Strategic Situation: As in the previous year, the Spanish Commander (Francisco de Melo) of the Army of Flanders decided to invade the north of France to help the Spanish Army in Catalonia, and to reduce the threat of an invasion of the territory of Franche-Conté. His objective was to capture the fortress of Rocroi and to follow with the invasion of the region of Champagne. With a careful strategic planning, de Melo arrived in front of Rocroi the 12th of May and immediately started the siege. The Spanish commander wanted to take the fortress quickly and decided not to build a line of circumvallation. The French reacted and sent the army of Picardie under the command of the young Duke of Enghien (the future Condé) to relieve the garrison of Rocroi (400 - 500 men) and stop the Spanish invasion.  With a fast march, the French army arrived the 16th of May near Maubert-Fontaine at just 10km south-west of Rocroi. During the night of the 16th and 17th of May, a French vanguard was able to introduce a reinforcement of 150 musketeers inside Rocroi.
In the afternoon of the 18th of May, the French troops pulled out of the wood of les Potées and started to deploy in a field at 4 km in the south west of Rocroi. With the first notice of French scouts, the Spanish started the deployment of their forces leaving only few troops to watch on the garrison of Rocroi. Before 18:00, the two armies were facing each order, when De la Ferté sent his cavalry of the left wing to advance toward Rocroi leaving his flank unprotected. The Duke of Enghien reacted immediately calling back the cavalry, the incident was closed but it was not possible to start the battle this day. At 19:00, the two artilleries started a mutual bombardment with much better results for the Spanish.
The objective of the Duke of Enghien was to attack before the arrival of a small Spanish force (some 1000 horses and 3000 foots including the Spanish Tercio de Avila) under the command of Johan de Beck.

The French had in the centre 15 infantry battalions under the command of the Lord of Espenan; from right to left: 8 battalions in the first line:  Picardie, La Marine, Persan, 2×Molandin, Biscarra, Rambure and Piemont); 7 battalions in the second line: La Prée-Vervins, Vidame,  Watteville, Ecossais, Von Roll, Brézé-Angeron and Guiche-Bussy). The 28 cavalry squadrons were subdivided in:
13 squadrons on the left wing under the command of de La Ferté and de l'Hospital, (First line => 1×La Clavière, 1×Beauvau, 2×La Ferté,2×Guiche, 2×Fusiliers; second line => 2×Nétaf, 1×Marolles, 1×Heudicourt and 1× Harcourt)
15 squadrons on the right wing under the command of the Duke of Enghien and the Baron of Gassion (first line => 2×Raab-Chack, 1×Gardes du Duc, 2×Royal, 2×Mestre de Camp Général, 1×Lenoncourt, 1×Coiselin, 1×Sully; second line => 1×Roquelaume, 1×Menneville, 1×Sillart, 1×L’Eschelle and 1×Vamberg). Some small detachments of musketeers (600 – 1000 in total), supported the cavalry on each wings.
The French had also a reserve brigade under the command of the Baron of Sirot with 3 battalions (Royaux*, Watteville, Harcourt**) and 4 cavalry squadrons (1×Sirot, 1×Gendarmes Condé-Guiche, 1×Gendarmes Angoulême-Vaubecourt, 1×Chârost).
In total there were 18 infantry battalions (16 000 foots) and 32 cavalry squadrons (6 000 horsemen) supported by 12 guns placed in front of the infantry and commanded by the Sieur de le Barre.

* note: Royaux was made of 8 companies from the royale milice raised by noblemen
** The battalion of Harcourt was made of 3 regiments Harcourt, Aubeterre and Gesvre

 

After some debates we can give a good approximation of the Spanish army:
On the right wing, we have the cavalry of Alsace commanded by the Count of Issemburg with 3 regiments (Bucquoy, Doncke and de Brouck) in the first line supported by the croates of Neygb Ystuan and in second line 3 more regiments (Vera, Savary and Padilla).
In the centre we have the core of the Spanish army, 19 infantry battalions, under the command of the Count of La Fontaine. In vanguard or first line, we have 5 Spanish bataillons (Castelvi, 2xCarciez, Alburquerque and Villalba), on the left a batalla made of one batallion from the Tercio of Velandia y Guzman, 3 Italian battalions (delli Ponti, Visconti and Strozzi) supported by a battalion from Burgundy* (Saint Amour).
Behind the vanguard, La Fontaine placed  4 German battalions (Giulio Frangipani, Ottavio Cuasco, Baron of Hembise and Baron Von Rittberg) and on the left the 5 Walloon battalions (Prince de Ligne, Baron of Ribaucourt, Count of Baucignies, Count of Megten and Lord of La Grange).
On the left wing, the Spanish place the cavalry of Flanders under the command of the Duke of Alburquerque with 12 squadrons called trozos in Spanish (1ºline: Bonifaz, Borja, Toraldo, Butron, Ulloa and Orsini; 2ºline: Morón, Barraquin, de Rojas, Bentivogli, Mascarenhas and Baron of Gramont).
The reserve was made of a strong cavalry squadron (Baron of André) and the artillery (18 guns) was placed in front of the Spanish tercios. At the beginning of the battle, Francisco de Melo was with the Alsacian cavalry on the right wing. During the night of 18th and 19th of May, a strong detachment of 500 musketeers was placed in a small thicket in front of the cavalry of Flanders to cover the space between the wood and the cavalry. In total we have 15 000 foots and 5 000 horsemen

* note: I am not sure if this unit was present at Rocroi, following J.L. Sanchez, Saint Amour was second in command of Johan de Beck's corps..... 

Previous the battle: Following the Baron of Sirot the battle started the 19th of May at 4 AM (solar hours). Even if during the night, the Spanish artillery opened a precise bombardment causing losses to the French infantry (the French lost probably 500 – 1000 men during the night), the French artillery was no so effective.

Part 1: Cavalry Fighting

A): On the right flank, the French under the command of Enghien and Gassion advanced toward the Spanish line dispersing the musketeers installed in a small thicket. Disorganised while passing around the obstacle the French cavalry cannot face the counter-charge of the Spanish of Alburquerque and after a small resistance, they are obliged to retire to reorganize.

B): Meantime on the left wing, de La Ferté replays the same mistake, charging from a long distance and without the support of the detachment musketeers. The cavalry of Alsace counter-charges and repulses his attack easily and rout the French horsemen.  On the same trend, the second line of l’Hôpital cannot face the Alsacians and fly away.

C): Following his advance, the cavalry of Alburquerque attack the supporting infantry (Swiss and French) battalions of Enghien and disturbed them. On they way back to regroup, the Spanish cavalry take a battery of unsupported guns.

D) On the left flank, the cavalry of Alsace pursuit the French, even if a part of the horsemen started to loot the losers. Issemburg regroup part of his men and attack the French artillery, killing de le Barre and taking 7 guns.

E): Gassion and Enghien reorganise their cavalry squadrons and launch a charge against the Spanish. The combination of infantry and cavalry give the victory to the French against a Spanish cavalry unsupported by their infantry. Albuquerque cannot resist and is obliged to retire.

Part 2: Infantry Fighting

F): On the right wing, Enghien attack the Italian Tercios and Spanish Tercio (Villalba and Velandia) with most of his cavalry supported by various infantry battalions (Picardie and Swiss). After a short and bitter fighting the French are repulsed but several Spanish and Italian officers are wounded (Luigi Visconti) or killed (Antonio Velandia). It is probably during this action that the Count of La Fontaine was killed by a French cuirassier.

G): On the left flank, the reserve brigade of Sirot counter-attack the cavalry of Issemburg and after a brief fighting, the Alsacian flee away with most of the horsemen leaving definitely the battlefield. The French retake the artillery and Sirot reorganise the shattered French infantry.

H): With some reorganised squadrons, The Duke of Alburquerque push first the French cavalry but in front of French reinforcement, the Spanish are beaten and obliged to retire to the rear. With their left flank open by the retreat of the Spanish cavalry, the Italian Tercios retire from the battlefield in good order to meet Johan Beck’s corps.

I): Remarking that the Spanish were well organised, Enghien attack next the flank of Walloon Tercios and the German battalions. The Walloons and Germans infantry resist some time but their battalions are finally reduced by the combination of cavalry and infantry attacks and they retire to the safety of Johan Beck’s corps position.

J): Sirot’s cavalry broke the last charge of the Spanish cavalry of Alsace and then, reorganised the disrupted French battalions. At last the infantry finally advance toward the position of the Spanish Tercios.

K): For the last time the Spanish cavalry of Albuquerque tried to support their infantry, but they were too weak and too disorganised to do anything against the French. Finally, the debris of the Spanish cavalry retreats while Gassion’s horses stop watching for the possible arrival of the Spanish reinforcement.

Part 3: Epilogue

L): Enghien and Sirot concentrated all the French army to destroy the Spanish battalions. The French launched several attacks and were able to disperse 3 Spanish battalions with heavy losses. At last the Spanish organised two strong squadrons around the Tercio of Garciez and the Tercio of Alburquerque. The French attacked in vain the two infantry squadrons, losing every time a lot of men. Enghien with a tired army watches anxiously the strong resistance of the Spanish and the possible arrival of the troops of Beck. .

Enghien with a tired army watches anxiously the strong resistance of the Spanish and the possible arrival of the troops of Beck, then decided to negotiate the capitulation of the two infantry squadrons. Rapidly the Tercio of Garciez accepted to capitulate with the condition of being sent in Spain, later on the Tercio of Alburquerque capitulated with less favourable conditions keeping only the swords and their life. At 10.00 AM, after 6 hours of fighting, the battle of Rocroi was finished

Balance:
Spanish losses are important but less than the ones usually reported in most of the sources available. It is estimated that the Spanish loose some 7 300 men divided in 3 500 dead, wounded and deserters and 3 826 prisoners including some of the men who capitulated (the one of the second squadron). For the native Spanish soldiers we have some 1 000 dead and 2 000 prisoners. French losses are important for such battle, they are estimated by the French at 2 000 dead and some 2 500 wounded. In fact from the 18th of May and the 15th of June the French losses mount to more than 5 000 men in total.
Rocroi was not a great and decisive French victory, but it was well exploited by the French propaganda to support the weak French government of Mazarin and the house of Condé. For the Spanish it was a tactical defeat in a secondary war front, in 1643-1944 the main activity of the Spanish was to reconquer Catalonia and most of the money and troops were for the royal army of Catalonia, at the same time it can be said that the territory of Franche-Conté was not invaded.
 


Short Bibliography

Juan Luiz Sánchez Martin, Dragona n° 3  Madrid 1993
Juan Luiz Sánchez Martin, Researching & Dragona n° 5, 12, 16, 20, 21, Madrid 2001 – 2003
Henri d’Orléans, Duc d’Aumale: Histoire des Princes de Condé, Tome 4, 1895 (collection BNF)
Hardy de Périni, Batailles Française Tome 4, (collection BNF)
Mémoire du Baron de Sirot, de Victor Cousin, Mme de Longueville Tome 1 p532-577 (collection BNF)
Leon Thiebault “Mémoire sur la ville de Rocroy et sur la bataille remporté ……” Archives historique de Vincennes .
Lettres de Hugues de Montbas (collection BNF),
Nicolas Stratigos, Rocroi: Le triomphe du duc d’Enghien, Vae Victis nº11, Paris, 1996
Luis-Felipe Ragel, El sombrero de Rocroi, Edition Cálamo, Madrid 2001
Francisco Barado: Museo militar. Historia del ejército español, armas, …... Barcelona 1886

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