Battle of Rocroi

Battle of Rocroi
	Part of the Thirty Years' War and the; Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659)
	; La Bataille de Rocroi by Sauveur Le Conte
Date	19 May 1643
Location	Rocroi, France
Result	French victory
Belligerents
France	Spanish Empire
Commanders and leaders
Le Grand Condé; Jean de Gassion; Duke of La Ferté-Senneterre; Marquis of Espenan;	Francisco de Melo; Duke of Alburquerque; Paul-Bernard de Fontaines †; Graf von Isenburg; Melchor de Mencos y Medrano;
Strength
23,000 16,000 infantry; 7,000 cavalry; 12 guns	23,000–26,000 15,000–19,000 infantry; 8,000 cavalry; 18 guns
Casualties and losses
4,000	7,300–15,000 dead, wounded or captured

49°55′10″N 4°31′40″E / 49.91944°N 4.52778°E / 49.91944; 4.52778

The Battle of Rocroi, fought on 19 May 1643, was a major engagement of the Thirty Years' War between a French army, led by the 21-year-old Duke of Enghien (later known as the Great Condé) and Spanish forces under General Francisco de Melo only five days after the accession of Louis XIV to the throne of France after his father's death. Rocroi shattered the myth of invincibility of the Spanish tercios, the pike and shot infantry units that had dominated European battlefields for the previous 120 years. The battle is therefore often considered to mark the end of Spanish military greatness and the beginning of French hegemony in Europe during the 17th century. After Rocroi, the Spanish progressively transformed the tercio system incorporating more of the line infantry doctrine used by the French over time.