Guido Starhemberg, who had in 1708 been appointed Supreme commander of the Austrians in Spain, succeeds in conquering Madrid in 1710 together with General James Stanhope, after the victories of Almenar and Saragossa.

Philip V, having abandoned Madrid on September 9, had gone to Valladolid.

Archduke Charles, entering a very hostile and almost empty Madrid on September 28, had commented: "This city is a desert!”

The invasion of 1710 has proved to be a repetition of the invasion of 1706: the Alliance's twenty-three thousand men, reduced by a loss of two thousand in the actions at Almenara and Saragossa, by constant skirmishes with the guerrilleros, and by disease, are unequal to the task of holding their conquests and occupying the two Castiles.

The Portuguese are unable to offer help.

The Bourbon army is rapidly refitted and reorganized by French general Joseph, duc de Vendôme, who is lent to Philip V's service by the latter's grandfather, the Sun King.

Spanish volunteers and regular units are joined by the Irish brigade and by French troops secretly directed to enter Spanish service.

The dangerous strategic situation and the lack of support by the people of Madrid for the Habsburg pretender forces the Alliance to evacuates the city on November 9 and embark on a retreat to Catalonia.

The Archduke, eaving behind the main body of the army, advances with a guard of two thousand cavalry, hurrying back to Barcelona.

The rest of the army marches in two detachments, the division being imposed on them by difficulty of foraging.

Starhemberg marches ahead with the main body of twelve thousand men, a day's march ahead of the British troops, five thousand men under Lord Stanhope.

This division of forces invites disaster in the presence of the duc de Vendôme, a capable and resourceful leader, who pursues the retreating British army with a speed perhaps never equaled in such a season and in such a country.

The middle-aged Frenchman leads his Franco-Spanish army day and night.

In typical Vendôme style, he swims, at the head of his cavalry, the flooded Henares and in a few days overtakes Stanhope, who is at Brihuega with the left wing of the Grand Alliance army.

Stanhope has barely enough time to send off a messenger to the center of the army, which is some leagues from Brihuega, before Vendôme is upon him on the evening of December 8.

The town is invested the next morning on every side.

Blasting the walls of Brihuega with heavy cannon, a mine is sprung under one of the gates.

The British keep up a terrible fire until their powder is spent, then fight desperately against overwhelming odds as Vendôme's men storm the city with bayonets fixed and begin to take the town by bloody close quarters fighting, street by street.

The British set fire to the buildings that their assailants had taken, but in vain.

The British general sees that further resistance will produce only a useless carnage.

He concludes a capitulation and his army becomes prisoners of war on honorable terms.

Vendôme has scarcely signed the capitulation when he learns that Staremberg is marching to the relief of Stanhope, unaware that he has capitulated.

The two meet on December 10 n the bloody battle of Villaviciosa, for which Philip V of Spain and the Archduke Charles both claim victory, but the number of dead and wounded, the pieces of artillery and other weapons abandoned by the Allied army, and the strategic consequences in the war, confirm the decisive victory obtained by Philip of Spain.

Starhemberg is compelled to continue his retreat, harassed at every step by the Spanish cavalry.

Starhemberg’s army is reduced to six thousand or seven thousand men by January 6 when he reaches Barcelona, almost the only place in Spain that still recognizes the authority of Archduke Charles.

The battle for the Spanish throne is finally secured for Philip V of Spain, when Archduke Charles leaves Spain in April 1711, to become Holy Roman Emperor, after the death of his older brother.