War of the Spanish Succession

Marlborough's March to the Danube.

Marlborough calcu lated that as he progressed up the Rhine the French would collect to prevent his crossing, instead of themselves passing over to join the elector and Marsin. Thus the expedition would reach the Neckar mouth, without its true purpose being suspected, and once there Marlborough would vanish from the ken of the defenders of the Rhine, to reappear on the Danube where he was least ex pected. On May 12 the army crossed the Meuse at Ruremond, on the 23rd it reached Bonn, on the 29th Mainz. On June i the puzzled French noted preparations for bridging the Rhine at Philipsburg. But two days later the English had turned to their left into the valley of the Neckar. On June i o Prince Eugene and on the 13th the Margrave appeared at the duke's headquarters to concert operations. It was arranged that the margrave was to join Marlborough and that Eugene should command the Stollhofen and other forces on the Rhine, for Tallard, it seemed, was about to be joined by Villeroy' and Marlborough knew that these marshals must be kept west of the Rhine for the six weeks he allowed him self for the Bavarian enterprise. The Margrave's army duly joined Marlborough's on June 22 at Ursprung, 12 m. north of Ulm, where the elector and Marsin were encamped. The endurance of Marl borough's corps, as displayed in the long march from Ruremond, was not the least extraordinary feature of the operation. For i8th century troops such performances were generally provocative of desertion, and involved the ruin of the army that attempted it. But Prince Eugene, we are told, was astonished at the fine condi tion of the army. On the French side meantime all was perplexity, and it was not until a week after the Margrave and Marlborough had joined, that Villeroy's main body from the Meuse started for Alsace to watch Eugene's corps, or rather the Stollhofen Buhl position. This meant conceding both the initiative and the superiority in numbers to Marlborough.

Campaign on the Danube, 1704.—The duke had now man oeuvred himself with brilliant success from one theatre of war to another, and had secured every advantage to himself. From be fore Ulm he sidled gradually along the north side of the Danube in the hope of finding an unguarded passage. He and the Mar grave exercised the general command on alternate days, and when on his own day he arrived opposite Donauworth, knowing Louis's caution, he thought that direct attack was better than another two days' extension to the east. Moreover he needed a walled town to serve as a magazine. In the late afternoon of July 2 the army was flung, regardless of losses, against the entrenched hill of the Schellenberg at Donauworth, where the elector had posted a strong detachment. The attack cost 6,coo men, but it was successful, and of the 12,000 Bavarians on the hill only 3,00o returned to their main body, which had now moved from Ulm to Lauingen. Passing the river, the allies besieged and took the small fortress of Rain, and thence moved to the neighbourhood of Augsburg, thoroughly and deliberately devastating the country side so as to force the elector to make terms. The best that can be said of this barbarous device, is that Louis XIV. had several times practised it. Its most effective condemnation is that mili tary devastations, in these purely political contests, were entirely 'Even Villeroy it appears rose to the situation thus far, but the king only allowed him to send 25,00o men to Tallard.

unprofitable. Louis had already found them so, and had given up

the practice. In the present case Marlborough's own supplies ran short, and his convoys were harassed. The movements of the two armies were but trifling. Marlborough, though superior, was not decisively superior, and his opponents, well entrenched near Augs burg, waited for Tallard and (in vain) for Villeroy. Marlborough marked time until Eugene should join him.

There were now five armies in the field, two allied and three French. The centre of gravity was therefore in Villeroy's camp. If that marshal followed Tallard, even Eugene's junction with Marlborough would not give the latter enough force. If Tallard alone joined the elector and Eugene Marlborough, the game was in the hands of the allies. But none of the possible combinations of two armies against one were attempted by either side. Eugene when informed that Tallard was on the move slipped away from Villeroy to join Marlborough. Tallard and the elector, aware of Eugene's march, were content to join forces peaceably at Augs burg. Villeroy, in whose hands was the key of the situation, hesi tated and finally tried in vain to detain Eugene (who was already far away) in the Stollhofen lines. The last stage of the campaign was brief. Marlborough and Eugene had in mind a battle, Tallard and Marsin a war of manoeuvre to occupy the few weeks now to be spun out before winter quarters were due. The two allied armies met in the Danube valley on Aug. 6. If the enemy remained on the south side Eugene was to cross, if they recrossed to the north bank Marlborough was to follow suit. The margrave Louis of Baden had been sent off to besiege Ingolstadt as soon as Eugene had come within a safe distance. When therefore the French and Bavarians were reported opposite Eugene on the north side, Marl borough crossed at once, and without waiting for the margrave the two great soldiers went forward. On Aug. 2 (see BLENHEIM) they attacked and practically destroyed the armies of Tallard, Marsin and the elector.

Campaign of 1705.

The campaign of 1705 was uneventful and of little profit to either side. Marlborough's army had re turned to the Low Countries. Villeroy had also returned to Bra bant and retaken Huy. With him was the now exiled elector of Bavaria. On July 18, after a series of skilful manoeuvres, Marl borough forced the lines of Brabant at Elissem near Tirlemont, but not even the glory of Blenheim could induce the Dutch deputies to give him a free hand, or the Dutch generals to fall in with his schemes. King Louis was thus able to reinforce Villeroy betimes from Villars's Lorraine army, and the campaign closed with no better work than the razing of the captured French entrenchments. On the Rhine Villars, with a force reduced to impotence, carried on a spiritless campaign against the Margrave Louis. In Italy there was serious fighting. Here VendOme's army engaged in the attempt to subdue Victor Amadeus of Savoy and was so far successful that the duke implored the emperor for aid. Eugene was sent with new reinforcements, opposed to which was a force under Vendome's brother Philippe, called the Grand Prior. This man, a lazy dilettante, let himself be surprised by Eugene's fierce attack on the line of the Adda. The day was restored however, and the Austrians beaten off, thanks to VenclOme's opportune arrival and dauntless courage (battle of Cassano, August i6). Nevertheless, the subjugation of Piedmont was put off until the next year.