4. Marlborough finished the negotiations which William III. had almost carried through. On 4th May 1702 EngThe War of the land, the United Provinces, and the Emperor Spanish Suc- declared war against France. A whole crowd cession, 1702-14. of lesser states followed these great Powers. The Elector of Brandenburg (Frederick, son of the Great Elector, Frederick William) was bought over to the Coalition by being recognised as King of Prussia. The lesser German states were so much afraid of Louis, that even the sluggish Diet of the Empire declared war. Yet Louis had great resources at his back. He governed the richest, most compact, and in some ways the best ruled state in Europe. The army and fleet of France, with their famous generals and admirals and almost unbroken record of victories, were far larger and better managed than those of any other state. Every patriotic Castilian was deeply incensed at the proposed partition of the Spanish empire, and zealous on Louis's side. For the first time the Spanish Netherlands, with their mighty fortresses, were entirely in Louis's hands; and he could begin the war by attacking the Dutch frontier. Even in Germany the Elector of Bavaria and his brother the Elector of Cologne were French partisans; and in the east the discontented Hungarians and the warlike Turks were their constant allies against Austria. The Spanish Succession gave Louis practical command of Italy, especially as Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy and Lord of Piedmont, was the father-in-law of his grandson Philip of Spain. mighty as were the two great coalitions, they did not include the whole of Europe. While the War of the Spanish Succession was waged in southern and central Europe, another great struggle was being fought out in the north and east, where Charles XII., the last of the great Swedish monarchs, and Peter the Great, the first of the great Russian Czars, were engaged in a deadly fight for the supremacy of the Baltic lands, which ended at last by the defeat of Charles at Poltava (1709), his subsequent captivity in Turkey, and the complete triumph of Russia.

But

The Dutch, more fearful of invasion than in 1672, made Marlborough commander of their army, but constantly kept him in check by their jealousy and sluggishness. Yet, in 1702, he managed not only to prevent invasion, but to capture Venlo, Liège, and a long line of fortresses on the Meuse, to overwhelm the Elector of Cologne, and to cut off the French from the Lower Rhine. But in Upper Germany the French, with their Bavarian allies, were more successful,

and in Italy they seemed so threatening that Savoy, in great alarm, joined the Coalition. Portugal, long closely connected with England, now signed the Methuen Treaty (1703), and united with the allies.

By this Portugal opened up her markets to English woollen goods; England took Portuguese wine at a third less duty than French. The result was that Englishmen gave up drinking claret and burgundy, and took to port, and Portugal became dependent on England, both in politics and trade.

Blenheim,

5. Enemies now assailed France on every side, yet the mighty monarchy still more than held its own. The campaign of 1703 led to nothing great, as the fears of the Dutch prevented Marlborough carrying out his scheme for the capture of 1704. Antwerp and the invasion of Flanders. In 1704 things seemed even worse. "I see so ill a prospect," wrote Marlborough to Godolphin, "that I am extremely out of heart." A great French army, under Marshal Tallard, had joined the Bavarians, and was threatening Vienna, also menaced on the east by the revolted Hungarians. It seemed as if Austria would be forced to make peace. Help could only come from Marlborough. But his army was hundreds of miles away on the Lower Meuse; the armies of the time were unwieldy, and slow in moving, and the Dutch would never lay bare their own frontiers for the sake of their ally. Yet the great general at once made up his mind to march with his whole force from the Lower Meuse to the Upper Danube, though he could only get away from Holland by pretending that he wished to fight on the Moselle. But he hurried up the Rhine, past Coblenz and Mainz, to Mannheim, where he left the Rhine for the hilly and picturesque vale of the Neckar, crossing safely the rugged hills of Swabia, and reaching the Danube near Ulm.

Marlborough had already been joined by the German army under Louis, Margrave of Baden, a slow-minded and old-fashioned general. The gallant Prince Eugene of Savoy, the wisest of the Imperial generals, was commanding the army of the Rhine, against which Tallard had now again marched. The brilliant Marlborough and the heavy Margrave agreed to command their united army on alternate days. On Louis's days very little was done; but Marlborough showed great activity when his turn to act as general came, since he saw that his best chance was to crush the Bavarians before Tallard came back to help them. He therefore marched eastwards towards Donauwörth, stormed the strong hill called the Schellenberg, drove out the Bavarian army, captured Donauwörth, and its bridge over the Danube, and plundered and devastated the surrounding country.

The beaten Elector retreated southwards to Augsburg, whither Tallard was now again hurrying through the narrow passes of the Black Forest. Eugene, finding no enemy left on the Rhine, also joined Marlborough, and the two generals of genius persuaded Louis of Baden to leave them alone, and go off to besiege Ingoldstadt. Meanwhile Tallard again joined the Elector, and on 13th August a great battle was fought at Blindheim, called by the English Blenheim, a little village on the north bank of the Danube, a short way to the east of Höchstädt. The French and Bavarians took up their position facing eastwards on some rising ground at the bottom of which

the little river Nebel runs through marshes to join the Danube at Blenheim, which village was strongly entrenched, and held in force by Tallard himself. The left, further from the Danube, was commanded by the Elector, and the centre by Marshal Marsin. Against these Eugene fought, while Marlborough opposed Tallard. The English began the battle by a fierce attack on Blenheim; but all the efforts of the gallant Cutts and his grenadiers proved in vain, as the village was too strong to be taken. But Marlborough's quick eye soon saw that the French had weakened their centre to protect their right. He poured his troops over the treacherous marshes of the Nebel, and up the steep slopes beyond. After a fierce fight, the enemy's centre was broken. Tallard, cut off from the Elector, was forced to surrender with the

11,000 men that still survived of the defenders of Blenheim. On this, the Elector, who had hitherto held his own against Eugene, drew off his troops. It was a great victory. "Tallard's army," wrote Marlborough to his wife, is quite ruined. Had Eugene's success been equal to his merit we should in that day's action have made an end of the war. As it was, a fatal blow was given to the prestige of the hitherto unbeaten armies of France. Vienna was saved, Bavaria was forced to sue for peace, and the French hurried back over the Rhine, whither Marlborough rapidly followed them.

6. The French made such great efforts that Marlborough failed in 1705 to carry out his plan of marching up the Moselle and invading

of 1706.

France, and was forced back to the Low Countries, where the dashing, sanguine, and vainglorious Marshal Villeroi had won back the fortresses captured in 1702, and was again threatening the The Campaign Dutch frontier. Meanwhile all the genius of Eugene could not withstand the victorious French in Italy. But in 1706 Marlborough, disgusted at the poor results of the preceding campaign, again invaded the Spanish Netherlands, and fought on 23d May a decisive battle at Ramillies (north of Namur). was almost Blenheim over again. The French were Ramillies. drawn up in a semicircle along a row of heights,

It

and again made the mistake of sending too many troops to defend the strongest point of their position, the village of Autre Église on their left. But Marlborough's attack on that hamlet was only a feint to cover his real assault on the enemy's right, grouped round a barrow called the Tomb of Ottomond, immediately above Ramillies village. When this was captured, the enemy's left could no longer hold Autre Eglise, and the whole host fell back in panic flight on Brussels. The result was the capture of almost all the Spanish Netherlands by the allies. Brussels at once opened its gates: mighty fortresses like Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, and Ostend surrendered after a show of resistance. Mons and Namur alone remained to the French.

Turin.

The loss of Flanders and Brabant was not the only French disaster in 1706. On 7th September Eugene won the decisive battle of Turin, which drove the French out of Italy, and brought Milan and Naples to accept the Archduke Charles as their king. An equally brilliant success attended the allies in Spain. In 1704 Admiral Rooke took the rock of Gibraltar by surprise while the sentries had left their posts to go to mass and pray for deliverance from the heretics. In 1705 the capture of Barcelona by the brave, rash, and eccentric Earl of Peterborough led to a great revolt of the Catalans against Castile in favour of the Archduke, who soon advanced to Madrid. But the English, Dutch, and Portuguese under the Huguenot refugee Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, had already marched up Madrid. eastwards along the Tagus, and had proclaimed King Charles in the Spanish capital. Thus Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and Spain seemed all lost to France.

French vic

tories in 1707.

7. France was not yet beaten. In Spain a great popular revolt brought back Philip to Madrid, and showed that Spanish national spirit was still too strong to suffer foreigners to force an unwelcome stranger into the throne of Philip II. The disorderly and badly led armies of the allies were soon forced to evacuate Madrid, and on 25th April 1707, the high-minded and valiant Duke of Berwick (son of James II. by Marlborough's sister, Arabella Churchill) won a complete victory at Almanza. It was all Charles could do henceforth to hold his own in Catalonia. Meanwhile the French Marshal Villars captured the lines of Stollhofen, and again opened out the way for the invasion of Upper Germany. Eugene failed completely in an attempt to invade France and capture Toulon. The French again began to make way in Flanders, where Marshal Vendôme ended a career of minor successes by the recapture of Ghent and Bruges in 1708. An attempt was even made to excite a Jacobite rising in Scotland, but James II.'s son, who called himself James III., fell ill of the measles just as he was going to start off, and when he got better Admiral Byng's fleet stood in his way.

Oudenarde, 1708.

8. In 1708 Marlborough made a fierce effort to regain his lost ground. Vendôme was now besieging Oudenarde on the Scheldt, and Marlborough and Eugene resolved to fight a battle to save the town. By a series of dexterous manoeuvres they got into a good position among the hills to the west of Oudenarde, while the French, owing to the jealousy felt between the shy and reserved Duke of Burgundy (Louis's grandson), the nominal general, and the real leader, the brutal, violent, but extremely able Vendôme, made all sorts of mistakes. On 11th July the battle of Oudenarde resulted in the complete defeat of the French. Their previous successes were now undone. The surrender of Lille, the key of French Flanders, in December left the way open for the invasion of France. In the same year General Stanhope conquered the island stronghold of Minorca.

9. In despair Louis XIV. sought peace, but the terms of the allies were so harsh that he was forced to carry on the war. He was willing to renounce the Spanish succession, but the allies, seeing that the expulsion of Philip was no easy task, insisted that he must help them with his troops to drive him out. 'If I must fight," declared the old king, "I would rather fight against my enemies than my own children.” So France, tired out as she was, prepared to resist invasion. Now that she stood at bay, with the national feeling thoroughly aroused, Marlborough had no easy task before him.

10. Before invading France, Marlborough busied himself with the capture of the few Netherland fortresses that still remained in the enemy's Malplaquet, 1709.

hands. With this object he and Eugene laid siege to Mons. Thereupon Marshal Villars, the only unbeaten French general left, took up a very strong position a few miles south of the town, upon the ridge of the upland heath which is crowned by the village of Malplaquet. Dense woods protected the French flanks, and strong entrenchments were rapidly thrown up to further strengthen their position. On 11th September the allies marched to the assault of the almost impregnable heights. For a time the French held their own, and the allies suffered terribly. But Villars, like Tallard at Blenheim, weakened his centre to prevent the wood of Taisnière on his left from being taken by the daring of the English right under Withers. Marlborough soon perceived this, and succeeded in cutting his way through the enemy's middle lines. But he had lost 20,000 men, and the French had retreated in perfect order, and were ready for another battle. The chief result of this bloody day was the capture of Mons.

11. In 1710 a conference was held at Gertruydenberg, in Holland, but the allies would not listen to reasonable terms, so the war

The last campaigns of the war, 1710-11.

went on, though the time of glorious victories was now over. Little was done in the Netherlands during 1710 or 1711. In Spain, however (where the English Tories insisted the war ought chiefly to be carried on), General Stanhope succeeded for a second time in occupying Madrid for King Charles, but the national rising of the Spaniards made it quite impossible to hold it long, and Stanhope was forced to hurry back into Aragon. But Vendôme had now been sent to command the French and Spanish forces, and, as in 1707, it was not hard to get the better of the motley army of the allies. Stan