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On the 23rd of April the coronation took place, being St. George's Day. The queen was so corpulent and so afflicted with gout that she could not stand more than a few minutes at a time, and was obliged to be removed from one situation to another during this fatiguing ceremony in an open chair. Tenison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated, and the whole ceremony and banquet did not end till eight in the evening. Everybody, say the newspapers, was satisfied, even the thieves, who managed to carry off the whole of the plate used at the banquet in Westminster Hall, together with a rich booty of table-linen and pewter.

During March and April there was a continual arrival of ambassadors-extraordinary to congratulate her Majesty on her accession. Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, most of the German States, and particularly those of Zell and Hanover, sent their envoys; and there was a strong discussion in the Council on the necessity of declaring war against France. Marlborough and his faction were, of course, for war, in which he hoped to win both glory and affluence; but Rochester and the majority of the Council, including the Dukes of Somerset and Devon, and the Earl of Pembroke, strongly opposed it, on the ground that the quarrel really concerned the Continental States and not us, and that it was sufficient on our part to act as auxiliaries, and not as the principal. The queen, however, being determined by the Marlborough influence to declare war, laid her intentions before Parliament, which supported her, and accordingly war was proclaimed on the 4th of May, the Emperor and the States-General issuing their proclamations at the same time. Louis was charged with having seized on the greater part of the Spanish dominions, with the design of destroying the liberties of Europe, and with grossly insulting the queen by declaring the pretended Prince of Wales the real king of Great Britain and Ireland. When these charges were read over by De Torcy to Louis, he broke out into keen reproaches against the Queen of England, and vowed that he would "make Messieurs the Dutch repent of their presumption." He delayed his counter-declaration till the 3rd of July. The Commons presented an address to her Majesty, praying her Majesty to unite with the Emperor and the States to prohibit all intercourse with France and Spain, and at the same time to promote commerce in other directions; and the Lords addressed her, praying her to sanction the fitting out of privateers to make reprisals on the enemies' ships, which interrupted our trade, and also to grant charters to all persons who should seize on any of the French and Spanish territories in the Indies. The queen thanked them for their zeal, and prorogued Parliament on the 25th of May.

We may now turn our attention to the progress of the war. When the States-General received the news of the death of William, they were struck with the utmost consternation. They appeared to be absolutely paralysed with terror and dismay. There was much weeping, and amid vows and embraces they passed a resolution to defend their country with their lives. The arrival of the address of the Queen of England to her Privy Council roused their spirits, and this was followed by a letter from the Earl of Marlborough, addressed to the Pensionary Fagel, assuring the States of the queen's determination to continue the alliance and assistance against the common enemy. The queen herself addressed to the States a letter confirming these assurances, and despatched it by Mr. Stanhope, who was again appointed Ambassador at the Hague. Marlborough himself, who left England on the 12th of May to assume his foreign command, arriving directly afterwards in the character not only of Commander-in-Chief of the British forces, with a salary of ten thousand pounds a year, but of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, assured the States that the Queen of England was resolved to maintain all the alliances, and resist the encroachments of the French in the same spirit as the late king.

War had been going on some time on the Rhine before Marlborough arrived there, and still longer before he was prepared to join in it. In Germany many negotiations had been going on to induce the petty States to act as contingents of the Empire, or to keep them from joining the French against their own nation. The House of Brunswick had engaged to bring to the allied army ten thousand men; Prussia had engaged to co-operate, and Saxe-Gotha and Wolfenbüttel to abandon the French. The Electors of Bavaria and Cologne, who had, most traitorously to the Empire, aided France in her attempts to enslave Germany, pretended now to stand neutral, but the neutrality was hollow; and the position of affairs in Poland effectually prevented the northern Powers of Germany from sending assistance to the Allies in Flanders. Charles XII., still pursuing the Elector of Saxony as King of Poland, threatened to invade Saxony. He marched first to Warsaw, and ordered the Cardinal-Primate to summon a Diet to choose another king, and Augustus, the Saxon King, posted himself at Cracow. This state of affairs overawed Prussia, and beyond the Alps the condition of Savoy and Milan, where the French were strong, tended to prevent a full concentration of force in the Netherlands against France.

The position of the contending forces on the Rhine and in the Netherlands was this:—The Prince of Saarbrück, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, Dutch, Prussians, and Badenese, was besieging Kaiserwerth. Athlone and Cohorn were covering the siege of Kaiserwerth, Athlone (Ginkell) lying between the Rhine and the Meuse, Cohorn with ten thousand at the mouth of the Scheldt. On the other hand, Tallard, with thirteen thousand men on the opposite side of the Rhine, annoyed the besiegers of Kaiserwerth with his artillery, and managed to throw into the town fresh troops, ammunition, and supplies. Count Delamotte and the Spanish Marquis of Bedmar covered the western frontier of the Spanish Netherlands, and the Prince of Baden was posted on the Upper Rhine.

Whilst in this position Cohorn marched into the Netherlands, destroyed the French lines between the forts of Donat and Isabella, and levied contributions on the chatellany of Bruges; but Bedmar and Delamotte advancing, he cut the dykes, inundated the country, and retired under the walls of Sluys. Meanwhile the Duke of Burgundy, taking the command of the army of Boufflers at Zanten, near Cleves, formed a design to surprise Nimeguen in conjunction with Tallard, who suddenly quitted his post near Kaiserwerth, and joined Burgundy. Nimeguen was without a garrison, and ill supplied with artillery, and must have fallen an easy prey, had not Athlone, perceiving the object of the enemy, by a masterly march got the start of them, and posted himself under the walls of the town before the arrival of the French guards.

Marlborough all this time was undergoing his first experience of the difficulties of acting at the head of a miscellaneous body of allies, and with the caution of Dutch burgomasters. He had blamed William severely for his slow movements, and now he was himself hampered by the same obstructions. It was the end of June before he could bring into order the necessary arrangements for taking the field. Nor could he have effected this so soon had not the near surprise of Nimeguen alarmed the Dutch for their frontiers, and quickened their movements. The fall of Kaiserwerth was another circumstance in his favour. He collected the forces which had been engaged there, marched the English troops up from Breda, and in the beginning of July found himself at Nimeguen at the head of sixty thousand men. Even then he did not find himself clear of difficulties. His bold plans were checked by the presence of two field deputies which the Dutch always sent along with their generals, and who would not permit him to undertake any movement until they had informed the States-General of it and received their sanction. Thus it was not the general in the field, but the States-General at a distance, who really directed the evolutions of the war; and the only wonder is, that a general in such absurd leading-strings could effect anything at all. Besides this standing nuisance, Marlborough found Athlone, the Prince of Saarbrück, and the other chief generals, all contending for equal authority with him, and refusing to submit to his commands; and when the States-General freed him, by a positive order, from this difficulty, the Hanoverians refused to march without an order from Bothmar, their Ambassador at the Hague. Instead of sending to Bothmar, Marlborough summoned him to the camp, as the proper place for him if he was to direct the movements of the Hanoverian troops, and got rid of this obstacle only to find the Prussians raising the same difficulties.

It was not till the 7th of July that he crossed the Waal and encamped at Druckenburg, a little south of Nimeguen. It was the 16th when he crossed the Meuse and posted himself at Overhasselt, with the French forces in front at the distance of two leagues and a half, entrenched between Goch and Gedap. Here, in a letter to Godolphin, he complained that still the fears of the Dutch hampered his movements. He then recrossed the river at Grave, and reached Gravenbroek, where he was joined by the British train of artillery from Holland. Thus prepared, he advanced on the French; on the 2nd of August was at Petit Brugel in their front; but they retired before him, leaving Spanish Guelderland in his power. He determined to bring the French to an engagement, but was restrained by the fears of the Dutch deputies; but, fortunately for him, the French generals had their fears too, and the Duke of Burgundy, finding Marlborough pressing on him in spite of his obstructions, resigned his command rather than risk a defeat, and returned to Versailles, leaving the command to Boufflers. The deputies of the States, encouraged by these symptoms, recommended Marlborough to clear the French from Spanish Guelderland, where the places which they still held on the Meuse interrupted the commerce of that river. Though the Dutch were merely looking at their own interests in this design, Marlborough was glad to attack the enemy anywhere. He despatched General Schultz to reduce the town and castle of Werk, and in the beginning of September laid siege to Venloo, which, on the 28th of the month, surrendered. Fort St. Michael, at Venloo, was stormed by the impetuous Lord Cutts, unrivalled at that work, at the head of the English volunteers, amongst whom the young Earl of Huntingdon greatly distinguished himself. He next invested and reduced Ruremond and the fort of Stevensweert; and Boufflers, confounded by the rapid successes of Marlborough, retiring on Liége, the English general followed him, reduced the place, stormed the citadel, and seized in it three hundred thousand florins in gold, and a million florins in bills on the substantial merchants of the city, who promptly paid the money. This terminated the campaign. Marlborough had wonderfully raised his reputation, won the entire confidence of the States, and, having seen the French retire behind their lines, he distributed his troops into winter quarters, and projected his journey homewards.