Triumph on the Danube
As evening fell in Bavaria on 13 August 1704, a weary Duke of Marlborough climbed down from his horse and hastily scrawled a message to his wife on the back of an old tavern bill: “I have not time to say more but to beg you will give my duty to the Queen and let her know her army has had a glorious victory.” Marlborough’s triumph cemented his reputation as the greatest general of his age. It also helped prevent France from dominating Europe.
When the childless King Charles II of Spain died in 1700, he left his throne – together with all his territory in the Netherlands, Italy and the Americas – to Philip of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV of France. The prospect of Philip eventually becoming king of both France and Spain filled many European states with alarm. To counter Louis XIV's growing dominance, England, the Dutch Republic, Austria and Prussia, and a number of other states, revived the Grand Alliance that had been formed against France in the 1680s. Meanwhile, France allied itself with Spain and Bavaria, and war broke out.