
1688 Royal Militia, which was the first integrated system leading
to what became national conscription for military service in the
regular armies. Next to unknown are the Coast Guard Militia
organisation that might might muster 150,000 men and, most of all,
the Bourgeois Militia in all the cities and towns of the realm that
probably amounted to some half a million men, many of them well
armed and uniformed. This section includes a number of notices
describing the Bourgeois Militias and their Privileged companies
showing an almost totally unknown sedentary "territorial" army that
performed well in the few times when some were called upon. The
last section will be a look at the social life of soldiers, their
"families", camp followers and and sutlers. There were many women
and children in the wake of regiments, as prints show and some
documents elude, but they were not officially recognised in the
army yet should not be forgotten.
General
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