In an attempt to save Kaiserswerth from capture by the Allies, Boufflers, through attacking Nijmegen, hoped to force the numerically outnumbered army of Athlone into a battle by luring him away from his strong position.

The operation was a failure as the French were unable to take Nijmegen or to force Athone's army into a serious battle, despite inflicting more damage than received on the Allies during the skirmishes.

[7] An Allied army under the Prince of Nassau-Usingen began the siege of Kaiserswerth, in Germany, on 18 April to secure the eastern flank of the Dutch Republic.

Boufflers, with the intention to do a last attempt to save Kaiserwerth planned to force the numerically outnumbered army under Athlone into a battle by luring him away from his strong position.

[9] Nijmegen, an important and strategically located Dutch city, with its recently modernised fortifications designed by Menno van Coehoorn, was garrisoned by only two infantry battalions and was ill-prepared for a French attack.

If Athlone stayed behind in his strong position and left Nijmegen to fend for itself the city would have fallen in to French hands without much difficulty.

According to the historian James Falkner a French success at Nijmegen could have decisively ended the war in favour of Louis XIV.

Several rumours had already warned of such an undertaking and in the early morning of 10 June news arrived in the Anglo-Dutch camp that the French army under Boufflers and the Duke of Burgundy, the Dauphin of France, were on the march.

Boufflers and the Duke of Burgundy, now exposed to artillery fire from Nijmegen and incapable of forcing Athlone from his position decided to order a retreat around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.

The Marquis de Quincy later wrote that: One cannot praise enough the firmness of one English and one Danish cavalry regiment that withstood the artillery fire without wavering.

According to the historian Jan Willem Wijn, the retreat to Nijmegen counted as a striking testament to the excellent military qualities of the Dutch-English army.