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The Duke left The Hague on 9 May.
" God knows I go with a heavy heart ," he wrote six days later to his friend and political ally in England, Lord Godolphin, " for I have no hope of doing anything considerable, unless the French do what I am very confident they will not … " – in other words, court battle.
On 17 May the Duke concentrated his Dutch and English troops at Tongeren, near Maastricht.
The Hanoverians, Hessians and Danes, despite earlier undertakings, found, or invented, pressing reasons for withholding their support.
Marlborough wrote an appeal to the Duke of Württemberg, the commander of the Danish contingent – " I send you this express to request your Highness to bring forward by a double march your cavalry so as to join us at the earliest moment …" Additionally, the King in Prussia, Frederick I, had kept his troops in quarters behind the Rhine while his personal disputes with Vienna and the States-General at The Hague remained unresolved.
Nevertheless, the Duke could think of no circumstances why the French would leave their strong positions and attack his army, even if Villeroi was first reinforced by substantial transfers from Marsin ’ s command.
But in this he had miscalculated.
Although Louis XIV wanted peace he wanted it on reasonable terms ; for that, he needed victory in the field and to convince the Allies that his resources were by no means exhausted.

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