The enduring fascination of the Battle of Blenheim in August 1704, is that it was the very first time that a Briton, in this case John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, met and defeated in the most emphatic and dramatic style a main French field army. He was assisted, of course, by his close friend Prince Eugene of Savoy, who held down the French and Bavarian left wing while Marlborough Duke won the battle on their right, but it was truly the Duke’s victory, had he failed that Wednesday, he would have borne the consequences of defeat. As it was he was accorded the laurels of outright victory and may arguably be classed as Britain’s greatest general.
The history of western Europe changed forever with Blenheim, nothing would ever be quite the same, with the destruction of Marshal Tallard’s French army, and another, that of Marshal Marsin, in panicked flight from the field of battle to avoid a similar fate. The previously apparently overwhelming might of King Louis XIV was curbed, and France, and French ability to dominate in Europe, was weakened for generations to come. That Marlborough’s 1704 campaign in southern Germany was a ‘near run thing’ with considerable military and professional risk, and even personal danger both on the battlefield and at home in London where a sceptical parliament watched events closely, adds to the attractiveness of this extraordinary clash of arms. No other battle in British history had quite the same dramatic impact with England (Great Britain from 1707 onwards), firmly established as a world power, able even today to reach out and influence events well beyond our own shores. Marlborough went on to inflict defeats on French armies at Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and less dramatically at Malplaquet (1709), but it is Blenheim that resonates most and had the greatest and most far-reaching impact. Only with the emergence of the military genius of Napoleon I some hundred years or so later would newly established British power and influence really come into serious question, and even then the Emperor would have preferred to negotiate a peace with London, so that he could have a free hand in Europe while the British concentrated on their widening empire, had that option been open to him. The victory at Blenheim undeniably established Great Britain as that world power, a force to be reckoned with, and as such is one of the very few true turning points in history.
James Falkner served as a British Army infantry officer, both Regular and Territorial, for twenty-five years. He is acknowledged as the leading modern authority on eighteenth-century warfare and the author of Battle Story: Blenheim 1704. Other titles include, Marlborough's Sieges and Great and Glorious: Marlborough's Battles 1704-09.