Saxe had prepared plans for a spring…

1745 CE

Saxe had prepared plans for a spring offensive in the Low Countries as early as December 1744.

He has made up his mind not only what he will do, but what he will compel his enemy to do, correctly calculating the operational and political difficulties that such a diverse opponent will face.

This opponent comprises Britain, the Dutch Republic, Austria, and Saxony, who conclude the defensive Treaty of Warsaw in January 1745—the Quadruple Alliance—by which all signatories commit themselves to uphold the Pragmatic Sanction and the House of Austria's claim to the Imperial crown.

To the Low Countries, the British send the son of King George II, the twenty-four-year old Duke of Cumberland, as the new Captain General of Britain's army, while Maria Theresa sends the experienced Count Königsegg to command Austrian forces.

The trio of generals is completed by Prince Waldeck, commander of the Dutch contingent in theater.

They hope to gain the initiative by the establishment of forward magazines and an early opening of the campaign season.

Major supply and ammunition depot magazines are set up for the British by General Ligonier at Ghent, Oudenarde and Tournai, while the Dutch General Vander—Duyn places theirs at Mons, Charleroi and Tournai.

The victory is followed by a rapid French advance.

Tournai surrenders to Saxe on 21 May and on June 20 the citadel of Tournai capitulates.

Ghent follows in mid-July after Moltke's repulse at Melle with an immense amount of supplies and material along with its garrison consisting of twenty-two hundred Dutch troops; and some seven hundred British troops.

The Allied field army, now reduced to thirty-five thousand men, is less than half the number of the French and they fall back to Diegem in the vicinity of Brussels.

Bruges and Oudenarde soon capitulate, and by the end of July the French stand on the threshold of Zeeland, the south-western corner of the Dutch Republic.

Additionally, the triumph of Saxe over the British inspires the second Jacobite rising, the Forty-Five, under the Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charlie.

Charles with a small contingent of troops returns to Scotland and invades England.

He has some reason to believe in his ultimate success as all but eight thousand British troops are away on the continent and recently defeated at Fontenoy.

Charles' return to Scotland combined with a stunning victory at the Battle of Prestonpans obliges Cumberland to pull his army back to England to deal with the Jacobite invasion.

The British government is greatly concerned with developments in Flanders but the military tide has turned in French favor.

Dendermonde and the vital port of Ostend, where a battalion of British Foot Guards and a garrison of four thousand falls to French forces in August, and Nieuport in early September.

The only good news for the British comes in North America when William Pepperrell captures the key French fortress of Louisbourg at Cape Breton in late June.

Saxe has in the space of three months achieved his grand design: he has established himself on the shores of the English Channel and the river Scheldt.

Britain is perilously near to exclusion from the mainland of Europe, and will find it hard to make contact with its continental allies.

With the capitulation of Ath in early October, France controls much of the Austrian Netherlands.

Saxe, now raised to heroic status in his adopted country, is soon threatening Brussels and Antwerp.