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On May 19, 1643, French and Spanish forces fought a battle at Rocroi, Ardenne. The French army, led by Louis de Bourbon (The Great Condé) was coming to the relief of the fortified town of Rocroi, which was besieged by the Spanish, led the Portuguese general Francisco de Melo.

The French decisively defeated the Spanish, largely due to the strength of their calvalry, which defeated their Spanish counterparts on the right, and drove the Spanish cavalry from the field. This allowed the French to capture the Spanish artillery train, and bombard the Spanish (actually Spanish, Belgian and German) Tercios until the majority of the infantry were dead, or forced to surrender.

The victory saved the town of Rocroi, and ended the Spanish invasion of northwest France. Politically, it boosted the career of the French general, and supported the regency of Anne of Austria. In Spain, the defeat was one more disaster in a series. Portugal and Catalonia were in revolt, the French had invaded Catalonia and Franche-Comté, and the Spanish position in the Seventeen provinces was in desperate straits.

The battle typically shows up in textbooks as signaling two things:
1. The obsolesce of the tercio, a square pike and short formation that the Spanish had organized their infantry around since the Italian wars
2. The military decline of the Spanish Empire, and beginning of France’s military dominance for the remainder of the century

In my opinion, the textbook significance of the battle is an oversimplification, since both the Tercio, and Spain, were far from finished in 1643. Spanish infantry would continue to win victories in the Low Countries, Italy and in Spain for the remainder of the Franco-Spanish War. France, while in a better position than Spain, was soon to enter into a period of civil strife (the Frondes).

What if the Spanish had managed to prevail at Rocroi? Would it change the date of the perceived decline of the Spanish Empire?
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