Battle of Marsaglia

The Battle of Marsaglia was a battle in the Nine Years' War, fought in Italy on 4 October 1693, between the French army of Marshal Nicolas Catinat and the army of the Grand Alliance under Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy.

Battle of Marsaglia
Part of the Nine Years' War

Catinat at Marsaglia, 4 October 1693
Date4 October 1693
Location
Marsaglia, near Turin, present-day Italy
Result French victory[1][2]
Belligerents
 France[3]  Savoy
 Spain
Commanders and leaders
Nicolas Catinat Duchy of Savoy Victor Amadeus II of Savoy
Strength
35,000 30,000
Casualties and losses
1,800 dead or wounded 10,000 dead or wounded
2,000 captured
Map of Marsaglia

Catinat, advancing from Fenestrelle and Susa to the relief Pinerolo, defended by the count of Tessé and which the duke of Savoy was besieging, took up a position in formal order of battle north of the village of Marsaglia, near Orbassano. Here, on 4 October, the duke of Savoy attacked him with his whole army, front to front, but the greatly superior regimental efficiency of the French, and Catinat's minute attention to detail in arraying them, gave the new marshal a victory that was a worthy pendant to Neerwinden.

The Piedmontese and their allies lost c. 12,000 killed, wounded and prisoners, as against Catinat's 1,800.

Marsaglia is, if not the first, at any rate, one of the first, instances of a bayonet charge by a long deployed line of infantry. Hussars figured here for the first time in western Europe. A regiment of them had been raised in 1692 from deserters from the Austrian service. It is also notable as one of the first major battles to see the new Irish Brigade in action for the French army.

Notes
  1. William Russell; William Jones (1857). pt.II. From the peace of Westphalia in 1648, to the peace of Paris, in 1763. Harper & Brothers. p. 277.
  2. George Bruce Malleson (2010). Prince Eugene of Savoy. Cambridge University Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-108-02403-7.
    • "...the standard of France was white, sprinkled with golden fleur de lis..." (Ripley & Dana 1879, p. 250).
    • On the reverse of this plate it says: "Le pavillon royal était véritablement le drapeau national au dix-huitième siecle...Vue du chateau d'arrière d'un vaisseau de guerre de haut rang portant le pavillon royal (blanc, avec les armes de France)" (Vinkhuijzen collection 2011).
    • "The oriflamme and the Chape de St Martin were succeeded at the end of the 16th century, when Henry III., the last of the house of Valois, came to the throne, by the white standard powdered with fleurs-de-lis. This in turn gave place to the famous tricolour"(Chisholm 1911, p. 460).

References

44.4500°N 7.9667°E / 44.4500; 7.9667

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