d the title of duke. The
campaign of 1704 established his glory upon the misfortunes of France.
Marshals Tallard and Marsin were commanding in Germany together with the
Elector of Bavaria; the emperor, threatened with a fresh insurrection in
Hungary, recalled Prince Eugene from Italy; Marlborough effected a
junction with him by a rapid march, which Marshal Villeroi would fain
have hindered, but to no purpose; on the 13th of August, 1704, the
hostile armies met between Blenheim and Hochstett, near the Danube; the
forces were about equal, but on the French side the counsels were
divided, the various corps acted independently. Tallard sustained
single-handed the attack of the English and the Dutch, commanded by
Marlborough; he was made prisoner, his son was killed at his side; the
cavalry, having lost their leader and being pressed by the enemy, took to
flight in the direction of the Danube; many officers and soldiers
perished in the river; the slaughter was awful. Marsin and the elector,
who had repulsed five successive charges of Prince Eugene, succeeded in
effecting their retreat; but the electorates of Bavaria and Cologne were
lost, Landau was recovered by the allies after a siege of two months, the
French army recrossed the Rhine, Elsass was uncovered, and Germany
evacuated. In Spain the English had just made themselves masters of
Gibraltar. "This shows clearly, sir," wrote Tallard to Chamillard after
the defeat, "what is the effect of such diversity of counsel, which makes
public all that one intends to do, and it is a severe lesson never to
have more than one man at the head of an army. It is a great misfortune
to have to deal with a prince of such a temper as the Elector of
Bavaria." Villars was of the same opinion; it had been his fate, in the
campaign of 1703, to come to open loggerheads with the elector. "The
king's army will march to-morrow, as I have had the honor to tell your
Highness," he had declared. "At these words," says Villars, the blood
mounted to his face; he threw his hat and wig on the table in a rage.
'I commanded,' said he, 'the emperor's army in conjunction with the Duke
of Lorraine; he was a tolerably great general, and he never treated me in
this manner.' 'The Duke of Lorraine,' answered I, 'was a great prince
and a great general; but, for myself, I am responsible to the king for
his army, and I will not expose it to destruction through the evil
counsels so obstinately persisted in.'