Fought near Höchstädt an der Donau in Bavaria, a combined Franco-Bavarian force under Claude Louis Hector de Villars defeated an Imperial army led by Hermann Otto II of Limburg Stirum.

Early on the morning on 20 September, Limburg Stirum found the main Franco-Bavarian army of 15,000 was advancing on him from Donauwörth, with a corps of 8,000 under the Marquis d'Husson in his rear.

Attempts to block the road north nearly succeeded, before a stubborn rearguard action by Prussian troops under Leopold of Anhalt-Dessau enabled the rest of the infantry to make an orderly retreat.

[4] Villars, who had spent the winter in Strasbourg, capital of French Alsace, crossed the Rhine at Kehl on 28 April, and met up with the Bavarians at Ehingen in mid-May.

[8] They were too late to save Augsburg, which surrendered on 6 September, and withdrew to positions around Nordendorf, on the right bank of the Danube, 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Dillingen.

At 6:00 am on 20 September, Bavarian cavalry scouts from Donauwörth clashed with Prussian outposts in Tapfheim, while Imperial foragers ran into d'Husson's advance guard under General Cheyladet.

Correctly deducing he was threatened from two sides, Limburg Stirum held a hurried conference with his deputies, Lieutenant-General Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg and the leader of the Prussian contingent, Leopold I, Prince of Anhalt-Dessau.

While this stopped the retreat, and both sides suffered heavy casualties in a series of bloody firefights, the Imperial troops eventually drove back their outnumbered opponents.

Bavarian cavalry under the Graf von Arco immediately attacked the Imperial lines, to provide time for their slower moving infantry to cut the road to Nördlingen.

Limburg Stirum gave them permission to withdraw, with the infantry left to fight their way out, a situation made more difficult because they had to abandon their baggage and ammunition supplies.

[12] Although Villars wanted to pursue, Maximilian argued their troops were in no shape to do so, having marched nearly 40 kilometres (25 mi) in twelve hours, then fought a battle.