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The Battle of Blenheim (German: Zweite Schlacht bei Höchstädt; French Bataille de Höchstädt), fought on 13 August 1704, was a major battle of the War of the Spanish Succession.[1] The overwhelming Allied victory ensured the safety of Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army, thus preventing the collapse of the Grand Alliance.

Battle of Blenheim
Part of the War of the Spanish Succession
The Duke of Marlborough Signing the Despatch at Blenheim. Oil by Robert Alexander Hillingford.
Date13 August 1704[1]
Blindheim (Engl.: Blenheim),[2] near Höchstädt, Bavaria,[3] Germany

48°38′42″N 10°36′00″E / 48.645°N 10.6°E / 48.645; 10.6Coordinates: 48°38′42″N 10°36′00″E / 48.645°N 10.6°E / 48.645; 10.6
Result Grand Alliance victory[4]

 Holy Roman Empire

 Dutch Republic

Denmark Danish Auxiliary Corps
Bavaria Electorate of Bavaria
Commanders and leaders
Kingdom of England Duke of Marlborough
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Kingdom of France Duc de Tallard (POW)
Kingdom of France Ferdinand de Marsin
Bavaria Maximilian II Emanuel
52,000 men,[5]
66 guns
56,000 men,
90 guns
Casualties and losses
4,542 killed
7,942 wounded
6,000 killed or drowned
7,000 wounded
14,190 captured
60 guns

Louis XIV of France sought to knock the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold out of the war by seizing Vienna, the Habsburg capital, and gain a favourable peace settlement. The dangers to Vienna were considerable: the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Marsin's forces in Bavaria threatened from the west, and Marshal Vendôme's large army in northern Italy posed a serious danger with a potential offensive through the Brenner Pass. Vienna was also under pressure from Rákóczi's Hungarian revolt from its eastern approaches. Realising the danger, the Duke of Marlborough resolved to alleviate the peril to Vienna by marching his forces south from Bedburg to help maintain Emperor Leopold within the Grand Alliance.

A combination of deception and skilled administration – designed to conceal his true destination from friend and foe alike – enabled Marlborough to march 400 kilometres (250 miles) unhindered from the Low Countries to the River Danube in five weeks. After securing Donauwörth on the Danube, Marlborough sought to engage the Elector's and Marsin's army before Marshal Tallard could bring reinforcements through the Black Forest. However, with the Franco-Bavarian commanders reluctant to fight until their numbers were deemed sufficient, the Duke enacted a policy of plundering in Bavaria designed to force the issue. The tactic proved unsuccessful, but when Tallard arrived to bolster the Elector's army, and Prince Eugene arrived with reinforcements for the Allies, the two armies finally met on the banks of the Danube in and around the small village of Blindheim, from which the English "Blenheim" is derived.

Blenheim was one of the battles that altered the course of the war, which until then was leaning for Louis' coalition, and ended French plans of knocking the Emperor out of the war.[4] France suffered as many as 38,000 casualties including the commander-in-chief, Marshal Tallard, who was taken captive to England. Before the 1704 campaign ended, the Allies had taken Landau, and the towns of Trier and Trarbach on the Moselle in preparation for the following year's campaign into France itself. The offensive never materialised as the Grand Alliance's army had to depart the Moselle to defend Liège from a French counteroffensive.[6] The war would rage on for another decade.[4]

By 1704, the War of the Spanish Succession was in its fourth year. The previous year had been one of success for France and her allies, most particularly on the Danube, where Marshal Villars and the Elector of Bavaria had created a direct threat to Vienna, the Habsburg capital.[7] Vienna had been saved by dissension between the two commanders, leading to the brilliant Villars being replaced by the less dynamic Marshal Marsin. Nevertheless, by 1704, the threat was still real: Rákóczi's Hungarian revolt was already threatening the Empire's eastern approaches, and Marshal Vendôme's forces threatened an invasion from northern Italy.[8] In the courts of Versailles and Madrid, Vienna's fall was confidently anticipated, an event which would almost certainly have led to the collapse of the Grand Alliance.[9]

To isolate the Danube from any Allied intervention, Marshal Villeroi's 46,000 troops were expected to pin the 70,000 Dutch and English troops around Maastricht in the Low Countries, while General de Coigny protected Alsace against surprise with a further corps.[7] The only forces immediately available for Vienna's defence were Prince Louis of Baden's force of 36,000 stationed in the Lines of Stollhofen[10] to watch Marshal Tallard at Strasbourg; there was also a weak force of 10,000 men under Field Marshal Count Limburg Styrum observing Ulm.

Both the Imperial Austrian Ambassador in London, Count Wratislaw, and the Duke of Marlborough realised the implications of the situation on the Danube. The Dutch, however, who clung to their troops for their country's protection, were against any adventurous military operation as far south as the Danube and would never willingly permit any major weakening of the forces in the Spanish Netherlands.[11] Marlborough, realising the only way to ignore Dutch wishes was by the use of secrecy and guile, set out to deceive his Dutch allies by pretending to simply move his troops to the Moselle – a plan approved of by The Hague – but once there, he would slip the Dutch leash and link up with Austrian forces in southern Germany.[11] "My intentions", wrote the Duke from The Hague on 29 April to his governmental confidant, Sidney Godolphin, "are to march with the English to Coblenz and declare that I intend to campaign on the Moselle. But when I come there, to write to the Dutch States that I think it absolutely necessary for the saving of the Empire to march with the troops under my command and to join with those that are in Germany ... in order to make measures with Prince Lewis of Baden for the speedy reduction of the Elector of Bavaria."[12]

Protagonists march to the DanubeEdit

A scarlet caterpillar, upon which all eyes were at once fixed, began to crawl steadfastly day by day across the map of Europe, dragging the whole war with it.Winston Churchill.[13]
The Duke of Marlborough's march from Bedburg (near Cologne) to the Danube. His 250-mile (400-kilometre) march to prevent Vienna falling into enemy hands was a masterpiece of deception, meticulous planning and organisation.

Marlborough's march started on 19 May from Bedburg, 32 kilometres (20 mi) north-west of Cologne. The army (assembled by the Duke's brother, General Charles Churchill) consisted of 66 squadrons, 31 battalions and 38 guns and mortars totalling 21,000 men (16,000 of whom were English troops).[14] This force was to be augmented en route such that by the time Marlborough reached the Danube, it would number 40,000 (47 battalions, 88 squadrons). Whilst Marlborough led his army, General Overkirk would maintain a defensive position in the Dutch Republic in case Villeroi mounted an attack. The Duke had assured the Dutch that if the French were to launch an offensive he would return in good time, but Marlborough calculated that as he marched south, the French commander would be drawn after him.[15] In this assumption Marlborough proved correct: Villeroi shadowed the Duke with 30,000 men in 60 squadrons and 42 battalions.[16]

The military dangers in such an enterprise were numerous: Marlborough's lines of communication along the Rhine would be hopelessly exposed to French interference, for Louis' generals controlled the left bank of the river and its central reaches. Such a long march would almost certainly involve a high wastage of men and horses through exhaustion and disease. However, Marlborough was convinced of the urgency – "I am very sensible that I take a great deal upon me", he had earlier written to Godolphin, "but should I act otherwise, the Empire would be undone ..."

Portrait of the Duke of Marlborough by Adriaen van der Werff (December 1704) Uffizi

Whilst Allied preparations had progressed, the French were striving to maintain and re-supply Marshal Marsin. Marsin had been operating with the Elector of Bavaria against the Imperial commander, Prince Louis of Baden, and was somewhat isolated from France: his only lines of communication lay through the rocky passes of the Black Forest. However, on 14 May, with considerable skill Marshal Tallard managed to bring 10,000 reinforcements and vast supplies and munitions through the difficult terrain, whilst outmanoeuvring Baron Thüngen, the Imperial general who sought to block his path.[17] Tallard then returned with his own force to the Rhine, once again side-stepping Thüngen's efforts to intercept him. The whole operation was an outstanding military achievement.[18]

On 26 May, Marlborough reached Coblenz, where the Moselle meets the Rhine. If he intended an attack along the Moselle the Duke must now turn west, but, instead, the following day the army crossed to the right bank of the Rhine, (pausing to add 5,000 waiting Hanoverians and Prussians).[19] "There will be no campaign on the Moselle", wrote Villeroi who had taken up a defensive position on the river, "the English have all gone up into Germany."[20] A second possible objective now occurred to the French – an Allied incursion into Alsace and an attack on the city of Strasbourg. Marlborough skilfully encouraged this apprehension by constructing bridges across the Rhine at Philippsburg, a ruse that not only encouraged Villeroi to come to Tallard's aid in the defence of Alsace, but one that ensured the French plan to march on Vienna remained paralysed by uncertainty.[21]

With Villeroi shadowing Marlborough's every move, Marlborough's gamble that the French would not move against the weakened Dutch position in the Netherlands paid off.[22] In any case, Marlborough had promised to return to the Netherlands if a French attack developed there, transferring his troops down the Rhine on barges at a rate of 130 kilometres (81 miles) a day.[22] Encouraged by this promise (whatever it was worth) the States General agreed to release the Danish contingent of seven battalions and 22 squadrons as a reinforcement.[22] Marlborough reached Ladenburg, in the plain of the Neckar and the Rhine, and there halted for three days to rest his cavalry and allow the guns and infantry to close up.[23] On 6 June he arrived at Wiesloch, south of Heidelberg. The following day, the Allied army swung away from the Rhine towards the hills of the Swabian Jura and the Danube beyond. At last Marlborough's destination was established without doubt.

Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663–1736) by Jacob van Schuppen. Prince Eugene met Marlborough for the first time in 1704. It was the start of a lifelong personal and professional friendship.

On 10 June, the Duke met for the first time the President of the Imperial War Council, Prince Eugene – accompanied by Count Wratislaw – at the village of Mundelsheim, halfway between the Danube and the Rhine.[24] By 13 June, the Imperial Field Commander, Prince Louis of Baden, had joined them in Großheppach.[25] The three generals commanded a force of nearly 110,000 men. At conference it was decided that Eugene would return with 28,000 men to the Lines of Stollhofen on the Rhine to keep an eye on Villeroi and Tallard and prevent them going to the aid of the Franco-Bavarian army on the Danube. Meanwhile, Marlborough's and Baden's forces would combine, totalling 80,000 men, for the march on the Danube to seek out the Elector and Marsin before they could be reinforced.[26]

Knowing Marlborough's destination, Tallard and Villeroi met at Landau in the Palatinate on 13 June to rapidly construct a plan to save Bavaria but the rigidity of the French command system was such that any variations from the original plan had to be sanctioned by Versailles.[27] The Count of Mérode-Westerloo, commander of the Flemish troops in Tallard's army wrote – "One thing is certain: we delayed our march from Alsace for far too long and quite inexplicably."[27] Approval from Louis arrived on 27 June: Tallard was to reinforce Marsin and the Elector on the Danube via the Black Forest, with 40 battalions and 50 squadrons; Villeroi was to pin down the Allies defending the Lines of Stollhofen, or, if the Allies should move all their forces to the Danube, he was to join with Marshal Tallard; and General de Coignies with 8,000 men, would protect Alsace. On 1 July Tallard's army of 35,000 re-crossed the Rhine at Kehl and began its march.[27]

On 22 June, Marlborough's forces linked up with Baden's Imperial forces at Launsheim. A distance of 250 miles (400 kilometres) had been covered in five weeks.[28] Thanks to a carefully planned time-table, the effects of wear and tear had been kept to a minimum. Captain Parker described the march discipline – "As we marched through the country of our Allies, commissars were appointed to furnish us with all manner of necessaries for man and horse ... the soldiers had nothing to do but pitch their tents, boil kettles and lie down to rest."[29] In response to Marlborough's manoeuvres, the Elector and Marsin, conscious of their numerical disadvantage with only 40,000 men, moved their forces to the entrenched camp at Dillingen on the north bank of the Danube. Marlborough could not attack Dillingen because of a lack of siege guns – he was unable to bring any from the Low Countries, and Baden had failed to supply any despite assurances to the contrary.[30]

Allied assault on the Schellenberg – taken by coup de main on 2 July – provided the Allies with an excellent river crossing.

The Allies, nevertheless, needed a base for provisions and a good river crossing. On 2 July, therefore, Marlborough at the Battle of Schellenberg stormed the fortress of Schellenberg on the heights above the town of Donauwörth. Count Jean d'Arco had been sent with 12,000 men from the Franco-Bavarian camp to hold the town and grassy hill but after a ferocious and bloody battle, inflicting enormous casualties on both sides, Schellenberg finally succumbed, forcing Donauwörth to surrender shortly afterwards. The Elector, knowing his position at Dillingen was now not tenable, took up a position behind the strong fortifications of Augsburg.[31]

Tallard's march presented a dilemma for Eugene. If the Allies were not to be outnumbered on the Danube, Eugene realised he must either try to cut Tallard off before he could get there or he must hasten to reinforce Marlborough.[32] if he withdrew from the Rhine to the Danube, Villeroi might also make a move south to link up with the Elector and Marsin. Eugene compromised: leaving 12,000 troops behind guarding the Lines of Stollhofen, he marched off with the rest of his army to forestall Tallard.[32]

Lacking in numbers, Eugene could not seriously disrupt Tallard's march but the French Marshal's progress was proving pitifully slow. Tallard's force had suffered considerably more than Marlborough's troops on their march – many of his cavalry horses were suffering from glanders and the mountain passes were proving tough for the 2,000 wagons of provisions. Local German peasants, angry at French plundering, compounded Tallard's problems, leading Mérode-Westerloo to bemoan – "the enraged peasantry killed several thousand of our men before the army was clear of the Black Forest."[29] Tallard had insisted on besieging the little town of Villingen for six days (16–22 July) but abandoned the enterprise on discovering the approach of Eugene.

The Elector in Augsburg was informed on 14 July that Tallard was on his way through the Black Forest. This good news bolstered the Elector's policy of inaction, further encouraging him to wait for the reinforcements.[33] But this reticence to fight induced Marlborough to undertake a controversial policy of spoliation in Bavaria, burning buildings and crops throughout the rich lands south of the Danube. This had two aims: firstly to put pressure on the Elector to fight or come to terms before Tallard arrived with reinforcements; and secondly, to ruin Bavaria as a base from which the French and Bavarian armies could attack Vienna, or pursue the Duke into Franconia if, at some stage, he had to withdraw northwards.[34] But this destruction, coupled with a protracted siege of Rain (9–16 July), caused Prince Eugene to lament "... since the Donauwörth action I cannot admire their performances", and later to conclude "If he has to go home without having achieved his objective, he will certainly be ruined."[35] Nevertheless, strategically the Duke had been able to place his numerically stronger forces between the Franco-Bavarian army and Vienna.

Final positioningEdit

Manoeuvres before the battle 9–13 August.

Marshal Tallard, with 34,000 men, reached Ulm, joining with the Elector and Marsin in Augsburg on 5 August (although Tallard was not impressed to find that the Elector had dispersed his army in response to Marlborough's campaign of ravaging the region).[36] Also on 5 August, Eugene reached Höchstädt, riding that same night to meet with Marlborough at Schrobenhausen. Marlborough knew it was necessary that another crossing point over the Danube would be required in case Donauwörth fell to the enemy. On 7 August, therefore, the first of Baden's 15,000 Imperial troops (the remainder following two days later) left Marlborough's main force to besiege the heavily defended city of Ingolstadt, 32 kilometres (20 miles) farther down the Danube.[37]

With Eugene's forces at Höchstädt on the north bank of the Danube, and Marlborough's at Rain on the south bank, Tallard and the Elector debated their next move. Tallard preferred to bide his time, replenish supplies and allow Marlborough's Danube campaign to flounder in the colder weeks of Autumn; the Elector and Marsin, however, newly reinforced, were keen to push ahead. The French and Bavarian commanders eventually agreed on a plan and decided to attack Eugene's smaller force. On 9 August, the Franco-Bavarian forces began to cross to the north bank of the Danube.[38]

On 10 August, Eugene sent an urgent dispatch reporting that he was falling back to Donauwörth – "The enemy have marched. It is almost certain that the whole army is crossing the Danube at Lauingen ... The plain of Dillingen is crowded with troops ... Everything, milord, consists in speed and that you put yourself forthwith in movement to join me tomorrow, without which I fear it will be too late." By a series of brilliant marches Marlborough concentrated his forces on Donauwörth and, by noon 11 August, the link-up was complete.[39]

During 11 August, Tallard pushed forward from the river crossings at Dillingen; by 12 August, the Franco-Bavarian forces were encamped behind the small river Nebel near the village of Blenheim on the plain of Höchstädt. That same day Marlborough and Eugene carried out their own reconnaissance of the French position from the church spire at Tapfheim, and moved their combined forces to Münster – eight kilometres (5.0 mi) from the French camp. A French reconnaissance under the Marquis de Silly went forward to probe the enemy, but were driven off by Allied troops who had deployed to cover the pioneers of the advancing army, labouring to bridge the numerous streams in the area and improve the passage leading westwards to Höchstädt.[40] Marlborough quickly moved forward two brigades under the command of General Wilkes and Brigadier Rowe to secure the narrow strip of land between the Danube and the wooded Fuchsberg hill, at the Schwenningen defile.[41]

Tallard's army numbered 56,000 men and 90 guns; the army of the Grand Alliance, 52,000 men and 66 guns. Some Allied officers who were acquainted with the superior numbers of the enemy, and aware of their strong defensive position, ventured to remonstrate with Marlborough about the hazards of attacking; but the Duke was resolute – "I know the danger, yet a battle is absolutely necessary, and I rely on the bravery and discipline of the troops, which will make amends for our disadvantages".[41] Marlborough and Eugene decided to risk everything, and agreed to attack on the following day.

The battlefieldEdit

The battlefield stretched for nearly 6 kilometres (4 mi). The extreme right flank of the Franco-Bavarian army was covered by the Danube; to the extreme left flank lay the undulating pine-covered hills of the Swabian Jura. A small stream, the Nebel, (the ground either side of which was soft and marshy and only fordable intermittently), fronted the French line. The French right rested on the village of Blenheim near where the Nebel flows into the Danube; the village itself was surrounded by hedges, fences, enclosed gardens, and meadows. Between Blenheim and the next village of Oberglauheim the fields of wheat had been cut to stubble and were now ideal to deploy troops. From Oberglauheim to the next hamlet of Lutzingen the terrain of ditches, thickets and brambles was potentially difficult ground for the attackers.[42]

Initial manoeuvresEdit

The position of the forces at noon, 13 August. Marlborough took control of the left arm of the Allied forces including the attacks on Blenheim and Oberglauheim, whilst Eugene commanded the right including the attacks on Lutzingen.

At 02:00 on 13 August 40 squadrons were sent forward towards the enemy, followed at 03:00, in eight columns, by the main Allied force pushing over the Kessel. At about 06:00 they reached Schwenningen, two miles (3.2 km) from Blenheim. The English and German troops who had held Schwenningen through the night joined the march, making a ninth column on the left of the army. Marlborough and Eugene made their final plans. The Allied commanders agreed that Marlborough would command 36,000 troops and attack Tallard's force of 33,000 on the left (including capturing the village of Blenheim), whilst Eugene, commanding 16,000 men would attack the Elector and Marsin's combined forces of 23,000 troops on the right wing; if this attack was pressed hard the Elector and Marsin would have no troops to send to aid Tallard on their right.[43] Lieutenant-General John Cutts would attack Blenheim in concert with Eugene's attack. With the French flanks busy, Marlborough could cross the Nebel and deliver the fatal blow to the French at their centre. However, Marlborough would have to wait until Eugene was in position before the general engagement could begin.

The last thing Tallard expected that morning was to be attacked by the Allies – deceived by intelligence gathered from prisoners taken by de Silly the previous day, and assured in their strong natural position, Tallard and his colleagues were convinced that Marlborough and Eugene were about to retreat north-eastwards towards Nördlingen.[44] Tallard wrote a report to this effect to King Louis that morning, but hardly had he sent the messenger when the Allied army began to appear opposite his camp. "I could see the enemy advancing ever closer in nine great columns", wrote Mérode-Westerloo, " ... filling the whole plain from the Danube to the woods on the horizon."[45] Signal guns were fired to bring in the foraging parties and pickets as the French and Bavarian troops tried to draw into battle-order to face the unexpected threat.

At about 08:00 the French artillery on their right wing opened fire, answered by Colonel Blood's batteries.[46] The guns were heard by Baden in his camp before Ingolstadt, "The Prince and the Duke are engaged today to the westward", he wrote to the Emperor. "Heaven bless them."[47] An hour later Tallard, the Elector, and Marsin climbed Blenheim's church tower to finalise their plans. It was settled that the Elector and Marsin would hold the front from the hills to Oberglauheim, whilst Tallard would defend the ground between Oberglauheim and the Danube. The French commanders were, however, divided as to how to utilise the Nebel: Tallard's tactic – opposed by Marsin and the Elector who felt it better to close their infantry right up to the stream itself – was to lure the allies across before unleashing their cavalry upon them, causing panic and confusion; whilst the enemy was struggling in the marshes, they would be caught in crossfire from Blenheim and Oberglauheim. The plan was sound if all its parts were implemented, but it allowed Marlborough to cross the Nebel without serious interference and fight the battle he had in mind.[48]

The Battle of Blenheim by Huchtenburg

The Franco-Bavarian commanders deployed their forces. In the village of Lutzingen, Count Maffei positioned five Bavarian battalions with a great battery of 16 guns at the village's edge. In the woods to the left of Lutzingen, seven French battalions under the Marquis de Rozel moved into place. Between Lutzingen and Oberglauheim the Elector placed 27 squadrons of cavalry – Count d'Arco commanded 14 Bavarian squadrons and Count Wolframsdorf had 13 more in support nearby. To their right stood Marsin's 40 French squadrons and 12 battalions. The village of Oberglauheim was packed with 14 battalions commanded by the Marquis de Blainville (including the effective Irish Brigade known as the 'Wild Geese'). Six batteries of guns were ranged alongside the village.[49] On the right of these French and Bavarian positions, between Oberglauheim and Blenheim, Tallard deployed 64 French and Walloon squadrons (16 drawn from Marsin) supported by nine French battalions standing near the Höchstädt road. In the cornfield next to Blenheim stood three battalions from the Regiment de Roi. Nine battalions occupied the village itself, commanded by the Marquis de Clérambault. Four battalions stood to the rear and a further 11 were in reserve. These battalions were supported by Hautefeuille's 12 squadrons of dismounted dragoons.[49] By 11:00 Tallard, the Elector, and Marsin were in place. Many of the Allied generals were hesitant to attack such a relatively strong position. The Earl of Orkney later confessed that, "had I been asked to give my opinion, I had been against it."[50]

Prince Eugene was expected to be in position by 11:00, but due to the difficult terrain and enemy fire, progress was slow.[51] Lord Cutts' column – who by 10:00 had expelled the enemy from two water mills upon the Nebel – had already deployed by the river against Blenheim, enduring over the next three hours severe fire from a heavy six-gun battery posted near the village. The rest of Marlborough's army, waiting in their ranks on the forward slope, were also forced to bear the cannonade from the French artillery, suffering 2,000 casualties before the attack could even start.[52] Meanwhile, engineers repaired a stone bridge across the Nebel, and constructed five additional bridges or causeways across the marsh between Blenheim and Oberglauheim. Marlborough's anxiety was finally allayed when, just past noon, Colonel Cadogan reported that Eugene's Prussian and Danish infantry were in place – the order for the general advance was given. At 13:00, Cutts was ordered to attack the village of Blenheim whilst Prince Eugene was requested to assault Lutzingen on the Allied right flank.[53]

Part of the Battle of Blenheim tapestry at Blenheim Palace by Judocus de Vos. In the background is the village of Blenheim; in the middle ground are the two water mills that Rowe had to take to gain a bridgehead over the Nebel. The foreground shows an English grenadier with a captured French colour.

Cutts ordered Brigadier-General Archibald Rowe's brigade to attack. The English infantry rose from the edge of the Nebel, and silently marched towards Blenheim, a distance of some 150 metres (160 yd). John Ferguson's Scottish brigade supported Rowe's left, and moved in perfect order towards the barricades between the village and the river, defended by Hautefeuille's dragoons. As the range closed to within 30 metres (30 yd), the French fired a deadly volley. Rowe had ordered that there should be no firing from his men until he struck his sword upon the palisades, but as he stepped forward to give the signal, he fell mortally wounded.[54] The survivors of the leading companies closed up the gaps in their torn ranks and rushed forward. Small parties penetrated the defences, but repeated French volleys forced the English back towards the Nebel, sustaining heavy casualties. As the attack faltered, eight squadrons of elite Gens d'Armes, commanded by the veteran Swiss officer, Beat-Jacques von Zurlauben, fell upon the English troops, cutting at the exposed flank of Rowe's own regiment.[55] However, Wilkes' Hessian brigade, lying nearby in the marshy grass at the water's edge, stood firm and repulsed the Gens d'Armes with steady fire, enabling the English and Hessians to re-order and launch another attack.[56]

Although the Allies were again repulsed, these persistent attacks on Blenheim eventually bore fruit, panicking Clérambault into making the worst French error of the day.[57] Without consulting Tallard, Clérambault ordered his reserve battalions into the village, upsetting the balance of the French position and nullifying the French numerical superiority. "The men were so crowded in upon one another", wrote Mérode-Westerloo, "that they couldn't even fire – let alone receive or carry out any orders."[57] Marlborough, spotting this error, now countermanded Cutts' intention to launch a third attack, and ordered him simply to contain the enemy within Blenheim; no more than 5,000 Allied soldiers were able to pen in twice the number of French infantry and dragoons.[58]

... Prince Eugene and the Imperial troops had been repulsed three times – driven right back to the woods – and had taken a real drubbing. – Mérode-Westerloo.[59]
Memorial for the Battle of Blenheim 1704, Lutzingen, Germany.

On the Allied right, Eugene's Prussian and Danish forces were desperately fighting the numerically superior forces of the Elector and Marsin. The Prince of Anhalt-Dessau led forward four brigades across the Nebel to assault the well-fortified position of Lutzingen. Here, the Nebel was less of an obstacle, but the great battery positioned on the edge of the village enjoyed a good field of fire across the open ground stretching to the hamlet of Schwennenbach. As soon as the infantry crossed the stream, they were struck by Maffei's infantry, and salvoes from the Bavarian guns positioned both in front of the village and in enfilade on the wood-line to the right. Despite heavy casualties the Prussians attempted to storm the great battery, whilst the Danes, under Count Scholten, attempted to drive the French infantry out of the copses beyond the village.[60]

With the infantry heavily engaged, Eugene's cavalry picked its way across the Nebel. After an initial success, his first line of cavalry, under the Imperial General of Horse, Prince Maximilian of Hanover, were pressed by the second line of Marsin's cavalry, and were forced back across the Nebel in confusion. Nevertheless, the exhausted French were unable to follow up their advantage, and the two cavalry forces tried to regroup and reorder their ranks.[61] However, without cavalry support, and threatened with envelopment, the Prussian and Danish infantry were in turn forced to pull back across the Nebel. Panic gripped some of Eugene's troops as they crossed the stream. Ten infantry colours were lost to the Bavarians, and hundreds of prisoners taken; it was only through the leadership of Eugene and the Prussian Prince that the imperial infantry were prevented from abandoning the field.[62]

After rallying his troops near Schwennenbach – well beyond their starting point – Eugene prepared to launch a second attack, led by the second-line squadrons under the Duke of Württemberg-Teck. Yet again they were caught in the murderous cross-fire from the artillery in Lutzingen and Oberglauheim, and were once again thrown back in disarray. The French and Bavarians, however, were almost as disordered as their opponents, and they too were in need of inspiration from their commander, the Elector, who was seen " ... riding up and down, and inspiring his men with fresh courage."[63] Anhalt-Dessau's Danish and Prussian infantry attacked a second time but could not sustain the advance without proper support. Once again they fell back across the stream.

Centre and OberglauheimEdit

The Battle of Blenheim by Joshua Ross
... they began to pass [the marshes and the Nebel] as fast as the badness of the ground would permit them. – Churchill's chaplain.[64]

Whilst these events around Blenheim and Lutzingen were taking place, Marlborough was preparing to cross the Nebel. The centre, commanded by the Duke's brother, General Charles Churchill, consisted of 18 battalions of infantry arranged in two lines: seven battalions in the front line to secure a foothold across the Nebel, and 11 battalions in the rear providing cover from the Allied side of the stream. Between the infantry were placed two lines, 72 squadrons of cavalry. The first line of foot was to pass the stream first and march as far to the other side as could be conveniently done. This line would then form and cover the passage of the horse, leaving gaps in the line of infantry large enough for the cavalry to pass through and take their position in front.

Marshal Tallard (1652–1728). He has been criticised for allowing Clérambault to maintain a force of infantry in Blenheim so large that it denied the main army manpower it needed.

Marlborough ordered the formation forward. Once again Zurlauben's Gens d'Armes charged, looking to rout Lumley's English cavalry who linked Cutts' column facing Blenheim with Churchill's infantry. As these elite French cavalry attacked, they were faced by five English squadrons under Colonel Francis Palmes. To the consternation of the French, the Gens d'Armes were pushed back in terrible confusion, pursued well beyond the Maulweyer stream that flows through Blenheim.[65] "What? Is it possible?" exclaimed the Elector, "the gentlemen of France fleeing?"[66] Palmes, however, attempted to follow up his success but was repulsed in some confusion by other French cavalry, and musket fire from the edge of Blenheim.[65]

Nevertheless, Tallard was alarmed by the repulse of the elite Gens d'Armes and urgently rode across the field to ask Marsin for reinforcements; but on the basis of being hard pressed by Eugene – whose second attack was in full flood – Marsin refused.[67] As Tallard consulted with Marsin, more of his infantry was being taken into Blenheim by Clérambault. Fatally, Tallard, aware of the situation, did nothing to rectify this grave mistake, leaving him with just the nine battalions of infantry near the Höchstädt road to oppose the massed enemy ranks in the centre.[67] Zurlauben tried several more times to disrupt the Allies forming on Tallard's side of the stream; his front-line cavalry darting forward down the gentle slope towards the Nebel. But the attacks lacked co-ordination, and the Allied infantry's steady volleys disconcerted the French horsemen.[68] During these skirmishes Zurlauben fell mortally wounded, and died two days later. The time was just after 15:00.

The Danish cavalry, under the Duke of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (not to be confused with the Duke of Württemberg who fought with Eugene), had made slow work of crossing the Nebel near Oberglau; harassed by Marsin's infantry near the village, the Danes were driven back across the stream. Count Horn's Dutch infantry managed to push the French back from the water's edge, but it was apparent that before Marlborough could launch his main effort against Tallard, Oberglauheim would have to be secured.

Allied attack on Oberglauheim.

Count Horn directed the Prince of Holstein-Beck to take the village, but his two Dutch brigades were cut down by the French and Irish troops, capturing and badly wounding the Prince during the action.[69] The battle was now in the balance. If Holstein-Beck's Dutch column were destroyed, the Allied army would be split in two: Eugene's wing would be isolated from Marlborough's, passing the initiative to the Franco-Bavarian forces now engaged across the whole plain.[70] Seeing the opportunity, Marsin ordered his cavalry to change from facing Eugene, and turn towards their right and the open flank of Churchill's infantry drawn up in front of Unterglau. Marlborough (who had crossed the Nebel on a makeshift bridge to take personal control), ordered Hulsen's Hanoverian battalions to support the Dutch infantry. A Dutch cavalry brigade under Averock was also called forward but soon came under pressure from Marsin's more numerous squadrons.

Marlborough now requested Eugene to release Count Hendrick Fugger and his Imperial Cuirassier brigade to help repel the French cavalry thrust. Despite his own desperate struggle, the Imperial Prince at once complied, demonstrating the high degree of confidence and mutual co-operation between the two generals.[71] Although the Nebel stream lay between Fugger's and Marsin's squadrons, the French were forced to change front to meet this new threat, thus forestalling the chance for Marsin to strike at Marlborough's infantry.[72] Fugger's cuirassiers charged and, striking at a favourable angle, threw back Marsin's squadrons in disorder.[73] With support from Colonel Blood's batteries, the Hessian, Hanoverian and Dutch infantry – now commanded by Count Berensdorf – succeeded in pushing the French and Irish infantry back into Oberglauheim so that they could not again threaten Churchill's flank as he moved against Tallard. The French commander in the village, the Marquis de Blainville, numbered amongst the heavy casualties.[74]

The [French] foot remained in the best order I ever saw, till they were cut to pieces almost in rank and file.Lord Orkney.[75]
Breakthrough: Position of the battle at 17:30.

By 16:00, with the Franco-Bavarian troops besieged in Blenheim and Oberglau, the Allied centre of 81 squadrons (nine squadrons had been transferred from Cutts' column), supported by 18 battalions was firmly planted amidst the French line of 64 squadrons and nine battalions of raw recruits. There was now a pause in the battle: Marlborough wanted to concert the attack upon the whole front, and Eugene, after his second repulse, needed time to reorganise.[76]

Just after 17:00 all was ready along the Allied front. Marlborough's two lines of cavalry had now moved to the front of the Duke's line of battle, with the two supporting lines of infantry behind them. Mérode-Westerloo attempted to extricate some French infantry crowded in Blenheim, but Clérambault ordered the troops back into the village. The French cavalry exerted themselves once more against the first line – Lumley's English and Scots on the Allied left, and Hompesch's Dutch and German squadrons on the Allied right. Tallard's squadrons, lacking infantry support, were tired and ragged but managed to push the Allied first line back to their infantry support. With the battle still not won, Marlborough had to rebuke one of his cavalry officers who was attempting to leave the field – "Sir, you are under a mistake, the enemy lies that way ..."[75] Now, at the Duke's command, the second Allied line under Cuno Josua von Bülow and Bothmer was ordered forward, and, driving through the centre, the Allies finally put Tallard's tired horse to rout, though not without cost. The Prussian Life Dragoons' Colonel, Ludwig von Blumenthal, and his 2nd in command, Lt. Col. von Hacke, fell next to each other. But the charge succeeded and with their cavalry in headlong flight, the remaining nine French infantry battalions fought with desperate valour, trying to form square.[75] But it was futile. The French battalions were overwhelmed by Colonel Blood's close-range artillery and platoon fire. Mérode-Westerloo later wrote – "[They] died to a man where they stood, stationed right out in the open plain – supported by nobody."[75]

The majority of Tallard's retreating troops headed for Höchstädt but most did not make the safety of the town, plunging instead into the Danube where upwards of 3,000 French horsemen drowned;[77] others were cut down by the pursuing cavalry. The Marquis de Gruignan attempted a counter-attack, but he was easily brushed aside by the triumphant Allies. After a final rally behind his camp's tents, shouting entreaties to stand and fight, Marshal Tallard was caught up in the rout and pushed towards Sonderheim.[78] Surrounded by a squadron of Hessian troops, Tallard surrendered to Lieutenant-Colonel de Boinenburg, the Prince of Hesse-Kassel's aide-de-camp, and was sent under escort to Marlborough.[79] The Duke welcomed the French commander – "I am very sorry that such a cruel misfortune should have fallen upon a soldier for whom I have the highest regard." With salutes and courtesies, the Marshal was escorted to Marlborough's coach.[78]

Fall of BlenheimEdit

The Battle of Blenheim by John Wootton
... our men fought in and through the fire ... until many on both sides were burned to death. – Private Deane, 1st Regiment Foot Guards.[80]

Meanwhile, the Allies had once again attacked the Bavarian stronghold at Lutzingen. Eugene, however, became exasperated with the performance of his Imperial cavalry whose third attack had failed: he had already shot two of his troopers to prevent a general flight. Then, declaring in disgust that he wished to "fight among brave men and not among cowards", Eugene went into the attack with the Prussian and Danish infantry, as did the Dessauer, waving a regimental colour to inspire his troops.[81] This time the Prussians were able to storm the great Bavarian battery, and overwhelm the guns' crews.[82] Beyond the village, Scholten's Danes defeated the French infantry in a desperate hand-to-hand bayonet struggle.[83] When they saw that the centre had broken, the Elector and Marsin decided the battle was lost and, like the remnants of Tallard's army, fled the battlefield (albeit in better order than Tallard's men). Attempts to organise an Allied force to prevent Marsin's withdrawal failed owing to the exhaustion of the cavalry, and the growing confusion in the field.

Marlborough now had to turn his attention from the fleeing enemy to direct Churchill to detach more infantry to storm Blenheim. Orkney's infantry, Hamilton's English brigade and St Paul's Hanoverians moved across the trampled wheat to the cottages. Fierce hand-to-hand fighting gradually forced the French towards the village centre, in and around the walled churchyard which had been prepared for defence. Hay and Ross's dismounted dragoons were also sent, but suffered under a counter-charge delivered by the regiments of Artois and Provence under command of Colonel de la Silvière. Colonel Belville's Hanoverians were fed into the battle to steady the resolve of the dragoons, and once more went to the attack. The Allied progress was slow and hard, and like the defenders, they suffered many casualties.[84]

Many of the cottages were now burning, obscuring the field of fire and driving the defenders out of their positions. Hearing the din of battle in Blenheim, Tallard sent a message to Marlborough offering to order the garrison to withdraw from the field. "Inform Monsieur Tallard", replied the Duke, "that, in the position in which he is now, he has no command."[85] Nevertheless, as dusk came the Allied commander was anxious for a quick conclusion. The French infantry fought tenaciously to hold on to their position in Blenheim, but their commander was nowhere to be found. Clérambault's insistence on confining his huge force in the village was to seal his fate that day.[86] Realising his tactical mistake had contributed to Tallard's defeat in the centre, Clérambault deserted Blenheim and the 27 battalions defending the village, and reportedly drowned in the Danube while attempting to make his escape.

Diorama of the battle in the Höchstädt museum. In the middle ground the Allied cavalry are breaking through, pushing Tallard's squadrons from the battlefield. The foreground depicts the fierce fighting in and around Blenheim.

By now Blenheim was under assault from every side by three British generals: Cutts, Churchill, and Orkney. The French had repulsed every attack with heavy slaughter, but many had seen what had happened on the plain and what its consequences to them would be; their army was routed and they were cut off.[87] Orkney, attacking from the rear, now tried a different tactic – "... it came into my head to beat parley", he later wrote, "which they accepted of and immediately their Brigadier de Nouville capitulated with me to be prisoner at discretion and lay down their arms." Threatened by Allied guns, other units followed their example. However, it was not until 21:00 that the Marquis de Blanzac, who had taken charge in Clérambault's absence, reluctantly accepted the inevitability of defeat, and some 10,000 of France's best infantry had laid down their arms.[88]

During these events Marlborough was still in the saddle conducting the pursuit of the broken enemy. Pausing for a moment he scribbled on the back of an old tavern bill a note addressed to his wife, Sarah: "I have no 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."[89]

Marlborough and Cadogan at the Battle of Blenheim by Pieter van Bloemen
Battle of Höchstädt by Wolfgang and Vind.

French losses were immense, with over 27,000 killed, wounded and captured.[90][91] Moreover, the myth of French invincibility had been destroyed and Louis's hopes of an early and victorious peace had been wrenched from his grasp.[91] Mérode-Westerloo summarised the case against Tallard's army: "The French lost this battle for a wide variety of reasons. For one thing they had too good an opinion of their own ability ... Another point was their faulty field dispositions, and in addition there was rampant indiscipline and inexperience displayed ... It took all these faults to lose so celebrated a battle."[92] It was a hard-fought contest, leading Prince Eugene to observe – "I have not a squadron or battalion which did not charge four times at least."[93]

Although the war dragged on for years, the Battle of Blenheim was probably its most decisive victory; Marlborough and Eugene, working indivisibly together, had saved the Habsburg Empire and thereby preserved the Grand Alliance from collapse.[94] Munich, Augsburg, Ingolstadt, Ulm and all remaining territory of Bavaria soon fell to the Allies. By the Treaty of Ilbersheim, signed 7 November 1704, Bavaria was placed under Austrian military rule, allowing the Habsburgs to use its resources for the rest of the conflict.[95]

The remnants of the Elector of Bavaria's and Marshal Marsin's wing limped back to Strasbourg, losing another 7,000 men through desertion.[92] Despite being offered the chance to remain as ruler of Bavaria (under strict terms of an alliance with Austria), the Elector left his country and family in order to continue the war against the Allies from the Spanish Netherlands where he still held the post of governor-general. Their commander-in-chief that day, Marshal Tallard – who, unlike his subordinates, had not been ransomed or exchanged – was taken to England and imprisoned in Nottingham until his release in 1711.[96]

The 1704 campaign lasted considerably longer than usual as the Allies sought to wring out maximum advantage. Realising that France was too powerful to be forced to make peace by a single victory, however, Eugene, Marlborough and Baden met to plan their next moves. For the following year the Duke proposed a campaign along the valley of the River Moselle to carry the war deep into France. This required the capture of the major fortress of Landau which guarded the Rhine, and the towns of Trier and Trarbach on the Moselle itself.[96] Trier was taken on 27 October and Landau fell on 23 November to the Margrave of Baden and Prince Eugene; with the fall of Trarbach on 20 December, the campaign season for 1704 came to an end.

Marlborough returned to England on 14 December (O.S) to the acclamation of Queen Anne and the country. In the first days of January the 110 cavalry standards and the 128 infantry colours that were taken during the battle were borne in procession to Westminster Hall.[97] In February 1705, Queen Anne, who had made Marlborough a Duke in 1702, granted him the Park of Woodstock and promised a sum of £240,000 to build a suitable house as a gift from a grateful crown in recognition of his victory – a victory which British historian Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy considered one of the pivotal battles in history, writing – "Had it not been for Blenheim, all Europe might at this day suffer under the effect of French conquests resembling those of Alexander in extent and those of the Romans in durability."[98] However, military historian John A. Lynn consider this claim unjustified as Louis XIV never laboured such objective, as the campaign in Bavaria was intended to bring only a favourable peace settlement and not domination over Europe.[4]

The famous Lake poet Robert Southey scathingly criticised the Battle of Blenheim in his anti war poem After Blenheim. However Robert Southey himself is said to have later praised the victory. The poem points out the complacency of the public and lack of curiosity

  1. ^ a b All dates in the article are in the Gregorian calendar (unless otherwise stated). The Julian calendar as used in England in 1704 differed by eleven days. Thus, the battle of Blenheim was fought on 13 August (Gregorian calendar) or 2 August (Julian calendar). In this article, 'OS' is used to annotate Julian dates with the year adjusted to 1 January. See the article Old Style and New Style dates for a more detailed explanation of the dating issues and conventions.
  2. ^ The village of Blindheim (Blenheim in English) lies on the Danube River, 10 miles (16 kilometres) southwest of Donauwörth in Bavaria, southern Germany.
  3. ^ In 1704, Blindheim was in the principality of Palatinate-Neuburg (Pfalz-Neuburg), which was absorbed into Bavaria in 1808.
  4. ^ a b c d Lynn 2013, p. 294.
  5. ^ Statistics taken from Chandler and Falkner. Some sources put the Allied strength at 56,000 and the Franco-Bavarian forces at 60,000. The number of squadrons and battalions within each army differs depending on the source.
  6. ^ Weigley 2004, p. 87.
  7. ^ a b Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 124
  8. ^ Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714, p. 285
  9. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 125
  10. ^ The Lines of Stollhofen are a military chain of posts designed for the defence of the Rhine Valley. The lines ranged 20 miles (32 km) between Stollhofen, a small village on the Rhine, to the Black Forest. The barrier was designed to stop the French marching down the Rhine from Strasbourg.
  11. ^ a b Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 127
  12. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 18
  13. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 136
  14. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 128. The initial force of 21,000 men were accompanied by 1,700 supply carts drawn by 5,000 draught horses. The artillery needed as many more.
  15. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 19
  16. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 129. Barnett and Coxe states 45 squadrons and 36 battalions.
  17. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 20. Falkner gives a total of 8,000
  18. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 20, although Chandler p. 131 states that many men were lost on the return journey through desertion.
  19. ^ Tincey: Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough's Masterpiece, p. 31
  20. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 22
  21. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 89
  22. ^ a b c Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 129
  23. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 91
  24. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 23
  25. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 25. Eugene had doubts about Baden's reliability, for he was a close friend of the Elector of Bavaria. It was even suspected that Baden was secretly corresponding with his old comrade.
  26. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 132
  27. ^ a b c Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 133
  28. ^ Lynn p. 287. Lynn states that the march-rate was not unprecedented for the period, averaging 7.5 miles (12.1 kilometres) per day. What stands out was the distance and the fine condition of the troops when they arrived.
  29. ^ a b Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 131. The Allied march had not been without loss: French spies reported that 900 sick had been left at Kassel.
  30. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 26
  31. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 40
  32. ^ a b Henderson: Prince Eugen of Savoy, p. 103
  33. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 139
  34. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 41
  35. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 215
  36. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 44. Lynn states Tallard reached Augsburg on 3 August.
  37. ^ Holmes: Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius p. 279. Many reliable historians argue (as did Mérode-Westerloo at the time) that this was largely a device to get the 'cautious and obstructive Margrave out of the way'. However, Marlborough had assured Heinsius that the siege made perfect sense, and there is no direct evidence that they deliberately contrived his absence.
  38. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 47
  39. ^ Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 141
  40. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 842. The French had captured four prisoners. Under examination they declared that the whole Allied army was going to move off towards Nördlingen the next morning.
  41. ^ a b Coxe: Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough: vol.i. p. 188
  42. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 106
  43. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 57
  44. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 108. Several sources (Churchill, Chandler) suggest that Marlborough had planted this corroborative 'evidence' on Tallard.
  45. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 109
  46. ^ Churchill states 08:30
  47. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 848
  48. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 58
  49. ^ a b Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 61
  50. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 62
  51. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 63
  52. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 852
  53. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 66
  54. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 853. Two of Rowe's staff officers were killed trying to carry him away: Lieutenant-Colonel Dalyell and Major Campbell.
  55. ^ Churchill and Coxe states only three squadrons of Gens d'Armes. Rowe's own regiment lost their colours, but they were soon retrieved by the Hessians.
  56. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 68
  57. ^ a b Chandler: A Guide to the Battlefields of Europe, p. 145
  58. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 70
  59. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 270
  60. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 71
  61. ^ Tincey: Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough's Masterpiece, p. 67
  62. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 268
  63. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 73
  64. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 258
  65. ^ a b Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 76. In his account after the battle, Tallard explains his defeat – "first, because the Gendarmerie were not able to break the five English squadrons."
  66. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 856
  67. ^ a b Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 77
  68. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 78
  69. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 264
  70. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 80. Tallard later recorded – "At this moment I saw the hope of victory."
  71. ^ Chandler: A Guide to the Battlefields of Europe, p. 161
  72. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 81
  73. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 858
  74. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 82
  75. ^ a b c d Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 86
  76. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 860
  77. ^ Churchill states up to 2,000
  78. ^ a b Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 90
  79. ^ Tincey: Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough's Masterpiece, p. 85
  80. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 294
  81. ^ McKay: Prince Eugene of Savoy, p. 86
  82. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 91
  83. ^ Danish infantry suffered 2,401 casualties fighting for possession of the woods beyond Lutzingen (Falkner)
  84. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 95
  85. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 865
  86. ^ Spencer: Blenheim: Battle for Europe, p. 291
  87. ^ Churchill: Marlborough: His Life and Times, p. 867
  88. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 98
  89. ^ Barnett: Marlborough, p. 121. The message was carried to London by Colonel Daniel Parke.
  90. ^ Clodfelter 2017, p. 185.
  91. ^ a b Barnett: Marlborough, p. 122
  92. ^ a b Chandler: Marlborough as Military Commander, p. 149
  93. ^ Falkner: Blenheim 1704, p. 103
  94. ^ McKay: Prince Eugene of Savoy, p. 88
  95. ^ Lynn: The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714, p. 293
  96. ^ a b Tincey: Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough's Masterpiece, p. 88
  97. ^ Churchill states 171 standards and 129 colours.
  98. ^ Edward Shepherd Creasy, The Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World, 1851

  • Barnett, Correlli. Marlborough. Wordsworth Editions Limited (1999). ISBN 1-84022-200-X
  • Chandler, David G. A Guide to the Battlefields of Europe. Wordsworth Editions Limited, 1998. ISBN 1-85326-694-9
  • Chandler, David G. Marlborough as Military Commander. Spellmount Ltd (2003). ISBN 1-86227-195-X
  • Clodfelter, M. (2017). Warfare and Armed Conflicts: A Statistical Encyclopedia of Casualty and Other Figures, 1492–2015 (4th ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. ISBN 978-0786474707.
  • Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Blenheim" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
  • Churchill, Winston. Marlborough: His Life and Times, Bk. 1, vol. ii. University of Chicago Press, (2002). ISBN 0-226-10633-0
  • Coxe, William. Memoirs of the Duke of Marlborough: vol.i. London, (1847)
  • Falkner, James. Blenheim 1704: Marlborough's Greatest Victory. Pen & Sword Books Ltd, 2004. ISBN 1-84415-050-X
  • Lynn, John A. (19 December 2013). The Wars of Louis XIV 1667-1714. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-89951-8. Retrieved 25 November 2017.
  • Henderson, Nicholas: Prince Eugen of Savoy. Weidenfeld & Nicolson (1966). ISBN 1-84212-597-4
  • Holmes, Richard (2008). Marlborough: England's Fragile Genius. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-722571-2
  • Lynn, John A. The Wars of Louis XIV, 1667–1714. Longman (1999). ISBN 0-582-05629-2
  • McKay, Derek. Prince Eugene of Savoy. Thames and Hudson Ltd., (1977). ISBN 0-500-87007-1
  • Spencer, Charles. Blenheim: Battle for Europe. Phoenix (2005). ISBN 0-304-36704-4
  • Tincey, John. Blenheim 1704: The Duke of Marlborough's Masterpiece. Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2004. ISBN 1-84176-771-9
  • Weigley, Russell F. (2004). The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-21707-5. Retrieved 25 November 2017.

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European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.

European dragon
Friedrich-Johann-Justin-Bertuch Mythical-Creature-Dragon 1806.jpg
Illustration of a winged dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch, 1806.
Groupinglegendary creature
Sub groupingdragon
Similar creaturesother dragons
RegionEurope and the Mediterranean Region
Habitatlairs, caves, castles, mountains

The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex lines 163-201[4], describing a shepherd having a fight with a big constricting snake, calls it "serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words were probably interchangeable.

In and after the early Middle Ages, the European dragon is typically depicted as a large, fire-breathing, scaly, horned, lizard-like creature; the creature also has leathery, bat-like wings, four legs, and a long, muscular prehensile tail. Some depictions show dragons with one or more of: feathered wings, crests, ear frills, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down its spine, and various exotic decorations.

In folktales, dragon's blood often contains unique powers, keeping them alive for longer or giving them poisonous or acidic properties. The typical dragon in Christian culture protects a cavern or castle filled with gold and treasure. An evil dragon is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it, and a good one is said to give support or wise advice.

Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its underground lair, a cave that identifies it as an ancient creature of earth.

Mosaic of the third century BC from Kaulonia, southern Italy).

English "dragon" derives (via Middle English, Old French, and Latin) from Ancient Greek δράκων drákōn, "serpent, dragon", perhaps related to δέρκομαι, "I see" (in various senses); hence perhaps "sharp-sighted one".[1] The Greek word probably derives from an Aryan base derk- meaning "to see" and the Sanskrit dŗç- also signifying "to see".[2] Notwithstanding their folkloric associations, there is no etymological connection between dragons and the ghoulish figures known as draugar in Old Norse, who haunt rich burial mounds.

Greek and Roman dragonsEdit

Roman dragons developed from serpentine Greek ones, combined with the dragons of the Near East, in the context of the hybrid Greek/Eastern Hellenistic culture. From Babylon, the muš-ḫuššu was a classic representation of a Near Eastern dragon. St John's Book of Revelation—Greek literature, not Roman—describes Satan as "a great dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns". Much of St John's literary inspiration is late Hebrew and Greek, but his dragon is more likely to have symbolized the dragons from the Near East.[3][4] In the Roman Empire, each military cohort had a particular identifying signum (military standard); after the Parthian and Dacian Wars of Trajan in the east, the Dacian Draco military standard entered the Legion with the Cohors Sarmatarum and Cohors Dacorum (Sarmatian and Dacian cohorts)—a large dragon fixed to the end of a lance, with large, gaping jaws of silver and with the rest of the body formed of colored silk. With the jaws facing into the wind, the silken body inflated and rippled, resembling a windsock.[5]

Several personifications of evil or allusions to dragons in the Old Testament are translated as forms of draco in Jerome's Vulgate. e.g. Deuteronomy (32:33), Job (30:29), Psalms (73:13, 90:13 & 43:20), Isaiah (13:21, 27:1, 34:13 & 43:20), Jeremiah (9:11), and Malachi (1:3).

Dragons in Greek mythology often guard treasure. For example Ladon, a hundred-headed dragon, guarded the tree of Herodias until he was slain by Heracles. Likewise, Python guarded the oracle of Delphi until he was slain by Apollo out of revenge for Python tormenting his mother. The Lernaean Hydra, a multiple-headed serpentine swamp monster killed by Heracles, is said to be a dragon.

The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex lines 163-201[5], describing a shepherd having a fight with a big constricting snake, calls it "serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words were probably interchangeable.

The Roman author Pliny the Elder in his book Natural History[6] (book 8, chapters 11 & 13) describes the draco as a big constricting snake that can constrict an elephant.

The Roman author Aelian in his book De Natura Animalium[7] describes the draco as a big constricting snake found in India, presumably the Indian Python, but with its size and strength greatly exaggerated so that it can kill an elephant by constricting its neck; this battle between a draco and an elephant is repeated with much embellishment in later descriptions of dracones or dragons in bestiaries.

Classical European dragons are often described as illuminating the air.[8] This is often taken by Christian writers[who?] as a metaphor for Lucifer, whose name means "bearer of light".

Middle AgesEdit

During the early Middle Ages, European culture was largely out of contact with classical literature for centuries. During this time there was a gradual change in the usual mental image of the "dragon", i.e. the Latin draco and its equivalents in vernacular languages, which occurred in oral and written literature, including in classical literature. This led to the depiction in this literature of "modern-type" dragons, whose features are described below.

The modern western image of a dragon developed in western Europe during the Middle Ages through the combination of the snakelike dragons of classical Graeco-Roman literature, references to Near Eastern European dragons preserved in the Bible, and western European folk traditions.[9] The period between the 11th and 13th centuries represents the height of European interest in dragons as living creatures.[10]

Dragons are usually shown in modern times with a body more like a huge lizard, or a snake with two pairs of lizard-type legs, and breathing fire from their mouths. This traces back to the continental dragon, commonly referred to as a fire-breathing dragon. The continental, like many other European dragons, has bat-like wings growing from its back.

The Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf refers to a dragon as a draca and also as a wyrm (worm, or serpent). Its movements are denoted by the Anglo-Saxon verb bugan, "to bend", and it is said to have a venomous bite, and poisonous breath; all of these indicate a snake-like form and movement rather than with a lizard-like or dinosaur-like body as in later depictions, and no legs or wings are mentioned; however it shows several dragon features that later became popular: it breathed fire, lived underground, and collected treasure.

The Ramsund carving from Viking-age Sweden, around 1030, depicts events related in the Old Norse Völsunga saga about the hero Sigurd. It shows the dragon Fafnir as a big and very long wingless snake, drawn rather fancifully, surrounding the scene.

MS Harley 3244, a medieval bestiary dated to around 1260 AD, contains the oldest recognizable image of a fully modern, western dragon.[11]

The oldest recognizable image of a "modern-style" western dragon appears in a hand-painted illustration from the bestiary MS Harley 3244, which was produced in around 1260.[11] This dragon has two sets of wings and its tail is longer than most modern depictions of dragons,[11] but it clearly displays many of the same distinctive features.[11]

Dragons are generally depicted as having an underground lair or cave, or living in rivers.[12] They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites.[9] Dragons are often identified with Satan, due to the references to Satan as a "dragon" in the Book of Revelation.[9]

In Western folklore, dragon-like creatures and dragons in Christian literature are usually portrayed as evil, except mainly in Asturian and Welsh folklore and modern fiction. In the modern period and late medieval times, the European dragon is typically depicted as a huge fire-breathing, scaly, and horned lizard-like creature, with wings (usually leathery bat-like, sometimes feathered), two or four legs, and a long muscular tail. It is sometimes shown with one or more of a crest, a fiery mane, ivory spikes running down its spine, and various exotic colorations. Dragon's blood often has magical properties. The typical dragon protects a cavern or castle filled with gold and treasure and is often associated with a great hero who tries to slay it. Though a winged creature, the dragon is generally to be found in its underground lair, a cave that identifies it as an ancient creature of earth.

Legends and talesEdit

The 12th-century Welsh monk Geoffrey of Monmouth recounts a famous legend in his Historia Regum Britanniae in which the child prophet Merlin witnesses the Romano-Celtic warlord Vortigern attempting to build a tower on Mount Snowdon to keep safe from the Anglo-Saxons,[13] but the tower keeps being swallowed into the ground.[13] Merlin informs Vortigern that underneath the foundation he has built is a pool with two dragons sleeping in it.[13] Vortigern orders the pool to be drained, exposing a red dragon and a white dragon, who immediately begin fighting.[13] Merlin delivers a prophecy that the white dragon will triumph over the red, symbolizing England's conquest of Wales,[13] but declares that the red dragon will eventually return and defeat the white one.[14] This story remained popular throughout the 15th century.[14]

The 13th-century Golden Legend, written in Latin, records the story of Saint Margaret of Antioch,[15] a virgin martyr who, after being tortured for her faith in the Diocletianic Persecution and thrown back into her cell, is said to have been confronted by a monstrous dragon,[15] but she made the sign of the cross and the dragon vanished.[15] In some versions of the story, she is swallowed by the dragon alive and, after making the sign of the cross in the dragon's stomach, emerges unharmed.[15]

Fantastic stories were invented in the Middle Ages to explain gargoyles used as waterspouts on buildings.[16][17] One medieval French legend holds that, in ancient times, a fearsome dragon known as La Gargouille had been causing floods and sinking ships on the river Seine,[18] so the people of the town of Rouen would offer the dragon a human sacrifice once each year to appease its hunger.[18] Then, in around 600 AD, a priest named Romanus promised that, if the people would build a church, he would rid them of the dragon.[18] Romanus slew the dragon and its severed head was mounted on the walls of the city as the first gargoyle.[18][19]

Dragons are prominent in medieval heraldry.[20] Uther Pendragon was famously said to have had two gold dragons crowned with red standing back-to-back on his royal coat of arms.[21] Originally, heraldic dragons could have any number of legs,[20] but, by the late Middle Ages, due to the widespread proliferation of bestiaries, heraldry began to distinguish between a "dragon" (with four legs) and a "wyvern" (with two legs).[20] In myths, wyverns are associated with viciousness, envy, and pestilence,[20] but in heraldry, they symbolise the overthrowing of the tyranny of Satan and his demonic forces.[20] Late medieval heraldry also distinguished a dragon-like creature known as a "cockatrice".[20] A cockatrice is supposedly born when a serpent hatches an egg that has been laid on a dunghill by a rooster,[20] and it is so venomous that its breath and its gaze are both lethal to any living creature, except for a weasel, which is the cockatrice's mortal enemy.[20] A "basilisk" is a serpent with the head of a dragon at the end of its tail that is born when a toad hatches an egg that has been laid in a midden by a nine-year-old cockatrice.[20] Like the cockatrice, its glare is said to be deadly.[20]

Dragons in specific culturesEdit

St George and the dragonEdit

Manuscript illustration from Verona of Saint George slaying the dragon, (northern Italy) dating to c. 1270

The legend of Saint George and the Dragon is recorded as early as the sixth century AD,[22][23] but the earliest artistic representations of it come from the 11th century[22] and the first full account of it comes from an 11th century Georgian text.[24] The most famous version of the story from the Golden Legend holds that a dragon kept pillaging the sheep of the town of Silene in Libya.[22] After it ate a young shepherd, the people were forced to placate it by leaving two sheep as sacrificial offerings every morning beside the lake where the dragon lived.[22] Eventually, the dragon ate all of the sheep[25] and the people were forced to start offering it their own children.[25] One day, the king's own daughter came up in the lottery and, despite the king's pleas for her life, she was dressed as a bride and chained to a rock beside the lake to be eaten.[25] Then Saint George arrived and saw the princess.[25] When the dragon arrived to eat her, he stabbed it with his lance and subdued it by making the sign of the cross and tying the princess's girdle around its neck.[25] Saint George and the princess led the now docile dragon into the town and George promised to kill it if the townspeople would convert to Christianity.[26] All the townspeople converted and Saint George killed the dragon with his sword.[26] In some versions, Saint George marries the princess,[26] but, in others, he continues wandering.[26]

Germanic dragon-like creaturesEdit

The most famous lindworm in Norse and Germanic mythology is Fafnir. The Germanic stories of lindworms have them guarding a treasure hoard. The lindworm Fafnir guarded earthen mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and brought ill to those who later possessed it.

Sea serpentsEdit

Sea serpents are also called orms in Nordic languages, wyrms in Old English and worms in Middle English. These "dragons" are usually evil, much like dragon-like creatures of Greece and other dragons of Continental Europe; however, there are exceptions, and many do not want to go to battle unless they feel threatened. These serpents are limbless and wingless. The most famous sea serpent in Norse mythology is Jörmungandr, which is actually a giant born into the body of a serpent by the Norse god Loki, who will one day kill Thor, Norse god of thunder.

Welsh dragonEdit

The Welsh flag, showing a red dragon passant
Fifteenth-century manuscript illustration of the battle of the Red and White Dragons from Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain

The red dragon features on, and is the name of, the national flag of Wales (Y Ddraig Goch, "the red dragon"). The symbol may originate in Arthurian legend, or more likely from the Celtic dragon god Dewi (not to be confused with Saint David). Employed by Gwrtheyrn, Merlin tells of a vision of the red dragon[27] (representing the Britons) and the white dragon (representing the invading Saxons) fighting beneath Dinas Emrys. This particular legend also features in the Mabinogion in the story of Lludd and Llefelys.[28][29]

The dragon was used as a predominant symbol of Welsh leaders throughout history, such as Owain Glyndŵr and Henry VII of England.

Slavic dragon-like creaturesEdit

It is said that a very old snake can transform into an ala. Some depictions of alas are confusingly said to have the bodies of women. Other alas look like dragons. The number of heads on an ala may vary. Alas are enemies of the zmeys and it is sometimes said in south Slavic folklore that thunder is a product of alas and zmeys fighting. Alas are considered evil or malevolent, while zmeys are usually considered good or benevolent.

Dragon-like creatures of Slavic mythology hold mixed temperaments towards humans. For example, Drakons (дракон, змей, ламя, (х)ала; dracon, zmey, lamya, ala) in Bulgarian mythology are either male or female, and each gender has a different view of mankind. The female dragon and male dragon, often seen as sister and brother, represent different forces of agriculture. The female dragon represents harsh weather and is the destroyer of crops, the hater of mankind, and is locked in a never-ending battle with her brother. The male dragon protects the humans' crops from destruction and is generally benevolent to humanity. Fire and water play major roles in Bulgarian dragon lore: the female has water characteristics, while the male is usually a fiery creature. In Bulgarian legend, The drakons are three-headed, winged beings with snake's bodies.

In Bulgarian, Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Macedonian lore, the dragon-like creature, or "змей" (Bulgarian: Змей), zmey (Russian: Змей), smok (Belarusian: Цмок), zmiy (Ukrainian: Змій), (Bosnian zmaj), (Serbian: змај or zmaj), zmej (Macedonian: змеј), is generally an evil, four-legged beast with few, if any, redeeming qualities. Zmeys are intelligent, but not greatly so, often demanding tribute from villages or small towns in the form of maidens (for food), or gold. Their number of heads ranges from one to seven or sometimes even more, with three- and seven-headed Zmeys being most commonly cited. The heads also regrow if cut off, unless the neck is "treated" with fire (similar to the hydra in Greek mythology). Zmey blood is so poisonous that Earth itself will refuse to absorb it. In Bulgarian mythology these "dragons" are sometimes good, opposing the evil Lamya /ламя/, a beast similar to the zmey.

The most famous Polish dragon (Polish: Smok) is the Wawel Dragon or Smok Wawelski, the Dragon of Wawel Hill. It supposedly terrorized ancient Kraków and lived in caves on the Vistula river bank below the Wawel castle. According to lore based on the Book of Daniel, it was killed by a boy who offered it a sheepskin filled with sulphur and tar. After devouring it, the dragon became so thirsty that it finally exploded after drinking too much water. In the oldest, 12th-century version of this fantasy tale, written by Wincenty Kadłubek,[30] the dragon was defeated by two sons of a King Krak, Krakus II and Lech II. A metal sculpture of the Wawel Dragon is a well-known tourist sight in Kraków. The Wawel Dragon appears in the coat of arms of the Polish princes, the Piasts of Czersk.[31]

Other dragon-like creatures in Polish folklore include the basilisk, living in cellars of Warsaw, and the Snake King from folk legends, though neither are explicitly dragons.

Armenian "dragon": ՎիշապEdit

Statue of the Armenian god Vahagn the Dragon Slayer choking a dragon in Yerevan, Armenia

Վիշապ (Vishap) is the Armenian word for "dragon".

Iberian dragonsEdit

Dragon in a granite Relief (14th century). San Anton Museum (A Coruña, Galicia (Spain)).

Iberian dragons are almost always evil, such as the Cuélebre, or Cuelebre, a giant winged serpent in the mythology of Asturias and Cantabria in the north of Spain. It usually lives in a cave, guards treasures and keeps nymph-like beings called xanas or anjanas as prisoners.

There is a legend that a dragon dwelled in the Peña Uruel mountain near Jaca and claimed that it could mesmerise people with its glance, so the young man who decided to kill the beast equipped himself with a shiny shield, so that the dragon's glance would be reflected. When the young man arrived at the cave where the dragon lived, he could kill it easily because the dragon mesmerised itself. This legend is very similar to the Greek myth of Medusa.

Illumination in a 12th-century manuscript of a letter from Saint Gregory's to St. Leander (Bibl. Municipale, MS 2, Dijon)

Herensuge is the name given to the dragon in Basque mythology, meaning "last serpent". The most famous legend has St. Michael descend from Heaven to kill it, but only once did God agree to accompany him in person.

Sugaar, the Basque male god, is often associated with the serpent or dragon but can take other forms as well. His name can be read as "male serpent".

Dragons are well known in Catalan myths and legends, in no small part because St. George (Catalan Sant Jordi) is the patron saint of Catalonia. Like most mythical reptiles, the Catalan dragon (Catalan drac) is an enormous serpent-like creature with four legs and a pair of wings, or rarely, a two-legged creature with a pair of wings, called a wyvern. As in many other parts of the world, the dragon's face may be like that of some other animal, such as a lion or a bull. As is common elsewhere, Catalan dragons are fire-breathers, and the dragon-fire is all-consuming. Catalan dragons also can emit a fetid odor, which can rot away anything it touches.

The Catalans also distinguish a víbria or vibra (cognate with English viper and wyvern), a female dragon-like creature with two prominent breasts, two claws, two wings and an eagle's beak. Dracs, Víbries and other mythological figures used to participate in correfocs during popular celebrations.

In Portuguese mythology, Coca[32] is a female wyvern that battles Saint George on the Corpus Christi holiday. The fighting has a symbolic meaning: when the coca defeats Saint George the crops will be bad and there will be famine and death; when Saint George defeats the coca and cuts off her tongue and ears, the crops will have a good year and it announces prosperity. Still, she is called "saint" coca just as George is called saint, and the people cheer for her.

Another dragon called drago is also represented in Portuguese mythology and used to take part in celebrations during the Middle Ages.

Italian dragonsEdit

Saint Margaret and the Dragon, alabaster with traces of gilding, Toulouse, ca 1475 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
"Saint Silvestro resurrects two magicians, and the Fornole dragon", Vernio Bardi Chapel, Santa Croce (Florence)
Thyrus, the wyvern of Terni

Wyverns are usually evil in Italy, and there are many stories of wyverns being slain. Dragons also trick demons in Italian legends. The legend of Saint George and the wyvern is well known in Italy, but other saints are also depicted fighting wyverns. For instance, the first bishop of Forlì, Saint Mercurialis, was said to have killed a wyvern to save the city, so he is often depicted in the act of slaying a wyvern. Likewise, the first patron saint of Venice, Saint Theodore of Tyro, was a wyvern-slayer, and a statue representing his slaying of the wyvern still tops one of the two columns in St Mark's Square. St. Michael, the patron saint of paratroopers, is also frequently depicted slaying a wyvern.

According to the Golden Legend, compiled by the Italian Jacobus de Voragine, Saint Margaret the Virgin was swallowed by Satan in the shape of a hydra, but she escaped alive when the cross she carried irritated the hydra's innards. The Golden Legend, in an atypical moment of scepticism, describes this last incident as "apocryphal and not to be taken seriously" (trans. Ryan, 1.369), which did not prevent the legend from being popular and getting artistic treatments.

More prevalent are the legends about dragons in Italy, particularly in Umbria. One of the most famous wyverns of Italian folklore is Thyrus, a wyvern that besieged Terni in the Middle Ages. One day, a young and brave knight of the noble House of Cittadini, tired of witnessing the death of his fellow citizens and the depopulation of Terni, faced the wyvern and killed it. From that day, the town assumed the creature in its coat of arms, accompanied by a Latin inscription: "Thyrus et amnis dederunt signa Teramnis" ("Thyrus and the river gave their insignia to [the city of] Terni"), that stands under the banner of the town of Terni, honoring this legend.

Another poem tells of another dragon that lived near the village of Fornole, near Amelia, Umbria. Pope Sylvester I arrived in Umbria and freed the population of Fornole from the ferocity of the dragon, pacifying the dragon. Grateful for his deed, the population built a small church dedicated to the saint on the top of the mountain near the dragon's lair in the 13th century. In the apse of the church there is a fresco representing the iconography of the saint.

Coat of arms of the town of Svätý Jur ("Saint George") in western Slovakia

In England, a rampant red dragon (clutching a mace) is still the heraldic symbol of the county of Somerset. The county once formed part of the early medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex in western England, which too bore a dragon, or wyvern (a two-legged dragon-like creature, as opposed to a four-legged dragon), as a symbol. The Wessex beast is usually colored gold in illustrations.

According to heraldic writer Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, the red dragon of Wales on the flag originated with the standard of the 7th-century king, Cadwaladr, and was used as a supporter by the Tudor dynasty (who were of Welsh origin).[33] Queen Elizabeth, however, preferring gold, changed the royal mantle and the dragon supporter from red to gold gules[clarification needed].[33] There may be some doubt of the Welsh origin of the dragon supporter of the Royal arms, but it certainly was used by King Henry III.[33]

The Welsh flag is blazoned parti per fess Argent and Vert; a dragon Gules passant. Welsh rugby teams include the Newport Gwent Dragons and the Cardiff City Blue Dragons.

King Peter IV of Aragon used a dragon on his helmet to show that he was the king of Aragon, as a heraldic pun (Rei d'Aragón, dragón).

A dragon was used as the crest of the Greater Royal Coat of Arms of Portugal since at least the 14th century. Later, two wyverns were used as supporters of the shield of the Arms of Portugal. In the 19th century, King Peter IV of Portugal granted the city of Porto the incorporation of the dragon crest of the royal coat of arms in its municipal coat of arms, in gratitude for the support given to him by the city during the Liberal Wars. The badge of FC Porto incorporates the old Porto municipal coat of arms with the dragon crest; this is why the dragon was adopted as the animal mascot of the club.

Modern dragonsEdit

West Edmonton Mall's fire-breathing dragon animatronic. Removed in 2014 due to high maintenance costs and its drying-out rubber skin

Early modern dragonsEdit

The emblem books popular from late medieval times through the 17th century often represent the dragon as an emblem of greed. The prevalence of dragons in European heraldry demonstrates that there is more to the dragon than greed.

Agosti Xaho, a romantic myth creator of the 19th century, fused these myths in his own creation of Leherensuge, the first and last serpent, that, in his newly coined legend, would arise again some time in the future bringing the rebirth of the Basque nation.

Dragons have long been portrayed in modern times as greedy treasure-hoarders, lusting for gold and precious gems. In such stories as Beowulf, the theft of such treasure sparks a dragon's fury. In the fantasy genre, however, there has been a trend of originally depicting dragons in a positive light: as allies instead of enemies, the red dragon of Wales, and the brother dragon of Poland. Dragons are increasingly viewed as friends of humans and as highly intelligent and noble creatures, while still remaining the fearsome beasts of legend. They are frequently shown as guardians and close friends of individual humans.

Recent fictionEdit

Many of these modern ideas were first popularised by Anne McCaffrey with her Dragonriders of Pern series.

Later authors such as Christopher Paolini also depicted sympathetic dragon characters in Eragon.

Ursula K. Le Guin created a meaningful image of dragons in her books about Earthsea.

Ffyrnig, the Last Great Dragon of Legend of the Heart Eaters, the first book in the story of Jonah and the Last Great Dragon by M.E.Holley is based on an actual legend of the Welsh Borders, which tells that the last great dragon is asleep under the Radnor Forest, imprisoned there by St. Michael.

Bryan Davis' Dragons in our Midst depicts dragons as noble and kind beasts, having the ability to marry and reproduce with humans.

E. D. Baker's Tales of the Frog Princess series frequently includes dragons, and people who can change between human shape and dragon shape.

See alsoEdit

  1. ^ Wyld, Henry Cecil (1946). The Universal Dictionary Of The English Language. p. 334.
  2. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1888). An etymological dictionary of the English language. Oxford: Oxford Clarendon Press. p. 178.
  3. ^ Wallace, Howard (1948). "Leviathan and the Beast in Revelation". The Biblical Archaeologist: 61–68.
  4. ^ Kiessling, Nicolas K. (1970). "Antecedents of the Medieval Dragon in Sacred History". Journal of Biblical Literature. 89 (2): 167–177.
  5. ^ Nickel, Helmut (1989). "Of Dragons, Basilisks, and the Arms of the Seven Kings of Rome". Metropolitan Museum Journal. 24: 25. doi:10.2307/1512864.
  6. ^ [1], [2], [3]
  7. ^ De Natura Animalium book 6 chapter 21 (English translation) / (original Greek)
  8. ^ "Medieval Bestiary : Dragon".
  9. ^ a b c Fee 2011, p. 7.
  10. ^ Jones 2000, p. 101.
  11. ^ a b c d Malone 2012, p. 98.
  12. ^ Ørmen, Torfinn (2005). Drager, mellom myte og virkelighet (Dragons: between myth and reality) (in Norwegian) (1st ed.). Oslo: Humanist forlag A/S. p. 252. ISBN 978-82-90425-76-5.
  13. ^ a b c d e Hughes 2005, p. 106.
  14. ^ a b Hughes 2005, pp. 106–107.
  15. ^ a b c d Morgan 2009.
  16. ^ Cipa 2008, pp. 1–3.
  17. ^ Sherman 2015, pp. 183–184.
  18. ^ a b c d Sherman 2015, p. 184.
  19. ^ Cipa 2008, pp. 1–30.
  20. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Friar & Ferguson 1993, p. 168.
  21. ^ Friar & Ferguson 1993, p. 28.
  22. ^ a b c d Niles 2013, p. 53.
  23. ^ Thurston 1909, pp. 453–455.
  24. ^ Walter 2003, p. 141.
  25. ^ a b c d e Niles 2013, p. 54.
  26. ^ a b c d Niles 2013, p. 55.
  27. ^ Jones, Thomas (1958–59). "The Story of Myrddin and the Five Dreams of Gwenddydd in the Chronicle of Elis Gruffydd". Etudes celtiques. 8.
  28. ^ Davies, Sioned (2007). The Mabinogion. Oxford University Press. p. xii.
  29. ^ Heinz, Sabine (2008). Celtic Symbols. Sterling Pub.
  30. ^ Mistrz Wincenty (tzw. Kadłubek) (2008), Kronika Polska, Ossolineum, Wrocław, ISBN 83-04-04613-X
  31. ^ Górczyk, Wojciech (2010). "Ślady recepcji legend arturiańskich w heraldyce Piastów czerskich i kronikach polskich". Kultura i Historia (in Polish). Retrieved 14 July 2013.
  32. ^ "Corpo de Deus" (in Portuguese). Municipal de Monção.
  33. ^ a b c Fox-Davies, Arthur Charles (1909). A complete guide to heraldry. New York: Gramercy Books. pp. 225–6. ISBN 0-517-26643-1.

External linksEdit


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Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.

  (Redirected from Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S)

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., Inc. (HFM U.S.), originally known as CBS Publications, was a subsidiary of Hachette Filipacchi Médias (one of the world's largest magazine publishers), and was based in New York City.

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.
Parent companyHachette Filipacchi Médias
StatusDefunct (2011)
SuccessorHearst Magazines
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationNew York City, New York
Publication typesMagazines, books
ImprintsFilipacchi Books

It was formed in 1972 as CBS Publications.[1] CBS expanded its magazine group by acquiring Fawcett Publications in 1977,[2] and the majority of the Ziff Davis magazines in 1984.[3] CBS Publications in 1982 sold Fawcett Publications to Ballantine Books while Popular Library was sold to Warner Communications.[2]

Executive Peter Diamandis acquired the division in 1987.[1] Hachette purchased Diamandis Communications in 1988.[4]

In May 2009, the company sold American Photo, Flying, Boating, Sound & Vision, and Popular Photography to the Bonnier Group.[5]

Hearst Magazines acquired Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. magazines along with most of Hachette Filipacchi's international magazines in May 2011.[6]

List of publicationsEdit

From 1995 to 2001, the company also published the magazine George which was founded by John F. Kennedy Jr.

Other businessesEdit

  • Hachette Filipacchi Custom Publishing, integrated marketing, database, market research
  • Hachette Enterprises
  • Filipacchi Books

  1. ^ a b Geraldine Fabrikant (July 14, 1987). "CBS Inc. to Sell Magazine Unit to its Executives". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  2. ^ a b "Copyrights of Golden-Age Comics". Golden-Age Comic book Superheroes & Villains Encyclopedia. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
  3. ^ "CBS + Ziff = huge". Folio. February 1985. Archived from the original on 2012-07-10. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  4. ^ Geraldine Fabrikant (April 14, 1988). "Hachette to Buy Magazine Publisher". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2011.
  5. ^ "Bonnier Corp. Acquires Five Magazine Brands from Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S." (Press release). Vocus. June 3, 2009. Retrieved 2011-12-16.
  6. ^ "Hearst Leaps to New Level With Deal for Lagardere Magazine Portfolio". Retrieved 2019-04-02.
  7. ^ a b c "Hearst makes play for Hachette Filipacchi". Crain's New York Business. January 31, 2011. Retrieved 27 September 2011.
  8. ^ New York Times 1999 Time Inc. Unit to Buy Family Life Magazine
  9. ^ NY Daily News 1999 FAMILY LIFE MAGAZINE ADOPTED BY TIME INC. – "Family Life brings a circulation of 500,000, which Hartig said he hopes to push to the 1.1 million level of Disney competitor Family Fun"
  10. ^ Palazzolo, Joe; Hong, Nicole; Rothfeld, Michael; O'Brien, Rebecca Davis (November 9, 2018). "Donald Trump Played Central Role in Hush Payoffs to Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal". The Wall Street Journal. The men’s relationship dated to the 1990s, when Mr. Pecker’s former employer, Hachette Filipacchi Magazines, put out “Trump Style,” a quarterly magazine for guests at Trump properties.
  11. ^ "Hachette signs up 'Trump Style'". Advertising Age. September 11, 1997.