Bavaria. To secure the village, marshal Tallard weakened his centre, and upon that point Marlborough flung all his force, cut the line, pushed the right wing of the enemy into the Danube, or forced them to surrender, Tallard himself being among the prisoners. On the left the Bavarians held their ground against Eugene till the right was defeated, and then retreated to Ulm. The BATTle of BLENHEIM is one of the most complete victories in history. It enabled the imperial forces to overrun Bavaria and to pursue the French into Alsace, where they took Landau and Traerbach; while Marlborough went to Berlin to secure the aid of the king of Prussia, and returned to London in December. His reception was most magnificent, and his rewards substantial. The manor of Woodstock was adorned, at the public cost, with the splendid mansion of Blenheim House, and granted to him and his heirs for ever. They hold it by the tenure of presenting to the sovereign annually, on the anniversary of the battle, a small flag embroidered with the fleur-delys of the Bourbons, which hangs in the armoury of Windsor opposite to the tricolor, which is also annually presented for the manor of Strathfieldsaye in memory of Waterloo.

In the same summer the English fleet, under sir George Rooke, made the important conquest of GIBRALTAR, through the negligence of its garrison (July 23); and it was held against a combined attack by the French and Spanish fleets (Oct.). Another French squadron, sent to reinforce the besiegers, was totally defeated by sir John Leake (March 10, 1705), with the result of raising the siege of Gibraltar, and destroying the naval power of France in the Mediterranean. The shores of Spain now witnessed the daring exploits of Charles Mordaunt, earl of PETERBOROUGH, who, in conjunction with a fleet under sir Cloudesley Shovel, took Barcelona, and reduced all Catalonia and Valencia under the authority of Charles III. (May-Oct. 1705). Marlborough was occupied this summer in defending the Dutch frontier. He was made a prince of the empire by Joseph I., the successor of Leopold.

The timid policy of the Dutch again kept Marlborough in the Netherlands in 1706, but gave him thus the opportunity of winning the brilliant victory of RAMILLIES (near Tirlemont), over marshal Villeroi (May 23). The French were expelled from Italy by prince Eugene and the duke of Savoy; and an Anglo-Portuguese army advanced to Madrid, but were driven out again by the duke of Berwick. The British fleet, under sir John Leake, took Majorca

and Iviza.

These victories gave a prestige to the government

which aided them in carrying the Union; and they postponed the fall of Marlborough, whose influence at court was now giving way before an intrigue to be related presently. Their effect abroad was

to make Louis desirous of peace, but his overtures were distrusted by the allies.

In 1707 Majorca was retaken by marshal Villars; but Eugene invaded France from Italy, and laid siege to Toulon (July 26). The town made good its defence against both the prince and a blockading fleet under sir Cloudesley Shovel. That brave admiral, who had risen from before the mast, perished with four of his ships on some rocks off the Scilly Isles, on his voyage home (Oct. 22). There were no decisive actions this year in Germany or Flanders.

The season of 1708 opened with an attempt of the Pretender to invade Scotland from Dunkirk (March 6); but his fleet was dispersed by sir George Byng, after a panic had been created in London, and the Habeas Corpus Act suspended. In the Netherlands, Marlborough conducted one of his most brilliant and decisive campaigns, and won the great victory of OUDENARDE over marshal Vendôme (July 11), which made him master of all Flanders. Next year, with prince Eugene, he followed up his success on the French frontier by the victory of MALPLAQUET over Villars (Sept. 11), and the capture of Mons (Oct. 20, 1709); and in the year after they made further progress in Artois and Picardy (March to June, 1710). The fleet had its full share in the honours of war. Sardinia and Minorca surrendered to sir John Leake in 1708, and the French settlement of Port Royal in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) was taken in 1710, and named Annapolis in honour of the queen. In Spain there were great vicissitudes during these three years. The victories of count Stahremberg, aided by general Stanhope, at Almenara (July 27, 1710) and Saragossa (Aug. 20) put Charles III. in possession of Madrid; but he was soon driven out by marshal Vendôme, who forced Stanhope to surrender (Dec. 10) and defeated Stahremberg (Dec. 20). In the summer of 1711 Charles III. had scarcely a footing left him in Spain. He returned to Germany (Sept. 27), and was elected emperor by the title of CHARLES VI. Within a month afterwards (Oct. 1711), Marlborough, after obtaining some successes against Villars, took his final departure from Flanders, his enemies having obtained complete ascendency at court. This change demands a review of domestic politics.

In Anne's first new parliament, which met Oct. 20, 1702, the commons chose ROBERT HARLEY as speaker, and showed a violent Tory spirit, which was only kept in check by the lords. Their great party measure was a bill against "occasional conformity" (that is, the practice adopted by some of the less scrupulous Dissenters of taking the sacramental test merely to qualify for office), which the peers threw out. The convocation of the clergy was strongly divided this session by the parties of High Church and Low Church,

the latter supporting and the former opposing a revision of the Liturgy, with a view to the comprehension of Dissenters, and Dr. Atterbury made his appearance as a leader of the High Church party. In 1703-4 disputes arose between the two houses from the violent measures of the commons to coerce the Scots into making a settlement of the crown as in England, and from the attempts of the commons to "tack" the bill against occasional conformity to a money bill. Marlborough was disgusted at these party conflicts, and Godolphin was anxious to keep terms with the Whigs, who formed a powerful opposition party called the "Junto," under lords Somers, Halifax, Wharton, Orford, and Sunderland. The ministry was strengthened by the introduction of Robert Harley and HENRY ST. JOHN, whom the two great leaders hoped to find devoted to them; but Harley undermined the influence of the Marlboroughs with the queen, who began to weary of Sarah's temper, by the introduction of a new favourite, Abigail Hill, who soon became Mrs. Masham. They revenged themselves on Harley by driving him from office, on a false charge of being implicated in a treasonable correspondence which one of his clerks, named Gregg, had carried on with France. Harley and St. John, who resigned with him, were replaced by two Whigs-ROBERT WALPOLE and Cardonnel (Feb. 1708). In the autumn of the same year the cabinet became still more whiggish by the appointment of Somers as lord president; and the parliament, which met Nov. 16, chose sir Richard Onslow, a Whig, for speaker.

The tables were however soon turned again by the popular outburst in favour of Dr. Sacheverel, who, preaching before the lord mayor at St. Paul's (Nov. 5, 1709), advocated passive obedience, virulently abused Dissenters and Low Churchmen, inveighed against the Whig ministers, and made a personal attack upon Godolphin. The commons voted the sermon scandalous and seditious, and resolved to impeach Sacheverel. He was brought to trial before the lords at Westminster Hall (Feb. 27, 1710), and condemned to silence for three years, and his sermon to be burnt by the common hangman. But the temper of the people, who escorted the highchurch champion to and fro with loud cheering, encouraged Anne to make a gradual alteration in the ministry. The change was completed by the dismissal of Godolphin (Aug. 8); and a Tory administration was formed under the duke of Shrewsbury, with Harley as chancellor of the exchequer, and St. John, who was now a decided Jacobite, as a secretary of state, specially charged with the foreign correspondence. They were supported by a new Tory parliament, which met Nov. 25, 1710, and passed the act against occasional conformity, and the Schism Act, requiring all teachers to conform to the established church. Both were repealed under George I. in 1719.

Thus far Marlborough's military ascendency was respected. The queen's speech had expressed a desire for peace, but urged the vigorous prosecution of the war, for which the commons voted 14,000,000l. But no mention was made of Marlborough's services, a motion in the lords for a vote of thanks to him was defeated, and the duchess was dismissed with insult from her offices about the queen's person. The advancement of Harley was aided by a strange accident. Guiscard, a French adventurer, whom St. John had employed, being brought before the council on the charge of a treasonable correspondence with France, stabbed Harley with a penknife, the blade of which fortunately broke against his breastbone. St. John and others despatched Guiscard with their swords (Mar. 18, 1711). Harley's slight wound earned for him the sympathy of the people, the parliament, and the queen. He was made EARL OF OXFORD (May 24) and lord high treasurer (May 29). But his good fortune brought upon him the envy of St. John, for whom Guiscard's blow seems to have been meant, and who now began to intrigue against his former comrade. Their rivalry became more marked when St. John obtained his peerage as VISCOUNT BOLINGBROKE (July 7, 1712).

Meanwhile the ministry had begun to treat secretly for peace. After the campaign of 1711 the elevation of Charles to the imperial crown, the repeated overtures of Louis, and the exhaustion of all parties, furnished solid grounds for proposing peace; negociations were opened (Oct. 20), and Utrecht was named as the place where the conferences were to be held.

At this juncture Marlborough returned to London (Oct. 18). He defended his character and conduct in parliament, which met on December 7, repelling the insinuation, which had been made even in the queen's speech, against "the arts of those that delight in war," and protesting that "he was ever desirous of a safe, honourable, and lasting peace." That no peace could be so, which left Spain and the West Indies to the house of Bourbon, was resolved by 62 against 44; but the same amendment was rejected in the commons by 232 against 106. The ministry then proceeded with their personal attack on Marlborough. A report was laid before the commons, charging Marlborough, Walpole, and Cardonnel with peculation (Dec. 21). The two commoners were expelled from parliament, and the great duke was dismissed from all his offices. He was succeeded as commander-in-chief by the duke of Ormond (Jan. 1, 1712), with instructions not to press the war during the negociations, which were opened at Utrecht, in spite of the opposition of the allies (Jan. 29, 1712). Twelve new peers were created to secure the consent of the lords to the proposed terms, against which

there was still a strong party headed by Marlborough. But his opposition in the senate was neutralized by his absence from the field. Ormond, after taking Quesnoy (July 17), made a separate armistice; Eugene was defeated; several fortresses in Flanders were retaken; and France was enabled to insist on moderate terms. Marlborough retired from England in November. He returned on the very day of the queen's death (Aug. 1, 1714), but was received coldly by George I. He was, however, restored to his old office of captaingeneral, and aided, by his advice, in suppressing the rebellion of 1715. He died June 16, 1722, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His duchess, who survived till 1744, published a Vindication of his conduct and her own, against the charges of treason, avarice, falsehood, and unscrupulous ambition, on which the verdict of posterity has generally been passed against them, perhaps too severely. It was on hearing the memory of Marlborough thus assailed, that Bolingbroke, his constant enemy, replied, "He was a great man, and I have forgotten all his faults.”

The conferences for peace at Utrecht lasted for more than a year. The English plenipotentiaries were the earl of Strafford, John Robinson bishop of Bristol, and subsequently Matthew Prior the poet. The throne of Spain proper and its colonies was abandoned to the house of Bourbon, on the promise of Louis that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united; but Naples, Milan, and the Netherlands were given up to the emperor. Sicily was assigned to the duke of Savoy, and Sardinia to the elector of Bavaria, both with the title of king. Holland received Namur and other towns in Flanders, restoring Lille to France. On his eastern frontier Louis obtained Orange and Franche Comté from Prussia, in exchange for Upper Gueldres. Spain ceded Gibraltar and Minorca to England, which also obtained from France the colonial possessions of Nova Scotia and St. Christopher, and freedom from disturbance in Newfoundland and the Hudson's Bay territory. Lastly, Louis bound himself, "on the faith, word, and honour of a king," to uphold the Protestant succession in Great Britain, and to cause the pretender to quit France. On these terms, the celebrated PEACE OF UTRECHT was signed, March 31, 1713. The emperor alone held aloof, but Inade peace with France in the following year at Rastadt. The peace of Utrecht has been censured as unworthy of the victories of Marlborough; and the motives of its authors were doubtless mean enough. But the advantages gained were substantial; and subsequent experience has proved that the chance of excluding the Bourbons from the throne of Spain was not worth the prolongation of a war which had lasted for half a generation, and had cost England almost sixty-nine millions.

The short remainder of Anne's reign was occupied wi