Battle of Rocroi

In 1643 a Spanish army under Francisco de Melo besieged the fortress of Rocroi, intending to invade northern France. Louis XIII had just died, leaving a child king, and the French sent the 21-year-old Duke of Enghien, later known as the Great Condé, to relieve the town. After a morning of fighting, Enghien's horsemen swept round the Spanish flank and returned to attack the Spanish infantry from behind. The Spanish tercios, the old infantry squares that had dominated Europe for a century, were surrounded and fought on until offered terms. The victory is often seen as the end of the Spanish army's reputation for invincibility.

Rocroi is often given a symbolic role as the day Spain's military supremacy died, but historians now see this as too neat. Spain kept fighting, held on in the Netherlands for years and won other battles later in the war. Later Spanish writers made Rocroi a symbol of a heroic last stand. The French victory also helped cement Condé's reputation, and his later career was rather more complicated. Some details, such as the offer of terms to the tercios, depend on French accounts and the Spanish version differs.