Battle of Fontenoy, 1745

BATAILLE DE FONTENOY / Gagné par les Troupes du Roy / Le 11 May 1745

A map of the Battle of Fontenoy, 11 May 1745, fought between the French, commanded by Louis XV (1710-74) and Marshal Maurice of Saxony (1696-1750), and the Allied army, commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland (1721-65), resulting in a French victory. War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48). Oriented with south-east to top.

The date of 1751 has been suggested for publication because that was the year in which the dedicatee, Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson, received the Ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis which forms a prominent feature of the dedication cartouche. Panckoucke died in July 1753, giving a terminus ante quem to the publication date. It is possible that it was published in honour of the Count's decoration. He was, at the time of the battle, sécrétaire d'État de la Guerre.

The map shows the first stages of the battle, when the British and Hanoverian troops were being raked by fire from the batteries of Eu and Fontenoy, before they had formed into a square on advancing through the gap between Fontenoy and the Bois de Barry. It also shows the Dutch being almost decimated by the fire from the battery on the west side of the Scheldt, as well as those from Antoing and between Antoing and Fontenoy.

Dedication: [bottom left in cartouche representing draped material above which are the arms of Marc-Pierre de Voyer de Paulmy, comte d'Argenson (1696-1764), surmounted by a crown supporting a lion passant guardant holding in his right paw a sword, and in his left an open book, the whole laid down on a maltese cross representing the grand-croix de l'ordre royal et militaire de Saint-Louis:] DEDIÉ ET PRESENTÉE / A Monseigneur D argenson / Ministre Secretaire d'Estat de la Guerre / Chancelier Commandeur de l'Ordre Militaire / de S.t Louis et sur intēdant Général des Postes et Relais de France / Par ses tres Humbles et tres Obeißant / Serviteurs Bailleul le jeune Géographe / et Pankouke Libraire.

Additional text: [top centre, a note that the Regiment Grassin had distinguished itself before, during, and after the battle:] Le Regiment de Graßin s'est distingué / avant l'action, pendant l'action, apres l'action. [top right, below title, in title panel, a key, A-I, K-T, V, X-Z, to named French regiments.

For further reading, see:
Y. Combeau, Le comte d’Argenson (1696-1764), ministre de Louis XV, Paris, 1999, Mémoires et documents de l’Ecole des chartes, 55.

Condition: one fold line. Verso: induced discolouration; bottom right, water-stained patch from the removal of Cumberland's cipher label - any shadow or ghosting has been trimmed off. This was evidently a much larger sheet from which a considerable amount was trimmed, probably during the late eighteenth or early nineteenth centuries.