The Belgian village of Fontenoy near Tournai was the site of a great battle on 11 May 1745 when the French army of Louis XV defeated an Anglo-Dutch army led by the Duke of Cumberland. It was here, according to Voltaire, that the famous words were spoken: Messieurs les Anglais, tirez les premiers.
Or maybe not. The battle formed part of a conflict that is sometimes known as the lace war, due to the formal etiquette observed by the opposing armies. It seems, according to Voltaire, that a British officer, Lord Charles Hay, invited the French to open fire first, to which a French officer replied, ‘No, sir, after you. You should know that French never fire first.’
The battlefield has now largely been destroyed. The high speed Eurostar cuts across the site, along with the motorway to Paris. But there’s a Celtic cross in the village that commemorates the Irish Brigade that fought on the side of the French. Known as the Wild Geese, the 4,000 Irish mercenaries played a key role in defeating the British. The cross was put up in 1907 by the Irish Literary Society.
If you’re Irish, the name Fontenoy might mean something. The heroic Irish soldiers are part of the Irish nationalist story, celebrated in novels, poems and songs. There’s even a Fontenoy Street in Dulin where James Joyce lived for a while.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
