" Luckily for Austria, Marlborough was a man of as
much moral as physical courage, and he took the responsibility of
leading his army into Germany,--a decision that, perhaps, no other
commander of that time would have been equal to,--and by the junction of
his forces with those of Eugene was enabled to fight and win the battle
of Blenheim (Blindheim), which put an end to the ascendency of France.
Emperor Leopold was positively grateful for the services Marlborough
rendered him, and treated him differently from the manner in which he
had treated Sobieski for doing him quite as great a favor. He wrote him
a letter in his own hand, gave him a lordship in fee, and made him, by
the title of Mindelheim, a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.
[31] As it is generally assumed that Richelieu got the better of the
Empire in that contest which he waged with it, perhaps some readers may
think we have gone too far in saying he was one of those antagonists of
whom the Austrian family got the better; but all depends upon the point
of view. Richelieu died when the war was at its height, and did not live
to see the success of his immediate policy; but what he did was only an
incident in a long contest. The old rivalry of the house of Valois and
the house of Austria was continued after the former was succeeded by the
house of Bourbon.
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