long grappling at the Hague with the difficulties which were fated to
dog him throughout the war. In England his position was comparatively
easy, for though Prince George of Denmark, the consort of Queen
Anne, was nominally generalissimo of all forces by sea and land,
yet Marlborough was Captain-General of all the English forces at
home and in Holland, and in addition Master-General of the Ordnance.
But it was only after considerable dispute that he was appointed
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces, and then not without provoking
much dissatisfaction among the Dutch generals, and much jealousy in
the Prince of Nassau-Saarbrück and in Athlone, both of whom aspired to
the office. These obstacles overcome, there came the question of the
plan of campaign. Here again endless obstruction was raised. The Dutch,
after their recent fright, were nervously apprehensive for the safety
of Nimeguen, the King of Prussia was much disturbed over his territory
of Cleve, and all parties who had not interests of their own to put
forward made it their business to thwart the Commander-in-Chief.
◆June 21./July 2.◆ With infinite patience Marlborough soothed them,
and at last, on the 2nd of July, he left the Hague for Nimeguen,
accompanied by two Dutch deputies, civilians, whose duty it was to see
that he did nothing imprudent. Arrived there he concentrated sixty
thousand men, of which twelve thousand were British,[17] recrossed
the Waal and encamped at Ober-Hasselt over against Grave, within two
leagues of the French. ◆July 15/26.◆ Then once more the obstruction of
his colleagues caused delay, and it was not until the 26th of July that
he could cross to the left bank of the Meuse. “Now,” he said to the
Dutch deputies, as he pointed to the French camp, “I shall soon rid you
of these troublesome neighbours.”
Five swift marches due south brought his army over the Spanish frontier
by Hamont. Boufflers thereupon in alarm broke up his camp, summoned
Marshal Tallard from the Rhine to his assistance, crossed the Meuse
with all haste at Venloo, and pushed on at nervous speed for the Demer.
◆July 22./Aug. 2.◆ On the 2nd of August he lay between Peer and Bray,
his camping-ground ill-chosen, and his army worn out by a week of
desperate marching. Within easy striking distance, a mile or two to the
northward, lay Marlborough, his army fresh, ready, and confident. He
held the game in his hand; for an immediate attack would have dealt the
French as rude a buffet as they were to receive later at Ramillies. But
the Dutch deputies interposed; these Dogberries were content to thank
God that they were rid of a rogue. So Boufflers was allowed to cross
the Demer safely at Diest, and a first great opportunity was lost.
Marlborough, having drawn the French away from the Meuse, was now at
liberty to add the garrison of Maestricht to his field-force, and to
besiege the fortresses on the river. Boufflers, however, emboldened
by his escape, again advanced north in the hope of cutting off a
convoy of stores that was on its way to join the Allies. Marlborough
therefore perforce moved back to Hamont and picked up his convoy.
Then, before Boufflers could divine his purpose, he had moved swiftly
south, and thrown himself across the line of the French retreat to
the Demer. ◆Aug. 11/22.◆ The French marshal hurried southward with
all possible haste, and came blundering through the defiles before
Hochtel on the road to Hasselt, only to find Marlborough waiting ready
for him at Helchteren. Once again the game was in the Englishman’s
hand. The French were in great disorder, their left in particular
being hopelessly entangled in marshy and difficult ground. Marlborough
instantly gave the order to advance, and by three o’clock the artillery
of the two armies was exchanging fire. At five Marlborough directed the
whole of his right to fall on the French left; but to his surprise and
dismay, the right did not move. A surly Dutchman, General Opdam, was
in command of the troops in question and, for no greater object than
to annoy the Commander-in-Chief, refused to execute his orders. So a
second great opportunity was lost.
◆Aug. 12/23.◆
Still much might yet be won by a general attack on the next day; and
for this accordingly Marlborough at once made his preparations. But,
when the time came, the Dutch deputies interposed, entreating him
to defer the attack till the morrow morning. “By to-morrow morning
they will be gone,” answered Marlborough; but all remonstrance was
unavailing. The attack was perforce deferred; the French slipped
away in the night; and, though it was still possible to cut up their
rearguard with cavalry, a third great opportunity was lost.
Marlborough was deeply chagrined; but although with unconquerable
patience and tact he excused Opdam’s conduct in his public despatches,
he could not deceive the troops, who were loud in their indignation
against both deputies and generals. There was now nothing left but
to reduce the fortresses on the Meuse, a part of the army being
detached for the siege while the remainder covered the operations
under the command of Marlborough. Even over their favourite pastime
of a siege, however, the Dutch were dilatory beyond measure. “England
is famous for negligence,” wrote Marlborough, “but if Englishmen were
half as negligent as the people here, they would be torn to pieces
by Parliament.”[18] ◆Aug. 18/29.◆ Venloo was at length invested on
the 29th of August,[19] and after a siege of eighteen days compelled
to capitulate. The English distinguished themselves after their own
peculiar fashion. In the assault on the principal defence General
Cutts, who from his love of a hot fire was known as the Salamander,
gave orders that the attacking force, if it carried the covered way,
should not stop there but rush forward and carry as much more as it
could. It was a mad design, criminally so in the opinion of officers
who took part in it,[20] but it was madly executed, with the result
that the whole fort was captured out of hand.
◆Sept. 26./Oct. 7.◆
The reduction of Stevenswaert, Maseyck, and Ruremond quickly followed;
and the French now became alarmed lest Marlborough should transfer
operations to the Rhine. Tallard was therefore sent back with a large
force to Cologne and Bonn, while Boufflers, much weakened by this and
by other detachments, lay helpless at Tongres. But the season was now
far advanced, and Marlborough had no intention of leaving Boufflers for
the winter in a position from which he might at any moment move out and
bombard Maestricht. No sooner, therefore, were his troops released by
the capture of Ruremond than he prepared to oust Boufflers. The French,
according to their usual practice, had barred the eastern entrance to
Brabant by fortified lines, which followed the line of the Geete to its
head-waters, and were thence carried across to that of the Mehaigne.
In his position at Tongres Boufflers lay midway between these lines
and Liège, in the hope of covering both; but after the fall of so many
fortresses on the Meuse he became specially anxious for Liège, and
resolved to post himself under its walls. ◆Oct. 1/12.◆ He accordingly
examined the defences, selected his camping-ground, and on the 12th of
October marched up with his army to occupy it. Quite unconscious of any
danger he arrived within cannon-shot of his chosen position; and there
stood Marlborough, calmly awaiting him with a superior force. For the
fourth time Marlborough held his enemy within his grasp, but the Dutch
deputies, as usual, interposed to forbid an attack; and Boufflers,
a fourth time delivered, hurried away in the night to his lines at
Landen. Had he thrown himself into Liège Marlborough would have made
him equally uncomfortable by marching on the lines; as things were, the
French marshal perforce left the city to its fate.
The town of Liège, which was unfortified, at once opened its gates to
the Allies; and within a week Marlborough’s batteries were playing
on the citadel. ◆Oct. 12/23.◆ On the 23rd of October the citadel was
stormed, the English being first in the breach, and a few days later
Liège, with the whole line of the Meuse, had passed into the hands of
the Allies. Thus brilliantly, in spite of four great opportunities
marred by the Dutch, ended Marlborough’s first campaign. Athlone, like
an honest man, confessed that as second in command he had opposed every
one of Marlborough’s projects, and that the success was due entirely to
his incomparable chief. He at any rate had an inkling that in Turenne’s
handsome Englishman there had arisen one of the great captains of all
time.
Nevertheless the French had not been without their consolations in
other quarters. Towards the end of the campaign the Elector of Bavaria
had declared himself for France against the Empire, and, surprising the
all-important position of Ulm on the Danube, had opened communication
with the French force on the Upper Rhine. Villars, who commanded in
that quarter, had seconded him by defeating his opponent, Prince
Lewis of Baden, at Friedlingen, and had cleared the passages of the
Black Forest; while Tallard had, almost without an effort, possessed
himself of Trèves and Trarbach on the Moselle. The rival competitors
for the crown of Spain were France and the Empire, and the centre of
the struggle, as no one saw more clearly than Marlborough, was for the
present moving steadily towards the territory of the Empire.
While Marlborough was engaged in his operations on the Meuse, ten
thousand English and Dutch, under the Duke of Ormonde and Admiral
Sir George Rooke, had been despatched to make a descent upon Cadiz.
The expedition was so complete a failure that there is no object in
dwelling on it. Rooke would not support Ormonde, and Ormonde was not
strong enough to master Rooke; landsmen quarrelled with seamen, and
English with Dutch. No discipline was maintained, and after some weeks
of feeble operations and shameful scenes of indiscipline and pillage,
the commanders found that they could do no more than return to England.
They were fortunate enough, however, on their way, to fall in with
the plate-fleet at Vigo, of which they captured twenty-five galleons
containing treasure worth a million sterling. Comforted by this good
fortune Rooke and Ormonde sailed homeward, and dropped anchor safely in
Portsmouth harbour.
Meanwhile a mishap, which Marlborough called an accident, had gone near
to neutralise all the success of the past campaign. At the close of
operations the Earl, together with the Dutch deputies, had taken ship
down the Meuse, with a guard of twenty-five men on board and an escort
of fifty horse on the bank. In the night the horse lost their way,
and the boat was surprised and overpowered by a French partisan with
a following of marauders. The Dutch deputies produced French passes,
but Marlborough had none and was therefore a prisoner. Fortunately
his servant slipped into his hand an old pass that had been made out
for his brother Charles Churchill. With perfect serenity Marlborough
presented it as genuine, and was allowed to go on his way, the French
contenting themselves with the capture of the guard and the plunder of
the vessel, and never dreaming of the prize that they had let slip. The
news of his escape reached the Hague, where on his arrival rich and
poor came out to welcome him, men and women weeping for joy over his
safety. So deep was the fascination exerted on all of his kind by this
extraordinary man.
A few days later he returned to England, where a new Parliament had
already congratulated Queen Anne on the retrieving of England’s honour
by the success of his arms. The word retrieving was warmly resented,
but though doubtless suggested by unworthy and factious animosity
against the memory of William, it was strictly true. The nation felt
that it was not in the fitness of things that Englishmen should be
beaten by Frenchmen, and they rejoiced to see the wrong set right.
Nevertheless party spirit found a still meaner level when Parliament
extended to Rooke and Ormonde the same vote of thanks that they
tendered to Marlborough. This precious pair owed even this honour
to the wisdom and good sense of their far greater comrade, for they
would have carried their quarrel over the expedition within the walls
of Parliament, had not Marlborough told them gently that the whole
of their operations were indefensible and that the less they called
attention to themselves the better. The Queen, with more discernment,
created Marlborough a Duke and settled on him a pension of £5000 a year.
VOL. I. BOOK VI. CHAPTER IV
◆1704.◆
Meanwhile Parliament had met on the 29th of the previous October, full
of congratulations to the Queen on the triumphs of the past campaign.
There were not wanting, of course, men who, in the madness of faction,
doubted whether Blenheim were really a victory, for the very remarkable
reason that Marlborough had won it, but they were soon silenced by
the retort that the King of France at any rate had no doubts on the
point.[21] The plans for the next campaign were designed on a large
scale, and were likely to strain the resources of the Army to the
uttermost. The West Indies demanded six battalions and Gibraltar three
battalions for garrison; Portugal claimed ten thousand men, Flanders
from twenty to twenty-five thousand; while besides this a design was on
foot, as shall presently be seen, for the further relief of Portugal by
a diversion in Catalonia. ◆1705.◆ Five millions were cheerfully voted
for the support of the war, and six new battalions were raised, namely,
Wynne’s, Bretton’s, Lepell’s, Saomes’s, Sir Charles Hotham’s, and
Lillingston’s, the last of which alone has survived to our day with the
rank of the Thirty-eighth of the Line.[22]
Marlborough’s plan of campaign had been sufficiently foreshadowed at
the close of the previous year, namely, to advance on the line of
the Moselle and carry the war into Lorraine. The Emperor and all the
German Princes promised to be in the field early, the Dutch were with
infinite difficulty persuaded to give their consent, and after much
vexatious delay Marlborough joined his army at Trèves on the 26th of
May. ◆May 15/26.◆ Here he waited until the 17th of June for the arrival
of the German and Imperial troops. ◆June 6/17.◆ Not a man nor a horse
appeared. In deep chagrin he broke up his camp and returned to the
Meuse, having lost, as he said, one of the fairest opportunities in the
world, through the faithlessness of his allies.[23]
His presence was sorely needed on the Meuse. Villeroy, who commanded
the French in Flanders, finding no occasion for his presence on the
Moselle, had moved out of his lines, captured Huy, and then marching
on to Liège had invested the citadel. ◆May 21.◆ The States-General
in a panic of fright urged Marlborough to return without delay, and
Overkirk, who commanded the Dutch on the Meuse, added his entreaties
to theirs. Marlborough, when once he had made up his mind to move,
never moved slowly, and by the 25th of June he was at Düren, to the
eastward of Aix-la-Chapelle. ◆June 14/25.◆ Here he was still the best
part of forty miles from the Meuse, but that distance was too near for
Villeroy, who at once abandoned Liège and fell back on Tongres.
◆June 21./July 2.◆ Marlborough, continuing his advance, crossed the
Meuse at Visé on the 2nd of July, and on the same day united his army
with Overkirk’s at Haneff on the Upper Jaar. Villeroy thereupon retired
ignominiously within his fortified lines.
These lines, which had been making during the past three years,
were now complete. They started from the Meuse a little to the east
of Namur, passed from thence to the Mehaigne and the Little Geete,
followed the Little Geete along its left bank to Leuw, the Great Geete
from Leuw to the Demer, and the Demer itself as far as Arschot, from
which point a new line of entrenchments carried the barrier through
Lierre to Antwerp. Near Antwerp Marlborough had already had to do with
these lines in 1703, but hitherto he had made no attempt to force them.
Villeroy and the Elector of Bavaria now lay before him with seventy
thousand men, a force superior to his own, but necessarily spread over
a wide front for the protection of the entrenchments. The marshal’s
headquarters were at Meerdorp, in the space between the Geete and the
Mehaigne, which he probably regarded as a weak point. Marlborough
posted himself over against him at Lens-les-Beguines, detaching a small
force to recapture Huy, while Overkirk with the Dutch army covered the
siege from Vignamont. Thus, as if daring the French to take advantage
of the dispersion of his troops, he quietly laid his plans for forcing
the lines.
The point that he selected was on the Little Geete between Elixheim and
Neerhespen, exactly in rear of the battlefield of Landen. The abrupt
and slippery banks of the river, which the English knew but too well,
together with the entrenchments beyond it, presented extraordinary
difficulties; but the lines were on that account the less likely to be
well guarded at that particular point. Marlborough had already obtained
the leave of the States-General for the project, but he had now the far
more difficult task of gaining the consent of the Dutch generals at a
Council of War. Slangenberg and others opposed the scheme vehemently,
but were overruled; and the Duke was at length at liberty to fall to
work.
◆June 30./July 11.◆
Huy fell on the 11th of July, but to the general surprise the besieging
force was not recalled. Six days later Overkirk and the covering army
crossed the Mehaigne from Vignamont, and pushed forward detachments to
the very edge of the lines between Meffle and Namur. ◆July.◆ Villeroy
fell into the trap, withdrew troops from all parts of the lines and
concentrated forty thousand men at Meerdorp. Marlborough then recalled
the troops from Huy, and made them up to a total of about eight
thousand men, both cavalry and infantry,[24] the whole being under the
command of the Count of Noyelles. The utmost secrecy was observed in
every particular. The corps composing the detachment knew nothing of
each other, and nothing of the work before them; and, lest the sight
of fascines should suggest an attack on entrenchments, these were
dispensed with, the troopers only at the last moment receiving orders
to carry each a truss of forage on the saddle before them.
◆July 6/17.◆
At tattoo the detachment fell in silently before the camp of the right
wing, and at nine o’clock moved off without a sound in two columns,
the one upon Neerhespen, the other upon the Castle of Wanghe before
Elixheim. An hour later the rest of the army followed, while at the
same time Overkirk, under cover of the darkness, crossed the Mehaigne
at Tourines and joined his van to the rear of Marlborough’s army. The
distance to be traversed was from ten to fifteen miles; the night
though dry was dark; and the guides, frequently at fault, were fain to
direct themselves by the trusses dropped on the way by the advanced
detachment. ◆July 6–7/17–18.◆ Twelve years before to the very day, a
French army had toiled along the same route, wearied out and stifled by
the sun, and only kept to its task by an ugly little hunch-backed man
whom it had reverenced as Marshal Luxemburg. Now English and Dutch were
blundering on to take revenge for Luxemburg’s victory at the close of
that march. The hours fled on, the light began to break, and the army
found itself on the field of Landen, William’s entrenchment grass-grown
before it, Neerwinden and Laer lying silent to the left, and before the
villages the mound that hid the corpses of the dead. Then some at least
of the soldiers knew the work that lay before them.
[Illustration:
LINES OF THE
GEETE.
July 7/18 1705
Scale of 1/2 mile
_Stanford’s Geogl. Estabt., London._
]
◆July 7/18.◆
At four o’clock the heads of the columns halted within a mile of the
Geete, wrapped in a thick mist and hidden from the eye of the enemy.
The advanced detachment quickly cleared the villages by the river,
seized the bridge before the Castle of Wanghe, which had not been
broken down, and drove out the garrison of the Castle itself. Then the
pontoniers came forward to lay their bridges; but the infantry would
not wait for them. They scrambled impatiently through hedges and over
bogs, down one steep bank of the river and up the other, into the ditch
beyond, and finally, breathless and dripping, over the rampart into the
lines. So numerous were the hot-heads who thus went forward that they
forced three regiments of French dragoons to retire before them without
attempting resistance. Then the cavalry of the detachment began to
file rapidly over the pontoon-bridges; but meanwhile the alarm had been
given, and, before the main army could cross, the French came down in
force from the north, some twenty battalions and forty squadrons, in
all close upon fifteen thousand men, with a battery of eight guns.
The enemy advanced rapidly, their cavalry leading, until checked by a
hollow way which lay between them and the Allies, when they halted to
deploy. Marlborough took in the whole situation at a glance. Forming
his thirty-eight squadrons into two lines, with the first line composed
entirely of British, he led them across the hollow way and charged the
French sword in hand. They answered by a feeble fire from the saddle
and broke in confusion, but, presently rallying, fell in counter-attack
upon the British and broke them in their turn. Marlborough, who was
riding on the flank, was cut off and left isolated with his trumpeter
and groom. A Frenchman galloped up and aimed at him so furious a blow
that, striking the air, he fell from his horse and was captured by the
trumpeter. Then the allied squadrons rallied, and charging the French
once more broke them past all reforming, and captured the guns. The
French infantry now retired very steadily in square, and the Duke sent
urgent messages for his own foot. But by some mistake the battalions
had been halted after crossing the Geete, so that the French were able
to make good their retreat.
By this time Villeroy, who had spent the night in anxious expectation
of an attack at Meerdorp, had hurried up with his cavalry, only to
find that the Duke was master of the lines. Hastily giving orders
for his scattered troops to pass the Geete at Judoigne, he began his
retreat upon Louvain. Presently up came Marlborough’s infantry at an
extraordinary pace, the men as fresh and lively after fifteen hours
of fatigue as if they had just left camp. The Duke was anxious to
follow up his success forthwith, a movement which the French had good
reason to dread, but the Dutch generals opposed him, and Marlborough
was reluctantly constrained to yield. The loss of the French seems to
have been about two thousand men, most of them prisoners, a score of
standards and colours, of which the Fifth Dragoon Guards claimed four
as their own, and eighteen guns, eight of which were triple-barrelled
and were sent across the Channel to be copied in England.[25]
◆July 8/19.◆
The Allies halted for the night at Tirlemont, and advancing next day
upon Louvain struck against the rear of the French columns and captured
fifteen hundred prisoners. That night they encamped a mile to the east
of Louvain, while the French, once again distributing their force
along a wider front, lined the left bank of the Dyle from the Demer
to the Yssche, with their centre at Louvain. Marlborough had hoped to
push on at once, but was stopped by heavy rains that rendered the Dyle
impassable; and it was not until ten days later that, after infinite
trouble with the Dutch, he was able to pursue his design.
◆July 18/29.◆
The operations for the passage of the Dyle were conducted in much
the same way as in the forcing of the lines. An advanced detachment
was sent forward from each wing of the army, that from the right or
English[26] flank being appointed to cross the river under the Duke of
Würtemberg at Corbeek Dyle, that from the left under General Heukelom
to pass it at Neeryssche. The detachments fell in at five in the
evening, reached their appointed destination at ten, and effected their
passage with perfect success. The main bodies started at midnight,
and went somewhat astray in the darkness, though by three o’clock the
Dutch army was within supporting distance of its detachment and the
British rapidly approaching it. The river had been in fact forced, when
suddenly the Dutch generals halted their main body. Marlborough rode up
to inquire the cause, and was at once taken aside by Slangenberg. “For
God’s sake, my Lord—” began the Dutchman vehemently, and continued to
protest with violent gesticulations. No sooner was Marlborough’s back
turned than the Dutch generals, like a parcel of naughty schoolboys,
recalled Heukelom’s detachment. Thus the passage won with so much skill
was for no cause whatever abandoned, without loss indeed, but also not
without mischievous encouragement to the French, who boasted loudly
that they had repulsed their redoubtable adversary.