Stock Photo - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim, 3 August 1704. Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736) (bottom right), commander of the Austrian army at the Battle of Blenheim (Hochstadt), points with his unsheathed sword. John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough commanded the British and allied forces at Blenheim, one of the major engagements of the War of the Spanish Succession early in the 18th century. They joined forces with Eugene's army and inflicted a decisive defeat on the armies of France and her ally the Elector of Bavaria. Bavaria was occupied and Vienna saved, and the territorial ambitions of Louis XIV east of the Rhine were thwarted. As well as Blenheim, Marlborough defeated the French at Ramillies (1706), Oudenaarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709).