Famous Defeats of the French Quiz | European

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1. Already in the Middle Ages the "flower of the French knighthood" experienced surprising defeats. One such a case was a battle near Courtrai, now close to the French-Belgian border, during which the French knights sustained a crushing defeat at the hands of a force of Flemish weavers and other workmen. What was the name given to this battle in which "a super-de-luxe cavalry army " was defeated by mainly proletarian infantry ?

Answer: The Battle of the Golden Spurs

Some "golden spurs" were found indeed after the battle. For some time they were carefully preserved in a Church at Courtrai. The defeat of an army of knights by an army of footsoldiers made such an impression that even Dante Alighieri refers to it in his "Inferno".

In later battles the French of course took their revenge: Mons-en-Pev�le 1304 and Cassel 1328 were stinging defeats for the Flemings, but it took until Louis XIV until the French made new attempts to annex Flanders.

2. Like the later Battle of Agincourt (1415), the Battle of Cr�cy (Aug. 26, 1346) was fought between a retreating English army and a French army trying to interpose itself between the invaders and the Channel ports.

Answer: True

In both cases the English were returning home from an expedition into Normandy.

3. The decisive factor in the battle of Cr�cy was undoubtedly the introduction of new weaponry. What was the new type of weapon that the English put to good use at Cr�cy?

Answer: The longbow

The longbow had a killing-range of up to 250 yards. The halberd is a long-handled weapon of which the head has a point, and several long, sharp edges, curved or straight, and sometimes additional points. It appeared only in postmedieval battles.

4. The French defeat at Cr�cy also led to the loss of one of their ports which was to remain in English hands from 1347 till 1558. Which of these ports?

Answer: Calais

Cr�cy is close to Abbeville on the Somme. After leaving Normandy, Edward III was marching north possibly because the route via the Channel ports is after all a much shorter crossing.

5. Which Norman port had been conquered by Henry V in August 1415, shortly before he had to fight the Battle of Agincourt (Oct. 25, 1415)?

Answer: Harfleur

Henry V wanted to make of Harfleur an English bridgehead into France, similar to Calais. At the time Harfleur was the chief port of northwestern France.

6. John Churchill was an extremely successful English general who was victorious in all the sieges he laid. He defeated the French at Blenheim (1704), Oudenaarde (1708) and at Malplaquet (1709). Under what more ceremonious name is he usually referred to?

Answer: The Duke of Marlborough

At the Battle of Blenheim he interposed his army between the French and Vienna. Oudenaarde and Malplaquet are in what is now Belgium. In both these battles Prince Eugene of Savoy was his ally. At Oudenaarde he defeated Marshall Louis Joseph Duc de Vend�me. At Malplaquet Marshall Duc Claude de Villars was his opponent.

7. What did Napoleon promise his lieutenants, when deploying his troops for an attack along the Charleroi-Brussels road?

Answer: That they would sleep in Brussels the next night

Napoleon did not think too highly of the Duke of Wellington whose talents for offensive battle he considered to be limited. Napoleon had positioned his men near the Belle Alliance farm, just east of the Brussels road. Wellington had fallen back to a low, narrow ridge at Mont Saint-Jean, some distance north of Napoleon's position, and also just east of the same road. Napoleon first sent his left wing to attack the Chateau de Hougoumont to the west of the Brussels road.

He then made his main thrust at the centrally situated Haie Sainte farm, which was near a road-junction on the Charleroi-Brussels road. Later in the course of the battle, he had to send reinforcements to the village of Plancenoit south-east of la Belle Alliance where Prussian troops were threatening him in the rear. On the night of June 18 Napoleon probably did not get much sleep.

The following morning he relinquished his command at Philippeville and returned to Paris.

8. After Napoleon the Great there still followed Napoleon the Third. He launched the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. He rather stupidly let himself be manoeuvred into a position where he could be encircled by the Prussians and finally had to surrender to them. Which of these is the small fortress city in the French Ardennes where the Prussians surrounded his troops and captured him?

Answer: Sedan

Verdun played a major role in the next French-German conflict. Ch�lons-sur-Marne was where the French general Comte de MacMahon had originally positioned the French troops. He and Napoleon III let themselves be tempted to move north-east towards Metz where the Prussians were threatening Marshall Achille Bazaine. Bazaine withdrew within the town with his 170,000 men and at first adopted a passive strategy. MacMahon and Napoleon III now made the mistake of sheltering in the fortress of Sedan instead of interposing themselves between the Prussians and Paris. Moltke recalled the Third Prussian Army from a march on Paris and suddenly the trap closed: two Prussian armies closed in on Napoleon III's troops from both north and south.

9. In the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussians, after capturing Napoleon III, resumed their march on Paris and soon encircled the French capital. Who was the French leader who still managed to escape in a balloon in an attempt to organize the war effort in the French provinces?

Answer: L�on Gambetta

Two days after the defeat and capture of Napoleon III, the Third Republic was proclaimed at Paris by General Trochu and L�on Gambetta.
But they were unable to prevent the Prussians from encircling Paris.
On October the 8th, Gambetta made a dramatic escape from Paris by balloon to rally support in the provinces.
On October 27th, Marshall Achille Bazaine felt all was lost and surrendered the 170,000 garrison of Metz to the enemy.
On March 1, 1871 the National Assembly of the Third Republic voted to end the Franco-Prussian war. The Parisian National Guard, which was composed almost entirely of working-class people, did not accept the humiliating peace conditions and fought on.
On March 18, Adolphe Thiers, chief executive of the Third Republic, dispatched troops to disarm the National Guard and to seize guns on Montmartre, the centre of resistance.
This failed and the National Guard now took over power via a popularly elected Commune. French government troops now had to re-take the city.
The damage done and the repression was worse than any harm the Prussians had caused.

10. The most recent of France's Waterloos was probably the Battle of Dien Bien Phu, where the Vietnamese General Vo Nguyen Giap taught them a lesson in shrewdness and efficiency. A typical detail how "Gallic" the French approach to the war was the type of names they had given to the ten "strong points" that had to defend Dien Bien Phu. What sort of names had been chosen?

Answer: Girls' names

The last to fall was "Isabelle".

Source: Author flem-ish

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Famous Defeats of the French Trivia Quiz

You cannot win them all. So even the French, who more or less invented the essence of knighthood, chivalry, etc., had their "Waterloos". Check your knowledge about their less splendid moments.

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