Part 13

The position of the Emperor seemed indeed almost hopeless. While the French and Bavarians were advancing directly towards his capital on the west, the Hungarians, under Prince Ragotski, with constantly increasing forces, were approaching Vienna from the east, so that in June it became necessary to throw up works for the defence of the capital. Marlborough watched the coming crisis with much anxiety, and formed a plan of great boldness for the Emperor's relief. It was no less than to march the whole of the troops under his command, and to transfer the seat of war to Bavaria, interposing between Vienna and the advancing Bavarians. Previous experience had taught him that there was no hope of persuading the Dutch to countenance such a plan. To the States he therefore suggested only a campaign on the Moselle, and co-operation with Louis of Baden in the south; to Godolphin alone he told his secret. At length a threat that he would move upon the Moselle with the English alone, backed up by the influence of Heinsius, the Grand Pensionary, who was his constant friend, induced the Dutch to give their consent to the part of the plan he had disclosed to them. Other obstacles were met with from the other allies, but they were all at length overcome, and early in May Marlborough set out, ostensibly for the Moselle. To keep up this notion he went first to Coblenz, and the French proceeded to collect their armies to meet him. He then went on to Mayence, and it was believed that he intended to act in Alsace. He was there obliged to disclose his real object. He left the Rhine, marched up the Neckar, and advanced through the Duchy of Wurtemberg. On his road to Mondelsheim, he had a meeting with Eugene, who was commanding the Imperial army on the Rhine. To him he told his plans; and the intercourse of the two great chiefs ripened into unbroken friendship. They were there also joined by Louis of Baden, a punctilious German general of some ability, but belonging to an older school of tactics. Marlborough and Eugene suggested that the Margrave should retire to his lines at Stolhofen, and hold them against Tallard, while Eugene should bring such of the German army as was moveable to co-operate with the English. The Margrave, however, insisted on the place of honour. Eugene went back to the Rhine, the Margrave joined Marlborough; and the difficulty of the chief command was compromised, the generals were to command on alternate days. After making these arrangements, the armies proceeded on their march through the rough hill country of Wurtemberg. Having crossed the Neckar at Laufen, they followed the course of its tributaries, by Gross Heppach, Ebersbach, and the difficult pass of Geislingen, and finally emerged upon the plains, reaching the Danube at Elchingen, a little to the east of Ulm. The Elector, expecting an attack upon that city, garrisoned it and withdrew, still on the north bank of the river, to Dillingen, further to the east. But Marlborough had no intention of attacking Ulm, he continued his march eastward, determining to pass round and beyond the Elector's army and to secure Donauwerth, which would supply him with a bridge to cross the river, and might be turned into a fortified place for his magazines. With some difficulty he persuaded Louis of Baden to march in this direction. His intention being at length evident, the Elector of Bavaria sent 12,000 men to occupy the strong hill of the Schellenberg, commanding Donauwerth. When the day broke, the English army were at Amerdingen, still fourteen miles from Donauwerth. It was however the day of Marlborough's command. At three in the morning he started on his march, and afraid of allowing the opportunity to slip, though his men were weary from their long journey, Marlborough determined to assault the Schellenberg that same afternoon. The battle was a fierce one, but the allies were entirely successful. The Bavarians fled in disorder. Some thousands crossed the bridge, but the weight of the fugitives broke it down, and a vast number were drowned in the river. The Elector of Bavaria now withdrew to Augsburg, to await the arrival of reinforcements from France. Marlborough and his army crossed the Lech, and proceeded to follow him. Bavaria was at his mercy. He offered the Elector terms of capitulation. They were however refused, and Marlborough was guilty of the one act which is a blot on his military career, he gave the country up to military execution.

[Sidenote: Battle of Blenheim. Aug. 13th.]

The two French generals Villeroi and Tallard, outwitted by Marlborough's march, had meanwhile taken counsel together, and once more Tallard, leaving Villeroi in Alsace, led a reinforcement of 25,000 men to join the Bavarians. He was watched and followed by Prince Eugene, who reached the Danube at Dillingen almost at the moment that Tallard had formed his junction with the Bavarians at Augsburg. As Eugene's reinforcements were necessary, Marlborough fell back to meet him, and soon Eugene, leaving his troops behind him, appeared in person in the camp. Between them they persuaded the Margrave of Baden that the capture of the fortress of Ingolstadt was necessary, and that, as it had hitherto never been taken, it would be much to his honour to reduce it. Thus rid of their pretentious colleague, Eugene and Marlborough arranged their junction, which was finally made, without disturbance from the French, on the 11th of August, a little to the east of Hochstädt, on the north of the Danube. The combined armies of the French and Bavarians had also betaken themselves to the same side of the river, and were now advancing from the west to meet the allied army, should they wish to fight. It was believed, however, that such was not Marlborough's intention. Tallard thought he was withdrawing towards Nordlingen, and, as he said after the battle, had intended to fall upon him and fight him on his way thither. When it became evident that a battle was to be fought, the French general, advancing from Hochstädt, took up a strong position in the neighbourhood of the village of Blenheim. The hills which lie along the north of the Danube there fall back a little, enclosing a small plain. Across this runs a brook called the Nebel, at the foot of a spur of rising land which runs from the foot of the receding hills to the Danube, where its termination is crowned by the village of Blenheim. The course of the Nebel is full of morasses difficult to pass, but a gradual slope of firm ground leads from it to the top of the rising ground. Along this ridge the French and Bavarians took up their position. The Elector of Bavaria, with Marshal Marsin, occupied the left, where, in the midst of woods, the rising ground joins the hills; Marshal Tallard with the French occupied Blenheim and the right. Considering Blenheim as the key of the position, Marshal Tallard fortified it with palisades, and placed in it a considerable portion of his infantry, thus depriving himself of their assistance upon the battlefield, and weakening the centre of his army. To the French was opposed Marlborough in person, while Eugene, in command of the right wing, and with a considerably smaller number of troops, led the attack against the Elector. The difficulties he met with prevented Eugene from being early in position, but news were at length brought that he was ready to begin the battle, and Marlborough at once proceeded to the attack. The battle began on the part of the English with an assault upon the intrenched village. It was too strong to be taken, and the assailants were driven back with some loss. But the vigour of the opposition his troops had met with showed Marlborough his enemy's mistake. He determined to direct his chief assault upon the centre of the line. The infantry which were attacking Blenheim were ordered to seek shelter behind some rising ground, and to keep up such a feigned attack upon the place as should give employment to the troops stationed there. Meanwhile, with considerable difficulty, the English army was brought across the marshes, and established in position upon the firm ground beyond. In the French line cavalry and infantry were interlaced; this arrangement was copied by the assailants. The first effort of the English to ascend the slope was defeated, but after a fierce interchange of fire, a second attempt broke the French cavalry, and destroying the infantry, pierced the centre of the French line. The battle was in fact won, no help could be sent to Tallard by the Elector, a decisive charge of cavalry drove the enemy's horse off the field, and the army fled in two bodies, one towards the river, the other towards Hochstädt. Both were hotly pursued, and of those who fled towards the river thousands perished in the stream. Blenheim still held out, but, cut off from all succour, surrounded by the whole English army, and threatened by the approaching artillery, the gallant garrison was compelled to capitulate, and 11,000 men laid down their arms. The right wing being completely destroyed, the Elector of Bavaria had found it necessary to withdraw his troops from the battle, although they had hitherto held their position against the fierce attacks of Eugene. In the confusion he managed to retire without much loss. The victory, however, was a very complete one; 60,000 strong in the morning of the 13th, on the 14th the French and Bavarian generals found themselves at the head of no more than 20,000 men. All their tents and baggage, and most of their artillery and colours, had fallen into the hands of the allies. The list of killed and wounded on the side of the allies was about 12,000. Marshal Tallard himself was among the prisoners. Again, even after this defeat, the Elector of Bavaria declined all terms, and his wife, as Regent, had to submit to such conditions as the German Emperor chose to impose. So great was the blow, that the French retreated with extreme rapidity; they gave up the strong fortress of Ulm, and withdrew beyond the Rhine, whither they were pursued by the allies, who, following separate routes, again assembled at Philipsburg; nor even there did Villeroi withstand them, but still falling back, allowed them to recapture Landau, during which operation Marlborough completed his work by rapidly marching into the valley of the Moselle and conquering Trèves and Trarbach.

[Sidenote: Progress of the war in Spain, the Cevennes, and Italy.]

Events of some importance had been taking place in three of the other seats of war. In Spain, Berwick had completely worsted the Portuguese, who had been so badly succoured by the English under the Duke of Schomberg that he had been recalled, and Ruvigny, Earl of Galway, a French refugee, put in his place; while, to balance this, a fleet under Sir George Rooke, having on board the Prince of Darmstadt, and some troops, while returning from an unsuccessful attack on Barcelona, made an easy conquest of Gibraltar, and took possession of it in the name of the English, to whom it has ever since belonged. In the Cevennes, a merciful policy had brought the rebellion to an end, and Cavalier having been offered the commission of colonel in the French army, which he at first accepted and then declined, had been allowed to leave the country. He entered the English army, rose to the rank of general, and was subsequently Governor of Jersey.

Meanwhile affairs in Italy had been assuming a shape which rendered it probable that the great interest of the war would be transferred thither in the following year. Vendome had been rapidly reducing the territory of the Duke of Savoy. One after the other his fortresses had been captured, and no hope seemed left him but in immediate succour, either from the Emperor, who was not likely to give it, or from Marlborough himself.

[Sidenote: Marlborough's plans for 1705.]

As was natural after his great successes, Marlborough expected that the next year would be one of much importance. Seeing the impossibility of himself assisting Savoy, he had contrived to persuade the King of Prussia to allow 8000 of his troops to proceed to Italy, and to serve under Eugene, who had been despatched thither. His own intention was to follow up his late victory by an invasion of France. He had intended that this invasion should be by the valley of the Moselle, upon which a joint attack was to have been made, by himself up the river, and by Louis of Baden coming from Landau. The plan had been so far foreseen, that the ablest of the French generals, Marshal Villars, was stationed on the Moselle, while Flanders was intrusted to Villeroi, and Marsin continued in Alsace. The weak co-operation of the German Prince rendered the plan abortive, nor did the death of the Emperor Leopold, nor the succession of Joseph the young King of the Romans, increase for any length of time the vigour of the Imperial armies. But while Marlborough was still waiting for the Margrave's assistance, Villeroi had suddenly assumed the offensive, had retaken some of the fortresses of the Meuse, and invested Liège. As usual, on the slightest sign of danger, the Dutch were clamorous for Marlborough's return. His disappointment on the Moselle inclined him to listen to them, and his appearance in Flanders at once re-established affairs. Though disappointed in his main object, he still intended to fight a great battle; but, as usual, jealousy of the allied commanders, and the constant slowness and opposition of the Dutch general, prevented him from bringing on an engagement. He however succeeded in breaking the great line of French fortifications extending from Antwerp to Namur upon the Meuse, and in advancing to the attack of Brussels across the plain of Waterloo, where, but for the opposition he met with among his own colleagues, a great battle might have been fought: he writes, that he felt sure that, had he fought such a battle, it would have been a greater victory than that of Blenheim. However, his difficulties were more than he could overcome. The year passed away without great events, and the French began to think that he had owed his victories to chance. Upon the Rhine, Louis of Baden, though he had been so backward in his support of Marlborough, showed the ability which he really possessed by winning a great battle at the end of the year at Hagenau, unfortunately too late to assist Marlborough in his plans. In Italy, though Eugene won the battle of Cassano, the position of the Duke of Savoy became continually more precarious, and the crisis had not passed.

[Sidenote: Peterborough's success in Spain.]

It was in fact not with either of the great regular armies that the allies this year won any great successes, but with the small and mixed forces in Spain, which had been placed under the eccentric but vigorous command of Lord Peterborough. Leaving Galway to prosecute the war in the west, this general, who held with Sir Cloudesley Shovel a joint command of the fleet also, drew the Prince of Darmstadt from Gibraltar, and sailed round the east of Spain. After some successes on the eastern coast, he was eager to march direct upon Madrid. But the Archduke Charles, now calling himself Charles III., who was with him, listened in preference to the suggestions of Darmstadt, who had once been Governor of Catalonia, and trusted much to his influence in that province. The plan of an attack upon Madrid was therefore overridden, and the army proceeded to besiege Barcelona. Serious quarrels occurred between the leaders, for which Peterborough's want of caution was no doubt much to blame, and the siege was on the point of being given up. Already the heavy cannon were withdrawn from the trenches and carried on board ship, when suddenly Peterborough appeared in the tent of the Prince of Darmstadt, with whom he was not on speaking terms, and telling him that he intended to attack the enemy that night, challenged him to follow him. Laying aside his animosity, the Prince at once accompanied him. Peterborough's intention was to capture the citadel of Montjuich, a fort at some little distance from the town itself, and this he trusted to do by a sudden attack when the enemy were off their guard. The attempt was perfectly successful. The English troops followed the defenders pell mell into the walls of the fortress. Scarcely was the stronghold taken than the Spaniards began to advance from the town to retake it. Peterborough rode forward to reconnoitre; a panic seized his troops in his absence, and they were already relinquishing the fort, when he galloped back and rallied them, and fortunately found that their absence had been unperceived. The possession of this citadel was followed before long by the fall of the city, which capitulated on the 9th of October (1705). The greater portion of the troops in Barcelona, and much of the open country, at once declared for King Charles. The kingdom of Valencia followed this example, and in the capital of that province Peterborough subsequently took up his abode. Nor did his successes end there. In the following year, the French, under Marshal Tessé and King Philip himself, attempted to regain Barcelona. The Count of Toulouse, a natural son of the French King, blockaded it from the sea. Peterborough, moving from Valencia with but 3000 regular troops, did his best to employ Tessé's army, which was 20,000 strong. But the siege went forward uninterruptedly. Already the trenches were within 150 yards of the wall, and an immediate assault was to be expected, when the English fleet under Sir John Leake, second in command, approached. Though his numbers were nearly equal to those of the Count of Toulouse, Leake, a prudent commander, wished to wait for expected reinforcements under Byng. But Peterborough, feeling that delay would be ruinous, determined upon a strange step to compel immediate action. He got on board an open boat and proceeded in quest of the English fleet. After searching for a whole day and night in vain, he at length reached the squadron. Having produced a new commission which had been given him, which gave him full command over Leake whenever he was himself on board, he at once hoisted his flag and gave orders for the attack. But meanwhile, hearing of the arrival of the English, the Count of Toulouse had withdrawn his fleet, the town could be easily approached from the sea, and Tessé thought it better to raise the siege. After this brilliant exploit, Peterborough again wished to march upon Madrid from Valencia, but King Charles, on the advice of his German council, whom Peterborough speaks of by the contemptuous name of "the Vienna crew," determined upon advancing straight through Aragon, and called upon Peterborough to move his troops from Valencia to join him on the march. Meanwhile the army of the west, under Galway and Das Minas, had, after considerable delay, moved upon Madrid also, and had occupied it. They found, however, the feeling there strongly in favour of King Philip. As Aragon and Catalonia had favoured Charles, so, in the spirit of hereditary opposition, the Castilians devoted themselves to the interest of Philip. So strong was the opposition they met with, that the allies had to leave the capital and fall back eastward towards the approaching army of Charles, with whom they formed a junction. But in the combined army there were far too many commanders for vigorous action. Peterborough, the only man of genius among them, found himself constantly thwarted: he put no restraint upon his tongue. Bitter quarrels were the consequence, and he found it necessary to leave the army and betake himself to Italy, which had been his original destination, in order to negotiate with the Genoese for a supply of money.

[Sidenote: Battle of Ramillies. May 23, 1706.]

The same year which saw these sudden and unexpected successes in Spain was marked by still more complete success against the French in other parts of Europe. Marlborough was determined to wipe out the bad impression which the inactivity of the last campaign had caused. His own ardent wish was to march with the army as he had in the Blenheim campaign, and to throw himself into Italy, where the critical position of affairs still continued. Finding it impossible to gratify this wish, he determined that he would at least do something vigorous in Flanders which might serve as a diversion to his friend Eugene in Italy. Bringing his army therefore across the lines which he had broken the year before in the neighbourhood of the sources of the little river Gheet, he came in sight of Villeroi, with whose army the Elector of Bavaria, having lost all troops of his own, was now serving. The place where the armies met was Ramillies. Thither Villeroi had drawn his troops, with the intention of covering Namur, which Marlborough's advance seemed to threaten. The French general had received instructions to risk a battle to save that town, and therefore afforded Marlborough the opportunity he so much desired. The French army was very strongly posted upon a range of heights forming a semicircle round the sources of the little Gheet river. Their right almost touched the Mehaigne river, and was covered by the villages of Tavière and Ramillies. Across it ran an old road known as the road of Queen Brunehaud, closely adjoining which, in the highest part of the position, was a barrow known as the Tomb of Ottomond: from this point the position swept round till it terminated at the village of Autre-Eglise, being covered from that point by the Gheet and the marshes in which it rises. The steepness of the heights at Autre-Eglise, and the river and marsh in its front, rendered the position almost impregnable, but at the same time made it difficult for the troops stationed there to act upon the offensive. Marlborough at once saw that he had the advantage of occupying the inside of a circle, so that to any given point the movement of his troops was shorter than that of his enemy's could be. He saw also that the Tomb of Ottomond was the key of the position. If this was once in his possession, the whole line of the enemy could be enfiladed. He ordered therefore a vigorous but false assault on Autre-Eglise. His feint succeeded; both the French generals rode to that part of the field, believing it to be the point of danger. Then Marlborough ordered the real attack to be made in the neighbourhood of Tavière, Ramillies, and the road of Brunehaud. He was enabled to draw troops from his right to strengthen his left in their attack, and after some warm fighting, especially about the village of Ramillies, the position was forced, the English troops formed at right angles to their original position, and pressed onward along the high ground occupied by the enemy. Villeroi and the Elector found it impossible to save the day. Fresh difficulty was caused by the breaking down of the French baggage as it was withdrawing northwards towards Judoigne. Thus interrupted, the retreat became a rout; the enemy were pursued far beyond Judoigne to within two leagues of Louvain. They did not even rest there; a hurried consultation was held by torchlight in the market-place, and the flight immediately continued towards Brussels. The river Dyle, which Marlborough had failed to pass the preceding year, was thus left open.