"The decisive blow struck at Blenheim resounded through every
part of Europe: it at once destroyed the vast fabric of power
which it had taken Louis XIV., aided by the talents of Turenne,
and the genius of Vauban, so long to construct."--ALISON.
Though more slowly moulded and less imposingly vast than the empire of
Napoleon, the power which Louis XIV. had acquired and was acquiring at
the commencement of the eighteenth century, was almost equally menacing
to the general liberties of Europe. If tested by the amount of permanent
aggrandisement which each procured for France, the ambition of the royal
Bourbon was more successful than were the enterprises of the imperial
Corsican. All the provinces that Bonaparte conquered, were rent again
from France within twenty years from the date when the very earliest of
them was acquired. France is not stronger by a single city or a single
acre for all the devastating wars of the Consulate and the Empire. But
she still possesses Franche-Comte, Alsace, and part of Flanders. She has
still the extended boundaries which Louis XIV. gave her. And the royal
Spanish marriages, a few years ago, proved clearly how enduring has
been the political influence which the arts and arms of France's "Grand
Monarque" obtained for her southward of the Pyrenees.
When Louis XIV. took the reins of government into his own hands,
after the death of Cardinal Mazarin, there was a union of ability with
opportunity, such as France had not seen since the days of Charlemagne.
Moreover, Louis's career was no brief one. For upwards of forty years,
for a period nearly equal to the duration of Charlemagne's reign, Louis
steadily followed an aggressive and a generally successful policy. He
passed a long youth and manhood of triumph, before the military genius
of Marlborough made him acquainted with humiliation and defeat. The
great Bourbon lived too long. He should not have outstayed our two
English kings--one his dependent, James II., the other his antagonist,
William III. Had he died in the year within which they died, his reign
would be cited as unequalled in the French annals for its prosperity.
But he lived on to see his armies beaten, his cities captured, and his
kingdom wasted by disastrous war. It is as if Charlemagne had survived
to be defeated by the Northmen, and to witness the misery and shame that
actually fell to the lot of his descendants.
Still, Louis XIV. had forty years of success; and from the permanence of
their fruits we may judge what the results would have been if the last
fifteen years of his reign had been equally fortunate. Had it not been
for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of
French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent, and those of
the Romans in durability.
When Louis XIV. began to govern, he found all the materials for a
strong government ready to his hand. Richelieu had completely tamed the
turbulent spirit of the French nobility, and had subverted the "imperium
in imperio" of the Huguenots. The faction of the Frondeurs in Mazarin's
time had had the effect of making the Parisian parliament utterly
hateful and contemptible in the eyes of the nation. The assemblies of
the States-General were obsolete. The royal authority alone remained.
The King was the State. Louis knew his position. He fearlessly avowed
it, and he fearlessly acted up to it. ["Quand Louis XIV. dit, 'L'etat,
c'est moi:' il n'y eut dans cette parole ni enflure, ni vanterie, mais
la simple enonciation d'un fait."--MICHELET, HISTOIRE MODERNE vol. ii.
p. 106.]
Not only was his government a strong one, but the country which he
governed was strong: strong in its geographical situation, in the
compactness of its territory, in the number and martial spirit of its
inhabitants, and in their complete and undivided nationality. Louis had
neither a Hungary nor an Ireland in his dominions, and it was not till
late in his reign, when old age had made his bigotry more gloomy, and
had given fanaticism the mastery over prudence, that his persecuting
intolerance caused the civil war in the Cevennes.
Like Napoleon in after-times, Louis XIV. saw clearly that the great
wants of France were "ships, colonies, and commerce." But Louis did
more than see these wants: by the aid of his great minister, Colbert, he
supplied them. One of the surest proofs of the genius of Louis was his
skill in finding out genius in others, and his promptness in calling it
into action. Under him, Louvois organized, Turenne, Conde, Villars and
Berwick, led the armies of France; and Vauban fortified her frontiers.
Throughout his reign, French diplomacy was marked by skilfulness
and activity, and also by comprehensive far-sightedness, such as the
representatives of no other nation possessed. Guizot's testimony to
the vigour that was displayed through every branch of Louis XIV.'s
government, and to the extent to which France at present is indebted to
him, is remarkable. He says, that, "taking the public services of every
kind, the finances, the departments of roads and public works, the
military administration, and all the establishments which belong to
every branch of administration, there is not one that will not be found
to have had its origin, its development, or its greatest perfection,
under the reign of Louis XIV." [History of European Civilization,
Lecture 13.] And he points out to us, that "the government of Louis XIV.
was the first that presented itself to the eyes of Europe as a power
acting upon sure grounds, which had not to dispute its existence with
inward enemies, but was at ease as to its territory and its people, and
solely occupied with the task of administering government, properly so
called. All the European governments had been previously thrown into
incessant wars, which deprived them of all security as well as of all
leisure, or so harassed by internal parties or antagonists, that their
time was passed in fighting for existence. The government of Louis XIV.
was the first to appear as a busy thriving administration of affairs,
as a power at once definitive and progressive, which was not afraid to
innovate, because it could reckon securely on the future. There have
been in fact very few governments equally innovating. Compare it with
a government of the same nature, the unmixed monarchy of Philip II. in
Spain; it was more absolute than that of Louis XIV., and yet it was far
less regular and tranquil. How did Philip II. succeed in establishing
absolute power in Spain? By stifling all activity in the country,
opposing himself to every species of amelioration, and rendering the
state of Spain completely stagnant. The government of Louis XIV., on the
contrary, exhibited alacrity for all sorts of innovations, and showed
itself favourable to the progress of letters, arts, wealth in short,
of civilization. This was the veritable cause of its preponderance
in Europe, which arose to such a pitch, that it became the type of
a government not only to sovereigns, but also to nations, during the
seventeenth century."
While France was thus strong and united in herself, and ruled by a
martial, an ambitious, and (with all his faults) an enlightened and
high-spirited sovereign, what European power was there fit to cope with
her, or keep her in check?
"As to Germany, the ambitious projects of the German branch of Austria
had been entirely defeated, the peace of the empire had been restored,
and almost a new constitution formed, or an old revived, by the treaties
of Westphalia; NAY, THE IMPERIAL EAGLE WAS NOT ONLY FALLEN, BUT HER
WINGS WERE CLIPPED." [Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p. 378. Lord Bolingbroke's
"Letters on the Use of History," and his "Sketch of the History
and State of Europe," abound with remarks on Louis XIV. and his
contemporaries, of which the substance is as sound as the style is
beautiful. Unfortunately, like all his other works, they contain also
a large proportion of sophistry and misrepresentation. The best test
to use before we adopt any opinion or assertion of Bolingbroke's, is
to consider whether in writing it he was thinking either of Sir Robert
Walpole or of Revealed Religion. When either of these objects of his
hatred was before his mind, he scrupled at no artifice or exaggeration
that; might serve the purpose of his malignity. On most other occasions
he may be followed with advantage, as he always may be read with
pleasure.]
"As to Spain, the Spanish branch of the Austrian house had sunk equally
low. Philip II. left his successors a ruined monarchy. He left them
something worse; he left them his example and his principles of
government, founded in ambition, in pride, in ignorance, in bigotry, and
all the pedantry of state." [Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p. 378.]
It is not, therefore, to be wondered at, that France, in the first war
of Louis XIV., despised the opposition of both branches of the once
predominant house of Austria. Indeed, in Germany the French king
acquired allies among the princes of the Empire against the emperor
himself. He had a still stronger support in Austria's misgovernment of
her own subjects. The words of Bolingbroke on this are remarkable,
and some of them sound as if written within the last three years.
Bolingbroke says, "It was not merely the want of cordial co-operation
among the princes of the Empire that disabled the emperor from acting
with vigour in the cause of his family then, nor that has rendered the
house of Austria a dead weight upon all her allies ever since. Bigotry,
and its inseparable companion, cruelty, as well as the tyranny
and avarice of the court of Vienna, created in those days, and has
maintained in ours, almost a perpetual diversion of the imperial arms
from all effectual opposition to France. I MEAN TO SPEAK OF THE TROUBLES
IN HUNGARY. WHATEVER THEY BECAME IN THEIR PROGRESS, THEY WERE CAUSED
ORIGINALLY BY THE USERPATIONS AND PERSECUTIONS OF THE EMPEROR; AND WHEN
THE HUNGARIANS WERE CALLED REBELS FIRST, THEY WERE CALLED SO FOR NO
OTHER REASON THAN THIS, THAT THEY WOULD NOT BE SLAVES. The dominion of
the emperor being less supportable than that of the Turks, this unhappy
people opened a door to the latter to infest the empire, instead of
making their country, what it had been before, a barrier against the
Ottoman power. France became a sure though secret ally of the Turks, as
well as the Hungarians, and has found her account in it, by keeping
the emperor in perpetual alarms on that side, while she has ravaged the
Empire and the Low Countries on the other." [Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p.
397.]
If, after having seen the imbecility of Germany and Spain against the
France of Louis XIV., we turn to the two only remaining European powers
of any importance at that time, to England and to Holland, we find the
position of our own country as to European politics, from 1660 to 1688,
most painful to contemplate. From 1660 to 1688, "England, by the return
of the Stuarts, was reduced to a nullity." The words are Michelet's,
[Histoire Moderne, vol. ii. p.106.] and though severe they are just.
They are, in fact, not severe enough: for when England, under her
restored dynasty of the Stuarts, did take any part in European politics,
her conduct, or rather her king's conduct, was almost invariably wicked
and dishonourable.
Bolingbroke rightly says that, "previous to the Revolution of 1688,
during the whole progress that Louis XIV. made in obtaining such
exorbitant power, as gave him well-grounded hopes of acquiring at last
to his family the Spanish monarchy, England had been either an idle
spectator of what passed on the continent, or a faint and uncertain
ally against France, or a warm and sure ally on her side, or a partial
mediator between her and the powers confederated together in their
common defence. But though the court of England submitted to abet
the usurpations of France, and the King of England stooped to be her
pensioner, the crime was not national. On the contrary, the nation cried
out loudly against it even whilst it was being committed." [Bolingbroke,
vol. ii p. 418.]
Holland alone, of all the European powers, opposed from the very
beginning a steady and uniform resistance to the ambition and power of
the French king. It was against Holland that the fiercest attacks of
France were made, and though often apparently on the eve of complete
success, they were always ultimately baffled by the stubborn bravery of
the Dutch, and the heroism of their leader, William of Orange. When he
became king of England, the power of this country was thrown decidedly
into the scale against France; but though the contest was thus rendered
less unequal, though William acted throughout "with invincible firmness,
like a patriot and a hero," [Bolingbroke, vol, ii, p.404.] France
had the general superiority in every war and in every treaty: and the
commencement of the eighteenth century found the last league against her
dissolved, all the forces of the confederates against her dispersed, and
many disbanded; while France continued armed, with her veteran forces
by sea and land increased, and held in readiness to act on all sides,
whenever the opportunity should arise for seizing on the great prizes
which, from the very beginning of his reign, had never been lost sight
of by her king.
This is not the place for any narrative of the first essay which Louis
XIV. made of his power in the war of 1667; of his rapid conquest of
Flanders and Franche-Comte; of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, which
"was nothing more than a composition between the bully and the bullied;"
[Ibid p. 399.] of his attack on Holland in 1672; of the districts and
barrier-towns of the Spanish Netherlands which were secured to him by
the treaty of Nimeguen in 1678; of how, after this treaty, he "continued
to vex both Spain and the Empire, and to extend his conquests in the Low
Countries and on the Rhine, both by the pen and the sword; how he took
Luxembourg by force, stole Strasburg, and bought Casal;" of how the
league of Augsburg was formed against him in 1686, and the election of
William of Orange to the English throne in 1688, gave a new spirit to
the opposition which France encountered; of the long and chequered war
that followed, in which the French armies were generally victorious
on the continent, though his fleet was beaten at La Hogue, and his
dependent, James II,, was defeated at the Boyne, or of the treaty of
Ryswick, which left France in possession of Roussillon, Artois, and
Strasburg, which gave Europe no security against her claims on the
Spanish succession, and which Louis regarded as a mere truce, to gain
breathing-time before a more decisive struggle. It must be borne in
mind that the ambition of Louis in these wars was twofold. It had its
immediate and its ulterior objects. Its immediate object was to conquer
and annex to France the neighbouring provinces and towns that were most
convenient for the increase of her strength; but the ulterior object of
Louis, from the time of his marriage to the Spanish Infanta in 1659, was
to acquire for the house of Bourbon the whole empire of Spain. A formal
renunciation of all right to the Spanish succession had been made at the
time of the marriage; but such renunciations were never of any practical
effect, and many casuists and jurists of the age even held them to be
intrinsically void, as time passed on, and the prospect of Charles II.
of Spain dying without lineal heirs became more and more certain, so did
the claims of the house of Bourbon to the Spanish crown after his death
become matters of urgent interest to French ambition on the one hand,
and to the other powers of Europe on the other. At length the unhappy
King of Spain died. By his will he appointed Philip, Duke of Anjou, one
of Louis XIV.'s grandsons, to succeed him on the throne of Spain, and
strictly forbade any partition of his dominions. Louis well knew that a
general European war would follow if he accepted for his house the crown
thus bequeathed. But he had been preparing for this crisis throughout
his reign. He sent his grandson into Spain as King Philip V. of that
country, addressing to him on his departure the memorable words, "There
are no longer any Pyrenees."
The empire, which now received the grandson of Louis as its king,
comprised, besides Spain itself, the strongest part of the Netherlands,
Sardinia, Sicily, Naples, the principality of Milan, and other
possessions in Italy, the Philippines and Marilla Islands in Asia, and,
in the New World, besides California and Florida the greatest part of
Central and of Southern America. Philip was well received in Madrid,
where he was crowned as King Philip V. in the beginning of 1701. The
distant portions of his empire sent in their adhesion; and the house of
Bourbon, either by its French or Spanish troops, now had occupation both
of the kingdom of Francis I., and of the fairest and amplest portion of
the empire of the great rival of Francis, Charles V.
Loud was the wrath of Austria, whose princes were the rival claimants of
the Bourbons for the empire of Spain. The indignation of William
III., though not equally loud, was far more deep and energetic. By
his exertions a league against the house of Bourbon was formed between
England, Holland, and the Austrian Emperor, which was subsequently
joined by the kings of Portugal and Prussia, by the Duke of Savoy, and
by Denmark. Indeed, the alarm throughout Europe was now general and
urgent. It was clear that Louis aimed a consolidating France and the
Spanish dominions into one preponderating empire. At the moment when
Philip was departing to take possession of Spain, Louis had issued
letters-patent in his favour to the effect of preserving his rights to
the throne of France. And Louis had himself obtained possession of
the important frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, with its numerous
fortified cities, which were given up to his troops under pretence of
securing them for the young King of Spain. Whether the formal union of
the two crowns was likely to take place speedily or not, it was evident
that the resources of the whole Spanish monarchy were now virtually at
the French king's disposal.
The peril that seemed to menace the empire, England, Holland, and
the other independent powers, is well summed up by Alison: "Spain had
threatened the liberties of Europe in the end of the sixteenth century,
France had all but overthrown them in the close of the seventeenth.
What hope was there of their being able to make head against them both,
united under such a monarch as Louis XIV.?" [Military History of the
Duke of Marlborough, p. 32.]
Our knowledge of the decayed state into which the Spanish power had
fallen, ought not to make us regard their alarms as chimerical. Spain
possessed enormous resources, and her strength was capable of being
regenerated by a vigorous ruler. We should remember what Alberoni
effected, even after the close of the War of Succession. By what that
minister did in a few years, we may judge what Louis XIV. would have
done in restoring the maritime and military power of that great country
which nature has so largely gifted, and which man's misgovernment has so
debased.
The death of King William on the 8th of March, 1702, at first seemed
likely to paralyse the league against France, for "notwithstanding the
ill-success with which he made war generally, he was looked upon as the
sole centre of union that could keep together the great confederacy then
forming; and how much the French feared from his life, had appeared a
few years before, in the extravagant and indecent joy they expressed on
a false report of his death. A short time showed how vain the fears of
some, and the hopes of others were." [Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p. 445.]
Queen Anne, within three days after her accession, went down to the
House of Lords, and there declared her resolution to support the
measures planned by her predecessor, who had been "the great support,
not only of these kingdoms, but of all Europe." Anne was married to
Prince George of Denmark, and by her accession to the English throne the
confederacy against Louis obtained the aid of the troops of Denmark; but
Anne's strong attachment to one of her female friends led to far
more important advantages to the anti-Gallican confederacy, than the
acquisition of many armies, for it gave them MARLBOROUGH as their
Captain-General.
There are few successful commanders on whom Fame has shone so
unwillingly as upon John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, Prince of
the Holy Roman Empire,--victor of Blenheim, Ramilies, Oudenarde, and
Malplaquet,--captor of Liege, Bonn, Limburg, Landau, Ghent, Bruges,
Antwerp, Oudenarde, Ostend, Menin, Dendermonde, Ath, Lille, Tourney,
Mons, Douay, Aire, Bethune, and Bouchain; who never fought a battle
that he did not win, and never besieged a place that he did not take.
Marlborough's own private character is the cause of this. Military glory
may, and too often does, dazzle both contemporaries and posterity, until
the crimes as well as the vices of heroes are forgotten. But even a few
stains of personal meanness will dim a soldier's reputation irreparably;
and Marlborough's faults were of a peculiarly base and mean order. Our
feelings towards historical personages are in this respect like our
feelings towards private acquaintances. There are actions of that shabby
nature, that, however much they may be outweighed by a man's good deeds
on a general estimate of his character, we never can feel any cordial
liking for the person who has been guilty of them. Thus, with respect to
the Duke of Marlborough, it goes against our feelings to admire the man,
who owed his first advancement in life to the court-favour which he and
his family acquired through his sister becoming one of the mistresses
of the Duke of York. It is repulsive to know that Marlborough laid the
foundation of his wealth by being the paid lover of one of the fair and
frail favourites of Charles II. His treachery and ingratitude to his
patron and benefactor, James II., stand out in dark relief, even in
that age of thankless perfidy. He was almost equally disloyal to his new
master, King William; and a more un-English act cannot be recorded than
Godolphin's and Marlborough's betrayal to the French court in 1694 of
the expedition then designed against Brest, an act of treason which
caused some hundreds of English soldiers and sailors to be helplessly
slaughtered on the beach in Camaret Bay.
It is, however, only in his military career that we have now to consider
him; and there are very few generals, of either ancient or modern times,
whose campaigns will bear a comparison with those of Marlborough, either
for the masterly skill with which they were planned, or for the bold
yet prudent energy with which each plan was carried into execution.
Marlborough had served while young under Turenne, and had obtained the
marked praise of that great tactician. It would be difficult, indeed,
to name a single quality which a general ought to have, and with which
Marlborough was not eminently gifted. What principally attracted the
notice of contemporaries, was the imperturbable evenness of his spirit.
Voltaire [Siecle de Louis Quatorze.] says of him:--"He had, to a degree
above all other generals of his time, that calm courage in the midst of
tumult, that serenity of soul in danger, which the English call a COOL
HEAD (que les Anglais appellant COOL HEAD, TETE FROID), and it was
perhaps this quality, the greatest gift of nature for command, which
formerly gave the English so many advantages over the French in the
plains of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt."
King William's knowledge of Marlborough's high abilities, though he knew
his faithlessness equally well, is said to have caused that sovereign
in his last illness to recommend Marlborough to his successor as the
fittest person to command her armies: but Marlborough's favour with
the new queen by means of his wife was so high, that he was certain of
obtaining the highest employment: and the war against Louis opened to
him a glorious theatre for the display of those military talents, which
he had before only had an opportunity of exercising in a subordinate
character, and on far less conspicuous scenes.
He was not only made captain-general of the English forces at home and
abroad, but such was the authority of England in the council of the
Grand Alliance, and Marlborough was so skilled in winning golden
opinions from all whom he met with, that, on his reaching the Hague, he
was received with transports of joy by the Dutch, and it was agreed
by the heads of that republic, and the minister of the emperor, that
Marlborough should have the chief command of all the allied armies.
It must indeed, in justice to Marlborough, be borne in mind, that mere
military skill was by no means all that was required of him in this
arduous and invidious station. Had it not been for his unrivalled
patience and sweetness of temper, and his marvellous ability in
discerning the character of those with whom he had to act, his intuitive
perception of those who were to be thoroughly trusted, and of those
who were to be amused with the mere semblance of respect and
confidence,--had not Marlborough possessed and employed, while at the
head of the allied armies, all the qualifications of a polished courtier
and a great statesman, he never would have led the allied armies to the
Danube. The Confederacy would not have held together for a single year.
His great political adversary, Bolingbroke, does him ample justice here.
Bolingbroke, after referring to the loss which King William's death
seemed to inflict on the cause of the Allies, observes that, "By his
death the Duke of Marlborough was raised to the head of the army, and,
indeed, of the Confederacy; where he, a new, a private man, a subject,
acquired by merit and by management, a more deciding influence, than
high birth, confirmed authority, and even the crown of Great Britain,
had given to King William. Not only all the parts of that vast machine,
the Grand Alliance, were kept more compact and entire; but a more rapid
and vigorous motion was given to the whole; and instead of languishing
and disastrous campaigns, we saw every scene of the war full of action.
All those wherein he appeared and many of those wherein he was not then
an actor, but abettor, however, of their action, were crowned with the
most triumphant success.
"I take with pleasure this opportunity of doing justice to that great
man, whose faults I knew, whose virtues I admired; and whose memory, as
the greatest general and as the greatest minister that our country, or
perhaps any other, has produced, I honour." [Bolingbroke, vol. ii. p.
445.]
War, was formally declared by the allies against France on the 4th
of May, 1702. The principal scenes of its operation were, at first,
Flanders, the Upper Rhine, and North Italy. Marlborough headed the
allied troops in Flanders during the first two years of the war, and
took some towns from the enemy, but nothing decisive occurred. Nor did
any actions of importance take place during this period, between the
rival armies in Italy. But in the centre of that line from north to
south, from the mouth of the Scheldt to the mouth of the Po, along which
the war was carried on, the generals of Louis XIV. acquired advantages
in 1703, which threatened one chief member of the Grand Alliance with
utter destruction. France had obtained the important assistance of
Bavaria, as her confederate in the war. The Elector of this powerful
German state made himself master of the strong fortress of Ulm, and
opened a communication with the French armies on the Upper Rhine. By
this junction, the troops of Louis were enabled to assail the Emperor in
the very heart of Germany. In the autumn of the year 1703, the
combined armies of the Elector and French king completely defeated
the Imperialists in Bavaria; and in the following winter they made
themselves masters of the important cities of Augsburg and Passau.
Meanwhile the French army of the Upper Rhine and Moselle had beaten the
allied armies opposed to them, and taken Treves and Landau. At the same
time the discontents in Hungary with Austria again broke out into open
insurrection, so as to distract the attention, and complete the terror
of the Emperor and his council at Vienna.
Louis XIV. ordered the next campaign to be commenced by his troops on
a scale of grandeur and with a boldness of enterprise, such as even
Napoleon's military schemes have seldom equalled. On the extreme left of
the line of the war, in the Netherlands, the French armies were to act
only on the defensive. The fortresses in the hands of the French there,
were so many and so strong that no serious impression seemed likely to
be made by the Allies on the French frontier in that quarter during
one campaign; and that one campaign was to give France such triumphs
elsewhere as would (it was hoped) determine the war. Large detachments
were, therefore, to be made from the French force in Flanders, and they
were to be led by Marshal Villeroy to the Moselle and Upper Rhine. The
French army already in the neighbourhood of those rivers was to march
under Marshal Tallard through the Black Forest, and join the Elector of
Bavaria and the French troops that were already with the Elector under
Marshal Marsin. Meanwhile the French army of Italy was to advance
through the Tyrol into Austria, and the whole forces were to combine
between the Danube and the Inn. A strong body of troops was to be
despatched into Hungary, to assist and organize the insurgents in that
kingdom; and the French grand army of the Danube was then, in collected
and irresistible might, to march upon Vienna, and dictate terms of peace
to the Emperor. High military genius was shown in the formation of this
plan, but it was met and baffled by a genius higher still.
Marlborough had watched, with the deepest anxiety, the progress of the
French arms on the Rhine and in Bavaria, and he saw the futility of
carrying on a war of posts and sieges in Flanders, while death-blows to
the empire were being dealt on the Danube. He resolved therefore to let
the war in Flanders languish for a year, while he moved with all
the disposable forces that he could collect to the central scenes
of decisive operations. Such a march was in itself difficult, but
Marlborough had, in the first instance, to overcome the still greater
difficulty of obtaining the consent and cheerful co-operation of the
Allies, especially of the Dutch, whose frontier it was proposed thus
to deprive of the larger part of the force which had hitherto been its
protection. Fortunately, among the many slothful, the many foolish, the
many timid, and the not few treacherous rulers, statesmen, and generals
of different nations with whom he had to deal, there were two
men, eminent both in ability and integrity, who entered fully into
Marlborough's projects, and who, from the stations which they occupied,
were enabled materially to forward them. One of these was the Dutch
statesman Heinsius, who had been the cordial supporter of King William,
and who now, with equal zeal and good faith, supported Marlborough in
the councils of the Allies; the other was the celebrated general
Prince Eugene, whom the Austrian cabinet had recalled from the Italian
frontier, to take the command of one of the Emperor's armies in Germany.
To these two great men, and a few more, Marlborough communicated his
plan freely and unreservedly; but to the general councils of his allies
he only disclosed part, of his daring scheme. He proposed to the Dutch
that he should march from Flanders to the Upper Rhine and Moselle, with
the British troops and part of the Foreign auxiliaries, and commence
vigorous operations against the French armies in that quarter,
whilst General Auverquerque, with the Dutch and the remainder of the
auxiliaries, maintained a defensive war in the Netherlands. Having with
difficulty obtained the consent of the Dutch to this portion of his
project, he exercised the same diplomatic zeal, with the same success,
in urging the King of Prussia, and other princes of the empire, to
increase the number of the troops which they supplied, and to post them
in places convenient for his own intended movements.
Marlborough commenced his celebrated march on the 19th of May. The
army, which he was to lead, had been assembled by his brother, General
Churchill, at Bedburg, not far from Maestricht on the Meuse: it included
sixteen thousand English troops, and consisted of fifty-one battalions
of foot, and ninety-two squadrons of horse. Marlborough was to collect
and join with him on his march the troops of Prussia, Luneburg, and
Hesse, quartered on the Rhine, and eleven Dutch battalions that were
stationed at Rothweil. [Coxe's Life of Marlborough.] He had only
marched a single day, when the series of interruptions, complaints, and
requisitions from the other leaders of the Allies began, to which he
seemed doomed throughout his enterprise, and which would have caused
its failure in the hands of any one not gifted with the firmness and the
exquisite temper of Marlborough. One specimen of these annoyances and of
Marlborough's mode of dealing with them may suffice. On his encamping
at Kupen, on the 20th, he received an express from Auverquerque
pressing him to halt, because Villeroy, who commanded the French army
in Flanders, had quitted the lines, which he had been occupying, and
crossed the Meuse at Namur with thirty-six battalions and forty-five
squadrons, and was threatening the town of Huys. At the same time
Marlborough received letters from the Margrave of Baden and Count
Wratislaw, who commanded the Imperialist forces at Stollhoffen near the
left bank of the Rhine, stating that Tallard had made a movement, as if
intending to cross the Rhine, and urging him to hasten his march
towards the lines of Stollhoffen. Marlborough was not diverted by these
applications from the prosecution of his grand design. Conscious that
the army of Villeroy would be too much reduced to undertake offensive
operations, by the detachments which had already been made towards the
Rhine, and those which must follow his own march, he halted only a day
to quiet the alarms of Auverquerque. To satisfy also the margrave he
ordered the troops of Hompesch and Bulow to draw towards Philipsburg,
though with private injunctions not to proceed beyond a certain
distance. He even exacted a promise to the same effect from Count
Wratislaw, who at this juncture arrived at the camp to attend him during
the whole campaign. [Coxe.]
Marlborough reached the Rhine at Coblentz, where he crossed that river,
and then marched along its right bank to Broubach and Mentz. His march,
though rapid, was admirably conducted, so as to save the troops from all
unnecessary fatigue; ample supplies of provisions were ready, and the
most perfect discipline was maintained. By degrees Marlborough obtained
more reinforcements from the Dutch and the other confederates, and he
also was left more at liberty by them to follow his own course. Indeed,
before even a blow was struck, his enterprise had paralysed the enemy,
and had materially relieved Austria from the pressure of the war.
Villeroy, with his detachments from the French-Flemish army, was
completely bewildered by Marlborough's movements; and, unable to divine
where it was that the English general meant to strike his blow, wasted
away the early part of the summer between Flanders and the Moselle
without effecting anything. ["Marshal Villeroy," says Voltaire, "who had
wished to follow Marlborough on his first marches, suddenly lost sight
of him altogether, and only learned where he really was, on hearing of
his victory at Donauwert."--SIECLE DE LOUIS XIV.]
Marshal Tallard, who commanded forty-five thousand men at Strasburg, and
who had been destined by Louis to march early in the year into Bavaria,
thought that Marlborough's march along the Rhine was preliminary to
an attack upon Alsace; and the marshal therefore kept his forty-five
thousand men back in order to support France in that quarter.
Marlborough skilfully encouraged his apprehensions by causing a bridge
to be constructed across the Rhine at Philipsburg, and by making the
Landgrave of Hesse advance his artillery at Manheim, as if for a
siege of Landau. Meanwhile the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Marsin,
suspecting that Marlborough's design might be what it really proved
to be, forbore to press upon the Austrians opposed to them, or to
send troops into Hungary; and they kept back so as to secure their
communications with France. Thus, when Marlborough, at the beginning of
June, left the Rhine and marched for the Danube, the numerous hostile
armies were uncombined, and unable to check him.
"With such skill and science had this enterprise been concerted, that at
the very moment when it assumed a specific direction, the enemy was no
longer enabled to render it abortive. As the march was now to be bent
towards the Danube, notice was given for the Prussians, Palatines, and
Hessians, who were stationed on the Rhine, to order their march so as
to join the main body in its progress. At the same time directions
were sent to accelerate the advance of the Danish auxiliaries, who were
marching from the Netherlands." [Coxe.]
Crossing the river Neckar, Marlborough marched in a south-eastern
direction to Mundelshene, where he had his first personal interview with
Prince Eugene, who was destined to be his colleague on so many glorious
fields. Thence, through a difficult and dangerous country, Marlborough
continued his march against the Bavarians, whom he encountered on the 2d
of July, on the heights of the Schullenberg near Donauwert. Marlborough
stormed their entrenched camp, crossed the Danube, took several strong
places in Bavaria, and made himself completely master of the Elector's
dominions, except the fortified cities of Munich and Augsburg. But the
Elector's army, though defeated at Donauwert, was still numerous and
strong; and at last Marshal Tallard, when thoroughly apprised of the
real nature of Marlborough's movements, crossed the Rhine. He was
suffered through the supineness of the German general at Stollhoffen,
to march without loss through the Black Forest, and united his powerful
army at Biberach near Augsburg, with that of the Elector and the French
troops under Marshal Marsin, who had previously been co-operating with
the Bavarians. On the other hand, Marlborough re-crossed the Danube, and
on the 11th of August united his army with the Imperialist forces under
Prince Eugene. The combined armies occupied a position near Hochstadt,
a little higher up the left bank of the Danube than Donauwert, the scene
of Marlborough's recent victory, and almost exactly on the ground where
Marshal Villars and the Elector had defeated an Austrian army in the
preceding year. The French marshals and the Elector were now in position
a little farther to the east, between Blenheim and Lutzingen, and
with the little stream of the Nebel between them and the troops of
Marlborough and Eugene. The Gallo-Bavarian army consisted of about sixty
thousand men, and they had sixty-one pieces of artillery. "The army of
the Allies was about fifty-six thousand strong, with fifty-two guns." [A
short time before the War of the Succession the musquet and bayonet
had been made the arms of all the French infantry. It had formerly been
usual to mingle pike-men with musqueteers. The other European nations
followed the example of France, and the weapons used at Blenheim were
substantially the same as those still employed.]
Although the French army of Italy had been unable to penetrate into
Austria, and although the masterly strategy of Marlborough had hitherto
warded off the destruction with which the cause of the Allies seemed
menaced at the beginning of the campaign, the peril was still most
serious. It was absolutely necessary for Marlborough to attack the
enemy, before Villeroy should be roused into action. There was nothing
to stop that general and his army from marching into Franconia, whence
the Allies drew their principal supplies; and besides thus distressing
them, he might, by marching on and joining his army to those of Tallard
and the Elector, form a mass which would overwhelm the force under
Marlborough and Eugene. On the other hand, the chances of a battle
seemed perilous, and the fatal consequences of a defeat were certain.
The inferiority of the Allies in point of number was not very great, but
still it was not to be disregarded; and the advantage which the enemy
seemed to have in the composition of their troops was striking. Tallard
and Marsin had forty-five thousand Frenchmen under them, all veterans,
and all trained to act together: the Elector's own troops also were good
soldiers. Marlborough, like Wellington at Waterloo, headed an army, of
which the larger proportion consisted not of English, but of men of many
different nations, and many different languages. He was also obliged
to be the assailant in the action, and thus to expose his troops to
comparatively heavy loss at the commencement of the battle, while the
enemy would fight under the protection of the villages and lines which
they were actively engaged in strengthening. The consequences of a
defeat of the confederated army must have broken up the Grand Alliance,
and realised the proudest hopes of the French king. Mr. Alison, in his
admirable military history of the Duke of Marlborough, has truly stated
the effects which would have taken place if France had been successful
in the war. And, when the position of the Confederates at the time when
Blenheim was fought is remembered; when we recollect the exhaustion of
Austria, the menacing insurrection of Hungary, the feuds and jealousies
of the German princes, the strength and activity of the Jacobite party
in England, the imbecility of nearly all the Dutch statesmen of the
time, and the weakness of Holland if deprived of her allies, we may
adopt his words in speculating on what would have ensued, if France
had been victorious in the battle, and "if a power, animated by the
ambition, guided by the fanaticism and directed by the ability of that
of Louis XIV., had gained the ascendancy in Europe. Beyond all question,
a universal despotic dominion would have been established over the
bodies, a cruel spiritual thraldom over the minds of men. France and
Spain united under Bourbon princes, and in a close family alliance--the
empire of Charlemagne with that of Charles V.--the power which revolted
the edict of Nantes, and perpetrated the massacre of St. Bartholomew,
with that which banished the Moriscoes, and established the Inquisition,
would have proved irresistible, and beyond example destructive to the
best interests of mankind.
"The Protestants might have been driven, like the Pagan heathens of old
by the son of Pepin, beyond the Elbe; the Stuart race, and with them
Romish, ascendancy, might have been re-established in England; the fire
lighted by Latimer and Ridley might have been extinguished in blood; and
the energy breathed by religious freedom into the Anglo-Saxon race
might have expired. The destinies of the world would have been changed.
Europe, instead of a variety of independent states, whose mutual,
hostility kept alive courage, while their national rivalry stimulated
talent, would have sunk into the slumber attendant on universal
dominion. The colonial empire of England would have withered away and
perished, as that of Spain has done in the grasp of the Inquisition. The
Anglo-Saxon race would have been arrested in its mission to overspread
the earth and subdue it. The centralised despotism of the Roman empire
would have been renewed on Continental Europe; the chains of Romish
tyranny, and with them the general infidelity of France before the
Revolution, would have extinguished or perverted thought in the British
islands." [Alison's Life of Marlborough, p. 248.]
Marlborough's words at the council of war, when a battle was resolved
on, are remarkable, and they deserve recording. We know them on the
authority of his chaplain, Mr. (afterwards Bishop) Hare, who accompanied
him throughout the campaign, and in whose journal the biographers of
Marlborough have found many of their best materials. Marborough's words
to the officers who remonstrated with him on the seeming temerity of
attacking the enemy in their position, were--"I know the danger, yet a
battle is absolutely necessary; and I rely on the bravery and discipline
of the troops, which will make amends for our disadvantages." In the
evening orders were issued for a general engagement, and received by the
army with an alacrity which justified his confidence.
The French and Bavarians were posted behind a little stream called the
Nebel, which runs almost from north to south into the Danube immediately
in front of the village of Blenheim. The Nebel flows along a little
valley, and the French occupied the rising ground to the west of it.
The village of Blenheim was the extreme right of their position, and the
village of Lutzingen, about three miles north of Blenheim, formed their
left. Beyond Lutzingen are the rugged high grounds of the Godd Berg, and
Eich Berg, on the skirts of which some detachments were posted so as to
secure the Gallo-Bavarian position from being turned on the left flank.
The Danube protected their right flank; and it was only in front that
they could be attacked. The villages of Blenheim and Lutzingen had been
strongly palisadoed and entrenched. Marshal Tallard, who held the chief
command, took his station at Blenheim: Prince Maximilian the Elector,
and Marshal Marsin commanded on the left. Tallard garrisoned Blenheim
with twenty-six battalions of French infantry, and twelve squadrons
of French cavalry. Marsin and the Elector had twenty-two battalions of
infantry, and thirty-six squadrons of cavalry in front of the village of
Lutzingen. The centre was occupied by fourteen battalions of infantry,
including the celebrated Irish Brigade. These were posted in the little
hamlet of Oberglau, which lies somewhat nearer to Lutzingen than to
Blenheim. Eighty squadrons of cavalry and seven battalions of foot were
ranged between Oberglau and Blenheim. Thus the French position was very
strong at each extremity, but was comparatively weak in the centre.
Tallard seems to have relied on the swampy state of the part of the
valley that reaches from below Oberglau to Blenheim, for preventing any
serious attack on this part of his line.
The army of the Allies was formed into two great divisions: the largest
being commanded by the Duke in person, and being destined to act against
Tallard, while Prince Eugene led the other division, which consisted
chiefly of cavalry, and was intended to oppose the enemy under Marsin
and the Elector. As they approached the enemy, Marlborough's troops
formed the left and the centre, while Eugene's formed the right of the
entire army. Early in the morning of the 13th of August, the Allies left
their own camp and marched towards the enemy. A thick haze covered the
ground, and it was not until the allied right and centre had advanced
nearly within cannon-shot of the enemy that Tallard was aware of their
approach. He made his preparations with what haste he could, and about
eight o'clock a heavy fire of artillery was opened from the French right
on the advancing left wing of the British. Marlborough ordered up some
of his batteries to reply to it, and while the columns that were to form
the allied left and centre deployed, and took up their proper stations
in the line, a warm cannonade was kept up by the guns on both sides.
The ground which Eugene's columns had to traverse was peculiarly
difficult, especially for the passage of the artillery; and it was
nearly mid-day before he could get his troops into line opposite to
Lutzingen. During this interval, Marlborough ordered divine service to
be performed by the chaplains at the head of each regiment; and then
rode along the lines, and found both officers and men in the highest
spirits, and waiting impatiently for the signal for the the attack. At
length an aide-de-camp galloped up from the right with the welcome news
that Eugene was ready. Marlborough instantly sent Lord Cutts, with a
strong brigade of infantry, to assault the village of Blenheim, while he
himself led the main body down the eastward slope of the valley of the
Nebel, and prepared to effect the passage of the stream.
The assault on Blenheim, though bravely made, was repulsed with severe
loss; and Marlborough, finding how strongly that village was garrisoned,
desisted from any further attempts to carry it, and bent all his
energies to breaking the enemy's line between Blenheim and Oberglau.
Some temporary bridges had been prepared, and planks and fascinas had
been collected; and by the aid of these and a little stone bridge which
crossed the Nebel, near a hamlet called Unterglau, that lay in the
centre of the valley, Marlborough succeeded in getting several squadrons
across the Nebel, though it was divided into several branches, and the
ground between them was soft, and in places, little better than a mere
marsh. But the French artillery was not idle. The cannon balls plunged
incessantly among the advancing squadrons of the allies; and bodies of
French cavalry rode frequently down from the western ridge, to charge
them before they had time to form on the firm ground. It was only by
supporting his men by fresh troops, and by bringing up infantry, who
checked the advance of the enemy's horse by their steady fire, that
Marlborough was able to save his army in this quarter from a repulse,
which, following the failure of the attack upon Blenheim, would probably
have been fatal to the Allies. By degrees, his cavalry struggled over
the blood-stained streams; the infantry were also now brought across, so
as to keep in check the French troops who held Blenheim, and who, when
no longer assailed in front, had begun to attack the Allies on their
left with considerable effect.
Marlborough had thus at last succeeded in drawing up the whole left wing
of his army beyond the Nebel, and was about to press forward with it,
when he was called away to another part of the field by a disaster that
had befallen his centre. The Prince of Holstein-Beck had, with eleven
Hanoverian battalions, passed the Nebel opposite to Oberglau, when he
was charged and utterly routed by the Irish brigade which held that
village. The Irish drove the Hanoverians back with heavy slaughter,
broke completely through the line of the Allies, and nearly achieved a
success as brilliant as that which the same brigade afterwards gained
at Fontenoy. But at Blenheim their ardour in pursuit led them too far.
Marlborough came up in person, and dashed in upon their exposed flank
with some squadrons of British cavalry. The Irish reeled back, and as
they strove to regain the height of Oberglau, their column was raked
through and through by the fire of three battalions of the Allies,
which Marlborough had summoned up from the reserve. Marlborough having
re-established the order and communication of the Allies in this
quarter, now, as he returned to his own left wing, sent to learn how his
colleague fared against Marsin and the Elector, and to inform Eugene of
his own success.
Eugene had hitherto not been equally fortunate. He had made three
attacks on the enemy opposed to him, and had been thrice driven back.
It was only by his own desperate personal exertions, and the remarkable
steadiness of the regiments of Prussian infantry which were under him,
that he was able to save his wing from being totally defeated. But
it was on the southern part of the battle-field, on the ground which
Marlborough had won beyond the Nebel with such difficulty, that the
crisis of the battle was to be decided.
Like Hannibal, Marlborough relied principally on his cavalry for
achieving his decisive successes, and it was by his cavalry that
Blenheim, the greatest of his victories, was won. The battle had lasted
till five in the afternoon. Marlborough had now eight thousand horseman
drawn up in two lines, and in the most perfect order for a general
attack on the enemy's line along the space between Blenheim and
Oberglau. The infantry was drawn up in battalions in their rear, so as
to support them if repulsed, and to keep in check the large masses of
the French that still occupied the village of Blenheim. Tallard now
interlaced his squadrons of cavalry with battalions of infantry; and
Marlborough by a corresponding movement, brought several regiments of
infantry, and some pieces of artillery, to his front line, at intervals
between the bodies of horse. A little after five, Marlborough commenced
the decisive movement, and the allied cavalry, strengthened and
supported by foot and guns, advanced slowly from the lower ground near
the Nebel up the slope to where the French cavalry, ten thousand strong,
awaited them. On riding over the summit of the acclivity, the Allies
were received with so hot a fire from the French artillery and small
arms, that at first the cavalry recoiled, but without abandoning the
high ground. The guns and the infantry which they had brought with them,
maintained the contest with spirit and effect. The French fire seemed
to slacken Marlborough instantly ordered a charge along the line. The
allied cavalry galloped forward at the enemy's squadrons, and the hearts
of the French horseman failed them. Discharging their carbines at an
idle distance, they wheeled round and spurred from the field, leaving
the nine infantry battalions of their comrades to be ridden down by
the torrent of the allied cavalry. The battle was now won. Tallard and
Marsin, severed from each other, thought only of retreat. Tallard drew
up the squadrons of horse which he had left in a line extended towards
Blenheim, and sent orders to the infantry in that village to leave and
join him without delay. But long ere his orders could be obeyed,
the conquering squadrons of Marlborough had wheeled to the left and
thundered down on the feeble army of the French marshal. Part of the
force which Tallard had drawn up for this last effort was driven into
the Danube; part fled with their general to the village of Sonderheim,
where they were soon surrounded by the victorious Allies, and compelled
to surrender. Meanwhile, Eugene had renewed his attack upon the
Gallo-Bavarian left, and Marsin, finding his colleague utterly routed,
and his own right flank uncovered, prepared to retreat. He and the
Elector succeeded in withdrawing a considerable part of their troops
in tolerable order to Dillingen; but the large body of French
who garrisoned Blenheim were left exposed to certain destruction.
Marlborough speedily occupied all the outlets from the village with
his victorious troops, and then, collecting his artillery round it, he
commenced a cannonade that speedily would have destroyed Blenheim itself
and all who were in it. After several gallant but unsuccessful attempts
to cut their way through the Allies, the French in Blenheim were at
length compelled to surrender at discretion; and twenty-four battalions,
and twelve squadrons, with all their officers, laid down their arms, and
became the captives of Marlborough.
"Such," says Voltaire, "was the celebrated battle, which the French call
the battle of Hochstet, the Germans Plentheim, and the English Blenheim,
The conquerors had about five thousand killed, and eight thousand
wounded, the greater part being on the side of Prince Eugene. The French
army was almost entirely destroyed: of sixty thousand men, so long
victorious, there never reassembled more than twenty thousand effective.
About twelve thousand killed, fourteen thousand prisoners, all the
cannon, a prodigious number of colours and standards, all the tents
and equipages, the general of the army, and one thousand two hundred
officers of mark, in the power of the conqueror, signalised that day!"
Ulm, Landau, Treves, and Traerbach surrendered to the allies before the
close of the year. Bavaria submitted to the emperor, and the Hungarians
laid down their arms. Germany was completely delivered from France;
and the military ascendancy of the arms of the Allies was completely
established. Throughout the rest of the war Louis fought only in
defence. Blenheim had dissipated for ever his once proud visions of
almost universal conquest.
SYNOPSIS OF EVENTS BETWEEN THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, 1704, AND THE BATTLE
OF PULTOWA, 1709.
A.D. 1705. The Archduke Charles lands in Spain with a small English army
under Lord Peterborough, who takes Barcelona.
1706. Marlborough's victory at Ramilies.
1707. The English army in Spain is defeated at the battle of Almanza.
1708. Marlborough's victory at Oudenarde.