Victory, offered by an exhausted France to the Grand Alliance, is rejected. It is a decision most unwise, and liable to be regretted. With hopes of peace vanquished, then, all of Europe once more gathers its strength for another campaign of opportunity and horror. In Spain, another year means another defeat for one man, while in Italy things are quiet. Too quiet, in fact: the whispers of diplomats rather than the screams of the dying will dictate all here. Attention is drawn, as so often, to Belgium, where the greatest feats of endurance and determination will bring to the field armies both magnificent and miraculous. The frontiers of France now lie within striking distance of Marlborough and Eugene, and it falls to Mareschal Villars to hold the last line of defence.
It’s now 1709, and there’s so much going on that the affairs of Europe cannot be contained in two half-hour podcasts. Four, if we’re lucky, might be enough. In 1709 Part 1 we look at war and peace; the preparations for the former, the efforts made to secure the latter. The continent reels from the effects of a brutal winter, and weary combatants consider the relief offered by peace. But Mars is not subdued in all quarters, as in Spain a story of brave and heroic defeat develops, and completes a reconquest whose effects remain evident and, to some, contentious, even today. .
The second six-month of 1708 sees action concentrated in Belgium and Spain. The rest of the continent is the scene of limited conflict, and what there is, is of minor importance to the central issue. The third great battle of the war seems to decide, once and for all, the fate of the Low Countries, but there remains time to both undertake a siege of momentous scale, and to avenge perfidy. In the Mediterranean British power is boosted by a timely conquest, and a new type of maritime warfare comes to the fore.
After the disappointments of 1707, the Allies continue to face significant problems. In England a rift between the Queen’s chief ministers threatens to paralyse government, and rumours of that most feared of things – French invasion – make their way across the Channel. On the continent, the Habsburg party in Spain deceives itself with fanciful hopes, while the little resemblance to each other of German words and deeds delays Marlborough’s preparations for the campaign. But there is some good news – love is in the air, and bachelor King Carlos III bags himself a queen.
As an Allied army approaches the French port of Toulon, all of Europe is transfixed. In every other theatre are affairs suspended as both sides await impatiently news of the proceedings of Prince Eugene and Victor Amadeus: the pressure on Habsburg Catalonia is lessened as Frenchmen are recalled from Spain, and in Belgium the Dukes of Marlborough and Vendome observe each other over just a few miles of open, and gentle, and inviting, terrain.
The war in Spain does not go well for the Allies. Madrid has been abandoned, the once victorious army is now cooped up in the eastern region of Valencia, and the Earl of Galway risks everything to prevent the union of two mighty French armies. Elsewhere, the Great Northern War threatens to break in upon, and disrupt, the War of Succession, while in Italy measures are taken that put one of the great cities of France at risk.
As the shockwaves of the momentous Battle of Ramillies spread over Europe, affairs in all other theatres bow to the recognised importance of the war in Belgium. Regiments and generals are re-called by King Louis, and the Allies seek to take advantage of French distraction by going on the offensive in Italy and Spain.
It is 1706, and men know not where to look for the abundance of events that seem to portend either victory or defeat. Bourbon armies in Spain and Italy lay siege to Barcelona and to Turin, threatening to put an end to the war, and the Duke of Marlborough, whose grand scheme for a march to the Mediterranean is thwarted by French successes in Germany, finds himself presented with a most unexpected opportunity in Belgium.
The Spanish Expeditionary Force of the Grand Alliance arrives off of Catalonia and hopes to make a better show of things than their comrades the year before, but one eye remains on the affairs of the Duke of Savoy in not so distant Italy. The Duke, joined by his cousin Prince Eugene, fights to save his country from the massed forces of France, and in Flanders the Duke of Marlborough continues his struggle against the interfering political appointees of the States General.
While the Duke of Marlborough plans for a campaign on the borders of France that will force King Louis XIV to consider the demands of the Grand Alliance, the great Anglo-Dutch expedition to Spain is directed against Catalonia, and Prince Eugene of Savoy casts aside thoughts of retirement to lead the Army of Italy against the French once more.
The first great battle of the war erupts upon us, as the Allied army of the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy forces their Franco-Bavarian opponents into the engagement that they did not expect. The heroic Prince Georg of Hesse-Darmstadt sets victorious foot in Spain once more, and in England, the increasing power of the Whigs is most keenly felt in the heightened commitment of the country to the struggle.
With the Franco-Bavarian threat to the Habsburg Empire now at its highest pitch, the Duke of Marlborough marches his army into the heart of Europe to save Vienna. In the Iberian Peninsula the war begins in earnest as the arrival of British and Dutch troops opens up the Portuguese front, and in London the Tories over-reach themselves, seal their fall, and ensure that England will act as a central participant in the war, rather than a peripheral one.
The Duke of Marlborough, head of the principal army of the Grand Alliance in the Low Countries, chafes under the unceasing caution of his Dutch minders, and determines to tender his resignation and enjoy a life of quiet in England. Further south, the treacherous Elector of Bavaria is violently taught the important military maxim that even an untrained militia can be a tricky enemy when supported by mountains and valleys, and further south still, we all learn that immediate advantage is thicker than blood. Which is thicker than water.
These are momentous times for Europe, as on all sides the combatants in the War of Succession take bold steps towards glorious victory, or desperate self-preservation. There is hope in London and The Hague that not all of France’s alliances are as incorruptible as those with the Wittelbachs of Bavaria and Cologne-Liège, and an 18-year-old Austrian archduke begins his journey towards Spain.
The War of Succession begins in earnest, as the principal powers of the Grand Alliance declare war on France and Spain, and the first attacks and sieges take place. William III, King of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Stadtholder of the United Provinces, and architect of the coalition against Bourbon expansionism, dies, to be replaced by his untested sister-in-law, Anne. This is also the year of the Anglo-Dutch war-fleet’s famous attack on the Spanish treasure fleet in Vigo Bay, an event that would fill the dreams of later treasure hunters with the hope of untold riches.
In this, the first episode of A New History Podcast’s The War of Spanish Succession: A History, we look at the reasons behind Europe’s descent into war just three years after the destructive Nine Years’ War came to an end, and the state of the participants as they embarked, once more, on bitter and bloody conflict.