War and Politics, 1706 (Mr Toby McLeod)
The aim is to look at the events surrounding the campaigning year, 1706, during the War of the Spanish Succession, in which England played a key role in the so-called ‘Grand Alliance’, alongside the Austrian Habsburg monarchy and the Dutch Republic, against the Bourbon powers of France and Spain. The principal source consists of the correspondence of the John Churchill, duke of Marlborough.
War & Diplomacy: This was a high water mark for the Duke of Marlborough’s military career. On 23 May 1706 he won a resounding victory over the French at the battle of Ramillies. As a result, most of Brabant and Flanders, the western provinces of the Spanish Netherlands fell into Anglo-Dutch hands. The aim of the group will be to examine what Marlborough’s campaign plans were, how they were implemented and how the military situation developed in the aftermath of Ramillies and for the rest of the year. The group should also try to relate what happened in the Spanish Netherlands to the wider military picture on the other ‘fronts’ of the war.
Politics: Queen Anne’s ministry, in which the duke of Marlborough and baron Sidney Godolphin, first Lord of the Treasury, were leading lights, found itself under increasing domestic pressures to open up to politicians unwelcome to the queen herself. These pressures began to build up to dangerous levels during the course of 1706. Surprisingly perhaps, to modern eyes, they centred on the position of the Church of England, rather than directly on the conduct of the war. The domestic situation was made more complex by the need to accommodate opposition politicians in the question of regulating England’s relationships with Scotland. What, in fact, was more important to politicians in England? The conduct of the war; or the conduct of domestic affairs? What was the duke of Marlborough’s view on all this: was he primarily a soldier, or a politician?