How Prince Eugene & The Duke Of Marlborough Determined The Fate Of Europe | Blenheim | Real Royalty

[Music] [Music] 300 years ago a battle took place in these German Fields a battle that few remember today but in which British troops played a vital role it was a fight that would determine the fate of Europe if you had been on this spot on the 13th of August 174 you'd have seen a truly remarkable sight on the plane behind me 52,000 men of the Grand Alliance were split into nine columns and they were converging on the French army asleep here they were coming to do battle with Louis The 14th's Undefeated troops the Duke of mbra had Hoodwinked the French by secretly marching his army across Europe to get here now he wrong footed them again he was attacking when all the military Norms of the day said he should not the bloodiest battle of the age was about to be Unleashed across these [Music] fields [Music] the battle that was about to take place was the climax of the Duke of mra's Master Plan he had brought his army of British and Dutch troops from the North Sea down here to the heart of Bavaria along the river danu this March was not only one of the greatest military maneuvers of all time it had also been conducted in complete secrecy this stunning move was the response to a growing crisis it was the third year of the war of Spanish succession a Grand Alliance of European nations was lined up against the overbearing power of Louis the 14th King of France whose ambition and arrogance had reached new levels the self- styled Sun King had put his own grandson on the Spanish Throne accepting the deathbed request of Spain's Charles II despite signing treaties promising not to now this Franco Spanish merger threatened to create a European superstate with Worldwide dominions this was all the more alarming because in the course of his 60-year Reign Louie had repeatedly used his power to attack his Protestant neighbors and hapsburg Rivals with the power of Spain added to his Arsenal Louie now threatened to overrun Europe but the first years of the war had not gone well for the Grand [Music] Alliance and at the end of 1703 maximilan Emanuel elector of Bavaria had come off the fence and declared for King Louie the 45,000 troops that the elector commanded and the strategically vital position of his country made this a grave blow to the [Music] alliance with the Holy Roman Empire already stretched to Breaking Point by War in Italy and a rebellion in Hungary it put the imperial capital of Vienna in the firing line if Vienna was lost to French Bavarian forces the Empire would have to make peace the Grand Alliance would quickly unravel leaving Europe at the mercy of the belligerent King Louie the Duke of mbra had come to the Empire's rescue marching from the Netherlands with 21,000 men covering 250 mi in 6 weeks whilst keeping his intention secret from the French he had pulled off a strategic Masterpiece the French had feared an attack into France so their armies had moved to cover this danger Bavaria mra's real Target had been left isolated after linking up with Imperial forces led by the inspirational Prince Ean he was now determined to force the the decisive battle that alone could save the Grand [Applause] Alliance One of the general officers in the French army was the count of merard westero the night before the Battle of lenm he had a quiet night with his fellow officers before retiring to bed I slept deeply until 6:00 in the morning when I was abruptly awoken by one of my old retainers the head groom in fact who rushed into the barn all out of breath he shook me awake and blurted out the enemy are there thinking to mock him I inquired where there to which he replied yes there there flinging wide as he spoke the door of the bom the door L directly onto the fine sunlit plane Beyond and the entire area seemed to be covered with enemy squadrons after his rude awakening the conto merad woo raced to spread the alarm not a single soul stirred as I clattered out of the village nothing at all might have been happening the same sight greeted my eyes when I reached the camp everyone still snug in their tents although the enemy were now so close that their standards and colors could easily be counted they were pushing back our pickets and no one seemed at all worried about it the French Bavarian Army had been taken complet completely by surprise led by Marshall Mara and the Electra Bavaria it had recently been joined by another Army under Marshall talad who had taken overall command with 56,000 men slightly more than Mur and ean's army surely it was safe from Sudden attack what's more it was camped in a very strong defensive position the danu and the village of blim anchored Marshall Tad's right flank across his Center ran the neble stream and Marshy ground the village of iglow formed a natural Bastion on the center left and his Left Flank where the armies of Marshall Mara and the Electa were camped was secured by dense forest and the village of Lut singan when tallad was told of enemy movement to his front he immediately presumed they were beginning their Retreat which was just as he expected Intelligence on both sides was variable uh the French were able to watch what the Allies were doing and they knew that the Allies were working inside Bavaria and the bavarians were hostile for the Allies the infation coming in was not necessarily brilliant but we had one big Advantage the French system was that all information went back to vsi so Louis the 14th could look at it and make decisions the result was a very long time delay we had no time delay at all whatever came back to Mal he was able to act on immediately he wasn't waiting for orders from London the Duke of mbra had been undeterred by the natural obstacles in his path and by the numerical superiority of the French with his army of 52,000 men he had decided to [Music] attack although mbra would be commanding his first major battle he was reassured by the presence of Prince Eugen of seavoy Eugen commanding the rightwing of mra's Army was an experienced General renowned as one of the most brilliant commanders of the age and mbra had absolute faith in the courage and discipline of his troops particularly the British regiments that made up a sixth of his [Music] army at the battle the two sides really squared off roughly the same numbers of men on each side nobody could said to have an amazing Advantage there were slight disparities the most important thing is that the the French were very short of Cavalry horse as they would have called it at the time at least we would have the allies and that really meant that they were not able to engage in the sort of maneuver Warfare that they would have liked and that was going to be very very important because it was going to be the maneuvering that would break open the center of their army and allow the Allies to exploit as the Allied Army moved into position the French hastily formed up for battle undefeated on land for more than 60 years they were confident of yet another Victory merage westo described the sight of the field before him the two armies in full battle array were so close to one another that they exchanged fanfares of trumpet calls and rolls of kettle drums when I stopped their music struck up again and this went on until the deployment of their right flank was completed they left preparing to attack the village the brightest imaginable Sun Shone down upon the two armies drawn up in the plane you could even distinguish the uniforms of each successive unit a number of generals and at the camp galloped here and there all in all it was an almost indescribably stirring sight but a moment later other considerations came to the for in our mind as the enemy artillery brought forward and drawn up in the head of the army Unleashed a terrible bombardment upon us treat yourself to the best gift in history this holiday season enjoy unlimited access to award-winning podcasts and thousands of hours of original history documentaries released weekly exclusively on History hit there are topics for all history lovers from Pompei to D-Day sign up via the link in the description for an exclusive discount don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to explore the past like never before with history hit it our guns at once replied with a similar devastating effect whilst the French following their usual deplorable custom Set Fire To All The Villages Mills and hamlets on our front and the flames and the smoke billowed up to the clouds it was about 8:00 in the morning when the artillery exchanges began the French Bavarian army with 90 guns to mra's 60 opened fire first as his army continued its deployment deadly solid iron cannonballs poured forth ripping through the static dense formations of men and horse one French artillery officer recalled the impact of his work one was excited but by the extraordinary effect It produced every shot cutting through their battalions some of them raking obliquely and from the very way in which they were deployed not a round was wasted even as bloody gaps were Hune from their ranks regiments knelt to take Divine service it was after all a Sunday and religion gave these men strength and sucker as death beckoned Captain black ad a lugubrious Presbyterian who unlike his more famous fictional counterpart was preoccupied with God and doom wrote I was enabled to exercise a lively Faith encouraging and relying myself in God whereupon I was easy sedate and cheerful I believed firmly his angels had me in charge and that not a bone should be broken the canonade continued throughout the morning and the acrid smoke from the batteries drifted on a gentle breeze between the lines the Allies couldn't yet attack because Prince euan's right wing was taking longer than expected to get into position it had been held up by treacherous ground choked with brambles and broken by [Music] ditches meanwhile French troops in The Villages of Blen him and overlow tried to make themselves secure wagons were overturned at every entrance to form barricades as the hours passed the task of breaking into them looked more and more formidable to the waiting Allied [Music] infantry a British chaplain Dr sandby observed the Duke of mbra during this tense lull his grace now rode the lines to observe the posture and and the countenance of his men and found them in the officers of all nations of all the Allies very cheerful and impatient of coming to A Closer engagement With the Enemy and as he was passing in front of the first line a large Cannonball grazed Upon A plowed Land close by his horse's side and almost covered him with dust he never halted his pace for this but moved on at 1:00 mbra received a note from Prince Eugene his troops were at last in position and ready to attack a flurry of orders followed and soon the entire length of the Allied line Advanced on the Army's left a specially formed assault column of 20 battalions pushed forward against blenin Village it was commanded by Lord Cuts nicknamed the salamander because he liked to be where the heat of battle was fiercest his troops were the pick of the Infantry and included the first foot guards in which private Marshall Dean served [Music] in the afternoon our English on the left was ordered by my Lord Duke to attack a village full of French called blenin which they had fortified and made so vastly strong and barricaded so fast with trees planks coffers chests wagons carts and Palisades that it was almost an impossibility to think which way we could get into it [Music] I you can see what happened next from this model here first of all the troops had to get across the naal a very marshy stream that covered the entire French front and then they moved forward with the British in the front ranks under General row now row knew his men wouldn't have time to reload on their way to blenin Village so he told them they must hold fire until he had struck the village Palisade with his own sword the men Advanced through heavy cannon fire and then towards lenon Village when they were about 50 60 Paces out they received the first French volley there were thousands of Frenchmen in this Village and they repeatedly fired into the British as they Advanced remarkably row survived this reached the Palisade Struck it with his sword and the British fired back but Ro that was the end of his luck he was mortally wounded and two of his friends rushed to try and save him and they were cut down under this concentrated repeated fire it became obvious to the British they had to retreat mbra watching the attack was alarmed to see the arrival of French Horsemen who threatened the flank of Lord Cut's column he sent five squadrons of his own to meet the assault but Marshall tallard now played one of his Trump cards he sent forward the je darie France's most prestigious and feared Cavalry Regiment but to his shock and astonishment the outnumbered English Cavalry smashed into the elite French Force which after a few moments of ferocious hacking and desperate Wheeling fled to the safety of its own lines for Generations French Cavalry had been Master of the battlefield but this moment marked the end of an era the rediscovery of traditional Cavalry tactics by the British had made their Cavalry the new benchmark in an old lesson one that had been taught by Oliver Cromwell they had been trained to rely on the sword French Cavalry paused in their advance to fire pistols and carbines losing crucial momentum but the British Advanced at a steady Trot sword in hand riding knee to knee it was a tactic that proved irresistible time and again succeeding in driving French Horsemen before them [Music] the Cavalry and infantry formations that crowded the battlefield that day have not disappeared without Trace whilst researching my book on the Battle of Blen him I was thrilled to discover a collection started by a local Builder Johan mangle Mangler has Unearthed many weapons and other discarded objects from the battle while digging foundations for new houses along the danu I took Andy Robertshaw from the national Army museum to inspect the collection housed in a barn in the village so Andy would you say these were from the Battle of Blen I think they are they're an incredible local collection a local gentleman for years has been picking up items in the battlefield going through old houses and what he's got is incredible I mean just here you've got the carbine which belongs to cavman along with a pair of pistols this quality this is is an officer but to go with them is even actually managed to get not one but two Saddles complete with the saddle housings that the pistols would go in Sword which is absolutely right I that could very very easily be in the hand of a a British heavy Cavalry man well you know there's a medium I suppose really and then there's ammunition there's cannibals there's human remains even down to the extent that we know that the Infantry have been here because that still wraps this little lead foil to grip it in the jaws of the musket is a a European Gunflint it's quartz rather than Flint which would indicate a British musket um always better quality of course um and we've even got their musket shot and then you know the cannonballs are here coins it's just quite superb one of the most bizarre items in the collection is this skull which was found still wearing its helmet and one of the most unusual is this plug baret this weapon which was stuck down the musket Barrel so you couldn't fire while it was attached would have been virtually obsolete at the time of the battle in 1704 looking here though at the Firearms I mean how would this work for instance this one um it's a flint lock weapon you load it down the barrel charge of gunpowder from a paper cartridge you then actually put in the ball if it isn't in the cartridge Ram home and this wooden ram rod here says nice early per period it's C certainly right for for for 1704 then what you're going to do is pull back the hammer something you should have actually already done and Prime so there's some fine gunpowder in there so when you eventually pull back the hammer the final turn and then aim and pull the trigger that Flint or in this case because a quartz strikes the steel the frison throws it back Sparks land in the pan the weapon goes off and that would fire a bullet about that sort of weight about 50 m so quite a short- range weapon but of course a bit further than the pistols far on the same method and um Marble's Cavalry basically had three shots per man he much preferred them to go in with the sword rather than trying to use their you know firearms on Horseback quite superb at the beginning of the battle 16 French battalions held Blen him but the Garrison Commander was so alarmed by the first British assault that he dragged every available res Reserve into the village before long a further 11 battalions were squeezed inside blam's defenses a total of over 12,000 men it was an ill-conceived decision born of panic most of these new men would be little more than juicy targets for the Allies as Brigadier General Stern recalled the attack now increased in Vigor and the French were driven into the village where they were too numerous to act being wedged up into a dense Mass so that our well directed fire had a murderous effect we retired 80 or 90 yards and plied them so warmly with our platoon that they were cut off as soon as they attempted to leave the village to put themselves in order to attack us the C deard westo witnessed the scene in the village later that afternoon the men were so crowded in upon one another that they could not even return fire let alone receive or carry out any orders not a single shot of the enemy missed its March or only those few of our men in the front ranks could return fire and many of those soon were unable to shoot owing to exhaustion or from their muskets exploding due to constant use those drawn up in the rear were mowed down without firing a shot at the enemy if they wished to reply they could only shoot on their own comrad or indiscriminately firing without aiming into the sky to make things even worse The Village had been set on fire by the French so our poor fellows were grilled amidst the continually collapsing rofes and beams of the Blazing houses thus were they burned alive amidst the ashes of this smaller Troy of their own making throughout the day the Firepower of the British battalions would overall their French counterparts they had a new system in place poned by the endless repetition of musket drills which gave them a crucial Edge in terms of the Weaponry of both sides it was evenly matched they had the same sort of muskets the same sort of Cannon the same sort of Swords same sort of beets that was not going to be a decisive Factor what was iCal was the control of Firepower the new platoon tactics platoon firings that the Allies were using was far superior to the French method of firing in which many of their men could not use their muskets at all whereas every man in the Allied Army could use his muskets and was able to do so and of course a big Advantage there was that the English army British I suppose was really a volunteer army the men wanted to be there many of the French and their Bavarian allies were conscripts they did didn't want to be on the [Applause] battlefield at 2 p.m. mbra ordered a halt to the attacks on the village with just 6,000 men he had 12,000 of the best French troops cooped up in blenin he kept them penned in throughout the afternoon with a steady harassing fire as blenin Village descended into a stalemate Prince Eugene moved up here with his prussians and Danes to take the French on on their left wing his right this is really treacherous ground and Prince ean's men were decimated by the enemy Cannon as they got into position this is where the worst casualties happened in the Battle after two attacks have been repulsed Eugene's men were at the end of their tether even the Hardy prussians were beginning to wilt but they were hared into one final attack Prince Ean had no truck with cowards when he spotted two of his men trying to sneak off from the battle he shot them both with his pistols dead as for himself one of The Observers of the battlefield noticed how he became possessed with a sort of warlike Fury his eyes lighted up he rushed hither and thither raging he shrieked curses and encouragement yelling and harking his bloody wargs on and himself all always at the first of the hunt all the while mra's Army was crossing the Waters of the Nable and molested during the morning bombardment Engineers had thrown up pontoons across the marshy stream Marshall talard who had 64 squadrons of Cavalry waiting on High Ground did nothing to stop them even as the first Allied infantry regiments crossed and formed up below him no attack came Sergeant Milner was was one of those surprised by the ease of the crossing the enemy gave us all the time we wanted for that purpose and kept very quiet on the hill they were possessed of without descending to the meadow towards the rivulet in so much that even our second line of alls have time to form themselves tallad was looking for a decisive Victory and now that mbra as the French Marshall saw it had been fool Hardy enough to attack he believed he been handed the opportunity to gain that decisive Victory the more troops that crossed the neble the more he would kill when he gave his Cavalry orders to attack with the stream behind them an orderly Allied Retreat would be impossible it would be a massacre to protect the flanks of the Allied Center as it pushed forward across the neble stream the French battalions in overlow had to be neutralized at 3: in the afternoon the Dutch Prince of Holstein Beck led the Allied Forces forward but the attack was a disaster as the leading battalions crossed the neble the enemy launched a perfectly timed Counterattack led by the wild geese these troops were catholic emigres from Ireland and formed some of Louis the 14th's best regiments during the chaotic scramble back to the neble the prince of Holstein Beck himself was mortally wounded and captured French Cavalry squadrons advanced towards this weakened point of the Allied line but mbra close at hand to the vital Point as he seemed to be throughout the day hastily improvised new defenses the arrival of the Imperial caes lent by Prince Eugene in response to mra's Urgent request initially secured the line soon Allied Reserve infantry and redeployed artillery were pounding overlow like their colleagues in blenin Village The overlow Garrison became in snared in their own fortifications to be Savaged by enemy Fire by 400 p.m. mbra had 22,000 men across the neble Marshall tallad distracted by the Mayhem around Blen him was in danger of leaving his attack too late most of his infantry had been drawn into the village and only raw recruits Now supported the Cavalry at the Army's Center but one overwhelming charge could still carry the day mulber Center was composed of four ranks in an unusual formation the front and rear ranks were made up of Cavalry enclosing two ranks of infantry in the center as the French attacked the front rank of Cavalry retired to the rear through gaps specially created in the formation now a sea of bayonets confronted the French Cavalry and as they hesitated a rolling fire of musketry threw men from their Saddles and felled their horses es the attack founded in the teeth of the withering British Fire King Lou's Army turned and [Music] fled Andy where did the French go wrong I think it was a combination of factors one is that the French Commander wanted a decisive Victory it wasn't enough just a deter an attack he actually wanted to encourage it so what he did was to have two great bastions two fortresses by putting his troops into the villages packing them in tight and then really allowing this area to be undefended it was 100 yards wide of marsh and he thought the enemy could only get through in small numbers not in large numbers they thought it was almost impossible 100 yards of marsh but by building fac scenes great bundles of um Brushwood wrapped around and putting them ahead of them they basically made a mat and they were able to bring the Army through an obstacle that the Defenders thought was was impossible and it meant that they completely had a disadvantage Too Many Men locked up in the Villages and then their center Broken by an attack through an area which they didn't have enough troops to stop at 5:00 the Duke of mbra ordered his Center to advance the trapped garrisons of Blen him and overlow were powerless to help Tad's urgent request for assistance from Mara and the elector went unheeded they had enough trouble on their hands dealing with Prince Ean with the French Cavalry in chaos and Retreat the nine infantry battalions who formed the remnants of talad Center bravely stood their ground these were young soldiers well trained but new to war mra's artillery was brought forward and opened up at close range with Partridge shot a quaint name for a deadly weapon these were balls of metal packed into a can that blew open when fired Josiah s andby a chaplain with the Army wrote that the Partridge shot made a great Slaughter of the enemy not withstanding this they yet stood firm and closed their ranks as far as they were broke till this being terribly weakened and put into disorder they were forced to give way and then our squadrons fell in among them and scare suffered any of them to get off but cut them down in whole ranks as they were shown lying after the battle was [Applause] over it was a sad fate for brave [Applause] [Music] men the French Center was now broken as Captain Parker of the royal Irish regiment described the French fire was quite extinguished they offered not the least resistance but gave way and broke at once our squadrons drove through the center of them which put them to an entire route the con deard westo was among the vanquished hordes of the enemy pressed upon us and we soon found ourselves faced by numerous enemy squadrons on no less than three sides and we were pushed back at top one another so tight was the press that my horse was carried along for some 300 Paces without putting hoof to ground right to the edge of a deep ravine down we plunged into a swampy Meadow my horse stumbled and fell a moment later several men and horses fell on top of me as I watched the remains of my Cavalry swept by intermingled with the hotly pursuing foe it was anything but the Glorious total victory that talad had expected the remnants of his army were now a beaten and battered stream of [Music] fugitives as infantry battalions encircled the trapped Garrison of Blen him the road back to hstat became choked with refugees it was there that the bewildered Marshall tallad himself was captured and taken to the Duke of [Music] mbra others fled or were pushed by weight of numbers to the river danu to add to the Panic the Pontoon Bridge there collapsed under the strain some men managed to cling to their horses as they swam through the swirling Waters but many hundreds more were drowned among them was the marquist claro commander of the blim Garrison who had managed to escape the villages encirclement some said that aware of the disastrous effect of his decision to post his reserves inside the village he had deliberately drowned [Music] himself the destruction of Tad's Army to his right forced Marshall Mara and the elector to beat a hasty retreat they remained Undefeated by Prince Eugene's attacks but had been so severely stretched they hadn't been able able to Aid Marshall tallard at The crucial moment Mara and the elector were able to escape unmolested Prince Ean had pushed his troops so hard they had nothing left to [Music] give if you come to Blen him today you'll see that very little of the original Village remains intact This Barn being a rare Exception by late afternoon on the day of the battle this place was an inferno the Allied Hartz as adding to the chaos but for the French any thoughts of an escape were doomed to failure as Captain Parker recalled as they were necessarily thrown into confusion and getting over their trenches so before they could form into any order for attacking us we mowed them down with our platoon in such numbers that they were always obliged to retire with great loss and it was not possible for them to rush out upon us in a disorderly manner without running upon the very points of our beets the dead choked the exits of the village and fires raged throughout many of the Wounded were trapped by the flames and incinerated as dusk fell the Frenchmen made their last desperate stand here in the village churchyard but it was useless realizing that they were surrounded and persuaded by Allied negotiators that death was the only alternative the surviving Garrison of 10,000 men surrendered it was one of the most ignominious episodes in French military history in fact the Earl of orne commanding the troops around Blen him received quite a shock there had been more Frenchmen inside Blen him than he had troops surrounding the place the effect on the French was devastating their field Army had been worsted they regarded themselves as being the best in Europe and they discovered that they weren't and frankly what Then followed were victories like malpa and ramales and then from there throughout the 18th century with whether it's Fontano or Minden the British army proves itself to be What marshall Sachs calls a wall of brass and even if we're a minority part of a coalition Army the fact that there are red coated soldiers is enough to dispirit the French or any enemy that faces us his day had begun at 3:00 a.m. and 17 hours later mbra who was then aged 54 was utterly exhausted but he knew he had to get the good news on its way he didn't get off his horse for the fear he might not be able to get back on one of his footmen held up a kettle drum as a writing table and MRA searched his pockets for a bit of paper all he could find was a bill from a local Tavern for candles meat and bread on the reverse he wrote these words August the 13th 174 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 M talah and two other generals are in my coach and I am following the rest the bearer my Aid to cor Colonel Parker will give her an account of what has passed I shall do it in a day or two by another more at large moror it was sent to his beloved wife Sarah by Nightfall countless corpses littered the battlefield of Blen the bushes and rivlets where Prince Ean had sent in repeated attacks were strewn with thousands of dead prussians Danes austrians French and bavarians most of the British dead were clustered around the approaches to the Village of blim anything of worth was quickly stripped from the corpses to the extent that many were left naked over 30,000 French and Bavarian soldiers had been killed wounded or were [Music] missing amongst the red coated soldiers who had shown such courage that day there was one extraordinary character who later became famous as mother Ross she was an Irish woman who had disguised her sex to enlist at Blen him she rode with the Scots gray drons and recorded her impression of the French survivors after the battle of hwat in which I received no hurt though often in the hottest of the fire I was one of those detached to guard the prisoners and surely of all I ever saw none were more miserable some having no shirts some without shoes or stockings and others naked as from the womb in this wretched condition we marched them to the plain of breeda where we halted to refresh each man prisoner and all being allowed a pint of beer and a penny worth of bread and cheese of the 4,500 French officers who fought that day only 250 were still standing 47 enemy Cannon were taken along with 128 standards it was the most complete victory in living memory the English certainly had known nothing like it since aenor nearly 300 years before the price of Victory however was high 12,000 Allied casualties of whom more than 4,500 had been killed Captain blackader who had taken comfort in the knowledge of divine protection got through the entire battle with only a minor wound to his throat he saw God's hand not just in the French defeat but also in the high English casualties this victory has indeed cost a great deal of blood especially to the English I was always of the opinion that the English would pay for it in this country and when I consider how on All Occasions we conquer yet with much blood spilled I'm at a loss to know what the reason may be perhaps it is that our cause is good therefore God gives us success in our Enterprises but that our persons very Wicked and therefore our carcasses are strued like dung on the earth in [Music] Germany the Duke of malbro was quick to attribute his victory to The Bravery of his men in which he had always put his faith on his return to an ecstatic England he told the House of Lords I must beg on this occasion to do right to all the officers and soldiers I had the honor of having under my command next to the blessing of God the good success of this campaign is owing to their extraordinary [Music] courage Louis the 14th also o saw God's hand at work after Decades of Triumph blenin was the first in a string of humiliating defeats generally inflicted by mro or Ean for his part in this spectacular victory mbro was rewarded by Queen Anne with a prize that's now more famous than the battle itself one of England's most magnificent homes blenin Palace there 300 years later and 600 mil from blindheim the present Duke of mbar inspects the men who have come to commemorate his ancestors momentous but often forgotten Triumph the victory on the banks of the danu in 1704 after that epic march across Europe did indeed save Vienna and save the Grand Alliance subsequent generations for political motives would play down the importance of both mbra and what he achieved but at Blen him with Prince ean's Aid he stopped the French King's plans to engulf Europe Lou I 14th never got to conquer Europe his comprehensive defeat at Blen him put an end to his Imperial Ambitions 11 years later he'd be dead the palace at Blen him the gift from a Grateful Nation stands as a memorial to the Duke of mra's brilliant strategy courage and determination it should serve too as a memorial to the thousands of men whose Courage the Duke himself was so quick to recognize many of whom still lie buried beside the [Music] [Music] danu

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Keywords: Real Royalty, ancient rulers, aristocratic lifestyle, coronation ceremonies, deception tactics, dynasty legacy, endurance, european aristocracy, european history, european monarchs, fate of europe, german fields, majestic castles, matt lewis, monarchial power, monarchies throughout history, noble heritage, reign of monarchs, royal lineage, service to queen and country, victory in battle

Id: P_yaSYTaKAk

Length: 44min 15sec (2655 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 05 2023