Event Summary:
After the death of the King of Spain, France unilaterally declared Philippe king, which led to the dissatisfaction of other European countries, so Britain, the Netherlands, Austria and Portugal formed an anti-French alliance and war broke out. Queen Anne was the second daughter of James II, with mediocre talents, but she knew how to use them well.
She single-handedly led the army led by Churchill, Count of Malboro, and won successive victories on the Battlefield of Europe, and joined forces with Prince Eugen to defeat the French army several times.
John Churchill's continuous achievements on the battlefield earned him the title of Earl of the Queen and rewarded him with the Palace of Blenheim, but the continuous war over the years has tired many Englishmen, and even though the Earl has won successive victories, there are already voices against him in Parliament, and the anti-war sentiment in the country is getting higher and higher.
After the French peace, there was a dispute between the Count and Queen Anne, and after the Tories who opposed the Count negotiated with France, the Count was immediately removed from his post, not only that, in order to force the Duke of Marboro and his supporters to obey smoothly, the Tories accused him of embezzling a huge amount of military expenses, and the Duke had to flee to Europe.
It is a matter of opinion whether he embezzled military funds or not, but his personal military and diplomatic skills made him the most powerful man in England in 1702.
On the eve of the Great War
In 1700, King Charles II of Spain died without heirs.
King Louis XIV of France competed for the Spanish throne for his grandson Philippe, Austrian monarch, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I for his son Charles, and Elector of Bavaria for his son Ferdinand.
During this period, france unilaterally declared Philippe king of Spain on the pretext that Charles II had a will.
Soon, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, and Portugal formed an anti-French alliance, and the war broke out the following year, known as the "War of the Spanish Succession".
During the reign of William III, Britain and France fought many years of war, and England suffered too much loss and little gain, while France seemed to have the upper hand and glory for a while. However, Louis XIV did not know that France was the end of the crossbow, and still wanted to dominate Europe by force.
When Queen Anne ascended the throne, although the british parties were fiercely strife, in the early days of the Queen's reign, they unanimously targeted France as a common target.
This year,
The 50-year-old Duke of Malboro became the second most important figure in England after Queen Anne, who listened to him in all aspects of national policy and enjoyed great prestige among the Whigs and Tories. Queen Anne reused the Duke of Marboro as commander-in-chief of the British army.
As soon as he was authorized, he rushed to the Netherlands, united England with all seven dutch provinces under the rule of William III, and served as the supreme military commander of Britain and the Netherlands, ready to go to war against France. Seeing this situation, Germany and other countries and Prussia also moved closer and formed a united front with the British army.
In 1701, Louis XIV of France took advantage of the death of William III to deploy his army on the Apen Peninsula. In 1702, the Coalition officially declared war on France
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Marboro inside and out
Although the Duke of Malboro had no experience in commanding major battles, he seemed to be a natural warrior, and he was unstoppable as soon as he reached the battlefield, and in the first battle against France, he easily recovered all the fortresses along the Maas River, making the entire river unimpeded.
The fierce French army became vulnerable to a strong enemy, and the Duke of Malboro regained the fortresses of Blazing Sun, Cologne and Bonn, and when he led the army back to the Dynasty, he was warmly welcomed by the Dutch and was also awarded the title of Duke by Queen Anne.
However, the Duke of Malboro, as commander,
He was well aware that 60,000 Allied troops were fighting 60,000 Allied forces, and it was entirely possible to annihilate them without cutting off the other side's lines of communication.
However, fighting on its own borders, the Dutch did not dare to take risks, preferring to fight a safe war of attrition rather than an adventurous war of annihilation, so when the Dutchman was passive and sluggish, he had no other way but to sigh.
In 1703, the Duke of Marboro suffered several defeats on the battlefield, at which time some anti-war Tories began to attack him.
Queen Anne was well aware of the situation, and at the Queen's behest, the Duke of Malboro removed these opponents from Parliament.
In this way, the officials in the government are all his own supporters.
The Battle of Glory of the Dukes of Malboro
In 1704, the Duke of Malboro noticed Prince Eugen, who was fighting in the heart of Germany. Eugen, a Native of France, had asked the King of France at the age of 19 to lead his troops to fight, but Louis XIV looked down on the young man and refused his request, and Eugen defected to Germany in a fit of rage, and he soon became the commander of a Certain German Cavalry Regiment.
In the following ten years of conquest, he achieved good results, and rose all the way to lieutenant general, marshal, commander-in-chief, etc., until he became the famous Prince Eugen on the European battlefield.
During the War of the Spanish Succession in 704, Prince Eugen had been fighting the French in northern Italy, and the Dutch battlefield was slightly calmer, but on the French border, the German and Austrian allies, the Northern French army, was deadlocked, and another French army joined forces with the Bavarian elector to directly threaten Vienna, Austria.
In order to understand the siege of Vienna and fight against the French army, the Duke of Malboro secretly agreed with Prince Eugen to lead about 20,000 Allied troops from the Netherlands in May of the same year
Along the way, he continued to meet with Prince Eugen's troops and attacked south Germany. In June, the two teams met as scheduled and defeated the combined forces of France and Bavaria.
In early August, the Duke of Malboro and Prince Eugen led 50,000 Anglo-German allies to attack the 56,000 Franco-Palestinian forces.
On August 13, the two sides fought a major battle in the German town of Blenheim, which was extremely fierce, like the Battle of Crécy and the Battle of Agencourt in the history of the British war.
After the Battle of Blenheim, all the elite French cavalry was annihilated, the Bavarian electors retreated in a hurry, the Franco-Palestinian coalition suffered more than half of the casualties, the Anglo-German Allies suffered less than one-third of the casualties, and more than 100 artillery pieces and other booty were captured.
The Siege of Vienna was completely lifted. Queen Anne, after receiving the news of the victory ahead, gave a piece of land near Oxford to the Duke of Malboro and built him a luxurious mansion, the Blenheim Palace.
After this battle, the Duke of Marboro became an outstanding military figure in British history, and made a pioneering contribution to the Duke of Malboro family.
Successive victories severely damaged the French army
King Louis XIV of France, who deliberately provoked the war, did not expect to be defeated, and after suffering this heavy blow, he rested for more than a year before he eased up, and in the spring of 1706, France made a good start, and won several small victories in a row.
In late May, a 60,000-strong French army and a 62,000-strong Anglo-Dutch army went to war in Rami, Belgium.
Prince Eugen commanded a team to launch a fierce attack on the left flank of the French army, the French army mobilized troops from the middle road to rush to support, at this time, the French right wing was in a swamp, unable to support, and it was not easy to attack, so the Duke of Marboro quickly moved the troops that had originally attacked the right wing of the French army to the middle road to support Prince Eugen.
After the Battle of Ramiy, with some 15,000 French casualties and captured, and less than 5,000 Allied casualties, the Duke of Marboro and Prince Eugen were once again victorious, but after this battle, the Whigs who had supported him began to demand power-sharing.
In 1707, there was a small battle between the Allies led by Britain and Austria and the French allies, and the Allies destroyed a French fleet anchored in the port of Toulon, firmly controlling the sea in the Mediterranean.
Queen Anne made many efforts between England and Scotland, and finally passed the Merger Act.
By the time of the general elections in May 1708, many Whigs entered Parliament and became the majority party in the House of Commons.
From 1708 to 1709, the Allies fought against the Allies in Oderard, Mal prakai, and won a decisive victory, at this time, the war had lasted for 7 years, the British, the Dutch were more and more tired of the war, and the anti-war sentiment in the country gradually rose.
A year later, the main war Whigs lost power, the anti-war Tories came to power, and France, which had suffered repeated blows in the war, also showed a peace-seeking attitude, which led to disputes between the Queen and the Duke of Marboro. 1
From 711 to 1712, the Duke of Malboro led an army to conquer the last fortress on the French border line, completely clearing all obstacles along the line.
The Duke of Malboro could have continued to march forward and taken Paris directly, but england
The national anti-war Tories began negotiations with France. Soon, the duke who had achieved great success in battle was removed from his post,
In order to force the Duke of Marboro and his supporters to comply, the Tories also accused the Duke of Marboro of embezzling a huge amount of military expenses, in which case the Duke had to choose to flee to Europe.
At the end of the war, Britain, the Netherlands, France, Spain and other countries signed a series of treaties from 1713 to 1714, including the Treaty of Utrecht signed in the Netherlands, and it was because of this treaty that France ended decades of expansion and lost most of its territory.
The Treaty of Oudler greatly enhanced Britain's power in the colonies
The situation of French domination of Europe is gone forever.
epilogue
In general, during the reign of Queen Anne, although the war was frequent, because of Queen Anne's good use, she single-handedly promoted the Duke of Malboro and won successive victories on the European battlefield, which made the British power overseas expand rapidly, and combined with the stable situation in Britain, it merged with Scotland.
So overall Britain benefited the most, John Churchill in the war of the Spanish succession fame and fortune, but also with Prince Eugen to defeat France, the two of them can be described as Louis XIV's two major nemesis, he is with Austria's Eugen, France's Louis and known as the best general in Europe in the early eighteenth century, and the later British Prime Minister Winston Churchill is also his direct descendant.
References: Europe in the Middle Ages, History of World Wars, Visible History of England