184

METHUEN TREATY.

[Book V.

Meanwhile the French army on the Rhine, under the Duke of Burgundy, Vauban, and Tallard, had taken Breisach (September 7th), defeated the Imperialists at Spirebach (November 15th), and recaptured Landau two days afterwards.

In Italy, Prince Eugene had temporarily resigned the command of the much reduced Imperial forces to Count Stahremberg, and had proceeded to Vienna to solicit reinforcements; in which capital he acted as president of the Council of War. Vendôme's fruitless expedition into the Tyrol, and partly also his own indolence, had, however, prevented him from taking advantage of his vast numerical superiority. The chief event in this quarter was the defection of the Duke of Savoy from the cause of his son-in-law, Philip V. The fickle Victor Amadeus, disgusted at not having received the command of the French and Spanish troops, as well as by the nonpayment of the subsidies, and hoping also to obtain a share of the Milanese, acceded to the Grand Alliance in October.29 He stipulated that the Emperor should have an army of 120,000 men in Italy, which he was to join with 15,000, and to have the commandin-chief. The Duke's negociations with the Emperor, which had been going on since January, were well known to Louis XIV.; the Piedmontese troops in the French service had been disarmed and arrested before the treaty was signed, and Vendôme had demanded the surrender of Turin, which, however, he was not in a condition to enforce.

The Duke of Savoy was not the only ally that Louis XIV. lost this year, although perhaps the most important; as by this event the communication with Italy was interrupted. The Admiral of Castile, alienated from the cause of Philip V. by having been dismissed from his office of Master of the Horse, had retired into Portugal; and he succeeded in persuading King Pedro II. to accede to the Grand Alliance, who was enticed by the promise of the American provinces between the Rio de la Plata and Brazil, as well as a part of Estremadura and Galicia (May 6th). Pedro also entered into a perpetual defensive league with Great Britain and the States-General.30 In the following December, Paul Methuen, the English minister at Lisbon, concluded the celebrated commercial treaty between England and Portugal named after himself. It is the most laconic treaty on record, containing only two Articles, to the effect that Portugal was to admit British cloths, and England to admit Portuguese wines, at one-third less duty than those of France.

29 Lamberty, t. ii. p. 547.

so Ibid. p. 501; Dumont, t. viii. pt. i. p. 127.

Don Pedro's accession to the Grand Alliance entirely changed the plans of the allies. Instead of confining themselves to the procuring of a reasonable indemnity for the Emperor, they now resolved to drive Philip V. from the throne of Spain, and to place an Austrian Archduke upon it in his stead. The Emperor and his eldest son Joseph formally renounced their claims to the throne of Spain in favour of the Archduke Charles, Leopold's second son, September 12th; and the Archduke was proclaimed King of Spain, with the title of Charles III. The new King was to proceed into Portugal, and, with the assistance of Don Pedro, endeavour to obtain possession of Spain. Charles accordingly proceeded to Holland, and embarked for England in January 1704; whence, after paying a visit to Queen Anne at Windsor, he finally set sail for Lisbon, February 17th.

1704. The year 1704 was rendered memorable by Marlborough's brilliant campaign in Germany. The English general, finding that Villeroi and Boufflers were resolved to remain on the defensive in Flanders, determined to carry the war into Germany. After a rapid and unopposed march he formed a junction with Prince Louis of Baden, near Ulm, June 22nd; and, on July 2nd, the united armies stormed and took the heights of Schellenberg, near Donauwörth, where Max Emanuel and Marsin had established a strongly fortified position. This victory rendered the allies masters of the course of the Danube, with the exception of Ulm and Ingolstadt; and they now offered the Elector favourable conditions of peace, which, however, he refused. Marlborough was joined by Eugene with his forces at Donauwörth, August 11th. On the other hand, the French general, Tallard, having joined the Elector and Marsin, Max Emanuel determined to attack the allies at Donauwörth, in spite of the representations of the French generals, who were for remaining at Höchstedt, a position easy to defend. The French and Bavarians had arrived and encamped at a spot between Blenheim and Lutzingen, when, on the morning of August 13th, they were met by the allies, who had determined to anticipate their attack. In the BATTLE OF BLENHEIM, Marlborough commanded the left wing of the allied army, consisting of English and Dutch, and resting on the Danube. He was opposed to the French under Marshal Tallard; while Eugene, with the right wing of the allies, consisting of Austrians and Germans, was in face of the Elector and Marsin, who occupied the village of Lutzingen and some wooded heights in the neighbourhood. Tallard was first defeated and taken prisoner after a hot engagement, and Marlborough then detached some troops to the assistance of Eugene,

186

FURTHER OPERATIONS IN 1704.

[Book V. who was maintaining an unequal struggle with the Bavarians and French. But the Elector and Marsin, observing the rout of Taliard, retired towards Ulm in good order, without attempting to come to his assistance. The main struggle was at the village of Blenheim, where Tallard had imprudently massed a large body of infantry that was entirely useless. In the evening, all these troops, to the number of between 10,000 and 12,000 men, were forced to surrender themselves prisoners of war, while a still greater number of killed and wounded strewed the field of battle. In consequence of this decisive victory the French were compelled to recross the Rhine and evacuate all Germany. The allied generals also crossed the Rhine at Philipsburg, September 5th, Villeroi, with the French army of reserve in that quarter, not venturing to oppose them. The Germans and Austrians now invested Landau, where they were joined by the King of the Romans; while Marlborough, advancing to the Moselle, finished the campaign by occupying Trèves, taking Trarbach, and pushing his advanced posts to the Sarre.

Landau surrendered to the Imperialists, November 24th. While the siege was going on, the Elector of Bavaria's second wife, a daughter of John Sobieski, to whom he had abandoned the reins of government, appeared in the Imperial camp, and concluded a treaty with the King of the Romans, by which she agreed to dismiss her army, and to surrender, to the Emperor all the fortresses of Bavaria, with the exception of Munich, which was to be reserved for her domain and residence, but dismantled.31 The Emperor appointed Count Löwenstein Governor of Bavaria, and Max Emanuel was forced to content himself with his ancient government of the Spanish Netherlands.

The French were more successful in Italy, which the allies had been obliged in a great measure to sacrifice to their important operations in Germany. Vendôme succeeded in taking Vercelli and Ivrea, and in the following spring Verrua; thus rendering himself master of all the north of Piedmont, and re-establishing the communication with the Milanese, though he did not venture to attack Turin.

In March 1704, the Pretender, Charles III., together with an English and Dutch army of 12,000 men, landed in Portugal, with the intention of entering Spain on that side; but so far were they from accomplishing this plan that the Spaniards, on the contrary, under the Duke of Berwick, penetrated into Portugal, and even

31 Dumont, t. viii. pt. i. p. 163.

threatened Lisbon, but were driven back by the Marquis das Minas. An English fleet under Admiral Rooke, with troops under the Prince of Darmstadt, made an ineffectual attempt on Barcelona; but were compensated for their failure by the capture of Gibraltar on their return. The importance of this fortress, the key of the Mediterranean, was not then sufficiently esteemed, and its garrison had been neglected by the Spanish Government. A party of English sailors, taking advantage of a Saint's day, on which the eastern portion of the fortress had been left unguarded, scaled the almost inaccessible precipice, whilst at the same time another party stormed the South Mole Head. The capture of this important fortress was the work of a few hours (August 4th). Darmstadt would have claimed the place for King Charles III., but Rooke took possession of it in the name of the Queen of England. In the naval annals of this year we have only further to mention an indecisive action between the French and English fleets off Malaga.

The general results, therefore, of the campaign of 1704 were greatly in favour of the allies, and may be said to have decided the whole colour of the future war. The French had been driven out of Germany and had lost Bavaria as an ally; Gibraltar, the key of the Mediterranean, had fallen into the hands of the English, who, established with the Dutch upon the Moselle, threatened France herself. Against all this Louis could only set off his slight and indecisive success in Italy.

1705.-This year was marked by the death of the Emperor Leopold, May 5th; a feeble prince, governed alternately by his wives, his ministers, and his confessors. His son, Joseph I., who as King of the Romans immediately assumed the imperial title, was of a more lively, enterprising, and decisive character. One of Joseph's first acts was to endeavour to conciliate the revolted. Hungarians. In the preceding year, the party of Prince Ragoczy had seized many of the towns of Hungary, and had even insulted Vienna itself; but had been beaten in July near Raab, and in December near Tyrnau. From these defeats, however, they had recovered; yet, though Joseph endeavoured to conciliate them by dismissing from office the friends of the Jesuits, so detested by the Hungarians, and even accepted the mediation of England and Holland between himself and his revolted subjects, Ragoczy's party would hear of nothing short of the restoration of their elective constitution and the renunciation of Transylvania by the Emperor. In a Diet held in September 1705, Ragoczy was elevated on a buckler as the supreme head of the Magyar confederation. But,

188

CAMPAIGN OF 1705.

[Book V. without more assistance than Louis XIV. was now in a condition to afford to them, and while the Turks remained neutral, the Hungarian insurrection, though annoying, could not prove formidable to Austria, especially as Joseph, by way of diversion, had succeeded in exciting some of the Slavonic tribes against the Magyars.32

The campaign of 1705 was destitute of any important events on the side of Germany and the Netherlands. Villars, who, after resigning his command, had been employed in the somewhat inglorious office of opposing an insurrection of the Camisards, or Protestants of the Cevennes, was this year sent to oppose Marlborough on the Moselle, while Berwick was withdrawn from Spain to supply his place. Villars, occupying a fortified camp at Sierck, prevented Marlborough, who was but ill supported by the Imperialists, from penetrating into Lorraine; 33 and the rest of the season was spent in unimportant operations in the Netherlands. In Bavaria, the peasants, irritated by the oppressions of the Austrian Government, rose in a body in the autumn, and could they have been supported by France, would have placed the Emperor in great danger; but without that aid the insurrection only proved fatal to themselves. The insurgents were beaten in detail, and the Emperor now resolved on the complete dissolution of Bavaria as a state. The four elder sons of Maximilian were carried to Klagenfurt in Carinthia, to be there educated under the strictest inspection as Counts of Wittelsbach, while the younger sons were consigned to the care of a court lady at Munich, and the daughters sent to a convent. The Electress, who had been on a visit to Venice, was not permitted to return to her dominions, and the Elector Maximilian, as well as the Elector of Cologne, was, by a decree of the Electoral College, placed under the ban of the Empire. The Upper Palatinate was restored to the Elector Palatine, as well as the title of Archdapifer (Erztruchsess); while by resigning the title of Archtreasurer (Erzschatzmeister), the Palatine enabled the Emperor to transfer it to the new Elector of Hanover, whose dignity was now universally acknowledged. The remaining Bavarian territories were confiscated, and divided among various princes.

34

While the campaign was thus unimportant in the Netherlands and Germany, the interest of the war was concentrated in Italy and

32 For this insurrection see Leben und Thaten des Prätendenten Jos. Ragoczy.

33 The Emperor Joseph, in order to allay Marlborough's discontent at the inactivity of the Imperial army, invested him with the confiscated Bavarian principality of

Mindelheim, with a seat and vote in the Diet. Leopold had given him the dignity of a prince of the Empire after the battle of Blenheim. Menzel, B. v. Kap. i.

3 See Theatrum Europ., t. xvii. ad ann. 1706, Zschokke.