The campaign of 1708 opened badly. Ghent and Bruges opened their gates to the young prince, the Duke of Burgundy. "The States have used this country so ill," said Marlborough, "that all the towns are disposed to follow the example of Ghent when the opportunity offers."
Prince Eugene advanced to support Marlborough, but he set out too late; the Elector of Bavaria obstructed his march. "I do not wish to speak ill of Prince Eugene," said Marlborough, "but he will arrive at the rendezvous on the Moselle ten days too late." The English were unsupported when they encountered the French army in front of Kidenarde. The battle commenced without the presence of the Duke of Burgundy, who received the news too late. Vendôme, the commanding general, was defeated. Marlborough proposed to carry the war into France. Prince Eugene, and the deputies of the States-General, did not approve of the boldness of the project. The allies besieged Lille. Marshal Boufflers held the city until the 23rd of October, and the citadel until the 9th of December, without receiving any succor. When he surrendered. Prince Eugene permitted him to march out, with all the honors of war. Ghent and Bruges were delivered into the hands of the imperialists. "We have committed folly upon folly in this campaign," says Marshal Berwick, in his Memoirs, "but notwithstanding even this, if we had not abandoned Ghent and Bruges we would have had easy work the next year." The Low Countries were lost, and the French frontiers were encroached upon by the loss of Lille. The Duke of Orleans, weary of his forced inactivity in Spain, and suspected at the court of Philip V., resigned his command: he returned to France. The English Admiral Leake, and General Stanhope, took possession of Sardinia, the island of Minorca, and Port-Mahon. The archduke was master of the islands and of the Mediterranean sea. For a year past Philip V. had not possessed an inch of land in Italy. The exhaustion and misery of France were extreme, and Louis XIV. finally decided to negotiate for peace.
He first addressed himself to Holland, where there existed a general desire for peace; the war could bring the Dutch no other profit than a guarantee of security. The king offered this. "In the midst of the sufferings that hostilities had inflicted upon commerce, there was reason to hope," wrote the Marquis of Torcy, in his Memoirs, "that the grand pensionary, regarding principally the interests of his country, would desire the end of a war, the burden of which fell upon his own country. Authorized by the republic, he had no reason to fear any secret intrigue, nor any cabal to displace him from a post which he occupied to the satisfaction of his masters, and in which he conducted himself with moderation. Although the united provinces bore the principal weight of the war, the emperor alone gathered the fruits. It is said that the Dutch guarded the Temple of Peace and held the keys in their hands."