194

CAMPAIGN OF 1708.

[BOOK V.

(November 11th). The arms of Philip had also been successful on the Portuguese frontier, where Ciudad Rodrigo was retaken, October 4th.

The successful progress of the allies in Italy was some compensation for their reverses in Spain. A small Imperial army, under Daun, marched through the papal territories and occupied Naples without resistance (July); and the Spanish viceroy, who defended himself awhile at Gaeta, having surrendered on September 30th, the whole kingdom submitted to the Imperialists. The reverses of Charles III. in Spain had contributed to this result, by leading the Neapolitans to hope that he would take up his residence in their capital. In Northern Italy, however, the operations of the allies had not been attended with the like success. The Duke of Savoy and Prince Eugene penetrating into France by the Maritime Alps and Nice, appeared before Toulon towards the end of July, while Sir Cloudesley Shovel blockaded it by sea. But the Imperialists were prevented by Marshal Tessé from completing the investment of the city, and the approach of some strong French divisions compelled them to make a hasty retreat beyond the Var. The Duke of Savoy and Eugene revenged themselves by driving the French from Susa, which they had still continued to occupy.

In the Netherlands, where Vendôme was instructed to remain on the defensive, and where the operations of Marlborough were obstructed by the States-General, nothing of importance took place. In Germany, Villars forced the lines of Stolhofen, which had been so long successfully defended by Prince Louis of Baden. That commander was now dead, and his place had been very incompetently supplied by the Margrave of Baireuth. Villars penetrated to the Danube, and laid all Suabia and Franconia under contribution; but the Elector of Hanover, afterwards George I. of England, having been appointed to the command of the Imperial army, ultimately forced the French to recross the Rhine.

1708.-The union between England and Scotland, effected at the beginning of the preceding year, had caused a good deal of discontent in the latter of those countries, of which Louis resolved to avail himself to attempt a descent of the Pretender, James III., in the Firth of Forth. Early in March, the Pretender put to sea from Dunkirk with 5000 men; but his fleet was dispersed by Admiral Byng, and the enterprise entirely frustrated.

The campaign this year was most active in the Netherlands, where Marlborough had been joined by Prince Eugene. Early in July, Ghent and Bruges, disgusted, it is said, by the extortions of the allies, opened their gates to the French. A few days later

(July 11th) the Duke of Burgundy and Vendôme, attempting to prevent the allies from passing the Scheldt near OUDENARDE, were defeated with great loss by Marlborough and Eugene. This victory enabled the allies to enter French Flanders, where they laid siege to Lille, its capital, and obtained possession of the town by capitulation, October 22nd. The citadel, valiantly defended by Marshal Boufflers, did not surrender till December 10th. Other noticeable events of this campaign were the compelling the Elector of Bavaria to raise the siege of Brussels, and the retaking of Bruges and Ghent. Thus all Spanish Flanders, and part of French Flanders, remained in the bands of the allies.

On the Rhine, both sides remained on the defensive. In Spain, where Galway and Das Minas had been succeeded by Count Stahremberg and General Stanhope, Tortosa and Alicant were recovered by Philip V., and Charles III. was compelled to shut himself up in Barcelona. Here he espoused a Princess of Brunswick. The operations at sea were more favourable to the allies. The island of Sardinia voluntarily submitted to Admiral Lake and proclaimed Charles III. (August); and in the following month Minorca was captured by the same admiral and General Stanhope. Port Mahon was garrisoned by British troops, and, like Malta at a later period, for many years continued to be England's stronghold in the Mediterranean.

The length and ill success of the war had now begun to tell with fatal effect upon France. The financial difficulties occasioned by the enormous disbursements were met by ruinous loans, injudicious and vexatious taxes, the forestalment of future revenue, and the issue of paper money. The public misery was still further heightened by a winter of unparalleled severity. Even the impetuous Rhone was arrested by the ice; the sea froze as in the polar regions; the vines and fruit trees were destroyed; the corn perished in the earth. The pursuits of pleasure and the affairs of business were equally suspended; the tribunals, the theatres, and the shops were closed; whole families of the poor were found frozen to death in their hovels or their garrets. The dearth and famine which ensued produced discontent and sedition; insulting placards appeared against the government, and were affixed even to the statues of the Great King. Louis, thus humiliated in the midst of all his glory, renewed his proposals for peace; and in the negociations which were opened at the Hague went so far as to renounce, in the name of his grandson, the whole of the Spanish succession, and even to offer to restore Strasburg to the Empire. The allies, however, and especially Marlborough and Eugene, entertained strong doubts of

196

CAMPAIGN OF 1709.

[Book V. his sincerity, and regarded his proposals as designed only to adjourn the war to a more convenient season. Philip himself, so far from displaying any intention to abandon Spain, was making every effort to rouse the zeal and loyalty of the people in his favour; and during the progress of the negociations he caused his son, an infant under two years of age, to be acknowledged by the Cortès of Castile and Aragon as Prince of Asturias and heir of the Spanish monarchy (April 7th 1709). It was suspected that Louis would secretly help Philip to maintain himself in the Peninsula, as he had before succoured Portugal against Spain after the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and he was therefore required to assist the allies in compelling the "Duke of Anjou" to quit Spain at the expiration of two months.40 Louis availed himself of the apparent harshness of this condition to rouse the pride of the French nation in his favour. In a public manifesto he detailed the sacrifices which he had been willing to make, and the insulting offers with which they had been met; an appeal that could not fail to be responded to by a nation like the French, who resolved to defend the honour of their monarch to the last extremity.

1709.-Extraordinary preparations were now made on both sides for renewing the war. Villars was selected to oppose Marlborough and Eugene in Flanders, the chief scene of operations this year. He could not save Tournai from the hands of the allies (September 3rd), who then invested Mons. For this purpose they were obliged to attack Villars in a strongly-fortified position at MALPLAQUET, from which they succeeded in driving him, but not without suffering enormous loss (September 11th). From the numbers engaged, and the immense returns of killed and wounded--between 30,000 and 40,000 men on both sides, of which the far greater portion belonged to the allies this has been reckoned the greatest and the bloodiest battle of the eighteenth century. Villars himself was severely wounded. In consequence of this victory, the allies obtained possession of Mons.

On the eastern frontier of France the Imperialists, under the Elector of Hanover, had formed the design of penetrating into Burgundy, where they were to be joined by the Duke of Savoy. But the Count de Mercy, with a chosen body of German troops, having penetrated into Haute Alsace, was defeated at Rumersheim

40 For these negociations see Mémoires de Torcy, t. ii. (ed. 1756) Targe, Hist. de l'avènement de la Maison de Bourbon, t. v. p. 358, admits that Louis only meant to amuse his enemies. The French King's

nephew, the Duke of Orléans, had endeavoured to supplant Philip V., and opened communications with the allies for that purpose through General Stanhope. See Mahon's War of the Succession, ch. vii.

(August 26th), and an end was thus put to the plan of the campaign. Nothing of much importance was done in Spain.

This year, Pope Clement XI., though friendly to the cause of Louis XIV. and Philip V., was compelled to recognise Charles III. as King of Spain. Clement had long complained in vain of the garrisons established by the Imperialists in the States of the Church, and of the exorbitant contributions which they levied, as well as of the acts of sovereignty exercised by Joseph in the duchies of Parma and Piacenza; and in July 1708 he had published a bull in which he threatened the Emperor with his temporal as well as spiritual weapons. In pursuance of these threats, Clement took measures for levying any army of 25,000 men, which he confided to the command of Count Marsigli, a Bolognese who had been dismissed from the Imperial service for surrendering Breisach. But on the approach of General Daun, Clement adopted more moderate counsels; and by an agreement at Rome with the Marquis de Prié (January 15th 1709), he agreed to reduce his army to 5000 men, and to permit the Imperialists free passage through the States of the Church. In some secret articles he promised to recognise Charles III. as King of Spain, and to invest him with the crown of both the Sicilies. The questions respecting Parma, Piacenza, and Comacchio were to be settled in private conferences. A formal brief of recognition was eventually issued (June 26th 1709). This transaction, however, was rather prejudicial than otherwise to Austrian interests in Spain; since it gave the French party a handle to represent the German King to the zealous Spaniards as a favourer of heretical principles, and to confirm the insinuation, already made through his alliance with Protestant Powers, that it was intended to place a heretic on the throne of the Catholic Kings.

A treaty was also concluded this year (October 29th) at the Hague between Great Britain and the States-General, by which the latter engaged to guarantee the Protestant succession in England in favour of the House of Hanover; while Queen Anne, on her side, promised to procure for the Dutch an adequate barrier on the side of the Netherlands, consisting of the towns of Furnes, Nieuport, Ypres, Menin, Lille, Tournay, Condé, Valenciennes, Maubeuge, Charleroi, Namur, Halle, Damme, Dendermond, and the citadel of Ghent. Several of these places were not yet taken.42

1710. In the spring of the year Louis renewed at Gertruydenberg the conference for a peace, and in addition to his former proposals

"See Menzel, B. v. S. 46.

42 Dumont, t. viii. pt. i.

P. 243.

198

CAPITULATION OF BRIHUEGA.

[Book V. he now offered the allies a subsidy of a million livres a month against his grandson Philip V., in case the latter should refuse to content himself with Sicily and Sardinia. It was, however, a suspicious circumstance that at this very time Louis bestowed on the infant son of the Duke of Burgundy the title of "Duke of Anjou," which belonged to Philip V. in case of his renouncing the throne of Spain.43 The allies, who were determined on maintaining the war, required that Louis should himself expel his grandson from Spain without any assistance, except, perhaps, from their armies in Catalenia and Portugal. This outrageous proposition at once put an end to the conference.

There was no general engagement this year in Flanders, where the allies captured Douai, Béthune, St. Venant, and Aire, thus encroaching more and more on the French frontier. On the Rhine the armies contented themselves with observing each other; and a projected invasion of Dauphiné and Languedoc, from Savoy and the sea, proved a complete failure. The chief operations were in Spain, and were at first favourable to the allies. Stahremberg and Stanhope, by their victories at Almenara and Saragossa, were again enabled to penetrate to Madrid; while Philip V. and his court, and a great part of the population of the capital, retired to Valladolid. Charles III. entered Madrid for the first time towards the end of September, but was received by the inhabitants with a sullen silence, which caused him immediately to leave it for a villa in the neighbourhood. The arrival of Vendôme in Spain, who reorganised Philip's forces, and the advance of the Duke of Noailles to Perpignan, induced the allies to evacuate Madrid in November. Charles III. hastened to rejoin his consort at Barcelona. General Stanhope, with the rear-guard of the allies, composed of between 5000 and 6000 British troops, was overtaken by Philip and Vendôme at the little town of Brihuega (December 8th); where, being overpowered by superior numbers, and having exhausted all their ammunition, they were, after a brave and prolonged defence, compelled to surrender. Next day, Stahremberg, who was marching to Stanhope's relief, but too slowly, was defeated by Philip and Vendôme at Villa Viciosa, and compelled to hasten his retreat to Barcelona, where he arrived with only 7000 men. These events were decisive of the fate of Spain. The Duke of Noailles having invaded Catalonia, Charles found his Spanish possessions reduced to Barcelona and Tarragona.

1711. The war was now to take an unexpected turn through

43 Mahon, War of the Succession, p. 290. It might perhaps, however, be

answered that Philip was to be king of Sicily and Sardinia.