420 Renewed peace negotiations.- Vendôme in Flanders [1707-8

autumn of 1706. Already in October and November of that year, an attempt had been made to influence the Imperial Court in the direction. of peace through Pope Clement XI; and, when the campaigns of 1707 had conspicuously demonstrated not only the weakness of the Empire in itself, but also the dubiousness of Archduke Charles' prospects of establishing himself on the Spanish throne, the labours of the French agents recommenced with a better chance of success. During the winter of 1707-8 seductive suggestions of mercantile advantages were again. made at Amsterdam and Rotterdam by Nicolas Mesnager, deputy of Rouen in the Conseil de Commerce at Paris and an expert in colonial and general trade affairs, who from this time onward plays an important part in the negotiations for peace, and by the Belgian Count Bergeyek, on behalf of Philip V. But Marlborough's star remained in the ascendant; and in December, 1707, by passing in the House of Lords an amended resolution that no peace could be honourable or safe which allowed the House of Bourbon to retain any part of the Spanish monarchy, the Whig party blocked all peace proposals incompatible with this declaration.

For the campaign of 1708 it had been proposed that Marlborough should occupy Vendôme and the main French army, over 80,000 strong, in the Netherlands, while a joint advance was made by George Lewis of Hanover upon Alsace, and by Eugene by the Saar and Moselle. But George Lewis, through no fault of his own, could not carry out his share of the design. The failure of many of the principal German Powers, notably Saxony and Prussia, to provide their proper contingents made it impossible for the army of the Empire, whose available force was under 20,000, to take the field; and Eugene had accordingly to fall back on the alternative plan, which had all along been contemplated, of transferring to the Netherlands his 76 squadrons and 33 battalions, in all some 35,000 men, mainly Austrians, Hessians and Palatines. Here Vendôme had been beforehand with the Allies, taking the field at the beginning of July, and by rapid movements securing the line of the Scheldt, the gates of Bruges and Ghent being opened to him by French partisans within. Too late to save western Flanders, Marlborough took up his position at Assche, to cover Brussels and await Vendôme's next move or Eugene's arrival. After the fall of the citadel of Ghent (July 8), Vendôme decided to besiege Oudenarde, the possession of which would greatly improve the communications between Ghent and Bruges and the French frontier; and, to cover this operation, he moved up the Dender towards Lessines (July 9). This was Marlborough's opportunity. Though Eugene's troops were not yet up, and his own army was more than 10,000 weaker than Vendôme's, he never hesitated. By a great forced march, which carried his vanguard over the Dender at Lessines on the evening of the 9th, he interposed between Vendôme and the French frontier and caused the French commander to fall back to the north

1708]

Oudenarde and its results

421

westward, so as to cover Bruges, making for Gaveren, where he proposed to cross the Scheldt. But again Marlborough's mobility baffled his adversary. The Allied vanguard under Cadogan pushed forward again and, early on July 11, secured the passage at Eyne, just below Oudenarde and some six miles above Vendôme's proposed crossing-place. Finding the Allies so near and their vanguard only across the Scheldt and in apparent isolation, Vendôme determined to fall on it and crush it, in defiance of the opinion of his colleague, the Duke of Burgundy, who would have preferred to take up a defensive position behind the Norken, a few miles to the west. The battle began with an advance against the Allied position near Eyne by Vendôme's vanguard, which, being left unsupported by Burgundy, ended with a disastrous repulse. Then, when the main body of the Allies was rapidly arriving and prolonging Cadogan's original position to left and right, Burgundy gave the order for a general advance. The battle was stoutly contested, the French attempts to outflank the Allied left being repulsed, though they in turn prevented the Prussians from gaining ground in that quarter. Marlborough, however, sustained the Prussians with Danish and Dutch troops; and, pushing forward the cavalry of his left under cover of a hill, not only outflanked the French right, but took it in the rear, just as the French left, which was at last pushing forward, was driven back in disorder by the British cavalry. Only nightfall saved the bulk of the French forces from capture, and it was a beaten and demoralised army which rallied behind the Bruges canal near Ghent.

The victory of Oudenarde exhibits clearly Marlborough's wonderful power for fighting an impromptu battle and his remarkable eye for ground. The physical feat performed by his troops in fighting such a battle, after covering nearly fifty miles between 2 a.m. on the 9th and 2 p.m. on the 11th, is also noteworthy; but what is most striking in connexion with his victory of Oudenarde is the daring use to which Marlborough would have put it, could he have obtained the consent of the Dutch and of Eugene, who had himself arrived in time to share in the victory, and whose army arrived a few days after the action. Marlborough would have boldly pushed on into France, merely masking the great fortress of Lille, and have thereby transferred the war to French territory; while the descent upon Normandy of a corps under General Erle would have provided him with a new line of communications with England. He counted on the invasion of France for bringing about automatically the evacuation of western Flanders by the remnants of Vendôme's army. The scheme was, however, too unorthodox even for the enterprising Eugene; and it was decided that the Prince's army should proceed to besiege Lille, Marlborough covering the operation against interference by Berwick, who had come up from the Moselle with 20,000 men and was endeavouring to join Vendôme. About the middle of August the siege was begun, and, despite the stout defence of the veteran Boufflers,

422

Siege of Lille. - Negotiations resumed

[1708-9 was steadily pressed. Vendôme quitted Ghent, and on August 30 joined Berwick near Tournay; but, instead of venturing another general action with Marlborough, they took up a position between Lille and Brussels, hoping to raise the siege by interrupting the Allied communications with the Belgian capital. Ostend was, however, open; and a vast convoy of ammunition and stores was conducted thence by Cadogan and by Webb, whose brilliant success over de La Mothe at Wynendael (September 28) contributed largely to its safe arrival. On October 22 the town fell, and on December 9 the citadel also surrendered. The siege had cost the Allies over 15,000 casualties; but the prize was of great value. Indeed, the straits to which the French had been reduced is evident from their evacuation of Bruges and all western Flanders, and their retreat within their own frontier, as well as from the terms of peace which Louis now declared himself ready to accept.

As in 1706, so in the spring of 1709 Louis made his first overtures to the Dutch; but Heinsius, who, so late as December, 1708, had declared the adherence of the States General to the principle of the renunciation of the entire Spanish monarchy by the House of Bourbon, would hear nothing of any separate negotiation. Thus, before the pourparlers between Rouillé, who was soon joined by Torcy, and the Dutch delegates, Buys and van der Dussen, which began on March 17, had proceeded far, a clear understanding had been reached between Heinsius and Marlborough. The concessions which the French envoys were empowered to make might well have satisfied the Allies, if they had been prepared to entertain any notion of a partition of the Spanish monarchy. Louis was prepared to be satisfied with the retention by Philip of Naples and Sicily only; all the rest of the Spanish inheritance was to be given up; and Mons, Namur, and even Strassburg, were to be surrendered, Lille alone being restored to France. After an interview at the Hague between Marlborough and Torcy on May 17, at which the French envoy attempted to obtain lower terms by bribery on a grand scale, he on the 19th informed Heinsius that he was empowered to offer the cession of the entire Spanish inheritance. Louis XIV had some weeks earlier consented to recognise the Protestant Succession in England, and it was understood that no objection would ultimately be made to the cession of Newfoundland to England, on which Marlborough had in addition insisted, or to the satisfaction of Savoy. The real difficulty lay in the question of the guarantee which Louis could furnish for Philip's surrender of the Spanish monarchy. The Dutch, with unerring instinct, proposed that the three French towns, Valenciennes, St Omer, and Cambray, should be pledged to the States General; and this solution was supported at the Hague by the veteran authority of Portland (Bentinck). But, recog nising that it was England upon whom it would devolve to settle affairs in Spain, the English Government, represented by Townshend at the Hague, demurred; and the Emperor and Savoy now raised their demands.

1709]

Preliminaries of the Hague rejected

423

Thus, the Preliminaries presented on May 28 to Torcy on behalf of the Allies as an ultimatum, provided for a return to the conditions of 1648, including a greatly improved " Barrier" for the Dutch and the retrocession of Alsace and Franche Comté, the demolition of the works of Dunkirk, the recognition of the Hanoverian Succession in England and the explusion of the Pretender from France, and added the demand that Louis should, by August 1, obtain the surrender by Philip of the Spanish monarchy, or, in case of this not being effected, take measures, in conjunction with the Allies, for effecting it. The truce between the belligerents was, in the event of the surrender of the Spanish monarchy within the period fixed, to last till the conclusion and ratification of peace -in other words, Louis might eventually find himself obliged, with diminished possessions and reduced resources, to resume the war. Torcy at once pointed out the necessity of the ratification of peace preceding efforts which Louis might make to bring about the cession of the Spanish monarchy - for how, he asked, could the King use force towards his grandson? It was, in truth, a concession which not even Oudenarde and Lille, following upon Turin, Ramillies and Blenheim, could wring from Louis; and, as Madame de Maintenon declared, France would not have been France, had the nation failed to support the King in his refusal. Torcy, though preserving perfect calmness, promptly took his departure from the Hague on May 28, and on the same evening from Brussels intimated to Prince Eugene that the King had rejected the Preliminaries. On June 3 the news reached Villars' headquarters that the war was to proceed; nine days later Louis issued from Versailles his manifesto to his people, denouncing the Allies as having dishonoured France by their demand, and invoking the Divine protection for himself and his army.

any

It is now known that on July 10, 1709, writing most confidentially to Heinsius, Marlborough, whose ambition has been held largely accountable for the unreasonable demand made on Louis XIV by the Allies, avowed that "were he in the place of the King of France, he should venture the loss of his country much sooner than be obliged to join his troops for the forcing his grandson." The accusation, commonly preferred against Marlborough, of having prolonged the war for his own benefit, is untenable; but he had not at the right moment asserted his more rational views against the obduracy of Townshend, the calculations of the Dutch, and the self-centred obstinacy of the Emperor, who is probably to be held largely responsible for the breakdown. It must, however, be allowed that the cession of the Spanish monarchy-which was still regarded as an indispensable condition of peace was nugatory without guarantees. While both in Holland and in England there was an outburst of indignation against the defiant resolution of France, Marlborough and Prince Eugene were, not perhaps very fairly, blaming Dutch statesmanship for having found no better way of securing from Louis a satisfactory guarantee of the Spanish cession; and Heinsius was exhibiting his

424 The first Barrier Treaty.-Villars' preparations [1709

willingness to formulate next time less harsh demands. But, though Marlborough inclined to the revived alternative of a barrier of French fortresses, the Whig leaders held that the only pledge of the sort to be contemplated was a series of fortified places in Spain itself!

Meanwhile, in the negotiations which still dragged their length along, the question of a Dutch "Barrier" of Belgic fortresses remained as if it were a fixed point. It will, perhaps, be most convenient to review the whole question of this provision for the protection of the Dutch frontier in connexion with the third and final Barrier Treaty of 1715. Here, therefore, it will suffice to say that the first Treaty known by this name with the States General was signed by Townshend on October 29, 1709. It was, so to speak, an open secret. The United Provinces by it acquired the right of garrisoning nine fortified places in the Spanish Netherlands, together with ten others, should they be retaken from the French; and were thus constituted by England the guardians of southern Belgium-and, as it seemed to Prince Eugene, the eventual masters of the whole of the Belgic provinces. The protests of the Emperor were made in vain, for it was quite clear from this time onwards that, if the Maritime Powers held out by each other, the House of Habsburg was reduced to passivity as to this part of any ultimate settlement.

The exorbitant demands of the Allies had in the early summer of 1709 enabled Louis to make a stirring appeal to the dignity and patriotism of his subjects. Summoned to save France from a Coalition bent on her humiliation and ruin, all classes rallied round their aged monarch with wonderful alacrity and enthusiasm. Recruits flocked forward to replete the diminished ranks; nobles imitated the King in sending their plate to the Mint; the incompetent Chamillart was dismissed from the Ministry of War; and, by dint of astounding efforts, a tolerably well-equipped army of some 90,000 men was placed at the disposal of Villars, the only French Marshal who had not yet suffered defeat at the hands of the Allies. Moreover, the long delays over the negotiations provided the French with a welcome respite, which Villars utilised to reorganise and reanimate the troops and to construct fortified lines from Douay to St Venant, covering Arras and barring the line of advance between the Lys and the Scarpe. Not till June did the rupture of the negotiations allow the Allies to begin operations; and by that time Villars had made his lines so strong that even Marlborough shrank from a frontal attack, proposing to turn them by an advance into France along the coast, in which he would have used the British fleet as his movable base. But this daring design did not meet with Eugene's approval; and in July the Allies set about the more orthodox task of besieging Tournay, in order to secure the line of the Scheldt. Tournay was ably defended and occupied the Allies until the beginning of September; but Villars, too weak to risk a battle, had to remain inactive in his lines until reinforced by a strong division from the upper Rhine. There it had been