LOUIS XIV. 301 captured Gibraltar in 1704. There also it appeared for the moment that the victory of the allies was assured. Next year, however, the campaign in Spain was in favour of the French j and Marlborough was kept inactive partly because his diplomatic abilities were required to prevent the interven- tion of the Swedish King Charles xn. on behalf oudenarde, of France. But again the French recovery was 1708. checked in 1708 by another decisive victory of Marlborough and Eugene at Oudenarde in Flanders, where the control by the allies was again secured. The strain on the resources of France was becoming cruel, and the conflict was apparently all but hopeless. Louis sued for peace, and would probably have accepted the terms offered by the allies if they had not actually included the demand that he should assist by force of arms in ejecting his grandson from Spain. Louis, since he must fight, preferred fighting his enemies rather than his kinsmen j France answered heroically to his appeal, and the war went on. Once more Marlborough won a victory at Malplaquet, but at such cost to his own troops that the moral effect in France was almost as encouraging as if he had been Malplaquet, defeated. Again Louis proposed peace, and" again 1709. the same impossible terms were offered. Both Marlborough and Eugene, the conquering generals, were bent on crushing France utterly ; and the state of English politics made the duke feel that his own personal power depended on the con- tinuation of the war. The French fought on stubbornly ; the exorbitant demands of the chiefs of the allies were condemned by the general sentiment of Europe. In Spain the tide of success turned in favour of Philip. In England The Tide the Duchess of Marlborough lost her influence turns, mo. with the queen, and a revulsion of popular feeling against the existing Whig Government brought into office the Tory leaders, who promptly recalled Marlborough and attacked him with exaggerated charges of peculation and misconduct. The death of the Emperor Joseph gave the Austrian succession and the Imperial Crown to his brother, the Archduke Charles ; so that, as far as the balance of power was concerned, his claim
