Blenheim

The Battle That Created The Marlborough Legend

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August 13, 1704, saw the Duke of Marlborough achieve a decisive victory against the French... Combining one of history's most audacious strategic manoeuvres with perhaps the greatest military victory ever won by a British commander, the Blenheim campaign is rightly considered the pinnacle of the career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. On August 13, 1704, Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy faced a Franco-Bavarian army threatening to knock Austria out of the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).

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Marlborough had marched approximately 40,000 British, Dutch and German troops 250 miles in five weeks. His tactics included building bogus pontoon bridges to deceive the French into thinking Alsace was the target. This extraordinary feat of strategy and logistics caught his opponents off guard.

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Marlborough did a most ungentlemanly thing. He'd got up at 2 o'clock in the morning and marched his troops into battle early. When Marshal Tallard awoke on the morning of August 13, 1704, and looked out of the nearest window, the one thing he was definitely not expecting to see was an entire army lined up to attack him.

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In a hard fought battle Marlborough won a resounding victory, capturing Marshal Tallard and over 14,000 men.

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“I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen and let her know that her Army has had a glorious victory. M. Tallard and two other generals are in my coach and I am following the rest. The bearer, Colonel Parke, will give her an account of what has passed. I shall do it in a day or two by another more at large.”

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"As we marched through the country...commissars were appointed to

furnish us with all manner of necessaries for man and horse...the soldiers had nothing to do but pitch their tents, boil kettles and lie down to rest... Surely never was such a march carried on with more order... and less fatigue both to man and horse."

Captain Robert Parker, describing the march to Blenheim,1704.

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Cavalry charge

At the cost of 12,000 men killed and wounded, Marlborough and Eugene had inflicted a crushing defeat on the Franco-Bavarians. The latter suffered at least 20,000 casualties and 14,000 men captured, including Marshal Tallard.

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Blenheim destroyed the myth of French invincibility and marked the

beginning of a successful partnership between Marlborough and Eugene. This was one of a string of successes that saved Europe from French domination.

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It also secured Marlborough’s status as Britain's best general and earned the British Army an enduring reputation for courage and discipline on the battlefield.

 

Source: Source: National Army Museum/English Heritage/britishbattles.com

Photo: Robert Alexander Hillingford/Wikipedia • Believed to be in the Public Domain