WHEN SPAIN WAS GREAT.
It is somewhat odd to reflect that Spain, now well out of the fight, once supplied the best infantry in Europe. At the age of twenty-two the Prince of Conde made his reputation at the expense of the Spanish, who had laid siege to Rocroi in 1643. Mazarin in haste sent up his army of relief under command of L'Hopital and Conde. L'Hopital was full of caution, Conde was a genius with the recklessness of youth; and the victory was his. Conde at Rocroi, says Lord Acton, in an essay on Louis XIV., established the military reputation of France. He attacked and utterly overthrew the Spanish infantry, which at that era was world-renowned. "The Battle < of Rocroi," observes Dean Kitchin, "destroyed for ever the older fighting power of the world, the solid Spanish foot, and gave to France her first taste of that military glory which marks the reign."
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Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 16
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153WHEN SPAIN WAS GREAT. Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 150, 26 June 1915, Page 16
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