Peterborough and the Capture of Barcelona 1705

The campaigns and achievements of the Duke of Marlborough have so dominated the English historians’ view of the War of the Spanish Succession that the war in Spain itself has, by comparison, been neglected. Yet it was not only the victories in Flanders and on the banks of the Danube that were vital to the success of the Allied cause. Though the terms of the Grand Alliance made no mention of dethroning Philip V, but only of preventing an active union between France and the Spanish Empire, it was soon obvious to the Allies that this would be one of the most effective ways of ending the Bourbon hegemony in Europe.