The essence of war: French armies and small war in the Low Countries (1672–1697)

Abstract

In the late seventeenth century during the Dutch War (1672–1678) and the Nine Years War (1688–1697), French armies relied on small war for the accomplishment of essential tasks and as part of an overall strategy of exhausting their opponents in the Low Countries. The purposes of small war included the imposition of contributions on enemy populations, the destruction of the enemy base of operations, blockades of fortresses, and the general support of campaign armies. The expression ‘small war’ in the French language appeared with growing frequency in the 1690s. Small war can be viewed as both a cause and consequence of the characteristics of these wars. The limited policy goals of Louis XIV the king of France required a strategy that minimised risk and accomplished the goal of reducing if not eliminating the Spanish presence in the Low Countries that bordered the north of France. As French armies increased in size during this period, the demand for specialists at small increased in order to provide security and ensure supply. Small war in the late seventeenth century was thus not ideologically motivated insurgency, but in the minds of French commanders an essential component of strategy and the nature of war.

Keywords::

• partisans
• petite guerre
• small war
• Dutch War
• Nine Years War
• Marshal Luxembourg
• contributions
• raids
• strategy of exhaustion

Notes

^1. Courtilz, Histoire de la guerre de Hollande, 2: 1.

^2. Lynn, Giant of the Grand Siècle; Peschot, ‘La guérilla à l'époque moderne’; La guerre buissonnière; Satterfield, Princes, Posts and Partisans.

^3. On the growing demand for partisans and the viewpoint of France's leading soldier of the 1690s, Marshal Luxembourg, see especially Fonck, ‘Le maréchal de Luxembourg’.

^4. Lynn, ‘How War fed War’; Giant of the Grand Siècle, 184–217. The author speaks of a ‘tax of violence’ to designate the violent requisitions and plunder, progressively limited by the administration of the reign of Louis XIV, and replaced in large part by contributions. Peschot, ‘Les “lettres de feu”’. The work of Jean-Pierre Rorive provides a precious study of the subject and the consequences of the actions of French armies at Huy and in its region in Les misères de la guerre sous le Roi-Soleil.

^5. Chanet and Windler, Les ressources des faibles.

^6. Satterfield, Princes, Posts and Partisans, 42–3.

^7. Service Historique de la Défense [henceforth SHD], library, Recueil Cangé, Ordonnance du Roi, concernans les contributions… 23 September 1673, vol. 23, no. 21.

^8. For example, the engraver Nicolas Guérard on the subject of parties in the series Exercises de Mars, published in 1695, utilised the expression petite guerre to describe their general purpose.

^9. SHD, GR A¹ 484, no. 294, Louvois to Chamilly, 7 September 1676.

^10. SHD, GR A¹ 943, no. 178, Marly.

^11. SHD, GR A1, 537, no. 132, Mélac to Calvo, 26 April 1677.

^12. Cénat, ‘Le Ravage du Palatinat’.

^13. Gazette de France, Liège, 7 February 1675.

^14. SHD, GR, A¹ 498, no. 17, Estrades to Louvois, 5 January 1676.

^15. SHD, GR, A¹ 486, no. 105, Estrades to Louvois, 12 January 1676.

^16. SHD, GR, A¹ 486, no. 301, Humières to Louvois, 26 January 1676.

^17. SHD, GR A1, 486, no. 11, Chamilly to Louvois, 1 January 1676.

^18. SHD, GR A¹ 487, no. 89, Chamilly to Louvois, 27 February 1676.

^19. SHD, GR A¹ 533, no page, Louvois to Calvo, 2 August 1677.

^20. Larmessin, Les grandes victories.

^21. Mercure Hollandois, March 1676.

^22. SHD, GR A¹ 593, no. 60, 13 October 1678.

^23. SHD, GR A¹ 448, no. 20, Estrades to Louvois, 6 January 1675.

^24. Cénat, Le roi stratège.

^25. SHD, GR A¹ 500, no. 262, Quincy to Louvois, 23 July 1676.

^26. SHD, GR A¹ 485, no. 313, Louvois to Bulonde, 29 December 1676.

^27. Mercure François, December 1676.

^28. SHD, GR A¹ 536, no. 7, Bulonde to Louvois, 5 February 1677.

^29. SHD, GR A¹ 484, no. 203, Louis XIV to Louvois, 1 August 1676.

^30. SHD, GR A¹ 595, no. 19, Louvois to Montal, 3 January 1678.

^31. Jeanmougin, Louis XIV à la conquête des pays-bas espagnols, 31–2.

^32. SHD, GR A¹ 943, no. 186, Luxembourg to Louvois, 5 September 1690.

^33. SHD, GR A¹ 485, no. 214, Louvois to Du Chaunoy, 22 December 1676.

^34. SHD, GR A¹ 1051, no. 24, Louis XIV to Luxembourg, Versailles, 4 September 1691.

^35. Journal du marquis de Dangeau, 5–6 July 1693.

^36. SHD, GR A¹ 405, no. 173, Le Peletier to Louvois, 5 July 1674.

^37. SHD, GR A¹ 405, no. 186, Robert to Louvois, 10 July 1674.

^38. SHD, GR A¹ 1140, no page, Luxembourg to Louis XIV, 19 September 1692.

^39. SHD, GR A¹ 1139, no page, Luxembourg to Louvois, 5 August 1692.

^40. Gazette de France, Charleroi, 26 August 1675.

^41. Sarmant, ‘Une seconde cavalerie’, 233–5.

^42. SHD, GR A¹ 1047, no. 21, ordre de marche de l'armée pour le 19 mai 1691, partant de Curne sur la Lys pour aller à Hautrive sur l'Escaut.

^43. SHD, GR A¹ 1048, no. 52, ordre de marche pour le 9 août 1691, de Cerfontaine à Lugny prés Beaumont.

^44. Drévillon, L'impôt du sang.

^45. SHD, GR A¹ 1048, no. 41, Luxembourg to Louis XIV, 6 August 1691, and A¹ 1048, no. 43, 8 August 1691.

^46. Saint-Simon, Mémoires, 1: 239.

^47. SHD, GR A¹ 1139, no page, Luxembourg to Louis XIV, 21 August 1692.

^48. SHD, GR A¹ 942, no. 5, Saint-Amand, 9 May 1690.

^49. SHD, GR A¹ 943, no. 223, Luxembourg to Louvois, 5 October 1690.

^50. SHD, GR A¹ 1049, no page, Bagnols to Louvois, 5 July 1691.

^51. Mémoires du Marechal de Villars, 1: 13–14.

^52. SHD, GR A¹ 1138, no page, Louis XIV to Luxembourg, 22 September 1692.

^53. SHD, GR A¹ 1041, no. 39, Louis XIV to Luxembourg, 31 July 1691.

^54. Drévillon, L'impôt du sang.

^55. Heuser, ‘Small Wars in the Age of Clausewitz’, and see the Introduction to this issue.

^56. Decker, Der kleine Krieg.

^57. On the preponderance of the ‘Napoleonic Paradigm’, see Heuser, ‘Victory, Peace, and Justice’.