Shortly afterwards, Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria joined the French alliance, and Villars was ordered to cross the Rhine at Huningue near the Swiss border, then link up with him.

Although Louis William was initially able to block the advance, he was outflanked when French troops crossed the Rhine further north, and began retreating early on the morning of 14 October.

Fighting expanded into the Rhineland in June 1702, when an Imperial army under Louis William, Margrave of Baden-Baden, crossed the Rhine north of Speyer in the Rhineland-Palatinate.

[3] The main French army in Alsace was based in Strasbourg, under the overall direction of Nicolas Catinat, commander of operations in Southern Germany and Northern Italy.

This was denied and he spent the next few days building a bridge over the Rhine, although he delayed an assault until 8,000 French troops from Breisach occupied Neuenburg, 28 kilometres (17 mi) further north.

[6] Louis William responded by sending reinforcements led by Count Prosper Fürstenberg and the Margraves of Ansbach and Baden-Durlach to occupy the Käfernhölz Forest, which lay immediately behind the Tüllinger.

[9] Both sides lost a number of senior officers; Desbordes was killed, while Counts Karl von Fürstenberg-Möskirch, Prosper Fürstenberg, and Hohenzollern died of wounds received in the battle.

Louis William split his army, part based in Freiburg covering the passes into Bavaria, with the rest occupying positions in lines stretching from Kehl to Hornberg.