The Battle of Cremona took place on the night of 31 January to 1 February 1702, during the War of the Spanish Succession, between a French force under Maréchal Villeroi and an Imperial/Austrian army led by Prince Eugene of Savoy.

He was an extremely capable general who easily out manoeuvred his French counterparts, winning battles at Carpi and Chieri, after which his army took up winter quarters in the pro-French Duchy of Mantua.

Eugene had a contact inside Cremona, a priest named Cuzzoli; on the night of 31 January 1702, he admitted a party of Imperial grenadiers by means of a hidden culvert and they seized control of the St Margaret Gate.

[2] Once open, approximately 4,000 troops led by Prince Eugene in person took the French by surprise, many being killed as they emerged from their barracks, and Maréchal Villeroi captured in his quarters.

The two Irish units lost an estimated 350 out of 600 men engaged; their commander Major Daniel O'Mahoney was later presented to Louis XIV and knighted by the Stuart exile James III.