he French king had determined
upon a union of the two crowns of France and Spain in his own family. His
forces occupied the Spanish Netherlands, which we now call the Kingdom of
Belgium; others of his armies were spread along the Rhine, or were acting
in Northern Italy--for the coalition at once began to make itself felt.
Two men of genius combined in an exact agreement, the qualities of each
complementing the defects of the other, to lead the main armies that were
operating against the French. These men were Prince Eugene of Savoy
(French by birth and training, a voluntary exile, and inspired throughout
his life by a determination to avenge himself upon Louis XIV.), and the
Englishman John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough.

The combination of such a pair was irresistible. Its fruit appeared almost
at the inception of the new situation in the great victory of Blenheim.

This action, fought in August 1704, was the first great defeat French arms
had registered in that generation. Henceforward the forces commanded from
Versailles were compelled to stand upon the defensive.

To Blenheim succeeded one blow after another. In 1706 the great battle of
Ramillies, in 1708 the crushing action of Oudenarde, confirmed the
supremacy of the allies and the abasement of France. By the opening of
1709 the final defeat of Louis and his readiness to sue for peace were
taken for granted.

The financial exhaustion which I have said was already present, though
hardly suspected, in 1701, was grown by 1709 acute. The ordinary methods
of recruitment for the French army--which nominally, of course, was upon a
voluntary basis--had long reached and passed their limit. The failure of
the harvest in 1708, followed by a winter of terrible severity, had
completed the catastrophe, and with the ensuing spring of 1709 Louis had
no alternative but to approach the allies with terms of surrender.

It seemed as though at last the way to Paris lay open. The forces of the
allies in the Netherlands were not only numerically greatly superior to
any which the exhausted French could now set against them, but in their
equipment, in their supplies, the nourishment of the men, and every
material detail, they were upon a footing wholly superior to the
corresponding units of the enemy, man for man. They had further the
incalculable advantage of prestige. Victory seemed normal to them, defeat
to their opponents; and so overwhelming were the chances of the coalition
aga