allied left had been little more successful. At Neerlanden the First
and Second Foot had successfully held their own against four French
battalions until reinforcements enabled them to drive them back.
At Rumsdorp the British, being but three thousand against thirteen
thousand, were pushed out of the village, but being reinforced,
recovered a part of it and stood successfully at bay. Luxemburg,
however, was not easily discouraged. The broken troops in the left were
rallied, fresh regiments were brought forward, and a second effort was
made to carry Neerwinden. Again French impetuosity bore all before it,
and again the British and Germans, weakened and weary though they were,
rallied when all seemed lost, and hurled the enemy back, not merely
repulsed, but in confused and disorderly retreat.
On the failure of the second attack the majority of the French officers
urged Luxemburg to retire; but the marshal was not to be turned from
his purpose. The fourteen thousand men of the Allies in Laer and
Neerwinden had lost more than a third of their numbers, while he
himself had still a considerable force of infantry interlined with the
cavalry in the centre. Twelve thousand of them, including the French
and Swiss Guards, were now drawn off to the left for a third attack.
When they were clear of the cavalry, the whole six lines of horse,
which had stood heroically for hours motionless under a heavy fire,
moved forward at a trot to the edge of the entrenchments;[9] but the
demonstration, for such it seems to have been, cost them dear, for they
were very roughly handled and compelled to retire. But now the French
reinforcements, supported by the defeated battalions, drew near, and a
third attack was delivered on Neerwinden. British and Dutch still made
a gallant fight, but the odds against their weakened battalions were
too great, and ammunition began to fail. They fought on indomitably
till the last cartridge was expended before they gave way, but they
were forced back, and Neerwinden was lost. Five French brigades then
assailed the central entrenchment at its junction with Neerwinden,
where stood the Coldstream Guards and the Seventh Fusiliers. Wholly
unmoved by the overwhelming numbers in their front and the fire from
Neerwinden on their flank, the two regiments stood firm and drove their
assailants back over the breastwork. Even when the French Household
Cavalry came spurring through Neerwinden and fell upon their flank,
they fought on undismayed, and the Coldstreamers not only repelled the
charge but captured a colour.
Such fighting, however, could not continue for long. William, on
observing Luxemburg’s preparations for the final assault, had ordered
nine battalions from his left to reinforce his right. These never
reached their destination. The Marquis of Feuquières, an officer
even more celebrated for his acuteness as a military critic than for
his skill in the field, watched them as they moved, and suddenly led
his cavalry forward to the weakest point of the entrenchment. The
battalions hesitated, halted, and then turned about to meet this new
danger, but too late to save the forcing of the entrenchment. The
battle was now virtually over. Neerwinden was carried, Ramsey after
a superb defence had been driven out of Laer, the Brandenburgers had
perforce retreated with him, the infantry that lined the centre of the
entrenchment had forsaken it, and the French cavalry was pouring in and
cutting down the fugitives by scores. William, who had galloped away
in desperation to the left, now returned at headlong speed with six
regiments of English cavalry,[10] which delivered charge after charge
with splendid gallantry, to cover the retreat of the foot. On the left
Tolmach and Bellasys by great exertion brought off their infantry in
good order, but on the right the confusion was terrible. The rout
was complete, the few bridges were choked by a heaving mass of guns,
waggons, pack-animals, and men, and thousands of fugitives were cut
down, drowned, or trampled to death. William did all that a gallant
man could do to save the day, but in vain. His troops had done heroic
things to redeem his bad generalship; and against any living man but
Marlborough or Luxemburg they would probably have held their own. It
was the general, not the soldiers that failed.
The losses on both sides were very severe. That of the French was about
eight thousand men; that of the Allies about twelve thousand, killed,
wounded, and prisoners, and among the dead was Count Solmes, the hated
Solmes of Steenkirk. The nineteen British battalions present lost
one hundred and thirty-five officers killed, wounded, and taken. The
French captured eighty guns and a vast quantity of colours, but the
Allies, although beaten, could also show fifty-six French flags. And,
indeed, though Luxemburg won, and deserved to win a great victory, yet
the action was not such as to make the allied troops afraid to meet the
French. They had stood up, fifty thousand against eighty thousand, and
if they were beaten they had at any rate dismayed ever Frenchman on the
field but Luxemburg. In another ten years their turn was to come, and
they were to take a part of their revenge on the very ground over which
many of them had fled.
The campaign closed with the surrender of Charleroi, and the gain by
the French of the whole line of the Sambre. William came home to meet
the House of Commons and recommend an augmentation of the Army by
eight regiments of horse, four of dragoons, and twenty-five of foot.
The House reduced this list by the whole of the regiments of horse and
fifteen of foot, but even so it brought the total establishment up to
eighty-three thousand men. There is, however, but one new regiment of
which note need be taken in the campaign of 1694, namely, the Seventh
Dragoons, now known as the Seventh Hussars, which, raised in 1689–90
in Scotland, now for the first time took its place on the English
establishment and its turn of service in the war of Flanders.
◆1694.◆
I shall not dwell on the campaign of 1694, which is memorable only for
a marvellous march by which Luxemburg upset William’s entire plan of
campaign. Nor shall I speak at length of the abortive descent on Brest,
which is remembered mainly for the indelible stain which it has left on
the memory of Marlborough. It is only necessary to say that the French,
by Marlborough’s information, though not on Marlborough’s information
only, had full warning of an expedition which had been planned as a
surprise, and that Tolmach,[11] who was in command, unfortunately,
though most pardonably, lacked the moral courage to abandon an attack
which, unless executed as a surprise, had no chance of success. He was
repulsed with heavy loss, and died of wounds received in the action—a
hard fate for a good soldier and a gallant man. But it is unjust to
lay his death at Marlborough’s door. For the failure of the expedition
Marlborough was undoubtedly responsible, and that is quite bad enough;
but Tolmach alone was to blame for attempting an enterprise which he
knew to be hopeless. Marlborough cannot have calculated that he would
deliberately essay to do impossibilities and perish in the effort, so
cannot be held guilty of poor Tolmach’s blunders.
◆1695.◆
Before the new campaign could be opened there had come changes of vital
importance to France. The vast expense of the war had told heavily on
the country, and the King’s ministers were at their wit’s end to raise
money. Moreover, the War Department had deteriorated rapidly since the
death of Louvois; and ◆January.◆ to this misfortune was now added the
death of Luxemburg, a loss which was absolutely irreparable. Lastly,
with the object of maintaining the position which they had won on the
Sambre, the French had extended their system of fortified lines from
Namur to the sea. Works so important could not be left unguarded, so
that a considerable force was locked up behind these entrenchments,
and was for all offensive purposes useless. We shall see before long
how a really great commander could laugh at these lines, and how, in
consequence, it became an open question whether they were not rather
an encumbrance than an advantage. The subject is one which is still of
interest; and it is remarkable that the French still seem to cling to
their old principles, if they may be judged by the works which they
have constructed for defence against a German invasion.
His enemy being practically restricted to the defensive, William did
not neglect the opportunity of initiating aggressive operations.
Masking his design by a series of feints, he marched swiftly to the
Meuse and invested Namur. This fortress, more famous through its
connection with the immortal Uncle Toby even than as the masterpiece
of Cohorn, carried to yet higher perfection by Vauban, stands at the
junction of the Sambre and the Meuse, the citadel lying in the angle
between the two rivers, and the town with its defences on the left bank
of the Meuse. To the northward of the town outworks had been thrown up
on the heights of Bouge by both of these famous engineers; and it was
against these outworks that William directed his first attack.
◆June 23./July 3.◆
◆June 26./July 6.◆
Ground was broken on the 3rd of July, and three days later an assault
was delivered on the lines of Bouge. As usual, the hardest of the work
was given to the British, and the post of greatest danger was made
over, as their high reputation demanded, to the Brigade of Guards. On
this occasion the Guards surpassed themselves alike by the coolness
of their valour and by the ardour of their attack. They marched under
a heavy fire up to the French palisades, thrust their muskets between
them, poured in one terrible volley, the first shot that they had yet
fired, and charged forthwith. In spite of a stout resistance they
swept the French out of the first work, pursued them to the second,
swept them out of that, and gathering impetus with success, drove them
from stronghold to stronghold, far beyond the original design of the
engineers, and actually to the gates of the town. In another quarter
the Royal Scots and the Seventh Fusiliers gained not less brilliant
success; and in fact it was the most creditable action that William had
fought during the whole war. It cost the Allies two thousand men killed
and wounded, the three battalions of Guards alone losing thirty-two
officers. The British were to fight many such bloody combats during the
next twenty years—combats forgotten since they were merely incidents
in the history of a siege, and so frequent that they were hardly
chronicled, and are not to be restored to memory now. I mention this,
the first of such actions, only as a type of many more to come.
The outworks captured, the trenches were opened against the town
itself, and the next assault was directed against the counterguard of
St. Nicholas gate. This again was carried by the British, with a loss
of eight hundred men. Then came the famous attack on the counterscarp
before the gate itself, where Captain Tobias Shandy received his
memorable wound. This gave William the possession of the town. Then
came the siege of the citadel, wherein the British had the honour of
marching to the assault over half a mile of open ground, a trial which
proved too much even for them. Nevertheless, it was they who eventually
stormed a breach from which another of the assaulting columns had been
repulsed, and ensured the surrender of the citadel a few days later.
For their service on this occasion the Eighteenth Foot were made the
Royal Irish; and a Latin inscription on their colours still records
that this was the reward of their valour at Namur.
Thus William on his return to England could for the first time show
his Parliament a solid success due to the British red-coats; and the
House of Commons gladly voted once more a total force of eighty-seven
thousand men. But the war need be followed no further. The campaign
of 1696 was interrupted by a futile attempt of the French to invade
England, and in 1697 France, reduced to utter exhaustion, gladly
concluded the Peace of Ryswick. So ended, not without honour, the
first stage of the great conflict with King Lewis the Fourteenth. The
position of the two protagonists, England and France, was not wholly
unlike that which they occupied a century later at the Peace of Amiens.
The British, though they had not reaped great victories, had made
their presence felt, and terribly felt, on the battlefield; and, as
the French in the Peninsula remembered that the British had fought
them with a tenacity which they had not found in other nations, not
only in Egypt, but even earlier at Tournay and Linselles, so, too,
after Blenheim and Ramillies they looked back to the furious attack
at Steenkirk and the indomitable defence of Neerwinden. “Without the
concurrence of the valour and power of England,” said William to the
Parliament at the close of 1695, “it were impossible to put a stop to
the ambition and greatness of France.” So it was then, and so it was a
century later, for though none know better the superlative qualities
of the French as a fighting people, yet the English are the one nation
that has never been afraid to meet them. With the Peace of Ryswick the
’prentice years of the standing Army are ended, and within five years
the old spirit, which has carried it through the bitter schooling
under King William, will break forth with overwhelming power under the
guiding genius of Marlborough.
AUTHORITIES.—The leading authority for William’s campaigns on the
English side is D’Auvergne, and on the French side the compilation,
with its superb series of maps, by Beaurain. Supplementary on one
side are Tindal’s History, Carleton’s Memoirs, and Sterne’s _Tristram
Shandy_; and on the other the _Mémoires_ of Berwick and St. Simon,
Quincy’s _Histoire Militaire de Louis XIV_, and in particular the
_Mémoires_ of Feuquières. Many details as to Steenkirk, in particular,
respecting the casualties, are drawn from _Present State of Europe,
or Monthly Mercury_, August 1692, and as to Landen from the official
relation of the battle, published by authority, 1693. Beautiful
plans of both actions are in Beaurain, rougher plans in Quincy and
Feuquières. All details as to the establishment voted are from the
Journals of the House of Commons. Very elaborate details of the
operations are given in Colonel Clifford Walton’s _History of the
British Standing Army_.
VOL. I. BOOK VI. CHAPTER I
A European quarrel over the succession to the Spanish throne,[12]
on the death of the imbecile King Charles the Second, had long been
foreseen by William, and had been provided against, as he hoped, by a
Partition Treaty in the year 1698. The arrangement then made had been
upset by the death of the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, and had been
superseded by a second Partition Treaty in March 1700. In November of
the same year King Charles the Second died, leaving a will wherein
Philip, Duke of Anjou, and second son of the Dauphin, was named heir
to the whole Empire of Spain. Hereupon the second Partition Treaty
went for naught. Lewis the Fourteenth, after a becoming interval of
hesitation, accepted the Spanish crown for the Duke of Anjou under the
title of King Philip the Fifth.
◆1701.◆
The Emperor at once entered a protest against the will, and Lewis
prepared without delay for a campaign in Italy. William, however, for
the present merely postponed his recognition of Philip the Fifth; and
his example was followed by the United Provinces. Lewis, ever ready
and prompt, at once took measures to quicken the States to a decision.
Several towns[13] in Spanish Flanders were garrisoned, under previous
treaties, by Dutch troops. Lewis by a swift movement surrounded the
whole of them, and, having thus secured fifteen thousand of the best
men in the Dutch army, could dictate what terms he pleased. William
expected that the House of Commons would be roused to indignation by
this aggressive step, but the House was far too busy with its own
factious quarrels. When, however, the States appealed to England for
the six thousand four hundred men, which under the treaty of 1668[14]
she was bound to furnish, both Houses prepared faithfully to fulfil the
obligation.
Then, as invariably happens in England, the work which Parliament
had undone required to be done again. Twelve battalions were ordered
to the Low Countries from Ireland, and directions were issued for
the levying of ten thousand recruits in England to take their place.
But, immediately after, came bad news from the West Indies, and
it was thought necessary to despatch thither four more battalions
from Ireland. Three regiments[15] were hastily brought up to a
joint strength of two thousand men, and shipped off. Thus, within
fifteen months of the disbandment of 1699, the garrison of Ireland
had been depleted by fifteen battalions out of twenty-one; and four
new battalions required to be raised immediately. Of these, two,
namely Brudenell’s and Mountjoy’s, were afterwards disbanded, but two
more, Lord Charlemont’s and Lord Donegal’s, are still with us as the
Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth of the Line.
In June the twelve battalions[16] were shipped off to Holland, under
the command of John, Earl of Marlborough. Since 1698 he had been
restored to the King’s favour and was to fill his place as head of
the European coalition and General of the confederate armies in a
fashion that no man had yet dreamed of. He was full fifty years of age;
so long had the ablest man in Europe waited for work that was worthy
of his powers; and now his time was come at last. His first duties,
however, were diplomatic; and during the summer and autumn of 1701 he
was engaged in negotiations with Sweden, Prussia, and the Empire for
the formation of a Grand Alliance against France and Spain. Needless to
say he brought all to a successful issue by his inexhaustible charm,
patience, and tact.
◆Sept.◆
Still the attitude of the English people towards the contest remained
doubtful, until, on the death of King James the Second, Lewis made
the fatal mistake of recognising and proclaiming his son as King
of England. Then the smouldering animosity against France leaped
instantly into flame. William seized the opportunity to dissolve
Parliament, and was rewarded by the election of a House of Commons
more nearly resembling that which had carried him through the first
war to the Peace of Ryswick. He did not fail to rouse its patriotism
and self-respect by a stirring speech from the throne, and obtained
the ratification of his agreement with the Allies, that England should
furnish a contingent of forty thousand men, eighteen thousand of
them to be British and the remainder foreigners. So the country was
committed to the War of the Spanish Succession.
It was soon decided that all regiments in pay must be increased at
once to war-strength, and that six more battalions, together with five
regiments of horse and three of dragoons, should be sent to join the
troops already in Holland. Then, as usual, there was a rush to do in
a hurry what should have been done at leisure; and it is significant
of the results of the late ill-treatment of the Army that, though the
country was full of unemployed soldiers, it was necessary to offer
three pounds, or thrice the usual amount of levy-money, to obtain
recruits. The next step was to raise fifteen new regiments—Meredith’s,
Coote’s, Huntingdon’s, Farrington’s, Gibson’s, Lucas’s, Mohun’s,
Temple’s, and Stringer’s of foot; Fox’s, Saunderson’s, Villiers’,
Shannon’s, Mordaunt’s and Holt’s of marines. Of the foot, Gibson’s and
Farrington’s had been raised in 1694, but the officers of Farrington’s,
if not of both regiments, had been retained on half-pay, and, returning
in a body, continued the life of the regiment without interruption.
Both are still with us as the Twenty-eighth and Twenty-ninth of the
Line. Huntingdon’s and Lucas’s also survive as the Thirty-third and
Thirty-fourth, and Meredith’s and Coote’s, which were raised in
Ireland, as the Thirty-seventh and Thirty-ninth, while the remainder
were disbanded at the close of the war. Of the marines, Saunderson’s
had originally been raised in 1694, and eventually passed into the
Line as the Thirtieth Foot, followed by Fox’s and Villiers’ as the
Thirty-first and Thirty-second. Nothing now remained but to pass the
Mutiny Act, which was speedily done; and on the 5th of May, just two
months after the death of King William, the great work of his life was
continued by a formal declaration of war.
The field of operations, which will chiefly concern us, is mainly the
same as that wherein we followed the campaigns of King William. The
eastern boundary of the cock-pit must for a time be extended from
the Meuse to the Rhine, the northern from the Demer to the Waal,
and the southern limit must be carried from Dunkirk beyond Namur
to Bonn. But the reader should bear in mind that, in consequence of
the Spanish alliance, Spanish Flanders was no longer hostile, but
friendly, to France, so that the French frontier, for all practical
purposes, extended to the boundary of Dutch Brabant. Moreover, the
French, besides the seizure, already related, of the barrier-towns, had
contrived to occupy every stronghold on the Meuse except Maestricht,
from Namur to Venloo, so that practically they were masters so far of
the whole line of the river.
A few leagues below Venloo stands the fortified town of Grave, and
beyond Grave, on the parallel branch of the Waal, stands the fortified
city of Nimeguen. A little to the east of Nimeguen, at a point where
the Rhine formerly forked into two streams, stood Fort Schenck, a
stronghold famous in the wars of Morgan and of Vere. These three
fortresses were the three eastern gates of the Dutch Netherlands,
commanding the two great waterways, doubly important in those days of
bad roads, which lead into the heart of the United Provinces.
◆1702.◆
It is here that we must watch the opening of the campaign of 1702.
There were detachments of the French and of the Allies opposed to each
other on the Upper Rhine, on the Lower Rhine, and on the Lower Scheldt;
but the French grand army of sixty thousand men was designed to operate
on the Meuse, and the presence of a Prince of the blood, the Duke of
Burgundy, with old Marshal Boufflers to instruct him, sufficiently
showed that this was the quarter in which France designed to strike
her grand blow. Marlborough being still kept from the field by other
business, the command of the Allied army on the Meuse was entrusted
to Lord Athlone, better known as that Ginkell who had completed the
pacification of Ireland in 1691. His force consisted of twenty-five
thousand men, with which he lay near Cleve, in the centre of the
crescent formed by Grave, Nimeguen, and Fort Schenck, watching under
shelter of these three fortresses the army of Boufflers, which was
encamped some twenty miles to south-east of him at Uden and Xanten.
◆May 30./June 10.◆ On the 10th of June Boufflers made a sudden dash to
cut off Athlone from Nimeguen and Grave, a catastrophe which Athlone
barely averted by an almost discreditably precipitate retreat. Having
reached Nimeguen Athlone withdrew to the north of the Waal, while
all Holland trembled over the danger which had thus been so narrowly
escaped.