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The real Blackadder who fought at the Battle of Blenheim, 1704.

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Long before Rowan Atkinson's comic creation, a real Blackadder was fighting in some of the bloodiest battles in British military history. Lieutenant-Colonel John Blackadder was a Scottish soldier who served under the Duke of Marlborough and fought at the Battle of Blenheim—where he nearly died from a musket ball to the throat.

Born in 1664 to a firebrand Covenanter preacher who died imprisoned on the Bass Rock, John Blackadder joined the newly-raised Cameronians in 1689. This distinctively religious Scottish regiment—nicknamed the "Psalm-singing Regiment"—would become his military home for over two decades. His first taste of battle came at Dunkeld, where 800 Cameronians held off more than 3,000 Jacobite Highlanders.

During the Nine Years War, Blackadder fought at Steenkirk, Landen and the Siege of Namur. But his career was nearly derailed when he killed a fellow officer in a duel at Maastricht—an act that haunted this devout Presbyterian for the rest of his life.

The War of the Spanish Succession brought Blackadder to Marlborough's greatest victories. He survived Schellenberg, was wounded at Blenheim, served at Ramillies, and was hit twice more at the Siege of Lille. At the catastrophic Battle of Malplaquet in 1709, Marlborough personally promoted him to Lieutenant-Colonel on the battlefield when his commanding officer fell wounded.

After retiring in 1711, Blackadder returned to service during the 1715 Jacobite rebellion, commanding the Glasgow Volunteer Regiment. He ended his days as Deputy-Governor of Stirling Castle, and his diaries—published in 1824—remain an invaluable account of early 18th-century military life.

Timeline of John Blackadder's Life:

• 1664: Born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland
• 1689: Joins the Cameronians; fights at Battle of Dunkeld
• 1691: Kills Lieutenant Robert Murray in a duel at Maastricht
• 1693: Promoted to Captain
• 1704: Fights at Schellenberg and Blenheim (wounded)
• 1705: Promoted to Major
• 1706: Present at Battle of Ramillies
• 1708: Wounded twice at Siege of Lille
• 1709: Battlefield promotion to Lieutenant-Colonel at Malplaquet
• 1711: Sells commission and retires
• 1715: Commands Glasgow Volunteer Regiment during Jacobite rebellion
• 1729: Dies aged 64; buried in Stirling

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Fought in 1706, the Battle of Ramillies is arguably the Duke of Marlborough's greatest victory.

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The Battle of Blenheim 1704: Marlborough's first of four great victories over the French.

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In 1704, the Duke of Marlborough embarked on one of the most audacious military campaigns in British history.
With Vienna under threat from a combined French and Bavarian army, Marlborough deceived both his Dutch allies and his French enemies, marching 21,000 men 250 miles across Europe in just five weeks.

This video tells the story of how Marlborough outmanoeuvred the rigid French command structure, linked up with Prince Eugene of Savoy, and brought the French to battle at a small village on the Danube that would give its name to one of England's most famous victories.

The Battle of Blenheim saw Marlborough commanding a true coalition force — British, Dutch, Austrian, German and Danish troops fighting together against Marshal Tallard's veteran French army and their Bavarian allies.

The battle itself was a masterclass in combined arms warfare: infantry assaults on fortified villages, cavalry charges across boggy ground, and artillery moved forward at critical moments under Colonel Holcroft Blood.

A single French error — packing 12,000 men into Blenheim village — handed Marlborough the advantage he needed. By nightfall, Tallard was a prisoner, thousands of French cavalry had drowned in the Danube, and Louis XIV had suffered his first major defeat in forty years.
The victory saved the Habsburg Empire, knocked Bavaria out of the war, and earned Marlborough a palace that still bears the battle's name. It was England's greatest continental victory since Agincourt.

KEY DATES:

19 May 1704 – Marlborough begins his march from Bedburg
10 June 1704 – Marlborough meets Prince Eugene at Mundelsheim
2 July 1704 – Storming of the Schellenberg
13 August 1704 – Battle of Blenheim
21 August 1704 – News reaches Queen Anne at Windsor

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