The Battle of Quiévrain refers to two events of conflict between the Archduchy of Austria and the

Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France ( fro, Reaume de France; frm, Royaulme de France; french: link=yes, Royaume de France) is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the medieval and early modern period ...

in late April 1792 during the

War of the First Coalition The War of the First Coalition (french: Guerre de la Première Coalition) was a set of wars that several European powers fought between 1792 and 1797 initially against the constitutional Kingdom of France and then the French Republic that suc ...

. On 28 April, there was a minor skirmish at

Quiévrain Quiévrain (; pcd, Kievrin) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On 1 January 2006, the municipality had 6,559 inhabitants. The total area is 21.22 km2, giving a population density of 309 inhabitants p ...

, just across the Franco-Belgian border, resulting in a victory for the French army under the command of general Armand-Louis de Gontaut Biron. However, although Biron advanced and planned to take the city of Mons and eventually

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, he judged his forces were not strong enough and decided to retreat. On 30 April, as his troops were passing by Quiévrain again, a false alarm of an Austrian attack caused the soldiers to panic, and they fled back to

Valenciennes Valenciennes (, also , , ; nl, label=also Dutch, Valencijn; pcd, Valincyinnes or ; la, Valentianae) is a commune in the Nord department, Hauts-de-France, France. It lies on the Scheldt () river. Although the city and region experienced a ...

in a disorderly fashion. His ally

Théobald Dillon Théobald Dillon (1745, Dublin – April 29th, 1792, near Lille) was count of Dillon and an Irish-born general in the French army. He was a distant cousin of general Arthur Dillon (who also had a brother named Theobald). He entered Dillon's ...

, who served with Biron under

marshal Rochambeau Marshal Jean-Baptiste Donatien de Vimeur, comte de Rochambeau, 1 July 1725 – 10 May 1807, was a French nobleman and general whose army played the decisive role in helping the United States defeat the British army at Yorktown in 1781 during the ...

during this invasion, suffered an even worse fate during the

battle of Marquain The Battle of Marquain was a conflict between Austria and the Kingdom of France during the War of the First Coalition. It took place on 29 April 1792 and ended in a French defeat. Background In early 1792, as the French Revolution was gradua ...

(29 April), some 35 kilometres to the northeast.

References

Conflicts in 1792 1792 in France Battles of the War of the First Coalition Battles in Wallonia

Battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

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