Battle Of Courtrai, July 11, 1302

By André Geraque Kiffer

The Battle of Courtrai occurred on 11 July 1302 between a French army under the command of Robert, Count de Artois, and a Belgian urban militia. The mounted French gentlemen were unable to defeat the well-trained Flemish militia infantry on a battlefield unsuitable for cavalry. The room for maneuver was very limited. To the north the flooded Lys River and to the west the buildings of the city of Courtrai were not impediments but would make the advance of the cavalry very difficult. The French began the battle well by employing the infantry first, but then, by impatience and / or arrogance, tried to resolve everything with the cavalry; to make the cavalry worse, it followed the same infantry advance line, because as we saw above there was not much to vary the access; and there was a lack of coordination between the field army and the castle garrison as to the best opportunity for such a sortie.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clube de Autores
• Release date: Feb 1, 2024

Book preview

ANDRÉ  GERAQUE  KIFFER

Battle  of  Courtrai, July  11,  1302.

A  French  Historical  Simulation

Author’s  Edition

Resende

2019

---  Kiffer,  André  Geraque.

Battle  of  Courtrai,  July  11,  1302.  A  French  Historical Simulation.  André  Geraque  Kiffer.

Author’s  Edition,  Resende,  2019. Bibliography:  93  p.  48  im.  21  cm..

1.  History.  2.  Art  of  War.  3.  War  Science.  4.  Wargames.  I. Author.  II.  Title.

ISBN  978-85-65853-35-4

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3

My  story  will  be  less  certain  than  history;  but  whoever  wants to  relive  the  past  to  study  the  similarities  and  analogies between  human  conflicts  in  the  present  is  enough  for  me  to find  it  useful.  This  War  History  of  mine  is  a  definite achievement  and  not  an  ostentatious  work  for  a  current audience.

(André  Geraque  Kiffer)

4 PROLOGUE

I  was  inspired  to  build  this  work  by  reading  Arnold Toynbee's  book,  A  Study  of  History,  and  Trevor  N. Dupuy's  Future  Wars.  Between  2005  and  2007  I acquired  a  collection  of  board  wargames  in  New York,  and  reading  the  book  Wargame  Design published  by  Strategy  &  Tactics  Magazine consolidated  a  Matrix  for  A  Study  of  Military History.  Thus,  from  2008,  I  was  able  to  begin  an analysis  of  the  wars,  campaigns,  and  battles  of history  of  a  particular  time  and  /  or  civilization described  in  the  Smithsonian  Institute's  Atlas  of Military  History.  So  far  I  have  published  the  following series:  I.  Historical  Simulation  of  the  First  Empire Wars  in  2010;  VIII.  World  War  I  Historical Simulation  in  2011;  II.  Historical  Simulation  of  the Wars  in  Classical  Greece  in  2012;  III.  Historical Simulation  of  the  Roman  Wars  in  2016;  and  IV. Historical  Simulation  of  Wars  in  the  Medieval  Era  in 2018.  In  2014,  to  continue  my  work  "A  Study  of

Military  History,  I  read  the  book  Japanese  and

5 Chinese  Chess  -  The  Science  and  Art  of  War  and added  a  new  book  The  Study  of  Wars  and  Chess Games  to  my  planned  study,  associating  the foundations  of  chess  games  with  the  principles  of Art  and  Science  of  War.  In  each  book  of  the  work  a selected  war,  campaign,  or  battle  is  studied  at  any of  the  applicable  decision  levels,  namely  the Political,  Strategic,  Operational,  Tactical,  and Technical.  Based  on  a  summary  of  the  historical  fact I  seek  to  highlight  the  decisive  fact  (s)  causing  the negative  result  (s)  before  playing  the  simulation through  a  board  wargame  -  the  actions  on  the  other side  of  the  hill  (from  the  enemy)  are  studied through  a  parallel  electronic  wargame.  In  the simulation  all  the  possibilities  of  the  purpose  of  the study  are  completed  when  the  past  of  history  is analyzed  on  the  basis  of  present  theory  and projected  into  the  future  or  revived  as  a  what  if schematic  case.  When  we  play  we  will  follow  the maxim  WIN  ALWAYS  BUT  WITH  THE  LOWEST

POSSIBLE  COST".

6 Keywords:  History.  Art  of  War.  War  science.

Wargames.

7 SUMMARY

CHAPTER  1  –  THE  HISTORICAL  BATTLE….….....8 CHAPTER  2  –  TACTICALANALYSIS...….............35 CHAPTER  3  –  TACTICAL  SIMULATION.…….......53

REFERENCES.................................................…..88

8 CHAPTER  1

THE  HISTORICAL  BATTLE

For  the  reader  who  wants  an  introduction  to  the history  of  the  Wargames  and  the  historical  period  of the  Art  and  Science  of  Wars  in  the  Medieval  Era,  we recommend  purchasing  the  first  book  in  this  Series.

The  battle  we  will  analyze  and  simulate  in  this book  is  part  of  the  history  of  the  Franco-Flemish War  or  Flanders  Liberation  War  (region  of present-day  Belgium)  from  1297  to  1305.

Causes

Philip  IV  became  king  of  France  in  1285  and was  determined  to  strengthen  his  monarchy  at  any cost.  Flanders  was  formally  part  of  the  French

kingdom  since  the  Treaty  of  Verdun  in  843,  but  in

9 practice  the  Flemings  considered  themselves independent  of  the  French