FONTENOY, a town or village of the Austrian Netherlands, in the province of Hainault, and on the borders of Flanders; remarkable for a battle fought between the allies and the French on the first of May 1745. The French were commanded by Marechal Saxe, and the allies by the Duke of Cumberland. On account of the superior numbers of the French army, and the superior generalship of their commander, the allies were defeated with great slaughter. The British troops behaved with great intrepidity, as their enemies themselves acknowledged. It has been said, that the battle was lost through the cowardice of the Dutch, who failed in their attack on the village of Fontenoy, on which the event of the day depended. E. Long. 2. 20. N. Lat. 50. 35.