I have noted before that campaigns can throw up some unexpected wargames, and the War of Stuart Succession is no exception. I have already had the Spanish against the Dutch at sea off Dover, and now another Spanish and Dutch confrontation.
The story is this. After a week getting organised in London, the Spanish shipped another army from the Low Countries into Kent to reinforce the already extant and victorious army in London. This, however, left the Low Countries denuded of troops. Elsewhere, Arbella moved to Berkshire, collected Edward Seymour, and attempted to move back to Buckinghamshire. This time, the trained bands opposed her. Evidently, Lord Seymour is not that popular, even though, in real life, the unauthorised marriage of Edward and Arbella during the reign of James I led them both to the Tower.
Anyway, the Spanish were doing quite well, but James VI was advancing from Scotland again, and had arrived in Durham. Isabella therefore transferred the newly arrived army from Kent to the East Riding of Yorkshire, using the English fleet in Thames. This she can do, being in possession of the capital and thus able to persuade the Privy Council to issue orders to English forces. Meanwhile, James has raised a third army in Midlothian, which is not on its way towards the west coast invasion route.
Now, rather unusually, the Dutch managed an initiative roll, and decided on a military move. They had not reformed their fleet after the defeat, however, so the only option was an invasion of the depleted Low Countries. A few dice rolls later and a scratch Spanish army confronted them.
The left-hand side of the battlefield is fairly open, and that is where the Dutch are deployed. The Spanish side has some villages, enclosures, with woods along the near edge. Most notably, though, although scarcely visible in the photograph, is a hill in the middle of the table, occupied by Spanish foot. You will also note that the Dutch have four bases of cuirassiers, being at the forefront of military trends of the time, while the Spanish, outnumbered in cavalry, have stuck to the demi-lancer and gendarme formula.
Both sides have their problems. The Spanish have a strong central position but are outnumbered in cavalry, and their skirmishers are vulnerable, unless they get them into the village quickly. On the other hand the Dutch have to work out how to storm the hill without decimating their own infantry. The answer, it seemed to me, was to lead with the cavalry and then work the flank and rear of the hill while the infantry did their stuff.
The Dutch got off to a slow start, hampered by a lack of tempo. The frontmost cavalry got going, thanks to the general being attached, but the rest were a bit tardy. The idea was that the infantry would get moving as well, and that has only just started to take place. The Spanish have decided to move their right flank infantry forward a bit, and also have, under the general’s command, moved the gendarmes into a flanking position on the hill. The plan is, of course, to ambush the Dutch cavalry.
The Dutch cause was not helped by their cavalry refusing to charge the Spanish demi-lancers. This was a case of simple, bad dice rolling, but they were left marooned and exposed. The Spanish had the tempo to counterattack in duplicate – the demi-lancers charged, and the gendarmes went in on the flanks, downhill, with the general.
The result was predictably messy, but not quite as bad for the Dutch as it could have been. They bounced one of the demi-lancers while losing a base of cuirassiers. The successful Spanish charged on, striking one of the supporting cavalry bases with their victorious demi-lancers, while hitting the general’s base cuirassiers from the flank. Both of these fights were a struggle for the Spanish, but, after a couple of moves, they were victorious, although desperate measures were used to win the general’s fight, including moving the shaken demi-lancers into a flanking position. This eventually disposed of both the cavalry and the general.
There was then a pause in the battle, presumably as both sides tried to work out what had just happened. The Spanish general rallied his gendarmes and moved back to the central hill, while the victorious demi-lancers pursued their opponents almost off the Dutch base line. Remarkably, Dutch morale held up at this point, and they were not quite ready to give up the fight.
Eventually, rather painfully slowly (on half tempo, after all), the Dutch tried to get moving again. The infantry were sent forward to dispute the hill, and were not doing too badly, all things considered, when a thunderbolt struck. Well, not so much a thunderbolt, more the returning demi-lancers who crept up on the remaining base of Dutch cavalry and charged them from the rear. All things considered, those cuirassiers stood up to the shock rather well, but it was unrealistic for them to last more than a turn, and they routed.
At this point, I suppose inevitably, Dutch morale collapsed, and the army was routed. As you can see above, the infantry had not given a bad account of themselves. A more coordinated assault on the hill could have gone in their favour. Perhaps I was overconfident in their cavalry advantage, but really, if that initial charge move had gone home, the battle would have looked very different.
Not just the battle, I think. If the Dutch had won, Isabella would have had to pull an army out of England to face them, either leaving Arbella a free hand in London, or handing the north, potentially, to James. As it is, the Dutch have no viable military force at present, and Isabella still holds London. The campaign world is full of might-have-beens, I suppose, and this was quite a big one, and a lot seems, in retrospect, to have depended on that failed charge dice roll.
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