Abstract
This article examines the 1709 French campaign in Flanders. It focuses on the dynamics between logistics and strategy. Chronic shortages of pay and provisions provoked a vigorous debate within the French military leadership over how the Army of Flanders should be used. Marshal Villars, the commander in the field, pushed for aggressively seeking battle with the enemy. Louis XIV and his advisers at Versailles advocated a cautious defense. This debate was eventually resolved in the king’s favor. The strategy implemented in Flanders did not just result in the survival of France during its moment of greatest weakness. It also provided a model for the French high command for the remaining years of the War of the Spanish Succession.
Read the full article
Members: read on EBSCO
Use the access code from this quarter's member email. Every issue since 1937 is online, with no embargo.
Lost your code? Email jmhsmh@vmi.edu or sign in at the EBSCOhost member login.
Not a member? Buy this article
A PDF sent by email from the Journal office during business hours, $10.
Through a library: sign in with your institution
Full text is in EBSCO's America: History and Life with Full Text and Historical Abstracts with Full Text, and through EBSCO Discovery.
Join: read everything, every year
Membership includes the printed journal and full online access to the archive.
Cite this article
Darryl Dee, “The Survival of France: Logistics and Strategy in the 1709 Flanders Campaign,” The Journal of Military History 84, no. 4 (October 2020): 1021–1050.