With great exertion a new French army was raised, and Marshal Villars placed in command. But the two famous commanders, Marlborough and Eugene, achieved such a new and crushing victory in the battle of Malplaquet, fought on the 11th of September, 1709, that France made a third attempt to conclude peace. Louis XIV. now offered to withdraw his claim to the Spanish succession, to restore Alsatia and Strasburg to Germany, and to pay one million livres a month towards defraying the expenses of expelling Philip V. from Spain. It will scarcely be believed that this proposal, so humiliating to the extravagant pride of France, and which conceded more than Germany had hoped to obtain, was rejected! The cause seems to have been a change in the fortunes of the Archduke Karl in Spain: he was again victorious, and in 1710 held his triumphal entry in Madrid. Yet it is difficult to conceive what further advantages Joseph I. expected to secure, by prolonging the war. Germany was soon punished for this presumptuous refusal of peace. A Court intrigue, in England, overthrew the Whig Ministry and gave the power into the hands of the Tories: Marlborough was at first hampered and hindered in carrying out his plans, and then recalled. While keeping up the outward forms of her alliance with Holland and Germany, England began to negotiate secretly with France, and thus the chief strength of the combination against Louis XIV. was broken. In 1711 the Emperor Joseph I. died, leaving no direct heirs, and the Archduke Karl became his successor to the throne. The latter immediately left Spain, was elected before he reached Germany, and crowned in Mayence on the 22d of September, as Karl VI. Although, by deserting Spain, he had seemed to renounce his pretension to the Spanish crown, there was a general fear that the success of Germany would unite the two countries, as in the time of Charles V., and Holland's interest in the war began also to languish. Prince Eugene, without English aid, was so successful in the early part of 1712 that even Paris seemed in danger; but Marshal Villars, by cutting off all his supplies, finally forced him to retreat. [Sidenote: 1713.] During this same year negotiations were carried on between France, England, Holland, Savoy and Prussia. They terminated, in 1713, in the Peace of Utrecht, by which the Bourbon, Philip V., was recognized as king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that the crowns of Spain and France should never be united. England received Gibraltar and the island of Minorca from Spain, Acadia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and the recognition of her Protestant monarchy. Holland obtained the right to garrison a number of strong frontier fortresses in Belgium, and Prussia received Neufchatel in Switzerland, some territory on the Lower Rhine, and the acknowledgment of Frederick I.'s royal dignity.