After securing Donauwörth on the Danube, Marlborough sought to engage the Elector's and Marsin's army before Marshal Tallard could bring reinforcements through the Black Forest.

If the Allies were not to be outnumbered on the Danube, Eugene realised he must either try to cut Tallard off before he could get there, or, he must hasten to reinforce Marlborough.

With the French flanks busy, Marlborough could cross the Nebel and deliver the fatal blow to the French at their centre.

However, Marlborough would have to wait until Eugene was in position before the general engagement could begin.

Count Horn's Dutch infantry managed to push the French back from the water's edge, but it was apparent that before Marlborough could launch his main effort against Tallard, Oberglauheim would have to be secured.

The reluctance of his Dutch allies to see their frontiers denuded of troops for another gamble in Germany had denied Marlborough the initiative, but of far greater importance was the Margrave of Baden ’ s pronouncement that he could not join the Duke in strength for the coming offensive.

Although Henry Lumley ’ s British cavalry had managed to cross the marshy ground around the Petite Gheete, it was soon evident to Marlborough that sufficient cavalry support would not be practicable and that the battle could not be won on the Allied right.

The final Allied reinforcements for the cavalry contest to the south were at last in position ; Marlborough ’ s superiority on the left could no longer be denied, and his fast-moving plan took hold of the battlefield.

Firstly, he chose to use a broad gauge of about to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds ; secondly he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs, which had no significant towns but which offered potential connections to Oxford and Gloucester.

Harley, now master of the Tory party, did all he could to persuade his colleagues that the pro-war Whigs – and by their apparent concord with Whig policy, Marlborough and Godolphin – were bent on leading the country to ruin.

To military historians David Chandler and Richard Holmes, Marlborough is the greatest British commander in history, an assessment that is shared by others, including the Duke of Wellington who could " conceive nothing greater than Marlborough at the head of an English army.

Helchteren could have become famous in 1702 when, during the War of the Spanish Succession, a French Army under Boufflers faced an alliance army under Marlborough.

Vendôme wanted to attack the city of Huy, which could draw Marlborough in pursuit.

He set it in Marlborough, Wiltshire ; Follett chose it as the cathedrals of Winchester, Gloucester, and Salisbury could be reached from there within a few days on horseback.

In his comment on these laws Steele sounds all the usual notes of current Whig propaganda, ranging from a criticism of the Tory peace to an attack on the dismissal of Marlborough ; ;

Whilst Marlborough led his army, General Overkirk would maintain a defensive position in the Dutch Republic in case Villeroi mounted an attack.

In any case, Marlborough had promised to return to the Netherlands if a French attack developed there, transferring his troops down the Rhine on barges at a rate of a day.

Marlborough and Eugene decided to risk everything, and agreed to attack on the following day.

The Allied commanders agreed that Marlborough would command 36, 000 troops and attack Tallard's force of 33, 000 on the left ( including capturing the village of Blenheim ), whilst Eugene, commanding 16, 000 men would attack the Elector and Marsin's combined forces of 23, 000 troops on the right wing ; if this attack was pressed hard the Elector and Marsin would have no troops to send to aid Tallard on their right.

" Marlborough, spotting this error, now countermanded Cutts ’ intention to launch a third attack, and ordered him simply to contain the enemy within Blenheim ; no more than 5, 000 Allied soldiers were able to pen in twice the number of French infantry and dragoons.

There was now a pause in the battle: Marlborough wanted to concert the attack upon the whole front, and Eugene, after his second repulse, needed time to reorganize.

Marlborough ’ s younger brother, General of Infantry, Charles Churchill, ordered four brigades of foot to attack the village.

Burgundy's insistence that the French army not attack led Marlborough once again to unite his army with Eugene's, allowing the allied army to crush the French at the Battle of Oudenarde, and then proceeded to capture Lille.

His tenure was not altogether successful, partly because he was deceived by his ally, the Duke of Marlborough, into a diversionary attack, and partly because Emperor Joseph I appropriated the funds necessary for George's campaign for his own use.

Marlborough returned from these tribulations to a political storm as the Ministry's critics turned to attack the overall conduct of the war.

Knowing that his duty was to attack, Mathews hoisted the signal to engage the enemy aboard his flagship, and at one o ' clock left the line to attack the Spanish rear, followed by Captain James Cornewall aboard HMS Marlborough.

This was in conjunction with a dual attack by Marlborough and Eugène.

His daring frontal attack in combination with the deployment of a large part of his army for the flanking movement has similarities with the tactics of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough at the Blenheim battlefield, ( situated in the very neighborhood of Rain ) or of Frederick the Great at Leuthen.

The feint convinced Villeroi to divert troops from the centre, while Marlborough had to use representatives to repeatedly instruct Orkney not to continue the attack.

He commanded the army's scouting part which located the French army on the morning of Ramillies, and acted as a senior messenger for Marlborough during the battle, recalling Orkney's British infantry from their diversionary attack on the French right flank to assault the French centre around Ramillies itself.

Knowing that his duty was to attack, Mathews hoisted the signal to engage the enemy aboard his flagship, and at one o ' clock left the line to attack the Spanish rear, followed by Captain James Cornewall aboard HMS Marlborough.

Marlborough had been kept well informed of events while in exile and had remained a powerful figure on the political scene, not least because of the personal attachment the Queen still retained for him.

However, the ducal family still entertain in the state rooms, and dine on special occasions in the saloon, around the great silver centrepiece depicting the 1st Duke of Marlborough on horseback — the same piece that Consuelo Vanderbilt liked to call her cache mari because it conveniently hid her detested husband, across the table, from view.

There was initial opposition to the match from the Duke of Clarence's parents, the Prince and Princess of Wales: Arthur Balfour wrote to Lord Salisbury in 1890 that "( t ) he Teck girl they won't have because they hate Teck and because the vision of Princess Mary haunting Marlborough House makes the Prince of Wales ill ." Nevertheless, the Queen gave her official consent to the engagement on 12 December 1891.

* 17 New Wakefield Street is a 109 metre high building on Great Marlborough Street south of the railway line ( because of its height, it overlooks Oxford Street ).

He had been given a choice between Repton and Marlborough and chosen Repton because its name was easier to pronounce.

At the southern end of the trench, off the coast of Marlborough, New Zealand, the seabed rises sharply, and because of the prevailing winds and tides in this area, many deep water species are found close to the shore.

Following his victory at Ramillies Marlborough returned to England and the acclamation of Parliament ; his titles and estates were made perpetual upon his heirs, male or female, in order that ' the memory of these deeds should never lack one of his name to bear it '.

Marlborough Pinot noirs are often fragrant and appealingly round, but can lack depth and proper tannin ripeness.

" In the mean time, Marlborough invested the elaborate fortress of Menin which, after a costly siege, capitulated on 22 August.

Sixty years later during the War of the Spanish Succession the Duke of Marlborough preferred to engage the enemy in pitched battles rather than engage in siege warfare, although he was very proficient in both types of warfare.

As a commander Marlborough preferred battle over slow moving siege warfare.

To defeat the rebellion, Walter was required to lay siege to Marlborough Castle himself.

Tournai fell after an unusually long siege of almost 70 days, by which time it was early September, and rather than run the risk of disease spreading in his army in the poorly draining land around Ypres, Marlborough instead moved eastwards towards the lesser fortress of Mons, hoping by taking it to outflank the French defensive lines in the west.

The chief statue in the town is that of Jacqueline Robin, who in 1711 helped the town resist a siege by Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy.

During the following war ( the War of the Spanish Succession ), when Lille was threatened with a siege by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugène of Savoy, Boufflers was appointed to the command, and made a most gallant resistance of three months.

He served in one more campaign in Italy, and then served under Eugene to join Marlborough in the Netherlands, being present in 1709 at the siege of Tournai and the Battle of Malplaquet.

He commanded a corps in the army of the Duke of Marlborough from 1701 to 1703, and in the constant siege warfare of these campaigns in the Low Countries his technical skill was of the highest value.

The regiment served under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough at the victorious Battle of Ramillies in 1706 against the French in what is now Belgium and in the siege of Ostend.