Public Order of Battles ...

A few weeks ago I visited an exhibition on the House of Arenberg, a well-known noble family in the history of the Southern Netherlands. Moreover, one of my offices at the university is housed in the Arenberg Castle in Heverlee, which makes the history of the House of Arenberg also a bit more personal.

At the exhibition, I did see something that struck me as surprising: a sheet, which was available for sale to the general public (for the price of 3 stuivers), of all military units in a military camp in Cisoin, on August 8th 1744, at the time of the War of the Austrian Succession. The sheet lists the armies of the English, Dutch, Austrians and Hanoverians in the camp of Cisoin near Lille (Rijsel). One year later, this army was defeated in the battle of Fontenoy (1745).

So, apparantly, army composition was not a terribly well-kept secret at the time ...