The War of Spanish Succession
"Hostilities between the French and the imperial forces began in Italy,
where the imperial general, Prince Eugene of Savoy, defeated Nicolas
Catinat and the duke of Villeroi. The general war began in 1702, with
England, Holland, and most of the German states opposing France, Spain,
Bavaria, Portugal, and Savoy. The duke of Marlborough, though
ill-supported by the Dutch, captured a number of places in the Low
Countries (1702–3), while Eugene held his own against Villeroi and his
successor, Louis Joseph, duc de Vendôme. The duke of Villars, however,
defeated Louis of Baden at Friedlingen (1702).
The successes
of the French in Alsace enabled them to menace Vienna (1703), but the
opportunity was lost by dissension among their chiefs. In 1704,
Marlborough succeeded in moving his troops from the Netherlands into
Bavaria, where he joined Eugene and won the great victory of Blenheim
over the French under the count of Tallard (see Blenheim, battle of),
and the French lost Bavaria. Meanwhile, Portugal and Savoy had changed
sides (1703), and in 1704 the English captured Gibraltar.
In
1705, Marlborough in the Netherlands and Eugene in Italy had modest
successes, although Vendôme defeated Eugene at Cassano. The year 1706
was marked by Eugene's victory at Turin, which resulted in French
evacuation of N Italy, and by Marlborough's triumph at Ramillies, which
compelled the French to retreat in the Low Countries. In the same year,
Louis XIV proposed peace to the Dutch, but English interference forced
the continuance of the war.
In 1707, Marlborough made little
progress in the north and Eugene's expedition into Provence resulted in
the loss of 10,000 men; but in the following year Marlborough and
Eugene won another great victory at Oudenarde, took Lille, and drove
the French within their borders. Peace negotiations failed, and the
allies won (1709) another success, though a costly one, at Malplaquet.
Meanwhile
the indecisive allied campaigns in Spain (1708–10) did little to weaken
Philip V. The death (1711) of Holy Roman Emperor "Joseph I", who had
succeeded Leopold, and the accession of Charles VI led to the
withdrawal of the English, who were as much opposed to the union of
Spain and Austria as to that of Spain and France." (Steingrad)