A History of England, Period III. Constitutional Monarchy. J. Franck Bright
of troops, and when Eugene marched against that section of the works which lay between the Doria and the Stura, not more than a third of the French army is said to have been ready to oppose him. The route of the French was complete, 200 guns, and much stores and money, fell a prey to the victors (Sept. 7). The effect of the victory was greater than the victory itself. It was found impossible to lead the broken troops into the Milanese; they fell back in confusion behind the Alps, thus leaving the force on the Adige to be surrounded by enemies. Piedmont returned to its allegiance, and in fact the whole of Italy was irretrievably lost to France, and compelled to join the Grand Alliance.
The disasters of the French in 1706
The disasters of France had been continuous. Blenheim had secured Germany, and in this year of 1706, Ramillies had been followed by the conquest of the whole of the Netherlands, Turin by the conquest of the whole of Italy, the relief of Barcelona by the occupation of Madrid by the allied forces, although they had subsequently been compelled make Louis desire peace. to fall back towards Valencia. So great were the French disasters that Louis began to think of treating, and suggested as terms on which peace might be made a new Partition Treaty, by which he would consent to acknowledge Queen Anne in England, to give the Dutch the barrier they demanded, to grant great commercial advantages to the maritime powers, and to surrender Spain and the Indies to the Archduke Charles, if only he could preserve for his grandson Philip a kingdom in Italy consisting of Milan, Naples, and Sicily. These terms were very attractive to the Dutch, who thought they had already secured all they required, but were by no means satisfactory to the Emperor, who saw that the barrier given to the Dutch must of necessity be taken from the Spanish dominions in the Netherlands, and therefore from his brother:[3] nor to Marlborough, who, though he confessed he did not believe that the King of France would ever make peace without securing some kingdom for his grandson, was desirous for his own sake to continue the war, and thought the Marlborough rejects his terms. French demand for the Milanese after the great victories which had been won unreasonable. With some difficulty he persuaded Heinsius to reject the terms, and the war proceeded on its course. It might have been better to have accepted Louis' terms. Never again were the affairs of the allies in so prosperous a condition, although the continuation of the war undoubtedly told in their favour by the gradual exhaustion it produced in France.
The tide of victory turns.
It seemed indeed in the course of the next year as if the tide of victory had wholly turned. Peterborough had returned to Spain, and viewing the altered state of affairs, was now as eager to act on the defensive as he had been before to urge an advance upon Madrid. His advice was again disregarded. The introduction of Sunderland into the ministry at home was unfavourable to him, and he was recalled, leaving the command of Spain in the somewhat incompetent hands of Das Minas and Galway. These generals, determining to act on the offensive, marched out of Valencia towards Madrid, but were met near Almanza by the lately Almanza. April 25, 1707. reinforced army of Berwick, and suffered a complete defeat. The consequence was the loss of Valencia and Saragossa, so that Charles was only able to maintain himself in the province of Catalonia. The battle of Almanza was fought on the 25th Stolhofen. May 22. of April. On the 22nd of the following month, Marshal Villars completely surprised the Margrave of Bareuth, who had succeeded the late Margrave Louis of Baden in command of the Imperial troops on the Rhine. The lines of Stolhofen, which had been so long held against the French, were taken and destroyed. Nor was the advance of the allied army of Italy into the south of France more successful. Eugene and the Duke of Savoy reached Toulon and besieged it. But sickness had much decreased the number of the allies; a considerable detachment had been sent to complete Toulon. Aug. 20. the conquest of Naples, and the appearance of Marshal Tessé with a large army, and the threat of an assault upon their rear, induced them to raise the siege and retire beyond the Alps. Nor was there anything done in Flanders to redeem the ill-success which had met the allied arms elsewhere. Marlborough in vain attempted to bring the French to a pitched battle. The Dutch had lost confidence after receiving the news of Almanza and Stolhofen, and renewed their old dilatory policy; the rains also somewhat impeded the campaign, which was closed without any important event.
Marlborough diverts Charles XII.
One valuable diplomatic service, however, Marlborough had performed. Charles XII. of Sweden was in the midst of his victorious career. Having defeated the Russians at Narva, he had succeeded in driving Augustus, Elector of Saxony, from the throne of Poland, and entering Saxony itself, was now in the neighbourhood of Leipsic. Sweden was the old ally of France, and Louis did not let Charles forget it. For a moment there seemed a chance that Charles would follow in the footsteps of Gustavus Adolphus, throw himself and his victorious army into Germany, and ruin the cause of the allies. To deter him from this step Marlborough visited him at his camp, and successfully directed his ambition towards his old enemies the Russians, against whom he shortly marched to meet his ruin at the battle of Pultowa.
Threatened invasion of Scotland. 1708.
The beginning of the ensuing year was marked by a new incident in the war. The hopes of Louis were raised by the reports of the general discontent prevalent in Scotland; a large portion of that nation had seen with dislike the late completion of the Union, and assurances were brought to France of the readiness of the Jacobite party to rise in arms. An invasion was determined on and actually set on foot. The fleet was all ready to sail, when Prince James Edward, afterwards called the Old Pretender, but now known by the name of the Chevalier de St. George, who was to accompany it, was taken ill of the measles. The expedition was postponed for some weeks, and these weeks were enough to destroy its chance of success. Byng with a powerful fleet appeared in the Channel, troops were brought over from the Continent and others collected in England, and though the little squadron succeeded in eluding the fleet and reached the Firth of Forth, there was no sign of a general rising of the Jacobites, and it had to return from its fruitless expedition, glad to escape with safety.
Campaign of 1708.
This threatened invasion had of course retained Marlborough in England. It was not till somewhat late that he could join the army. With a slight change of generals the war continued its old course. Villars was employed to reduce Piedmont, Berwick and the Elector of Bavaria were on the Rhine, Spain had been intrusted to the Duke of Orleans, while in Flanders, which was this year selected as the great battlefield, Vendome was to oppose Marlborough, having with him as nominal commander-in-chief the Duke of Burgundy, the heir to the French throne. Marlborough had again formed a great scheme for the campaign. His intention was that the Elector of Hanover, who after the defeat of Stolhofen had taken command of the Imperial troops, should remain on the Rhine, and that Eugene, with whom he again longed Marlborough's plan. to act in co-operation, should form a new army and assist him on the Moselle. The two generals met in April at the Hague, and there agreed that they would make an ostensible plan for the invasion of Lorraine, but that they should in fact join their two armies, and act rapidly and decisively to complete the conquest of the Netherlands. Eugene met with infinite difficulties in forming his new army, and Marlborough was still singlehanded when Vendome began an offensive movement.
The French army had been concentrated at Mons, on the south-west of the Netherlands. It thence advanced northward towards Brussels. Fearing for the capital, Marlborough took up a position to cover it, but suddenly the French marched off eastward, and threatened Louvain. This was, however, but a feint. The real intention of the French was to act upon the western frontier, upon the river Scheldt. The Dutch had made themselves highly unpopular in the Netherlands since they had had possession of that province; the disaffected inhabitants of the great towns on the Scheldt had opened correspondence with Vendome, and were prepared to surrender their cities to him. Having therefore drawn Marlborough towards Louvain, he suddenly marched westward to Alost, across the front of the English army, sending forward on his march detachments, to which Ghent and Bruges surrendered without a struggle. As the town of Oudenarde, somewhat higher up the river, would complete the security of these new acquisitions, it was determined to besiege it. Marlborough had followed close upon the heels of the French, circling round Brussels so as to defend the capital. He had not ceased to urge Eugene to join him with his troops, which, according to agreement, should have been with him many weeks before. The delay was no fault of the Prince's; he was already