Blenheim 1704: Marlborough's March to the Danube and the Trapped Village

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In 1704, during the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV's French and their Bavarian allies pressed on Vienna while a Hungarian revolt surged from the east. In the Low Countries, the Duke of Marlborough feinted toward the Moselle and Alsace, even ordering bridges built over the Rhine, while rigid French commanders waited on orders from Versailles. He then marched about 40,000 men some 400 kilometers in five weeks to the Danube, with a Dutch diplomat prepaying grain, boots, and depots through letters of credit backed by the Bank of England. Joining Prince Eugene of Savoy, he stormed the Schellenberg and burned the Bavarian countryside to draw Elector Maximilian out of his lines as Marshal Tallard arrived through the Black Forest.

On August 13, 1704, near Höchstädt, 56,000 French and Bavarians with 90 guns faced 52,000 allies with 66. That morning Tallard reported that the allies were retreating, until they emerged from the mist across the marshy Nebel. In Blenheim village, Clérambault crammed his reserve battalions into streets so tight that men could not raise their muskets, and Marlborough simply sealed the exits. Eugene was thrown back three times at Lutzingen. Marlborough's infantry blocks, with gaps left between them, stopped the gendarmes with rolling volleys, and his cavalry burst through and split the French army. Tallard was captured, and about 10,000 trapped infantry in Blenheim surrendered around 9 p.m.

• Captain Parker wrote that on the march soldiers had nothing to do but pitch tents, boil kettles, and rest.
• Tallard's horses were weakened by glanders, and German peasants ambushed his stragglers in the Black Forest.
• Eugene shot two of his own fleeing troopers with his pistol to stop a rout.
• More than 3,000 French horsemen drowned in the Danube while fleeing, and French and Bavarian casualties reached 27,000.
• Queen Anne funded Blenheim Palace for Marlborough as a monument to the victory.