Duke of Marlborough and Battle of Blenheim

Duke of Marlborough and Battle of Blenheim

The great Battle of Blenheim showed that the tide of history can be stopped and changed by a single event. Although the quarrels and disputes which led to it are long forgotten they might not have been forgotten if the battle had gone the other way.

In 1700 King Charles II of Spain died without leaving an heir. the various kings and rulers of Europe had for years been debating what should happen to Spain and her massive empire when Charles died. It had been generally agreed that the Spanish Empire was too powerful for any one person to control, so it was decided to divide up the Empire among other states

However, when Charles died he left his entire dominions to Philip, Duke of Anjou and grandson of King Louis XIV of France. Philip and Louis at once accepted the offer, ignored their agreements with other monarchs, and moved into Spain to take over. Louis was already a powerful monarch, so if his family had gained possession of the mighty Spanish Empire also, they would have become by far the mightiest power in the world. No other state would have been able to stand up to them and they could have done as they liked with the world.

Other monarchs realised they had to act quickly, before Philip could gain control of the Spanish Empire. A Grand Alliance was formed between Britain, the Netherlands, the Austrian Hapsburgs, Portugal and various German and Italian states. War was declared in 1701 and Europe plunged into bloodshed.

The early months of war were indecisive with the great armies besieging towns and fruitlessly trying to outmanoeuvre each other. Then, in 1704, the French gathered their armies for an attack on Vienna, capital of the Hapsburgs. If the attack were successful the Austrians would drop out of the Grand Alliance and France would gain victory.

The British commander, the Duke of Marlborough, saw the danger. He gathered his army away from the various sieges and skirmishes in the Netherlands and raced across Germany towards Vienna. He reached the city before the French, joined forces with the Austrian Eugene of Savoy and set out to face the French, commanded by Marshal Tallard.

The two armies were about equal in size, some 55,000 men, but the French enjoyed a superior position. Tallard drew up his men on a four kilometre long ridge with a marshy stream, the Nebel, running along the foot of the slope. The right flank was protected by the Danube river and the left flank by hills. Three villages stood on the he crest of the ridge, Blenheim on the right, Oberglau in the centre and Lutzingen on the left. Tallard fortified the villages and filled them with powerful forces of infantry. The spaces in between were held by cavalry, artillery and small forces of infantry. It was a very strong position and Tallard expected the Allies to fall back, hoping to lure the French on to other ground.

Marlborough and Eugene had other ideas. They arrived in front of the French lines at dawn, struggled across the marshy stream and began an attack just after noon. While Eugene held

 back attempts by the French left wing to outflank the Allies, Marlborough pretended to assault the fortified villages. In fact, he was using only the minority of his forces so that the French defenders were kept pinned down.

As soon as the main French forces were bottled up in the villages, Marlborough unleashed a massed attack of 23 infantry battalions and 90 cavalry squadrons, supported by artillery. The attacks swept through the French centre, driving away all defenders in the open country. The move isolated the French infantry in Blenheim and Oberglau, just as Eugene was driving the French back around Lutzingen. By late afternoon the French garrisons realised that their position was helpless and surrendered. Of the 55,000 French troops, only 15,000 escaped death or captured.

At Blenheim the main French field army was crushed. Although the war dragged on for another nine years, the French never again came close to outright victory. The British captured Gibraltar in 1704 and within two years they and the Portuguese had captured several major cities. The only point in further fighting was to secure territory and towns which would be useful in the peace negotiations.

In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, bringing the war to an end. Philip of Anjou became King of Spain, but his Empire was stripped of various territories. In this way the French king was denied his dream of becoming the most powerful monarch on Earth.