Leaving 22,000 men to continue the siege, Saxe placed his main force about 8 kilometres (5 mi) away in the villages of Antoing, Vezon and Fontenoy, along a naturally strong feature strengthened with defensive works.

The richest province in the Empire, Silesian taxes provided ten per cent of total Imperial income and contained large mining, weaving and dyeing industries.

For the 1745 campaign, Maurice de Saxe persuaded Louis XV it was the best place to inflict a decisive defeat on Britain, whose financial resources were central to the Allied war effort.

His plan was to bring the Allies to battle on a ground of his choosing, before British financial strength could be used to fund extra troops and negate the current French superiority in numbers.

[10] Most of the fighting in this region took place in what is often referred to as Flanders, a compact area 160 kilometres (100 mi) wide, its highest point only 100 metres (110 yd) above sea level and dominated by rivers running southwest to northeast.

Until the advent of railways in the 19th century, bulk goods and supplies were transported by water, and wars in this region were fought for control of major waterways, including the rivers Lys, Sambre and Meuse.

Saxe planned to attack Tournai, a town close to the French border which controlled access to the upper Scheldt basin, making it a vital link in the trading network for Northern Europe.

In addition to British and Hanoverian troops, the Pragmatic Army included a large Dutch contingent, commanded by Prince Waldeck, with a small number of Austrians, led by Count Königsegg-Rothenfels.

[17] Combined with faulty intelligence that estimated Saxe had less than 30,000 men, this meant the Allies advanced on Tournai with only their field army of 50,000, leaving large garrisons at nearby Namur and Charleroi.

[18] Having confirmed the Allies were approaching from the south-east, on 7 May Saxe left 22,000 men to continue the siege, and placed his main force of 50,000[d] around the villages of Fontenoy and Antoing, eight kilometres (5 mi) from Tournai.

First reported by Voltaire in 1768, there is some doubt as to the reliability of this anecdote,[31] but the opening volley was considered so important that commanders often preferred their opponents to go first, particularly if their own troops were well disciplined and thus able to absorb it without losing cohesion.

[35] Isolated in the middle of the column, Cumberland had lost control of the main battle and made no attempt to relieve pressure on the Allied centre by ordering fresh attacks on Fontenoy or the Redoubt d'Eu.

[36] Their cavalry charges gave the French infantry time to reform, and at 14:00 Saxe brought up his remaining artillery, which began firing into the Allied square at close range.

This was followed by a general assault, with the d'Aubeterre, du Roi, Royal and de la Couronne attacking from the right, the Irish Brigade, des Vaisseaux, Normandie, d'Eu and two battalions of the Gardes françaises from the left.

[39][f] Despite this, Saxe and Löwendal led the Gardes Françaises in a second attack, while D'Estrées and Richelieu brought up the elite Maison du roi cavalry, forcing the column back with heavy losses.

[43] The decision was opposed by Waldeck and other Dutch officers, who were reluctant to abandon their garrison in Tournai; one of them later wrote that "We were repulsed without being [defeated but ...] our hasty retreat makes us look beaten ...[while] we have left [much] baggage and many wounded".

[52] On the other hand, Cumberland performed poorly as a commander, ignoring advice from his more experienced subordinates, failing to ensure the Bois de Barry was properly cleared and issuing Ingoldsby with conflicting orders.

In a letter to Grand Pensionary Anthonie van der Heim, he noted "these troops are [not] like those in the previous war", while in his official report to the States General, Waldeck claimed "the famous old Dutch courage" had gone.

[58] However, the war confirmed the decline of the Dutch Republic as a Great Power; Newcastle, whose foreign policy had assumed the opposite, later berated himself for his "ignorance, obstinacy, and credulity", in believing otherwise.

[59] With no hope of relief, Tournai surrendered on 20 June, followed by the loss of Ostend and Nieuport; in October, the British were forced to divert resources to deal with the Jacobite rising of 1745, allowing Saxe to continue his advance in 1746.

This decision made their financial situation even worse, since French merchants had evaded the British naval blockade by transporting their goods in "neutral" Dutch ships.

In 1905, nationalist author Richard Barry O'Brien founded a committee to fund an Irish Brigade memorial in the village of Fontenoy, where it still features in annual commemorations of the battle.