By Ian Woodbridge
Member of the
Guild of Battlefield Guides
The Battle of Casteau and St Denis was a little known action which took place just to the north of Mons in Belgium at the culminating point of the war between the Dutch and French which commenced in 1672.
Whilst a little known action, it is controversial as the draft Treaty of Nijmegen had been signed on 10 August, 4 days beforehand, which should have brought the 6 year conflict to a close. There is evidence that both William of Orange commanding the Allied Army and Duke of Luxembourg commanding the French Army went ahead and fought the battle anyway.
Both sides were evenly matched, the French at approximately 40,000 and the Allies consisting of some 50,000 Dutch, Spanish and various German contingents (men from Munster, Brandenburg, Zell and Osnabruck 15,000) and the Anglo-Dutch Brigade commanded by the Duke of Monmouth (Charles II illegitimate son). The main English Army of 16,000 was not present as it had just disembarked in Holland. At the time John Churchill was Charles II personal liaison officer to William and so it is possible he was present at the battle.
The battle was also extremely costly in terms of lives for the period with 3000 men killed and 4000 wounded. The allies on the attacking lost approximately 2000 killed and 2500 wounded and the French lost 940 men killed and 1560 wounded in defending.
The battlefield is largely unspoilt to this day. The action commenced at the Abbaye of St Denis, the period gates of which are in the photograph below. It finished with vicious hand to hand fighting at about midnight in the manor house and castle which stood on the site of the current farm built in 1711 (located in Casteau) where 800 Huguenots fighting for the Dutch were put to the sword.
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