The Battle of Malplaquet, 11 September 1709

This painting after Jan van Huchtenburgh depicts the Battle of Malplaquet, fought on 11 September 1709 and remembered as the bloodiest of all of Louis XIV's wars. Marshal de Villars, wounded in the knee mid-battle, pitted 65,000 French troops against the 75,000 Allies of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, inflicting 21,000 casualties on them against 11,000 on the French side. Although the French were forced to cede the field, this bloodletting forced the Allied army to abandon any invasion of the kingdom for many months, turning a tactical defeat into a strategic victory.