perations had already opened in the Low Countries when the Austrians and Prussians ended hostilities for the second time. The French had made inroads into the Austrian Netherlands in 1744, and the next year Marshal Maurice de Saxe persuaded his political masters that a renewed assault on the Low Countries would be the best way of straining British resources. Worries over a potential rebellion in Scotland meant that Britain had one eye on the situation at home and one on the continent, and Saxe took advantage, launching an offensive against the most important of the so-called Dutch ‘barrier forts’, Tournai.
