the war. May 4, 1702.
The opposition of the Tories to the war had been entirely useless. The completion of the negotiations set on foot by William had been intrusted to Marlborough. Immediately, at the beginning of the reign, he had gone to the Hague, and war was declared in London, at Vienna, and at the Hague on the 4th of May. Meanwhile so many Princes had joined the Confederation, originally consisting of England, Holland, and Austria, that war was declared by the Diet of the Empire. The Elector of Brandenburg had been induced to join by the promise of the royal title; the Elector of Hanover and the Elector Palatine had also given in their adhesion. On the other hand, though the brother Electors of the Bavarian House, the Elector of Bavaria and the Elector of Cologne, had at first agreed to remain neutral, Louis felt pretty sure of the course they would ultimately take, and of the friendship of Victor Amadeus of Savoy, whose daughter had married the new King of Spain, and the position of whose dominions rendered his friendship of great value, giving as it did an access into Italy to the French.
Marlborough appointed Commander.
The Queen's love for her husband had induced her to wish that he should be made Commander-in-chief both of the English and Dutch forces, though utterly unfit for the post, and Marlborough seems to have honestly attempted to procure this appointment. But the Dutch would not hear of it, and ultimately Marlborough took the field in July as Commander-in-chief, with Overkirk as his Lieutenant commanding the Dutch troops.
Position of Holland.
Two points distinguish this war from the preceding one. Hitherto in all great confederations against the French the Spanish Netherlands had been in the hands of the confederates, but as Spain was now in close alliance with France, it became necessary to conquer this part of the Netherlands. And, secondly, the death of William had been followed by the complete depression of the house of Nassau in Holland, and the supremacy of the republican party, which by no means shared in the late King's hatred to France, and which, from jealousy of all personal authority, caused the general to be accompanied by field deputies, with a right of mixing in all councils of war. This was one of the greatest of Marlborough's difficulties, as the deputies seldom failed to hamper him, and to throw obstacles in the way of any adventurous plans. Before Marlborough took the field the campaign had opened. The French had command of the Spanish Low Countries, of the Duchy of Luxemburg, and, through the friendship of its Elector, of the territories of the Elector Clement of Cologne, who was both Archbishop of Cologne and Bishop of Liège. Both the Rhine and Meuse were thus in their hands and the fortresses held by their garrisons. The whole southern frontier of Holland, which left the sea near Ostend, crossed the mouth of the Scheldt, and cutting off a portion of Brabant, joined the Meuse somewhat to the north of Venloo, was thus open to them, while by way of the Rhine they had an opportunity of attacking the Dutch provinces from the east. While Holland was thus assailable on two sides, the advancing angle of the French dominions exposed them in a similar manner. The valley of the Moselle, which leads directly into the heart of Lorraine, could be attacked either from the north or by a German army coming from the south by way of Landau. Anxious to secure their frontier towards the Rhine, the Dutch had early in the year besieged and taken the fortress of Kaiserwerth, and bent chiefly upon their own security, would have preferred to retain Marlborough and the army in the neighbourhood of that river. But the Duke saw that the passage of the Meuse where it makes the northern frontier of the Dutch Brabant, and an advance southwards towards the Spanish Netherlands, would necessitate a concentration of the French troops, and transfer the seat of war to that province. In spite of the opposition of the Dutch, he therefore crossed the river at Grave, and proceeded directly south into Spanish Brabant. As he had expected, his appearance there obliged Boufflers to withdraw from Guelders to oppose him; and although the opposition of the field deputies prevented a general engagement, Marlborough was enabled to secure the eastern frontier of Holland, to take the fortresses of the Meuse—Venloo, Ruremond, Stevensweerth, and Liège—to overrun Guelders, Cleves, the Electorate of Cologne, with the exception of Bonn, the whole of the Bishopric of Liège and the Duchy of Limburg, thus cutting off the French from the Lower Rhine.
Meanwhile an attack had been made upon France from the Upper Rhine. The Margrave Louis of Baden, having crossed the river with the German forces, found himself opposed by Catinat, who did not show his usual ability, and suffered the Margrave to besiege and take Landau and to overrun Alsace. The success of the German army was marred by the defection of Bavaria, which, throwing aside its neutrality, declared in favour of France. Villars was detached from Catinat's army to join the Elector of Bavaria; and as an access was thus opened to the French into the heart of Germany, Louis of Baden had to withdraw from his conquests, and, turning to meet the new danger, suffered a heavy defeat at Friedlingen.
While such was the course of the war in Germany and Flanders, in Italy, Prince Eugene of Savoy, the general of the allies, had, even The war in Italy. in the winter, been carrying on operations against Marshal Villeroi. That Marshal had been taken prisoner at Cremona, and had been succeeded by Vendome. A great but indecisive battle had been fought in August at Luzara, after which the armies were left facing each other, the French still occupying The war at sea. the Milanese. The maritime war had been as indecisive as that upon the Continent; an English expedition under the Duke of Ormond had been sent against Cadiz; it had failed in its original object, but on the way home had succeeded in destroying a Spanish treasure fleet in the Bay of Vigo. In the West Indies, an event occurred almost unprecedented in English history. The English fleet had been defeated in a great battle, not by the superiority of the enemy, but by the treason of its own commanders. Admiral Benbow, who had engaged a superior force of the enemy, after a fight of several days, was deserted by some of his captains. Wounded and dying, he was forced to withdraw. He lived long enough to have his captains condemned to death by court martial.
Savoy and Portugal join the coalition.
The campaign of this year was thus wholly indecisive. The English and Dutch had secured the possession of the Rhine and the Meuse; but the German army was threatened in front from Alsace, while its rear and southern flank were exposed to the victorious army of Villars and the Elector of Bavaria: in Italy the French still held the Milanese against the attacks of Prince Eugene. But before the next campaign opened the position of France had changed considerably for the worse. The diplomacy of Louis had hitherto secured the predominance of French influence in both Spain and Italy by the adhesion of Savoy and Portugal to his cause. Victor Amadeus of Savoy had been won by the marriage of his daughter with the King of Spain; but, situated in the midst of great powers, his conduct was almost of necessity shifting, and his policy directed rather to his own advantage and to the interests of Italy than to the more general interests of Europe; the offer on the part of Austria to give up to him the districts of Montferrat and Novara induced him to desert Louis and to declare in favour of the Grand Alliance. The French army in the Milanese was thus separated from France, and its energy paralyzed. By similar means the fidelity of Portugal was also undermined. A promise of a certain portion of the Spanish possessions both in Spain and in America, and a treaty known as the Methuen Treaty, securing to Portugal great advantage in her trade with England, induced her to join the Grand Alliance. The importance of this adhesion was great, as it afforded an opening for the allied armies to act directly against Spain, the possession of which country was the real object of the war. Nor were these defections the only causes of danger which beset France. Disturbances had broken out in Louis' own dominions. The Protestants of the Cevennes, driven to despair by the cruel conduct of the Intendant, Marshal de Baville, and of the Catholic clergy, had broken into open rebellion, and the irregular efforts of the Camissards, as they were called, had become formidable under the skilful guidance of Cavalier, a baker's lad, who showed extraordinary aptitude for partisan warfare.
These misfortunes on the part of France were somewhat balanced by the defection, already mentioned, of the Elector of Bavaria; and Campaign of 1703. Louis determined to take advantage of the road to Vienna thus opened to him, and to throw his chief efforts in that direction. Thither therefore Villars marched through the Black Forest, having previously captured the fortress of Kehl opposite Strasbourg. The movement, however, was only partially successful; while Villars wished to march upon Vienna, already threatened by an insurrection in Hungary, the Elector insisted upon moving into the Tyrol. The peasantry of that mountainous district, deeply attached to Austria, thwarted all his efforts to advance, and when Louis