Alsace. Brisach had been taken, the Prince of Hesse, with troops from
Stolhofen, had been defeated at Spires while attempting to relieve
Landau, and that city had been retaken by the French (Nov. 17). In
Flanders Marlborough had formed a great plan to conquer Antwerp and
Ostend, but had been thwarted by the slowness of the Dutch, and by the
defeat of their army under Opdam at Echeren. The Duke had to content
himself with the capture of Bonn upon the Rhine, and with further
progress upon the Meuse, where he captured Huy and Limburg.
The following year, 1704, saw a change in the ministry at home. Finding
himself thwarted by the extreme High Tories, Marlborough had obtained
their dismissal, and the admission of Harley and St. John to the
ministry. In the meantime Louis was making vast efforts, and had set on
foot no less than eight armies. There was to be war at once in Flanders,
in Bavaria, in Alsace, in Savoy, in Lombardy, in Spain, and against the
Cevennes. To Villars was intrusted the reduction of the Cevennes, which
had been vainly attempted the preceding year by the Marshal Montreval.
The Duke of Berwick was to subdue Portugal, Vendome to act against
Savoy, Villeroi to stand on the defensive in Flanders, and the great
effort of the year was again to be in Bavaria, where the events of the
preceding year promised fresh success. There a considerable French army
under Marsin had collected, and thither now was proceeding a fresh army
under Tallard, which would raise the forces in the country much beyond
anything the Emperor could bring to meet them. Early in May Marshal
Tallard led 15,000 troops through the Black Forest, and formed his
junction with the Elector. He then hastened back to Alsace, where 30,000
men had been left to oppose the Margrave of Baden.
[Illustration: The march to BLENHEIM. June to August 1704.]
[Sidenote: Critical position of Austria.]
[Sidenote: The march to Blenheim.]
The position of the Emperor seemed indeed almost hopeless. While the
French and Bavarians were advancing directly towards his capital on the
west, the Hungarians, under Prince Ragotski, with constantly increasing
forces, were approaching Vienna from the east, so that in June it became
necessary to throw up works for the defence of the capital. Marlborough
watched the coming crisis with much anxiety, and formed a plan of great
boldness for the Emperor's relief. It was no less than to march the
whole of the troops under his command, and to transfer the seat of war
to Bavaria, interposing between Vienna and the advancing Bavarians.
Previous experience had taught him that there was no hope of persuading
the Dutch to countenance such a plan. To the States he therefore
suggested only a campaign on the Moselle, and co-operation with Louis of
Baden in the south; to Godolphin alone he told his secret. At length a
threat that he would move upon the Moselle with the English alone,
backed up by the influence of Heinsius, the Grand Pensionary, who was
his constant friend, induced the Dutch to give their consent to the part
of the plan he had disclosed to them. Other obstacles were met with from
the other allies, but they were all at length overcome, and early in May
Marlborough set out, ostensibly for the Moselle. To keep up this notion
he went first to Coblenz, and the French proceeded to collect their
armies to meet him. He then went on to Mayence, and it was believed that
he intended to act in Alsace. He was there obliged to disclose his real
object. He left the Rhine, marched up the Neckar, and advanced through
the Duchy of Wurtemberg. On his road to Mondelsheim, he had a meeting
with Eugene, who was commanding the Imperial army on the Rhine. To him
he told his plans; and the intercourse of the two great chiefs ripened
into unbroken friendship. They were there also joined by Louis of Baden,
a punctilious German general of some ability, but belonging to an older
school of tactics. Marlborough and Eugene suggested that the Margrave
should retire to his lines at Stolhofen, and hold them against Tallard,
while Eugene should bring such of the German army as was moveable to
co-operate with the English. The Margrave, however, insisted on the
place of honour. Eugene went back to the Rhine, the Margrave joined
Marlborough; and the difficulty of the chief command was compromised,
the generals were to command on alternate days. After making these
arrangements, the armies proceeded on their march through the rough hill
country of Wurtemberg. Having crossed the Neckar at Laufen, they
followed the course of its tributaries, by Gross Heppach, Ebersbach, and
the difficult pass of Geislingen, and finally emerged upon the plains,
reaching the Danube at Elchingen, a little to the east of Ulm. The
Elector, expecting an attack upon that city, garrisoned it and withdrew,
still on the north bank of the river, to Dillingen, further to the east.
But Marlborough had no intention of attacking Ulm, he continued his
march eastward, determining to pass round and beyond the Elector's army
and to secure Donauwerth, which would supply him with a bridge to cross
the river, and might be turned into a fortified place for his magazines.
With some difficulty he persuaded Louis of Baden to march in this
direction. His intention being at length evident, the Elector of Bavaria
sent 12,000 men to occupy the strong hill of the Schellenberg,
commanding Donauwerth. When the day broke, the English army were at
Amerdingen, still fourteen miles from Donauwerth. It was however the day
of Marlborough's command. At three in the morning he started on his
march, and afraid of allowing the opportunity to slip, though his men
were weary from their long journey, Marlborough determined to assault
the Schellenberg that same afternoon. The battle was a fierce one, but
the allies were entirely successful. The Bavarians fled in disorder.
Some thousands crossed the bridge, but the weight of the fugitives broke
it down, and a vast number were drowned in the river. The Elector of
Bavaria now withdrew to Augsburg, to await the arrival of reinforcements
from France. Marlborough and his army crossed the Lech, and proceeded to
follow him. Bavaria was at his mercy. He offered the Elector terms of
capitulation. They were however refused, and Marlborough was guilty of
the one act which is a blot on his military career, he gave the country
up to military execution.
[Illustration]
[Sidenote: Battle of Blenheim. Aug. 13th.]
The two French generals Villeroi and Tallard, outwitted by Marlborough's
march, had meanwhile taken counsel together, and once more Tallard,
leaving Villeroi in Alsace, led a reinforcement of 25,000 men to join
the Bavarians. He was watched and followed by Prince Eugene, who reached
the Danube at Dillingen almost at the moment that Tallard had formed his
junction with the Bavarians at Augsburg. As Eugene's reinforcements were
necessary, Marlborough fell back to meet him, and soon Eugene, leaving
his troops behind him, appeared in person in the camp. Between them they
persuaded the Margrave of Baden that the capture of the fortress of
Ingolstadt was necessary, and that, as it had hitherto never been
taken, it would be much to his honour to reduce it. Thus rid of their
pretentious colleague, Eugene and Marlborough arranged their junction,
which was finally made, without disturbance from the French, on the 11th
of August, a little to the east of Hochstädt, on the north of the
Danube. The combined armies of the French and Bavarians had also betaken
themselves to the same side of the river, and were now advancing from
the west to meet the allied army, should they wish to fight. It was
believed, however, that such was not Marlborough's intention. Tallard
thought he was withdrawing towards Nordlingen, and, as he said after the
battle, had intended to fall upon him and fight him on his way thither.
When it became evident that a battle was to be fought, the French
general, advancing from Hochstädt, took up a strong position in the
neighbourhood of the village of Blenheim. The hills which lie along the
north of the Danube there fall back a little, enclosing a small plain.
Across this runs a brook called the Nebel, at the foot of a spur of
rising land which runs from the foot of the receding hills to the
Danube, where its termination is crowned by the village of Blenheim. The
course of the Nebel is full of morasses difficult to pass, but a gradual
slope of firm ground leads from it to the top of the rising ground.
Along this ridge the French and Bavarians took up their position. The
Elector of Bavaria, with Marshal Marsin, occupied the left, where, in
the midst of woods, the rising ground joins the hills; Marshal Tallard
with the French occupied Blenheim and the right. Considering Blenheim as
the key of the position, Marshal Tallard fortified it with palisades,
and placed in it a considerable portion of his infantry, thus depriving
himself of their assistance upon the battlefield, and weakening the
centre of his army. To the French was opposed Marlborough in person,
while Eugene, in command of the right wing, and with a considerably
smaller number of troops, led the attack against the Elector. The
difficulties he met with prevented Eugene from being early in position,
but news were at length brought that he was ready to begin the battle,
and Marlborough at once proceeded to the attack. The battle began on the
part of the English with an assault upon the intrenched village. It was
too strong to be taken, and the assailants were driven back with some
loss. But the vigour of the opposition his troops had met with showed
Marlborough his enemy's mistake. He determined to direct his chief
assault upon the centre of the line. The infantry which were attacking
Blenheim were ordered to seek shelter behind some rising ground, and to
keep up such a feigned attack upon the place as should give employment
to the troops stationed there. Meanwhile, with considerable difficulty,
the English army was brought across the marshes, and established in
position upon the firm ground beyond. In the French line cavalry and
infantry were interlaced; this arrangement was copied by the assailants.
The first effort of the English to ascend the slope was defeated, but
after a fierce interchange of fire, a second attempt broke the French
cavalry, and destroying the infantry, pierced the centre of the French
line. The battle was in fact won, no help could be sent to Tallard by
the Elector, a decisive charge of cavalry drove the enemy's horse off
the field, and the army fled in two bodies, one towards the river, the
other towards Hochstädt. Both were hotly pursued, and of those who fled
towards the river thousands perished in the stream. Blenheim still held
out, but, cut off from all succour, surrounded by the whole English
army, and threatened by the approaching artillery, the gallant garrison
was compelled to capitulate, and 11,000 men laid down their arms. The
right wing being completely destroyed, the Elector of Bavaria had found
it necessary to withdraw his troops from the battle, although they had
hitherto held their position against the fierce attacks of Eugene. In
the confusion he managed to retire without much loss. The victory,
however, was a very complete one; 60,000 strong in the morning of the
13th, on the 14th the French and Bavarian generals found themselves at
the head of no more than 20,000 men. All their tents and baggage, and
most of their artillery and colours, had fallen into the hands of the
allies. The list of killed and wounded on the side of the allies was
about 12,000. Marshal Tallard himself was among the prisoners. Again,
even after this defeat, the Elector of Bavaria declined all terms, and
his wife, as Regent, had to submit to such conditions as the German
Emperor chose to impose. So great was the blow, that the French
retreated with extreme rapidity; they gave up the strong fortress of
Ulm, and withdrew beyond the Rhine, whither they were pursued by the
allies, who, following separate routes, again assembled at Philipsburg;
nor even there did Villeroi withstand them, but still falling back,
allowed them to recapture Landau, during which operation Marlborough
completed his work by rapidly marching into the valley of the Moselle
and conquering Trèves and Trarbach.
[Sidenote: Progress of the war in Spain, the Cevennes, and Italy.]
Events of some importance had been taking place in three of the other
seats of war. In Spain, Berwick had completely worsted the Portuguese,
who had been so badly succoured by the English under the Duke of
Schomberg that he had been recalled, and Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, a
French refugee, put in his place; while, to balance this, a fleet under
Sir George Rooke, having on board the Prince of Darmstadt, and some
troops, while returning from an unsuccessful attack on Barcelona, made
an easy conquest of Gibraltar, and took possession of it in the name of
the English, to whom it has ever since belonged. In the Cevennes, a
merciful policy had brought the rebellion to an end, and Cavalier having
been offered the commission of colonel in the French army, which he at
first accepted and then declined, had been allowed to leave the country.
He entered the English army, rose to the rank of general, and was
subsequently Governor of Jersey.
Meanwhile affairs in Italy had been assuming a shape which rendered it
probable that the great interest of the war would be transferred thither
in the following year. Vendome had been rapidly reducing the territory
of the Duke of Savoy. One after the other his fortresses had been
captured, and no hope seemed left him but in immediate succour, either
from the Emperor, who was not likely to give it, or from Marlborough
himself.
[Sidenote: Marlborough's plans for 1705.]
As was natural after his great successes, Marlborough expected that the
next year would be one of much importance. Seeing the impossibility of
himself assisting Savoy, he had contrived to persuade the King of
Prussia to allow 8000 of his troops to proceed to Italy, and to serve
under Eugene, who had been despatched thither. His own intention was to
follow up his late victory by an invasion of France. He had intended
that this invasion should be by the valley of the Moselle, upon which a
joint attack was to have been made, by himself up the river, and by
Louis of Baden coming from Landau. The plan had been so far foreseen,
that the ablest of the French generals, Marshal Villars, was stationed
on the Moselle, while Flanders was intrusted to Villeroi, and Marsin
continued in Alsace. The weak co-operation of the German Prince rendered
the plan abortive, nor did the death of the Emperor Leopold, nor the
succession of Joseph the young King of the Romans, increase for any
length of time the vigour of the Imperial armies. But while Marlborough
was still waiting for the Margrave's assistance, Villeroi had suddenly
assumed the offensive, had retaken some of the fortresses of the Meuse,
and invested Liège. As usual, on the slightest sign of danger, the Dutch
were clamorous for Marlborough's return. His disappointment on the
Moselle inclined him to listen to them, and his appearance in Flanders
at once re-established affairs. Though disappointed in his main object,
he still intended to fight a great battle; but, as usual, jealousy of
the allied commanders, and the constant slowness and opposition of the
Dutch general, prevented him from bringing on an engagement. He however
succeeded in breaking the great line of French fortifications extending
from Antwerp to Namur upon the Meuse, and in advancing to the attack of
Brussels across the plain of Waterloo, where, but for the opposition he
met with among his own colleagues, a great battle might have been
fought: he writes, that he felt sure that, had he fought such a battle,
it would have been a greater victory than that of Blenheim. However, his
difficulties were more than he could overcome. The year passed away
without great events, and the French began to think that he had owed his
victories to chance. Upon the Rhine, Louis of Baden, though he had been
so backward in his support of Marlborough, showed the ability which he
really possessed by winning a great battle at the end of the year at
Hagenau, unfortunately too late to assist Marlborough in his plans. In
Italy, though Eugene won the battle of Cassano, the position of the
Duke of Savoy became continually more precarious, and the crisis had not
passed.
[Sidenote: Peterborough's success in Spain.]
It was in fact not with either of the great regular armies that the
allies this year won any great successes, but with the small and mixed
forces in Spain, which had been placed under the eccentric but vigorous
command of Lord Peterborough. Leaving Galway to prosecute the war in the
west, this general, who held with Sir Cloudesley Shovel a joint command
of the fleet also, drew the Prince of Darmstadt from Gibraltar, and
sailed round the east of Spain. After some successes on the eastern
coast, he was eager to march direct upon Madrid. But the Archduke
Charles, now calling himself Charles III., who was with him, listened in
preference to the suggestions of Darmstadt, who had once been Governor
of Catalonia, and trusted much to his influence in that province. The
plan of an attack upon Madrid was therefore overridden, and the army
proceeded to besiege Barcelona. Serious quarrels occurred between the
leaders, for which Peterborough's want of caution was no doubt much to
blame, and the siege was on the point of being given up. Already the
heavy cannon were withdrawn from the trenches and carried on board ship,
when suddenly Peterborough appeared in the tent of the Prince of
Darmstadt, with whom he was not on speaking terms, and telling him that
he intended to attack the enemy that night, challenged him to follow
him. Laying aside his animosity, the Prince at once accompanied him.
Peterborough's intention was to capture the citadel of Montjuich, a fort
at some little distance from the town itself, and this he trusted to do
by a sudden attack when the enemy were off their guard. The attempt was
perfectly successful. The English troops followed the defenders pell
mell into the walls of the fortress. Scarcely was the stronghold taken
than the Spaniards began to advance from the town to retake it.
Peterborough rode forward to reconnoitre; a panic seized his troops in
his absence, and they were already relinquishing the fort, when he
galloped back and rallied them, and fortunately found that their absence
had been unperceived. The possession of this citadel was followed before
long by the fall of the city, which capitulated on the 9th of October
(1705). The greater portion of the troops in Barcelona, and much of the
open country, at once declared for King Charles. The kingdom of Valencia
followed this example, and in the capital of that province Peterborough
subsequently took up his abode. Nor did his successes end there. In the
following year, the French, under Marshal Tessé and King Philip
himself, attempted to regain Barcelona. The Count of Toulouse, a natural
son of the French King, blockaded it from the sea. Peterborough, moving
from Valencia with but 3000 regular troops, did his best to employ
Tessé's army, which was 20,000 strong. But the siege went forward
uninterruptedly. Already the trenches were within 150 yards of the wall,
and an immediate assault was to be expected, when the English fleet
under Sir John Leake, second in command, approached. Though his numbers
were nearly equal to those of the Count of Toulouse, Leake, a prudent
commander, wished to wait for expected reinforcements under Byng. But
Peterborough, feeling that delay would be ruinous, determined upon a
strange step to compel immediate action. He got on board an open boat
and proceeded in quest of the English fleet. After searching for a whole
day and night in vain, he at length reached the squadron. Having
produced a new commission which had been given him, which gave him full
command over Leake whenever he was himself on board, he at once hoisted
his flag and gave orders for the attack. But meanwhile, hearing of the
arrival of the English, the Count of Toulouse had withdrawn his fleet,
the town could be easily approached from the sea, and Tessé thought it
better to raise the siege. After this brilliant exploit, Peterborough
again wished to march upon Madrid from Valencia, but King Charles, on
the advice of his German council, whom Peterborough speaks of by the
contemptuous name of "the Vienna crew," determined upon advancing
straight through Aragon, and called upon Peterborough to move his troops
from Valencia to join him on the march. Meanwhile the army of the west,
under Galway and Das Minas, had, after considerable delay, moved upon
Madrid also, and had occupied it. They found, however, the feeling there
strongly in favour of King Philip. As Aragon and Catalonia had favoured
Charles, so, in the spirit of hereditary opposition, the Castilians
devoted themselves to the interest of Philip. So strong was the
opposition they met with, that the allies had to leave the capital and
fall back eastward towards the approaching army of Charles, with whom
they formed a junction. But in the combined army there were far too many
commanders for vigorous action. Peterborough, the only man of genius
among them, found himself constantly thwarted: he put no restraint upon
his tongue. Bitter quarrels were the consequence, and he found it
necessary to leave the army and betake himself to Italy, which had been
his original destination, in order to negotiate with the Genoese for a
supply of money.
[Illustration: Battle of Ramillies May 23rd 1706.]
[Sidenote: Battle of Ramillies. May 23, 1706.]