The succession of Anne practically made the Marlboroughs King and Queen of England. Three days later Marlborough was appointed captain-general of the British forces at home and abroad, and was entrusted with the entire direction of the war. Offices and gifts were showered upon his wife, and the ministers were chosen from his friends and adherents. Most of these men had been in treasonable correspondence with James; but now, in accordance with the loose notions of honour prevalent at the time, they abandoned him, and for their own selfish ends determined to keep Anne on the throne, secure the Protestant succession, and proceed with the war. Great Britain, Holland, Austria, and most of the smaller states of Germany were soon leagued in arms against France, and in 1703 Lewis found armies arrayed against him in the Spanish Netherlands, in South Germany, in North Italy, and Spain. Marlborough was in command of the allied British, Dutch, and Germans in the Netherlands. Though he had not yet displayed his superb military genius, he had already exhibited his unrivalled powers of conciliating the jarring elements which formed his army. In North Italy the Austrian forces were under Prince Eugene of Savoy, a man of extraordinary courage and talent, who was worshipped by his soldiers, and still lives as a hero in song. No two such generals had ever commanded armies against Lewis before. The beginning of the war was uneventful. Marlborough, however, managed to capture a number of fortresses along the line of the Meuse, and by doing so cut off the French from the Lower Rhine and made the invasion of Holland impossible. For the rest, the campaign was indecisive. On his return to England he was created Duke of Marlborough, the title by which he is best known. Marlborough was now on the threshold of his great career. He was fifty-four years old, and was about to win victories at an age when the work of most men is done. Like his predecessor William, he owed little to early training and much to his natural abilities. The keynote of his greatness as a general was the vigour and audacity of his plans. His greatest obstacle was the slowness and timidity of the Dutch, who refused again and again to co-operate in the brilliant movements which he suggested. Calm and unruffled, patient and tactful, he composed all the differences of his allies, and proved himself even greater in the council chamber than on the battlefield.