"Louis XIV, Gloire, and Strategy" (Lynn 17)

Daniel Krimmer
Senior Division
Individual Website

"I loved war too much" (Louis XIV)

• Home
• Timeline
• Spotlight on the Wars

  • The War of Devolution
  • The Dutch War
    • 1671-73
    • 1674-78
    • Legacy
  • The War of the Reunions
  • The Nine Years War
    • 1687-89
    • 1690-92
    • 1693-97
    • Legacy
  • The War of the Spanish Succesion
    • 1700-02
    • 1703-07
    • 1709-14
    • Legacy
• The Military Forces

  • Army
  • Navy
• Bibliography

"From the start of the conflict and throughout its course, the French would rely heavily on a series of entrenched lines designed to stop enemy raiders and to make the advance of allied arms difficult" (Lynn 275) France suffered many injuries "that the powers could not shrug off " (Buranelli 161).  The several starting years of the war put confidence in the French army.  ”The war was still gaining momentum as the adversaries defined themselves.  England, the united Provinces, and Leopold I only declared war on France in mid-May." (Lynn 274).  In 1704 the course of the war shifted greatly to France's side "Thanks to Marlborough's genius, the fighting along the Danube went from near disaster for the Grand Alliance to absolute triumph at Blenheim on 13 August." (Lynn 286).  

The big campaign of 1704 was the Blenheim campaign.  Captain Robert Parker, a soldier who took part in the march wrote “We frequently marched three, sometimes four days, successively, and halted a day.  We generally began our march about three in the morning, preceded about four leagues, or four and a half each day, and reached our ground about nine.  As we marched through the countries of our Allies, commissaries were appointed to furnish us with all manner of necessaries for man and horse; these were brought to the ground before we arrived, and the soldiers had nothing to do, but pitch their tents, boil their kettles, and lie down to rest.  Surely never was such a march carried on with more order and regularity, and with less fatigue both to man and horse."(Lynn 293).

 Even though Marlborough won at Blenheim it "led to immediate and great consequences. Defeated French and Bavarian troops streamed back to Ulm"(Lynn 291).  "The first five years of warfare since 1701 had not led to the quick peace that Louis would have desired.  He had lost his German allies, Victor Amadeus had turned against him, and in addition, parts of Spain were in rebellion against his grandson."(Lynn 302).  Louis XIV attempted in peace treaties in 1706 but they didn't work.  "Things had gone well for the French in 1707" (Lynn 316) but 1708 led to a big crisis with the Bourbons.