[Sidenote: 1706.]
It is now time to revert to England and to the preparations for
the campaign of 1706. Marlborough, as usual, directly that the
military operations were concluded, had been deputed to visit the
courts of Vienna and of sundry German states in order to keep the
Allies up to the necessary pitch of unity and energy. These duties
detained him in Germany and at the Hague until January 1706, when
he was at last able to return to England. There he met with far
less obstruction than in former years, but none the less with an
increasing burden of work. The vast extension of operations in
the Peninsula, and the general sickliness of the troops in that
quarter, demanded the enlistment of an usually large number of
recruits. One new regiment of dragoons and eleven new battalions
of foot were formed in the course of the spring, to which it was
necessary to add yet another battalion before the close of the
year.[329] Again the epidemic sickness among the horses in Flanders
had caused an extraordinary demand for horses. The Dutch, after
their wonted manner, had actually taken pains to prevent the supply
of horses to the British,[330] though, even if they had not, the
Duke had a prejudice in favour of English horses, as of English
men, as superior to any other. Finally, the stores of the Ordnance
were unequal to the constant drain of small arms, and it was
necessary to make good the deficiency by purchases from abroad. All
these difficulties and a thousand more were of course referred for
solution to Marlborough.
[Sidenote:
14
April --.
25
]
When in April he crossed once more to the Hague he found a most
discouraging state of affairs. The Dutch were backward in their
preparations; Prussia and Hanover were recalcitrant over the
furnishing of their contingents; Prince Lewis of Baden was sulking
within his lines, refusing to communicate a word of his intentions
to any one; and everybody was ready with a separate plan of
campaign. The Emperor of course desired further operations in the
Moselle for his own relief; but after the experience of the last
campaign the Duke had wisely resolved never again to move eastward
to co-operate with the forces of the Empire. The Dutch for their
part wished to keep Marlborough in Flanders, where he should be
under the control of their deputies; but the imbecile caprice
of these worthies was little more to his taste than the sullen
jealousy of Baden. Marlborough himself was anxious to lead a force
to the help of Eugene in Italy, a scheme which, if executed, would
have carried the British to a great fighting ground with which they
are unfamiliar, the plains of Lombardy. He had almost persuaded the
States-General to approve of this plan, when all was changed by
Marshal Villars, who surprised Prince Lewis of Baden in his lines
on the Motter, and captured two important magazines. The Dutch at
once took fright and, in their anxiety to keep Marlborough for
their own defence, agreed to appoint deputies who should receive
rather than issue orders. So to the Duke's great disappointment
it was settled that the main theatre of war should once again be
Flanders.
[Sidenote:
8
May --.
19
]
[Sidenote:
9
May --.
20
]
[Sidenote:
11
May --.
22
]
Villeroy meanwhile lay safely entrenched in his position of the
preceding year behind the Dyle, from which Marlborough saw little
hope of enticing him. It is said that an agent was employed to
rouse Villeroy by telling him that the Duke, knowing that the
French were afraid to leave their entrenchments, would take
advantage of their inaction to capture Namur.[331] Be that as it
may, Villeroy resolved to quit the Dyle. He knew that the Prussian
and Hanoverian contingents had not yet joined Marlborough, and that
the Danish cavalry had refused to march to him until their wages
were paid; so that interest as well as injured pride prompted the
hazard of a general action. On the 19th of May, therefore, he left
his lines for Tirlemont on the Great Geete. Marlborough, who was
at Maestricht, saw with delight that the end, for which he had
not dared to hope, was accomplished. Hastily making arrangements
for the payment of the Danish troops, he concentrated the Dutch
and British at Bilsen on the Upper Demer, and moved southward to
Borchloen. Here the arrival of the Danes raised his total force to
sixty thousand men, a number but little inferior to that of the
enemy. On the very same day came the intelligence that Villeroy
had crossed the Great Geete and was moving on Judoigne. The Duke
resolved to advance forthwith and attack him there.
[Sidenote:
12
May --.
23
]
At one o'clock in the morning, of Whitsunday the 23rd of May,
Quartermaster-General Cadogan rode forward from the headquarters
at Corswarem with six hundred horse and the camp-colours towards
the head of the Great Geete, to mark out a camp by the village of
Ramillies. The morning was wet and foggy, and it was not until
eight o'clock that, on ascending the heights of Merdorp, they dimly
descried troops in motion on the rolling ground before them. The
allied army had not marched until two hours later than Cadogan, but
Marlborough, who had ridden on in advance of it, presently came
up and pushed the cavalry forward through the mist. Then at ten
o'clock the clouds rolled away, revealing the whole of the French
army in full march towards them.
Villeroy's eyes were rudely opened, for he had not expected
Marlborough before the following day; but he knew the ground well,
for he had been over it before with Luxemburg, and he proceeded to
take up a position which he had seen Luxemburg deliberately reject.
The table-land whereon he stood is the highest point in the plains
of Brabant. To his right flowed the Mehaigne; in his rear ran the
Great Geete; across his centre and left the Little Geete rose and
crept away sluggishly in marsh and swamp.[332] In his front lay
four villages: Taviers on the Mehaigne to his right, Ramillies,
less advanced than Taviers, on the source of the Little Geete to
his right centre, Offus parallel to Ramillies but lower down the
stream to his left centre, Autréglise or Anderkirch between two
branches of the Little Geete and parallel to Taviers to his left.
Along the concave line formed by these villages Villeroy drew up
his army in two lines facing due east.
The Mehaigne, on which his right rested, is at ordinary times
a rapid stream little more than twelve feet wide, with a muddy
bottom, but is bordered by swampy meadows on both sides, which
are flooded after heavy rain. From this stream the ground rises
northward in a steady wave for about half a mile, sinks gradually
and rises into a higher wave at Ramillies, sinks once more
to northward of that village and rolls downward in a gentler
undulation to Autréglise. Between the Mehaigne and Ramillies, a
distance of about a mile and a half, the ground east and west
is broken by sundry hollows of sufficient inclination to offer
decided advantage or disadvantage in a combat of cavalry. A single
high knoll rises in the midst of these hollows, offering a place
of vantage from which Marlborough must almost certainly have
reconnoitred the disposition of the French right. The access to
Ramillies itself is steep and broken both to north and south, but
on the eastern front the ground rises to it for half a mile in a
gentle, unbroken slope, which modern rifles would make impassable
by the bravest troops. In rear, or to westward of the French
position, the table-land is clear and unbroken, and to the right
rear or south-west stands a mound or barrow called the tomb of
Ottomond, still conspicuous and still valuable as a key to the
actions of the day.[333] The full extent of the French front from
Taviers to Autréglise covered something over four miles.
Having chosen his position, Villeroy lost no time in setting
his troops in order. His left, consisting of infantry backed by
cavalry,[334] extended from Autréglise to Offus, both of which
villages were strongly occupied. His centre from Offus to Ramillies
was likewise composed of infantry. On his right, in the expanse
of sound ground which stretches for a mile and a half from the
marshes of the Geete at Ramillies to those of the Mehaigne, were
massed more than one hundred and twenty squadrons of cavalry with
some battalions of infantry interlined with them, the famous French
Household Cavalry (Maison du Roi), being in the first line. The
left flank of this expanse was covered by the village of Ramillies,
which was surrounded by a ditch and defended by twenty battalions
and twenty-four guns. On the right flank not only Taviers but
Franquinay, a village still further in advance, were occupied by
detachments of infantry, while Taviers was further defended by
cannon.
Marlborough quickly perceived the defects of Villeroy's
dispositions, which were not unlike those of Tallard at Blenheim.
Taviers was too remote from Ramillies for the maintenance of a
cross-fire of artillery. Again, the cavalry of the French left was
doubtless secure against attack behind the marshes of the Geete,
but for this very reason it was incapable of aggressive action. The
French right could therefore be turned, provided that it were not
further reinforced; and accordingly the Duke opened his manœuvres
by a demonstration against the French left.
Presently the infantry of the allied right moved forward in two
lines towards Offus and Autréglise, marching in all the pomp and
circumstance of war, Dutch, Germans, and British, with the red
coats conspicuous on the extreme right flank. Striding forward to
the river they halted and seemed to be very busy in laying their
pontoons. Villeroy marked the mass of scarlet, and remembering its
usual place in the battlefield, instantly began to withdraw several
battalions from his right and centre to his left. Marlborough
watched the white coats streaming away to their new positions, and
after a time ordered the infantry of his right to fall back to
some heights in their rear. The two lines faced about and retired
accordingly over the height until the first line was out of sight.
Then the second line halted and faced about once more, crowning the
ascent with the well-known scarlet, while the first marched away
with all speed, under cover of the hill and unseen by the French,
to the opposite flank. Many British battalions[335] stood on that
height all day without moving a step or firing a shot, but none the
less paralysing the French left wing.
About half-past one the guns of both armies opened fire, and
shortly afterwards four Dutch battalions were ordered forward
to carry Franquinay and Taviers, and twelve more to attack
Ramillies, while Overkirk advanced slowly on the left with the
cavalry. Franquinay was soon cleared; Taviers resisted stoutly
for a time but was carried, and a strong reinforcement on its way
to the village was intercepted and cut to pieces. Then Overkirk,
his left flank being now cleared, pushed forward his horse and
charged. The Dutch routed the first French line, but were driven
back in confusion by the second; and the victorious French were
only checked by the advance of fresh squadrons under Marlborough
himself. Even so the Allies were at a decided disadvantage; and
Marlborough, after despatching messengers to bring up every
squadron, except the British, to the left, plunged into the thick
of the melée to rally the broken horse. He was recognised by some
French dragoons, who left their ranks to surround him, and in
the general confusion he was borne to the ground and in imminent
danger of capture. His aide-de-camp, Captain Molesworth, dismounted
at once, and giving him his own horse enabled him to escape. The
cavalry, however, encouraged by the Duke's example, recovered
themselves, and Marlborough took the opportunity to shift from
Molesworth's horse to his own. Colonel Bringfield, his equerry,
held the stirrup while he mounted, but Marlborough was hardly in
the saddle before the hand that held the stirrup relaxed its hold,
and the equerry fell to the ground, his head carried away by a
round shot.[336]
Meanwhile the attack of the infantry on Ramillies was fully
developed, and relieved the horse from the fire of the village.
Twenty fresh squadrons came galloping up at the top of their speed
and ranged themselves in rear of the reforming lines. But before
they could come into action the Duke of Würtemberg pushed his
Danish horse along the Mehaigne upon the right flank of the French,
and the Dutch guards advancing still further fell upon their rear.
These now emerged upon the table-land by the tomb of Ottomond, and
the rest of the Allied horse dashed themselves once against the
French front. The famous Maison du Roi after a hard fight was cut
to pieces, and the whole of the French horse, despite Villeroy's
efforts to stay them, were driven in headlong flight across the
rear of their line of battle, leaving the battalions of infantry
helpless and alone to be ridden over and trampled out of existence.
Villeroy made frantic efforts to bring forward the cavalry of his
left to cover their retreat, but the ground was encumbered by his
baggage, which he had carelessly posted too close in his rear. The
French troops in Ramillies now gave way, and Marlborough ordered
the whole of the infantry that was massed before the village to
advance across the morass upon Offus, with the Third and Sixth
Dragoon Guards in support. The French broke and fled at their
approach; and meanwhile the Buffs and Twenty-first, which had so
far remained inactive on the right, forced their way through the
swamps before them, and taking Autréglise in rear swept away the
last vestige of the French line on the left. Five British squadrons
followed them up and captured the entire King's Regiment (Regiment
du Roi). The Third and Sixth Dragoon Guards also pressed on,
and coming upon the Spanish and Bavarian horse-guards, who were
striving to cover the retreat of the French artillery, charged
them and swept them away, only narrowly missing the capture of the
Elector himself, who was at their head.[337] On this the whole
French army, which so far had struggled to effect an orderly
retreat, broke up in panic and fled in all directions.
The mass of the fugitives made for Judoigne, but the ways were
blocked by broken-down baggage-waggons and abandoned guns, and the
crush and confusion was appalling. The British cavalry, being quite
fresh, quickly took up the pursuit over the table-land. The guns
and baggage fell an easy prey, but these were left to others, while
the red-coated troopers, not without memories of Landen, pressed
on, like hounds running for blood, after the beaten enemy. The
chase lay northwards to Judoigne and beyond it towards the refuge
of Louvain. Not until two o'clock in the morning did the cavalry
pause, having by that time reached Meldert, fifteen miles from the
battlefield; nay, even then Lord Orkney with some few squadrons
spurred on to Louvain itself, rekindled the panic and set the
unhappy French once more in flight across the Dyle.
[Sidenote:
13
May --.
24
]
[Sidenote:
14
May --.
25
]
[Sidenote:
15
May --.
26
]
[Sidenote:
16
May --.
27
]
Nor was the main army far behind the horse. Marching far into the
night, the men slept under arms for two or three hours, started
again at three o'clock, and before the next noon had also reached
Meldert and were preparing to force the passage of the Dyle.
Marlborough, who had been in the saddle with little intermission
for nearly twenty-eight hours, here wrote to the Queen that he
intended to march again that same night, but, through the desertion
of the lines of the Dyle by the French, the army gained some
respite. The next day he crossed the Dyle at Louvain and encamped
at Betlehem, the next he advanced to Dieghem, a few miles north of
Brussels, the next he passed the Senne at Vilvorde and encamped
at Grimberghen, and here at last, after six days of incessant
marching, the Duke granted his weary troops a halt, while the
French, hopelessly beaten and demoralised, retired with all haste
to Ghent.
[Illustration: RAMILLIES
May 12^{th}
----------- 1706.
" 23^{rd}
_To face page 472_
]
So ended the fight and pursuit of Ramillies, which effectually
disposed of the taunt levelled at Marlborough after Blenheim,
that he did not know how to improve a victory. The loss of the
French in killed, wounded, and prisoners was thirteen thousand men,
swelled by desertion during the pursuit to full two thousand more.
The trophies of the victors were eighty standards and colours,
fifty guns, and a vast quantity of baggage. The loss of the Allies
was from four to five thousand killed and wounded, which fell
almost entirely on the Dutch and Danes, the British, owing to their
position on the extreme right, being but little engaged until the
close of the day. The chief service of the British, therefore, was
rendered in the pursuit, which they carried forward with relentless
thoroughness and vigour. The Dutch were delighted that their troops
should have done the heaviest of the work in such an action, and
the British could console themselves with the performance of their
cavalry, and above all, with the reflection that the whole of the
success was due to their incomparable chief.
[Sidenote: May-June.]
The effect of the victory and of the rapid advance that followed
it was instantaneous. Louvain and the whole line of Dyle fell into
Marlborough's hands on the day after the battle; Brussels, Malines,
and Lierre surrendered before the first halt, and gave him the line
of the Senne and the key of the French entrenchments about Antwerp;
and one day later, the surrender of Alost delivered to him one of
the strongholds on the Dender. Never pausing for a moment, he sent
forward a party to lay bridges on the Scheldt below Oudenarde in
order to cut off the French retreat into France, a movement which
obliged Villeroy forthwith to abandon the lines about Ghent and to
retire up the Lys to Courtrai. Ghent, Bruges, and Damme thereupon
surrendered on the spot; Oudenarde followed them, and after a few
days Antwerp itself. Thus within a fortnight after the victory the
whole of Flanders and Brabant, with the exception of Dendermond and
one or two places of minor importance, had succumbed to the Allies,
and the French had fallen back to their own frontier.
[Sidenote: June.]
Nor was even this all. A contribution of two million livres levied
in French Flanders brought home to the Grand Monarch that the war
was now knocking at his own gates. Villars, with the greater part
of his army, was recalled from the Rhine to the Lys, and a number
of French troops were withdrawn to the same quarter from Italy.
Baden had thus the game in his own hand on the Rhine, and though he
was too sulky and incapable to turn the advantage to account, yet
his inaction was no fault of Marlborough's. We are hardly surprised
to find that in the middle of this fortnight the Duke made urgent
request for fresh stores of champagne; he may well have needed the
stimulant amid such pressure of work and fatigue.[338]
[Sidenote:
6
June --.
17
]
He now detached Overkirk to besiege Ostend and another party to
blockade Dendermond, at the same time sending off five British
battalions, which we shall presently meet again, for a descent on
the Charente which was then contemplated in England. This done he
took post with the rest of the Army at Rouslers, to westward of the
Lys, whence he could at once cover the siege of Ostend and menace
Menin and Ypres. The operations at Ostend were delayed for some
time through want of artillery and the necessity of waiting for the
co-operation of the Fleet; but the trenches were finally opened on
the 17th of June, and a few weeks later the town surrendered.
[Sidenote:
June 27
-------
July 8.
]
[Sidenote:
11
Aug. --.
22
]
Three days after this the army was reassembled for the siege of
Menin. This fortress was of peculiar strength, being esteemed one
of Vauban's masterpieces, and was garrisoned by five thousand men.
Moreover, the French, being in command of the upper sluices of the
Lys, were able greatly to impede the operations by cutting off the
water from the lower stream, and thus rendering it less useful for
purposes of transport. But all this availed it little; for three
weeks after the opening of the trenches Menin surrendered. The
British battalions[339] which had been kept inactive at Ramillies
took a leading share in the work, and some of them suffered very
heavily, but had the satisfaction of recapturing four of the
British guns that had been taken at Landen.
[Sidenote:
Aug. 25
-------
Sept. 5.
]
[Sidenote:
12
Sept. --.
23
]
[Sidenote:
Sept. 21
--------
Oct. 2.
]
A few days later Dendermond was attacked in earnest and was
likewise taken, after which Marlborough fell back across the
Scheldt to secure the whole line of the Dender by the capture of
Ath. Ten days sufficed for the work, after which Ath also fell
into the hands of the Allies. The apathy of the French throughout
these operations sufficiently show their discouragement. Owing to
the supineness of Prince Lewis of Baden Villars had been able to
bring up thirty-five thousand men to the assistance of Marshal
Vendôme, who had now superseded Villeroy, but even with this
reinforcement the two commanders only looked on helplessly while
Marlborough reduced fortress after fortress before their eyes.
They were, indeed, more anxious to strengthen the defences of Mons
and Charleroi, lest the Duke should break into France by that
line, than to approach him in the field. Nor were they not wholly
unreasonable in their anxiety, for Marlborough's next move was upon
the Sambre; but incessant rain and tempestuous weather forbade any
further operations, so that Ath proved to be the last conquest of
the year. Thus ended the campaign of Ramillies, one of the most
brilliant in the annals of war, wherein Marlborough in a single
month carried his arms triumphant from the Meuse to the sea.