The Earl of Galway leads another attempt…
1707 CE
The Earl of Galway leads another attempt on Madrid in 1707, but Berwick roundly defeats him at the Battle of Almansa on April 25.
In another attempt on Madrid, his army is severely defeated by the Marquis de Bay at the Battle of La Gudina, being forced to withdraw its troops from Spain.
The war in Spain settles hereafter nto indecisive skirmishing from which it would not subsequently emerge.
England is in 1707 united with the Kingdom of Scotland to form Great Britain, negotiations having started the previous year.
Great Britain therefore replaces England as a party to the war.
Also in 1707, the War briefly intersects with the Great Northern War, which is being fought simultaneously in Northern Europe.
A Swedish army under Charles XII arrives in Saxony, where he had just finished chastising the Elector Augustus II and forcing him to renounce his claims to the Polish throne.
Both the French and the Allies send envoys to Charles's camp, and the French hope to encourage him to turn his troops against the Emperor Joseph I, who Charles feels had slighted him by his support for Augustus.
However, Charles, who likes to see himself as a champion of Protestant Europe, greatly dislikes Louis XIV for his treatment of the Huguenots, and is generally uninterested in the western war.
He turns his attention instead to Russia, ending the possibility of Swedish intervention.
Prince Eugene leads an allied invasion of southern France from Italy later in 1707, but is stalled by the French army.
Marlborough, in the meantime, remains in the Low Countries, where he is caught up in capturing an endless succession of fortresses.