Battle of Turckheim

The Battle of Turckheim took place on 5 January 1675 during the Franco-Dutch War at a site between the towns of Colmar and Turckheim in Alsace. The French army, commanded by the Viscount of Turenne, defeated the armies of Austria and Brandenburg, led by Alexander von Bournonville and Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg.

Prelude

The aggressive campaign of Louis XIV against the Netherlands, since 1672, had provoked a hostile reaction of other European states like Austria (who controlled the Holy Roman Empire) and Brandenburg.¹ Their intervention had brought the war into the upper Rhine, creating a threat to French territory. In 1674 Marshal Turenne, French commander in that sector, failed to prevent the invasion of Alsace by a part of the Imperial Army. With the arrival of year's end in 1674, the Imperials went into their winter quarters in the region of Colmar,² a few miles south of the French winter barracks, situated in Haguenau.³

According to the conventions of war at the time, the military operations should have been halted during the winter until the return of the spring.⁴ Turenne, however, decided not to follow this custom. Using the mountains as protection, he moved west and then south, reappearing in , south of his opponent, on 27 December 1674. Finding no resistance, he on the 29th. The surprised Imperials hastily fell back on .