Sefillingen, near Ulm. There he and Eugene were joined by Louis of Baden, and, leaving a sufficient force to reduce Ulm, the combined army marched towards the Rhine. At Bruchsal, near Philipsburg, the prince of Baden insisted that they should all stay and compel the surrender of Landau. This was opposed to the whole plans of Marlborough and Eugene, which were to give the French no time to reflect, but to drive them over their own frontiers. The margrave was now more than ever obstinate. The glory which Marlborough had won, and part of which he had tried to filch from him, was extremely galling to him, and especially that so much honour should fall to the lot of a heretic. The generals were obliged to follow his fancy; they allowed the prince to sit down before the place, and Marlborough and Eugene encamped at Croon-Weissingen to support him. This took place on the 12th of September, and the place held out till the 23rd of November, when it capitulated on honourable terms, and the king of the Romans characteristically came into the camp to have the honour of taking the place—so fond are these German princes of stepping into other people's honours instead of winning them for themselves. By this delay the precious remainder of the campaign was lost, and the French had time given them to recover their spirits, and to take measures for holding what was yet left them. After this the confederate army sate down before Traerbach, which surrendered to the hereditary prince of Hesse-Cassel in the middle of December, which closed the campaign.
Marlborough had not waited for these insignificant operations, but had proceeded to Berlin to engage the king of Prussia to suspend his claims on the Dutch, and to enter more zealously into the alliance for the perfect clearance of the French from Germany. He prevailed on the king to promise eight thousand troops for the assistance of the duke of Savoy, and to be commanded by the prince Eugene; and he exerted himself with the emperor to effect a settlement with the insurgents in Hungary, but his own triumphs stood in the way of his success. The emperor, since Marlborough's victories, was so elated, that he would listen to no reasonable terms. The emperor, however, complimented Marlborough, and sent him a letter announcing that he was made a prince of the empire. What Marlborough, however, hastened to far more eagerly than the honour, was an estate suitable to the dignity, and he did not hesitate to inform the emperor that it was impossible for him to take his seat in the diet without being in possession of an imperial fief.
From Berlin Marlborough proceeded to Hanover, and paid his court to the family which was to succeed to the crown of England. Thence he went to the Hague, where he was received with high honours by the States-General on account of the victories which he would never have achieved could they have restrained him. He arrived in England in the middle of December, carrying with him general Tallard and the rest of the distinguished officers, with the standards and other trophies of his victories. He was received with acclaim by all classes except a few ultra tories, who threatened to impeach him for his rash march to the Danube! As parliament had assembled, Marlborough took his seat in the house of peers the day after his arrival, where he was complimented on his magnificent success by the lord keeper. This was followed by a deputation with a vote of thanks from the commons, and by similar honours from the city. But perhaps the most palpable triumph of Marlborough was the transferring of the military trophies which he had taken from the Tower, where they were first deposited, to Westminster Hall. This was done by each soldier carrying a standard or other trophy, amid the thunders of artillery and the hurrahs of the people; such a spectacle never having been witnessed since the days of the Spanish Armada.
Besides the victories of Marlborough, there had been successes at sea, and one of them of far more consequence than was at the time imagined, namely, the conquest of Gibraltar. An army had been dispatched to Portugal under the duke of Schomberg and the Dutch general Fagel. It was expected that the king of Portugal would have had all in readiness for a vigorous campaign, but it was found that nothing whatever had been done. The few Portuguese troops were raw, undisciplined peasants; the French had, moreover, managed to buy up all the best horses, so that the cavalry could not be properly mounted. To make matters still worse, Schomberg and Fagel were on the worst of terms. The king of Portugal was to be ready to march with the six thousand Dutch and English troops by the middle of May into Spain; but it was the beginning of June before they were in action, and they then found that, instead of being invaders, they were themselves invaded by the duke of Berwick, natural son of James II., and nephew of Marlborough.
Whilst the so-called king Charles of Spain and the king of Portugal were at Santarem, issuing proclamations and inviting the Spaniards to join the standard of their rightful monarch, Charles of Austria, the duke of Berwick entered Portugal and took the town of Segura, and in quick succession also mastered Salva-Terra, Cebreros, Zelredo, and Lhana la Viella. At the same time Portugal was also entered at different places by the marquis of Jeoffreville, prince De Tilly, and the marquis Villadarias. Two Dutch battalions surrendered to Berwick at Sodreira Formosa, and king Philip himself arriving in the army, he invested Portalegre, and made prisoners an English regiment of foot under colonel Stanhope. Soon after he besieged and took Castle Davide.
The marquis Das Minas, on the other hand, entered Spain with fifteen thousand men, and took Fuente Grimaldo, in Castille, defeated a body of French and Spaniards commanded by Don Ronquillo, and made himself master of Mansiento. During the intense heat of the summer both armies retired into quarters, and after the return of the cooler season little more was done. King Charles and the king of Portugal made, indeed, as if they would invade Spain; but, on arriving on the banks of the Agueda, they found them so well guarded that they did not attempt to force a passage. Such was the contemptible campaign for the throne of Spain. Schomberg was so disgusted with the service, finding that his advice was totally lost on the imbecile ministry of Spain that he begged to resign his command, and the old Huguenot Ruvigny, the earl of Galway, was sent in his place.
The success in this quarter was achieved by the English, though its full value was not at once perceived. Sir George
