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Description

The First Map Printed In Britain to Use Flaps and Showing a Definitive Battle of the Seven Years' War

*Note: this description overivews the map as a whole. This image is of one of the two flaps.

This item offers a finely engraved battle plan of the Battle of Minden or Thonhausen, including two overlays (flaps) recording the action of the battle at various times during the conflict. Not only does it show a significant victory for the British and Hanoverians in the world-changing Seven Years' War, it also was the first map printed in Britain with flaps.

Ashley Baynton Williams explains:

The vast majority of maps, whether printed or manuscript, depict a single moment in time, in essence a cartographic snapshot. One of the difficulties on a two-dimensional map is how to depict, in a coherent way, a progression of events, for example the stages of a military campaign, or more particularly the phases of a battle. For England, overlays on manuscript maps are recorded as early as the sixteenth century, for example Richard Poppinjay's plan of Portsmouth from the 1580s has an additional overlay to depict proposed additions to the defensive works of the port … For some reason, printed maps seem to have lagged behind in the use of overlays, and it would seem that it was not until the Seven Years War that the next recorded examples of maps with overlays can be found, curiously all attributed to the same year, 1760, and with the impetus coming from British mapmakers and publishers.

The following links depict the map with the flaps folded back:

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The map was surveyed and drawn by the famed Scottish surveyor William Roy and was printed in London by Thomas Major. There is a Dutch version as well, engraved by Jacob van Schley and published by Pieter de Hondt in The Hague. Both were released in 1760.

The map is drawn on a scale of paces (2.5 feet per pace) and shows the environs of Minden, now North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. The central sweep of the plan shows the troop movements, with the two flaps to be fitted over Minden in the middle top of the document. To the left and right are polygonal text boxes minutely describing the troop movements (left) and an overview of the action (right). In the lower right is the key and scale, while the lower left contains a decorative cartouche of a gunner and cannon with a large banner declaring the work to be dedicated to Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick.

Duke Ferdinand of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1721-1792) was a German-Prussian army officer, close friend of Frederick the Great, and a Master Mason in the Order of Freemasons. As field marshal, he repulsed the French from Hanover from 1757-62 as part of the Seven Years' War.

The Seven Years' War

The French and British had been jockeying for global power throughout the eighteenth century in what has come to be known as the Second Hundred Years' War. In the 1750s, the French began constructing a series of forts in the Ohio River Valley, actions that the English colonists saw as limiting their possible westward expansion. Early skirmishes included the surrender of a young George Washington at Fort Necessity near what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1754 and the expulsion of the Acadians from British holdings in 1755.

Meanwhile, in Europe, Austria had been preparing for war to retake Silesia from Prussia since losing the area in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748). George II of Britain, Hanoverian by birth, wanted to defend his family's continental holdings yet also needed to meet the French threat in the colonies. In early 1756, George II signed a protective agreement with Frederick the Great of Prussia, setting up the two sides of the war: Britain and Prussia and their allies against Austria and its allies, including Russia and, eventually, France.

Britain formally declared war on France on May 17, 1756. In August, Prussia invaded Saxony, which was aligned with Austria, triggering alliances that brought all of Europe to war. By the time of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the war had been fought on five continents, with the battles in North America known as the French and Indian War. The conflict involved every major power in Europe except the Ottomans and can be considered as the first world war.

While Frederick first advanced, then retreated, and then gained smashing victories at the Battles of Rossbach and Leuthen, the British and German army under the Duke of Cumberland struggled to maintain control of Hanover. After a humiliating defeat at the Battle of Hastenback, Hanover was forced to surrender and retire from the war at the Convention of Klosterzeven in 1757.

George II quickly saw to it that Hanover returned to the fight, however, and a new commander took up control of the Hanoverian troops, Duke Ferdinand, to whom this plan is dedicated. Ferdinand began an offensive that pushed the French back over the Rhine River and he continued to hold the French at bay for the rest of the war.

The Battle of Minden/Thonhausen

The Battle of Thornhausen (or Minden) was part of this offensive. It was fought August 1, 1759. Under the Marshall de Contades, the French captured Minden on July 10. A combined English and German force, led by Ferdinand, massed to dislodge them.

On the night of July 31, Contades left his defensive position and advanced on the Allied forces. Through a misunderstanding of orders, six British regiments of infantry, later supported by the Hanoverian Guards, took on the French cavalry. Miraculously, the French cavalry were unable to break the marching lines and suffered heavily in their attacks. Supported by artillery, the Allies overwhelmed the French.

The victory prevented further French designs on Hanover in 1759 and helped to keep the French from Hanover for the rest of the war. George II awarded Ferdinand the Order of the Garter and 20,000 pounds. The British celebrated the victory as part of the Annus Mirabilis of 1759, as that was the year the war turned in their favor on several fronts thanks to the capture of Fort Ticonderoga, Quebec, and Guadeloupe. The British had also successfully fought off the French who were besieging Madras and the Royal Navy smashed the French and the Battles of Lagos and Quiberon Bay.

For the French, the defeat was a humiliation. After an investigation, the Marshal de Contades was relieved of duty. A particularly prominent casualty of the battle was Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette de Motier, the Marquis de La Fayette. His son, who would go on to fame during the American Revolution, was almost two years old at the time.

The war continued for three more years. Prussia and Austria fought themselves to a stalemate and the French were suffering under a British naval blockade. Spain had entered the fray after Britain declared war in 1762, allying with Spain's neighbor Portugal. The war in Central Europe ended with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, with both Prussia and Austria returning to the same territorial set-up as 1748. The Treaty of Paris ended hostilities between France and Britain. France ceded Louisiana to Spain and most of New France, now Canada, to Britain. Britain also regained Minorca from France and Florida from Spain. France lost most of its power in India while the British gained allies there. A new world order emerged, with Britain as the foremost global power.

The Mapmakers

The plan was surveyed and drawn by Captain William Roy (1726-1790) and engraved by Thomas Major (1719-1799). Roy was a well-regarded military map maker, military engineer, surveyor, and antiquarian. By age 20, he was already in the employ of the Board of Ordinance at Edinburgh Castle, where he drafted an official map of Culloden just after the battle in 1746. Following the end of the Jacobite rising, Roy participated in the survey of Scotland, which produced the document known as the Duke of Cumberland's Map.

The survey was interrupted by the Seven Years' War and Roy was appointed an ensign in the Corps of Engineers and a practitioner-engineer in the Board of Ordnance. He eventually attained the rank of major-general in the former and director and lieutenant-colonel in the latter. Roy served in Europe during the Seven Years' War, including at the Battle of Minden. It was there that Roy prepared overlays to more easily show his commanders changes in troop movements, an innovation that was eventually adopted more generally.

After the war Roy moved to London, where he began to advocate for a national survey. In 1767 he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society. He led a survey of the coasts of all British possessions and participated in the Anglo-French Survey measuring the distance between Paris and Greenwich. This triangulation was eventually continued in the form of the Ordnance Survey, a project commenced a year after Roy died and with his work in mind.

The map was published by Thomas Major, an engraver, etcher, printseller, and mapseller. He travelled to Paris in 1745 and was imprisoned in the Bastille for three months in late 1746 as reprisal for Frenchmen imprisoned after Culloden. Back in England, he established himself as a print artist and exhibited at the Free Society of Artists in 1762 and was elected to the Royal Academy in 1770. He was appointed Seal Engraver to George III and Engraver to the Stamp Office. After his death, his prints and plates were sold at auction; their volume and the interest in them was considerable and the auction continued for six days.

Rarity

The map is extremely rare. We locate copies at the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the Det Kgl. Bibliotek - København. There is also a copy currently offered by Philip Burden, which was previously cataloged by Jonathan Potter.

Condition Description
Fine old color. Two extra flaps.
William Roy Biography

Roy was a well-regarded military map maker, military engineer, surveyor, and antiquarian.  By age 20, he was already in the employ of the Board of Ordinance at Edinburgh Castle, where he drafted an official map of Culloden just after the battle in 1746. Following the end of the Jacobite rising, Roy participated in the survey of Scotland, which produced the document known as the Duke of Cumberland’s Map.

The survey was interrupted by the Seven Years’ War and Roy was appointed an ensign in the Corps of Engineers and a practitioner-engineer in the Board of Ordnance. He eventually attained the rank of major-general in the former and director and lieutenant-colonel in the latter. Roy served in Europe during the Seven Years’ War, including at the Battle of Minden. It was there that Roy prepared overlays to more easily show his commanders changes in troop movements, an innovation that was eventually adopted more generally.

After the war Roy moved to London, where he began to advocate for a national survey. In 1767 he was named a Fellow of the Royal Society. He led a survey of the coasts of all British possessions and participated in the Anglo-French Survey measuring the distance between Paris and Greenwich. This triangulation was eventually continued in the form of the Ordnance Survey, a project commenced a year after Roy died and with his work in mind.