Battle of Blenheim
Battle of Blenheim . The Battle of Blenheim was fought on 13 August 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession. The French were seeking to knock Austria out of the war by seizing its capital, Vienna. An army of the reconstituted Grand Alliance, led by the Duke of Marlborough, marched south from the Dutch Republic to the Danube. There he defeated the Bavarians at the Battle of Donauwörth and joined an Austrian army under Prince Eugene. A French army under Marshall Tallard bolstered the Elector of Bavaria's forces. The opposing armies met on the banks of the Danube near the village of Blindheim. Marlborough unexpectedly attacked the slightly larger Franco-Bavarian army and after a hard day's fighting inflicted a crushing defeat. France suffered around 30,000 casualties, Tallard was taken prisoner and Bavaria was knocked out of the war. Before the campaign ended, the Allies had taken several important towns and were preparing to invade France in 1705.