They were to operate on the Moselle, while Ouwerkerk remained to care for the defence of the Netherlands. The army, includin sixteen thousand English, started from Bedburg, near Juliers, 19 May 1704. Marlborough advanced to Coblentz and up the Rhine to Mayence, which he reached 29 May. Here he learned that the French had been able, through the want of enterprise of the Prince of Baden, to reinforce the elector of Bavaria. They were still, however, perplexed by his movements, and prepared to meet him first upon the Moselle and then in Alsace. His design had now to be revealed. He halted at Ladenburg on the Neckar 4 June, and thence sent word to the States of his intention to fall upon the elector of Bavaria. They at once approved and placed the army fully at his disposal. He moved up the Neckar, and on 10 June met Eugene for the first time at the village of Mondelsheim. The Prince of Baden joined them on the 13th, and it was arranged that Eugene should command the troops on the Rhine, while Marlborough and the Prince of Baden should command the other army upon alternate days. Marlborough now advanced to the Danube through the defile of Gieslingen, forming a junction with the forces of the Prince of Baden on the 23rd at Westerstetten, some miles north of Ulm. The elector of Bavaria left Ulm, and moved down the Danube to an entrenched camp between Lauingen and Dillingen, detaching a force to occupy the Schellenberg, a strong position above Donauwerth. He thus covered the approach to Bavaria.
The confederates resolved to seize this position before it could be strengthened. On 1 July they moved to a camp in sight of the elector's lines and fourteen miles from the Schellenberg. Next morning Marlborough turned his day of command to account by starting at five a.m. The whole force was at the foot of the Sehellenberg about mid-day. News came at the same time that the elector was expecting reinforcements. Marlborough at once ordered an assault, which began at six in the evening. The English and Dutch suffered severely, when an attack by their allies upon an unfinished part of the lines decided the victory, with a loss to the conquerors of fifteen hundred killed and four thousand wounded. The elector of Bavaria immediately evacuated Donauworth, and fell back to Augsburg to preserve his communications with the French. He thus left Bavaria at the mercy of the confederates. After a nugatory attempt to detach the elector from the French alliance, the allies endeavoured to enforce compliance by laying waste the country. Marlborough speaks with creditable feeling of the sufferings thus inflicted upon the unhappy Bavarians, and did his best, it is said, to restrain wanton injury. The elector, as might be expected, was exasperated, and not coerced, by the sufferings of his subjects. Some small places were taken in the district south of the Danube, and the country ravaged to the gates of Munich.
Marshal Tallard was meanwhile hastening from the Rhine, through the country south of the Danube, while Eugene with a smaller force made a parallel march on the north. Eugene reaches the plains of Hochstadt about the time when Tallard joined the elector at Biberbach on the Schmutten, south of Donauwerth. On 6 Aug. Eugene himself came to Marlborough’s camp at Schrobenhausen, a village on the river Saar, which joins the Danube from the south below Ingolstadt. It was agreed to detach the troublesome Prince Louis to besiege Ingolstadt with some twelve thousand men, while Marlborough hastened to effect a junction with Eugene's forces. Tallard and the elector marched upon Lauingen, crossing the Danube, and compelling Eugene to fall back towards Donauwerth. Malborough joined him by a rapid march to Donauwerth on ll Aug. The two armies were now in resence on the north bank of the Danube. On a reconnaissance on the 12th Marlborough and Eugene found the enemy occupying a strong position across the narrow plain between the Danube at Blenheim and the wooded heights to the north. The armies were of nearly equal force, between fifty thousand and sixty thousand men, the French having a slight superiority. Marlborough and Eugene decided, however, upon an immediate attack, lest the enemy should fortify themselves; while an advance of another French force under Villeroy might threaten the chief sources of their own supplies in Würtemberg. Delays were dangerous, as the Dutch or other allies might at any time recall their troops and neutralise all the results of the march to the Danube. The generals therefore advanced at two a.m. on 13 Aug. Tallard had thrown a strong force into the village of Blenheim on his right, while the elector of Bavaria held Lutzingen on the left. The villa of Oberglauh was held by the French until Marsin, while the stream of the Nebel covered the front. The centre, however, was comparatively weak, and no sufficient means were taken to obstruct the passage of the Nebel. Marlborough took advantage of this error. A vigorous attack upon Blenheim was opened by the English troops about one p.m. It was repulsed with severe loss, but Marlborough directed Lord
