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SPANISH SUCCESSION, WAR OF THE
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See also:SPANISH See also:SUCCESSION, See also:WAR OF THE , the name given to the See also:general See also:European war which began in 17ot and ended with the. See also:Treaties of See also:Utrecht and See also:Rastatt in 1713-14. The war in its ensemble is the typical " war with limited aim," carried out by professional armies in the interests of sovereigns and their cabinets and (except in the last stages of the war in See also:northern See also:France) enlisting no more than the platonic sympathies of the various peoples whose rulers were at war. Nevertheless, its monotonous See also:round of See also:marches and sieges is now and then quickened by the See also:genius of three See also:great soldiers, See also:Marlborough, See also:Eugene and See also:Villars, and See also:Peterborough and See also:Galway, See also:Catinat and See also:Vendome, though less highly gifted, were men of unusual and conspicuous ability. As usual in these See also:wars, manoeuvres, threats and feints played the See also:principal See also:part in See also: Were it not for the existence of this struggle, indeed, the war would be devoid of See also:interest. Later in the 18th See also:century there was, as a See also:rule, no such struggle, for the grander See also:form of offensive died out completely, and the feebler form was easily reconciled with the requirements of passive See also:defence. But in 1700 the true spirit of war—in a See also:leader of the greatness of Marlborough at least—was not yet entirely smothered by See also:chicane.
The See also:action of Louis XIV. in the See also:matter of the Spanish succession was foreseen, and See also: There Catinat thought himself secure, as all the See also:country to the See also:east was Venetian and neutral. But Eugene, while making ostentatious preparations to enter Italy by the Adige or See also:Lake See also:Garda or the See also:Brescia road, secretly reconnoitred passages oventhe mountains between Roveredo and the See also:Vicenza See also:district. On the 27th of May, taking See also:infinite precautions as to secrecy, and requesting the Venetian authorities to offerChlarl, /7carpl and BI. no opposition so See also:long as his troops behaved well, Eugene began his march by paths that no army had used since Charles V.'s time, and on the 28th his army was on the plains. His first object was to See also:cross the Adige without fighting, and also by ravaging the duke of 1b4antua's private estates (sparing the possessions of the See also:common See also:people) to induce that prince to See also:change sides. Catinat was completely surprised, for he had counted upon Venetian See also:neutrality, and when in the See also:search for a passage over the See also:lower Adige, Eugene's army spread to See also:Legnago and beyond, he made the See also:mistake of supposing that the Austrians intended to invade the Spanish possessions See also:south of the Po. His first dispositions had, of course, been for the defence of the Rivoli approaches, but he now thinned out his See also:line until it reached to the Po, and after five See also:weeks' cautious manoeuvring on both sides, Eugene found an unguarded spot. With the usual precautions of secrecy (deceiving even his own army), he crossed the lower Adige in the See also:night of the 8th-9th of See also:July, and overpowered the small See also:cavalry See also:corps that alone was encountered at See also:Carpi (July 9). Catinat at once concentrated his scattered army backwards on the Mincio, while Eugene turned northward and regained See also:touch with his old line of supply, Roveredo-Rivoli. For some time Eugene was in great difficulties for supplies, as the Venetians would not allow his See also:barges to descend the Adige. At last, however, he made his preparations to cross the Mincio See also:close to Peschiera and well beyond Catinat's See also:left, with the intention of finding a new supply See also:area about Brescia. This was executed on the 28th of July, Catinat's cavalry, though coming within sight of Eugene's See also:bridges, offering no opposition. It seems that the marshal was well content to find that his opponent had no intention of attacking the Spanish possessions in the Peninsula, at any See also:rate Catinat See also:fell back quietly to the Oglio. But his army resented his See also:retreat before the much smaller force of the Austrians and, early in See also:August, his See also:rival Tesse reported this to See also:Paris, where-upon Marshal Villeroy, a favourite of Louis, was sent to take command. The new See also:commander was perhaps the least competent of all the French See also:senior See also:officers, and ere long he attacked Eugene in a well entrenched position at Chiari (See also:Sept. I), and was thoroughly defeated, with a loss, it is said, of 3000 to the Austrians' 15o. Both armies then stood fast until the exhaustion of supplies compelled them to move, when Villeroy retreated to the See also:Adda. Both Villeroy and Catinat (who had remained with him as secondin-command), warned the See also: With the year 1702 the real struggle began. Villars and one or two others of Louis's best counsellors urged the king to concentrate his See also:attention on the See also:Rhine and the See also:Danube, where, they pointed out, was the centre of gravity of the coalition. This See also:advice was disregarded, and with See also:political aims, which it is hard to imagine, the largest French army was employed on the side of the See also:Meuse, while the Rhine front was entrusted to smaller forces acting on the defensive. In Italy the balance of power remained unchanged, except that one of Louis's best generals, Vendome, was sent to replace the captured Villeroy. In the See also:Low Countries, Ginckell, See also:earl of See also:Athlone, the See also:interim commander of the allies (See also:English, Dutch and minor German states), was at the outset outmanceuvred by the French (Bouffiers), and although, in fact, the material See also:advantage was with the allies, who captured See also:Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, the momentary See also:threat of a French invasion had a lasting effect on the Dutch authorities, whose timidity thereafter repeatedly ruined the best-laid schemes of Marlborough, who was obliged to submit to their obstruction and their See also:veto. This See also:handicap, moreover, was not the only one See also:Marl- under which Marlborough suffered. Unless it is See also:borough's realized and See also:borne in mind that the great See also:captain First was struggling against factiousness and intrigue in See also:campaign. England and from jealousies, faint-heartedness and disagreements amongst the states who See also:lent their contingents to his See also:miscellaneous army, the measure of his achievements in ten years seems small. But in fact it was marvellous. Under 18th-century conditions of warfare, and with an army so composed that probably no other See also:man in See also:Europe could have held it together at all, obstructed and thwarted at every turn, he yet brought Louis XIV. and France to the very edge of ruin. In this See also:theatre of war the French, in See also:concert with the garrisons of the Spanish Netherlands, had fortified a line of defence more than 70 M. long from See also:Antwerp to Huy, as well as another line, longer but of only potential importance, from Antwerp along the See also:Scheldt-Lys to See also:Aire in France. Besides the " lines of See also:Brabant " Bouffiers held all the Meuse fortresses below Huv except Maestricht. Marlborough concentrated 6o,000 men (of whom 12,000 only were See also:British) about Nijmegen in See also:June, and early in July, having made his preparations, he advanced directly by Hamont on Diest. See also:Boufflers, who had See also:drawn together his field army in See also:Gelderland for the See also:relief of Kaiserswerth and the See also:late attack on the earl of Athlone, hastily fell back, in See also:order to regain touch with the Brabant lines. Marlborough, with the See also:positive object of bringing his opponent to battle at a disadvantage, won the See also:race and awaited the arrival of Boufflers' tired army to strike it a paralysing See also:blow. But at the See also:critical moment the Dutch deputies forbade the battle, content to see the army that had threatened Holland with invasion driven off to a safe distance without bloodshed (July 22). Ten days later Boufflers, thus easily let go, again advanced from Diest, was trapped by Marl-borough and released by the Dutch. This time it was a disobedient general, not the civilian commissioners at headquarters, who did the See also:mischief, but after this second experience Marl-borough thought it prudent to pacify the Dutch by besieging the Meuse fortresses, several of which fell in rapid succession (See also:September—See also:October). His return to the Meuse led Boufflers to suppose that the enemy had a Rhine campaign in view and he at once sent off a corps under Tallard towards Cologne, See also:standing on the defensive himself at Tongres, where for the third time in the campaign he was outmanceuvred by Marlborough and saved by the deputies at Marlborough's headquarters. Bouffiers hurriedly fell back within the defended area of the lines of Brabant, and the campaign closed with the See also:capture of See also:Liege by the allies (Oct. 12). Marlborough was created a duke on his return to England in See also:November. He had checked the main enterprise, or at least (for an enterprise commensurate with the force employed had scarcely been imagined) the main army, of the French. Every man in the army knew, moreover, that but for the Dutch deputies the enemy would have been destroyed. On the Rhine the campaign was, except for two disconnected episodes, quite uneventful. The Imperialists under a methodical general, the See also:margrave Louis of See also:Baden, gathered in the See also:Neckar country and crossed the Rhine above See also:Spire. Catinat, now old and worn out, was sent to See also:Strassburg to oppose the threatened invasion of See also:Alsace, and, like See also:MacMahon in 187o, he dared not assemble his whole force either on the Lauter or on the See also:Ill. The margrave invested See also:Landau (July 29) and with a covering army occupied the lines of the Lauter about See also:Weissenburg, which Catinat did not attack. Hence Landau, valiantly defended by Melac, had to be surrendered on the 12th of September. But at the same time the elector of Bavaria took the side of France, surprised See also:Ulm, and declared a See also:local war on the See also:house of Austria and the " circles " of See also:Swabia and See also:Franconia. The margrave then, in order to defend his own country, prevent the junction of Catinat's forces with the elector, and win back the latter to the Austrian side, recrossed the Rhine and hurried to See also:Kehl with the greater part of his army, leaving a See also:garrison in Landau and a corps of observation on the Lauter. To co-operate with the elector, Catinat had made up a corps out of every available See also:battalion and See also:squadron (keeping for himself not more than a See also:personal escort) and placed it under Lieut.-General Villars. This corps drew away into Upper Alsace and the margrave followed suit until the two armies faced one another on opposite sides of the Rhine near See also:Huningen. But the corps thatFrjedttagen. the elector on his part was to send to meet Villars halted east of the See also:Black See also:Forest, and although, on the 14th of October 1702, after a See also:series of skilful manoeuvres, Villars crossed the Rhine and won the first victory of his brilliant career at Friedlingen (opposite Huningen), it was profitless. Soon after-wards Villars placed his army in winter quarters in Alsace, and Louis of Baden disposed his troops in two entrenched camps opposite See also:Breisach and Strassburg respectively. In Italy Vendome, superior in See also:numbers but handicapped by instructions from See also:Versailles and by the See also:necessity of looking to the See also:Italian interests of King Philip, gained a few minor successes over Eugene. A very hard-fought and indecisive battle took See also:place at Luzzara on the Po on the 15th of August. In the next two years Bavaria was the centre of gravity of the French operations, and only See also:campaigns of the methodical and non-committal See also:kind were planned for Italy 1 and the Low Countries. Villeroy and Boufflers commanded the French in the Low Countries, Tallard in See also:Lorraine, Villars in Alsace, and Vendome in Italy. In the Netherlands the French field army was behind the lines of Brabant, the Spanish troops in the lines of See also:Flanders (Antwerp-See also:Ghent-Aire). Together the two considerably out-numbered Marlborough (90,000 against 50,000), but the duke managed to be first in the field. As early as February Rhein-See also:berg had been taken, and in May he followed up this success by the capture of See also:Bonn, returning to the Meuse before Villeroy had assembled his army at Diest. Marlborough's See also:plan was to break the immensely long line of defence of the French and Spaniards by the capture of Antwerp. One Dutch corps under See also:Coehoorn was to assemble in the See also:Sluys-Hulst region, and another under Opdam at See also:Bergen-op-Zoom and Marlborough, after manceuvring Villeroy's field army out of the way, was to join them before the fortress. Marlborough executed his own See also:share of the See also:movement with his usual skill, he pushed back Villeroy towards the Mehaigne and at the right moment, giving them the slip, marched for Antwerp via See also:Hasselt. Villeroy, soon discovering this, hastened thither as fast as possible, and the Dutch generals enabled him to emerge from the manceuvre with a handsome victory, for Coehoorn (in order to fill his own pockets, it has been suggested) had departed on a See also:raid into See also:West Flanders and Opdam was left alone at Eeckeren in front of Antwerp, where Boufflers and the Spanish general See also:Bedmar surprised him (June 30) and put his corps to See also:flight before Marlborough could come to his assistance. In disgust the great captain then resigned himself to a war of small sieges on the Meuse. The campaign closed with the capture of Huy (Aug. 25) and Limbourg (Sept. 27). On the Rhine great projects were entertained by the French, nothing less than the capture of See also:Vienna by a combined Franco-Bavarian-Hungarian army being intended. Villars began by capturing Kehl (March 1o) under the very eyes of the margrave, who dared not See also:risk a battle lest the Bavarians coming up in his See also:rear should destroy his weakened army. The Bavarians had in fact no such intention. The elector, while carrying on a trifling war with a small imperial army under See also:Count Styrum, insisted that Villars should cross the Black Forest and join him, which Villars was unwilling to do thus early in the year, as two-thirds of his officers were as usual on leave or detached on recruiting duties. Courtier though he was, the marshal would not stir even in spite of the king's orders until he was ready. At the end of See also:April, leaving Tallard alone to defend Alsace and Lorraine against the margrave, Villars plunged into the defiles of the Black Forest and on the 8th of May joined the elector at See also:Ebingen. All seemed favourable for the advance on Vienna, but at the last moment the elector See also:half repented of his alliance with the enemies of See also:Germany and proposed instead a junction with Vendome by way of Tirol. This proposal came to nothing, the Tirolese were soon roused to revolt by the misconduct of the ill-disciplined Bavarians, and Vendome, who, like Luxembourg, was a See also:giant in battle and a sluggard in See also:camp, would not stir. The active Villars meantime was reduced to See also:impotence and faced Styrum in an entrenched camp at See also:Dillingen on the Danube, neither side offering battle. Villars had posted a protective force at Ulm to contain the margrave's army should it turn back upon him, and this, after an engagement at Munderkingen (July 31) induced the cautious Louis to return to the Rhine. Five weeks later, however, the margrave returned in full force, and moving by the right See also:bank of the Danube reached See also:Augsburg on the 6th of September. The elector, returning from his futile Tirol expedition, had already rejoined Villars at Dillingen, and the marshal persuaded him to attack Styrum before the two imperial generals could join 1 In this year began the Camisard insurrection, in the See also:Cevennes, which necessitated the detachment of a considerable See also:body of troops from Vendome's army in Italy. Similarly both in 1702 and 1703 the Hungarian insurrection compelled the Viennese See also:government to keep back the reinforcements of which Eugene stood in need.forces. The result was the battle of Hochstett' (Sept. 2o) in which the elector and Villars won a great victory, at a loss of only r000 men to Styrum's i r,000. Rarely indeed had an 18th-century general so great an opportunity of See also:finishing a war at one blow. But even Villars saw no better use for the fiochstett, victory than the unimpeded junction of his own army 1703. and Tallard's and winter quarters in See also:Wurttemberg, and the elector on the other See also:hand was principally anxious to evict the margrave's army from his dominions. The question was referred to Versailles, and another See also:month passed away in inactivity. Tallard remained on the Rhine, and Villars in disgust applied to be recalled. The margrave, entrenched as usual, kept the field for another month and then retired to the Lake of See also:Constance, where, in a still unexhausted district, he spent the winter. The elector wintered in the See also:Iller with the combined army. Tallard meanwhile invested Landau and defeated a detachment sent from Marlborough's distant army to relieve the place in the battle of Spire (Nov. ro), which was almost as costly to the allies as Hochstett. Landau surrendered on the r 2th of November. Old Breisach, besieged by See also:Vauban, capitulated on the 6th of September. Thus in Germany, though the grand advance on Vienna had come to nothing, the French hadwon two important victories and established an army in Bavaria. More than this, under the prevailing conditions of warfare, it was impossible to expect. In Italy, on the other hand, Vendome, although no longer opposed by Eugene, achieved nothing. After a raid towards See also:Trieste he was brought back hurriedly by the See also:news that See also:Victor Amadeus of Savoy had changed sides, and though he was victorious in a few skirmishes and re-established touch with France by capturing See also:Asti, he failed to prevent the Imperialists, under Guido Starhemberg, from slipping past his position in See also:Lombardy and joining the duke of Savoy in See also:Piedmont. The campaign of 1704, though in the Low Countries and in Italy practically nothing was done, is memorable for what was probably the greatest strategical operation in the 18th century, Marlborough's march to the Danube. At the outset the elector and Marsin (Villars' successor) were on the Iller, between Ulm and See also:Memmingen, Tallard between Strassburg and Landau, Villeroy as usual between the Brabant lines and the Meuse. Between Villeroy and Tallard there was a small force on the Moselle, intended to reinforce either. On the other side the Margrave Louis was in the Stockach-Engen region, with his own army and the relic of Styrum's, but being responsible for guarding the whole of the See also:Middle Rhine as well as for opposing the elector he was weak everywhere, and his defence of the Rhine was practically limited to holding the " lines of Stollhofen," a defensive position near Biihl in Baden. With Breisach and Kehl in their own hands, the French were more or less closely in touch with their comrades in Bavaria, and Tallard convoyed a large " body of recruits for Marsin's army through the Black Forest defiles. But in doing so he lost most of them by See also:desertion, the margrave's army dogged his march, and in fact no Rhine and See also:regular line of communication was established. Thus Danube the five armies (Marlborough's, Eugene's, Tallard's, carupatgn Marsin's and the margrave's) engaged in this theatre 011704. of war, were moving and facing in all directions in turn in a most bewildering See also:fashion. Marlborough's purpose at any rate was quite definite—to See also:transfer a large corps from the Low Countries to Bavaria and there in concert with the allies in that See also:quarter to crush the elector decisively. He took no one into his confidence. The timid Dutch were brought, not without difficulty, to assent to a Lower Rhine and Moselle campaign, of much the same sort as the Bonn expedition of 1703, but rather than be burdened with Dutch counsellors he forwent the assistance of the Dutch troops. These were left under Overkirk to defend the Meuse, and English and English-paid troops alone took part in the great venture. Meanwhile Tallard and Marsin, See also:united at the moment of handing over the recruits, had promptly separated again. Tallard, Villeroy and the Versailles strategists, 2 Fought on the same battlefield as was See also:Blenheim next year; the latter is consequently called by some the " second battle of lochstett." well aware that Marlborough was ascending the Rhine, thought that a diversion on the Moselle was intended, and the feeble warnings of Marsin, who half suspected the real purpose, were disregarded. Villeroy remained in Brabant for fear that Overkirk would take a few towns in his See also:absence. Marlborough calculated that as he progressed up the Rhine the French would collect to prevent his See also:crossing, instead of them-selves 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 See also:ken of the defenders of the Rhine, to reappear on the Danube where he was least expected. On the 12th of May the army crossed the Meuse at Ruremond, on the 23rd it reached Bonn, on the 29th See also:Mainz. On the 1st of June 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 the loth of June 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 ,Karl- and other forces on the Rhine, for Tallard, it seemed, borough's was about to be joined by Villeroy 1 and Marlborough March to the knew that these marshals must be kept west of the Danube. Rhine for the six weeks he allowed himself for the Bavarian enterprise. The margrave's army duly joined Marl-borough's on the 22nd of June at Ursprung, 12 M. See also:north of Ulm, where the elector and Marsin were encamped. The endurance of Marlborough's corps, as displayed in the long march from Ruremond, was not the least extraordinary feature of the operation. For 18th-century troops such performances were generally provocative of desertion, and involved the ruin of the army that at-tempted it. But Prince Eugene, we are told, was astonished at the See also:fine See also:condition of the army. On the French side meantime all was perplexity, and it was not until a See also:week after the margrave and Marlborough had united that a decision was arrived at by Louis XIV., in whose eyes the feeble corps of Eugene sheltered in the lines of Stollhofen constituted a See also:grave menace for Alsace and Lorraine. Villeroy's main body from the Meuse had after its first hesitations followed up Marlborough, in readiness for the supposed Rhine and Moselle campaign, and was now about Landau. Tallard with the smaller half of the united armies was to advance by Breisach and to " try to capture See also:Villingen." Villeroy was to See also:watch Eugene's corps, or rather the Stollhofen-Buhl position, and the small Moselle corps was to remain west of the Rhine. This meant conceding both the initiative and the superiority in numbers to Marlborough.
The duke had now manoeuvred himself with brilliant success
from one theatre of war to another, and had secured every
advantage to himself. His method of utilizing the advantage
showed his mastery of the rules of the strict See also:game that, with the
See also:instinct of a great captain, he had just set at nought. From
before Ulm he sidled gradually along the north side of the
Danube in the hope of finding an unguarded passage. He and
the margrave exercised the general command on alternate days,
and when on his own See also:day he arrived opposite See also:Donauworth,
knowing Louis's caution, he thought that direct attack was better
than another two days' See also:extension to the east. Moreover he needed
a walled See also:town to serve as a See also:magazine instead of See also:Nordlingen, which
he had used of late but which could not serve him for operations
over the See also:river. In the late afternoon of the 21st the army was
flung, regardless of losses, against the entrenched See also: In the See also:present case the acts of the allies only confirmed the elector in his French sympathies, while at the same time Marlborough's own supplies ran See also:short, his convoys were harassed and his reconnaissances impeded. The movements of the two armies were but trifling. Marlborough, though superior, was not decisively superior, and his opponents, well entrenched near Augsburg, 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 did not venture to leave Villeroy's front to attack Tallard, who was marching by Kehl-Villingen-Ulm on Augsburg, but when he knew that Tallard was on the move he slipped away from Villeroy to join Marlborough. In turn, Tallard and the elector, aware of Eugene's march, could have left Marlborough to his sieges and combined against Eugene, but they were well content to join forces peaceably at Augsburg. Worst of all, Villeroy, in whose hands was the See also: When the king bade him follow Tallard to Villingen he hesitated, and when he had made up his mind to try, Louis had changed his and ordered him to detain Eugene (who was already far away) in the Stollhofen lines. The last See also:stage of the campaign was brief. Marlborough and Eugene had in mind a battle, Tallard and Marsin a war of manceuvre 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 the 6th of August. 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 See also:Ingolstadt as soon as Eugene had come within a safe distance. The 18th-century general relied far more on himself than on the small surplus of force that his army, in the conditions of that time, could hope to have over its opponent. When therefore the French and Bavarians were reported opposite Eugene on the north side, Marlborough crossed at once, and without waiting for the margrave the two great soldiers went forward. On the 2nd of August (see BLENHEIM) they attacked and practically destroyed the armies of Tallard, Marsin and the elector. The campaign of 1705 was uneventful and of little profit to either side. Marlborough's army had returned to the Low Countries, engaging en route in a small campaign in the See also:Luxemburg and Thionville region, which was defended with skill and success by Villars. Villeroy had also returned to Brabant and retaken Huy. With him was the now exiled elector of Bavaria. On the 18th of July, after a series of skilful manceuvres, Marl-borough forced the lines of Brabant at Elissem near Tirlemont, but not even the See also:glory of Blenheim could induce the Dutch deputies to give him a See also:free hand or the Dutch generals to fall in with his schemes. King Louis was thus able to See also:rein- . force Villeroy betimes from Villars's Lorraine army, of t7osn and the campaign closed with no better See also:work than the razing of the captured French entrenchments. On the Rhine Villars, with a force reduced to impotence by the losses of Blenheim and the detachments sent to Villeroy, carried on a spiritless campaign about See also:Hagenau and Weissenburg against the margrave Louis. In Italy alone was there any serious encounter. Here Vendpme's army and a fresh corps from France were engaged in the See also:attempt to subdue Victor Amadeus and his new Austrian allies (Starhemberg's, originally Eugene's army), and they were so far successful that the duke implored the emperor to send a fresh army. Eugene commanded this army, opposed to which was a force under Vend6me's See also:brother Philippe, called the Grand See also:Prior. This man, a lazy See also: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 Vendome's opportune arrival and dauntless courage (battle of See also:Cassano. August 16). Nevertheless, the subjugation of Piedmont was put off until next year, by Louis's orders. 1706 was a See also:bad year for the French. At the very outset of the campaign in the Netherlands, Villeroy, See also:hearing that some of the allied contingents that composed Marlborough's army had refused to join, went forward from his new defensive lines along the Dyle and offered battle. Marlborough would probably have fought in any case, but being joined in time by the belated allied contingents, he was able (May i 2) not only to win but also to profit by the glorious victory of See also:Ramillies (q.v.) on the 12th of May. This was one of the few cases of thoroughly efficient and successful pursuit in the military See also:history of the 17th and 18th centuries. The whole of Flanders and Brabant, except a few minor fortresses, fell into his hands within two weeks. These too fell one after the other in August and September, and the British cavalry crossed the French frontier itself. But on the Rhine the inactivity of Louis of Baden had allowed Villars to transfer the bulk of his army to the Netherlands. VendOme, too, was sent to succeed Villeroy, and Marlborough made no further advance. Louis's two most brilliant commanders devoted themselves to organizing the defence of the French frontier, and did not venture to interrupt Marlborough's sieges. In Italy the campaign had, as before, two branches, the See also:con-test for Piedmont and the contest between the French forces, in Lombardy and the Austrian second army that sought to join Victor Amadeus and Starhemberg. The latter, repulsed by VendOme at Cassano, had retired to Brescia and Lake Garda, Vend6me following -up and wintering about See also:Castiglione and Mantua, and in April 1706, profiting by Eugene's temporary absence, Vend6me attacked the Imperialists' camp of Montechiaro-Calcinato. His intention was by a night march to surprise the See also:post of See also:Ponte See also:San Marco on their extreme left, but when day came he noticed that he could give battle to the enemy's left wing at Calcinato before their right from Calcinato. Montechiaro could intervene. His onset See also:broke up
the defence completely (battle of Calcinato, April 1o), and he hustled the fragments of the Imperialist army back into the mountains, where Eugene had the greatest difficulty in rallying them. Until the middle of June VendOme completely baffled all attempts of Eugene to slip past him into Piedmont. He was then, however, recalled to supersede Villeroy in See also:Belgium, and his feeble successors entirely failed to rise to the occasion. Philip of See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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