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The Battle of Blenheim 1704: Marlborough's first of four great victories over the French.

Chris Green is The History Chap; telling stories that brings the past to life.

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In 1704, the Duke of Marlborough embarked on one of the most audacious military campaigns in British history. 
With Vienna under threat from a combined French and Bavarian army, Marlborough deceived both his Dutch allies and his French enemies, marching 21,000 men 250 miles across Europe in just five weeks.

This video tells the story of how Marlborough outmanoeuvred the rigid French command structure, linked up with Prince Eugene of Savoy, and brought the French to battle at a small village on the Danube that would give its name to one of England's most famous victories.

The Battle of Blenheim saw Marlborough commanding a true coalition force — British, Dutch, Austrian, German and Danish troops fighting together against Marshal Tallard's veteran French army and their Bavarian allies.

 The battle itself was a masterclass in combined arms warfare: infantry assaults on fortified villages, cavalry charges across boggy ground, and artillery moved forward at critical moments under Colonel Holcroft Blood.

A single French error — packing 12,000 men into Blenheim village — handed Marlborough the advantage he needed. By nightfall, Tallard was a prisoner, thousands of French cavalry had drowned in the Danube, and Louis XIV had suffered his first major defeat in forty years.
The victory saved the Habsburg Empire, knocked Bavaria out of the war, and earned Marlborough a palace that still bears the battle's name. It was England's greatest continental victory since Agincourt.

KEY DATES:

19 May 1704 – Marlborough begins his march from Bedburg
10 June 1704 – Marlborough meets Prince Eugene at Mundelsheim
2 July 1704 – Storming of the Schellenberg
13 August 1704 – Battle of Blenheim
21 August 1704 – News reaches Queen Anne at Windsor

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