View source for Battle of Arras (1654)

{{Short description|1654 clash between the French and the Spanish}}
{{more citations|date=January 2018}}
{{Infobox Military Conflict
| conflict          = Battle of Arras
| partof            = the [[Franco-Spanish War (1635)|Franco-Spanish War]]
| image             = Histoire du vicomte de Turenne, maréchal-général des armés du roi - enrichie des plans de batailles and des sièges (1771) (14593542970).jpg
| image_size        = 300px
| caption           = 
| date              = 25 August 1654
| place             = [[Arras, France|Arras]] (present-day [[France]])
| result            = French victory
| combatant1        = {{flagcountry|Kingdom of France}}
| combatant2        = {{flag|Spain|1506}}
| commander1        = {{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Vicomte de Turenne]]<br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[Henri de La Ferté-Senneterre]]<br>{{flagicon|Kingdom of France}} [[Charles de Monchy d'Hocquincourt|Charles, Marquis d'Hocquincourt]]
| commander2        = {{flagicon|Spain|1506}} [[Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria|Archduke Leopold Wilhelm]]<br>{{flagicon|Spain|1506}} [[Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé|Louis de Condé-Bourbon]]
| strength1         = 20,000–25,000
*5,000 garrison 
*15,000{{sfn|Bodart|1908|p=82}}–20,000 relief force
| strength2         = 25,000{{sfn|Jervis|1998|p=368}}<br>63 guns
| casualties1       = 300–1,000 killed and wounded{{sfn|Cockayne|1853|p=65}}{{sfn|Bodart|1908|p=82}}
| casualties2       = 2,000 killed or wounded{{sfn|Bodart|1908|p=82}}<br>5,000 captured{{sfn|Bodart|1908|p=82}}<br>63 guns<br>9,000 horses<br>2,000 wagons<br>6,000 tents
}}
{{Campaignbox Franco-Spanish War (1635-1659)}}

The '''Battle of [[Arras, France|Arras]]''', known at that time as the "Secours d'Arras" 'i.e. Arras Aid, fought on 25 August 1654, was a victory of a French army under [[Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne|Turenne]] against a Spanish army commanded by Don Ferdinand de Salis and the [[Louis II de Bourbon, Prince de Condé|Prince de Condé]]. 

The place, held by a French garrison, was besieged by the Spaniards under the Great Condé. A relief army under Turenne, d'Hocquincourt and de la Ferté attacked the Spanish lines and totally routed them with a loss of at least 7,000 men.{{sfn|Bodart|1908|p=82}} Condé succeeded in rallying the remainder of his army and made a masterful retreat to Cambrai.

Before the battle, Turenne risked exposing himself and his officers in order to reconnoitre the Spanish lines.  He was criticised for taking such risks by some of his officers, but the [[Duke of York]], the future [[King James II]] of England, later observed that these officers realised their error after they realised that Turenne had worked out where to attack during these reconnaissances.  Turenne attacked at night, two hours before daybreak on 25 August.  D'Hocquincourt attacked the troops from Lorraine, Turenne attacked the Spanish and provided support for de la Ferté, whose attack was less successful.  In the morning Condé counter-attacked, falling on French troops who were pillaging the former Spanish camp.  De la Ferté panicked and abandoned some high ground.  Turenne rode up and placed some cannon on the high ground, forcing Condé to retreat. <ref>Histoire des princes de Condé pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Volume 6 (Calmann Lévy, 1892) pp. 411.</ref>  The young [[Louis XIV]] visited the battlefield and saw the disparity between the numbers of French and Spanish dead.<ref>Général Maxime Weygand - ''Turenne'' (Flammarion, 1929) pp. 76-8.</ref>  This was Louis XIV's first victory against a foreign army.

[[Cyrano de Bergerac (writer)|Cyrano de Bergerac]], who is the subject of the classic French play ''[[Cyrano de Bergerac (play)|Cyrano de Bergerac]]'' by [[Edmond Rostand]], participated in a siege of Arras in 1640, and not the battle of 1654.

==References==
===Citations===
{{reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
* {{cite book |last=d'Orleans Aumale |first=H. |title=Histoire des princes de Condé pendant les XVIe et XVIIe siècles, Volume 6 |year=1892}}
* {{cite book |last=Bodart |first=G. |title=Militär-historisches Kriegs-Lexikon (1618-1905) |year=1908 }}
* {{cite book |last=Chandler |first=David G.|title=A Traveller's Guide to the Battlefields of Europe: Western Europe |year=1965 }}
* {{cite book |last=Jervis |first=William Henley |title=A History of France from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Second Empire in 1870|publisher=J. Murray|year=1998 |isbn=978-1502884633}}
* {{cite book |last=Cockayne |first=Thomas Oswald |title=The Life of Marshal Turenne|publisher=Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans |year=1853}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Arras, Battle of (1654)}}
[[Category:1654 in France]]
[[Category:Battles involving Spain]]
[[Category:Battles involving France]]
[[Category:Arras|Battle]]

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