Lot 178
The Incredibly Rare Original Casualty List For the Battle of Lauffeld 1747
"Behind The Wire" - Medal and Militaria Sale | M25001
Auction: 17 September 2025 at 14:00 BST
Description
An Incredibly Rare, original contemporarily printed Casualty List of British Forces Killed, Wounded or Missing at the Battle of Lauffeld near the village of Val, on Sunday the 2nd of July 1747, very good (1)
The Battle of Lauffeld took place on 2 July 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession. Fought between the towns of Tongeren in modern Belgium, and the Dutch city of Maastricht, a French army of 80,000 under Marshal Saxe defeated a Pragmatic Army of 120,000, led by the Duke of Cumberland.
Arguably the most talented general of his generation, Saxe had conquered much of the Austrian Netherlands between 1744 and 1746. In early 1747, Cumberland planned an offensive to retake Antwerp, but was forced to fall back when the French threatened to cut him off from his supply base at Maastricht. When the two armies met at Lauffeld, a series of mistakes by Cumberland compromised his position, and only counterattacks by the Allied cavalry prevented a serious defeat.
The battle ended Allied hopes of regaining lost ground and Saxe captured Bergen op Zoom in September, then Maastricht in May 1748. However, by then France was close to bankruptcy, while severe food shortages caused by the Royal Navy blockade worsened after defeat at Cape Finisterre in October 1747 left the French unable to defend their merchant shipping. The stalemate resulted in the October 1748 Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle.
