Marlborough was a statesman as well as a brilliant commander, and he had his work at home as well as abroad, a work the winters enabled him to deal with.  He was now quite aware that his best friends, that is to say, the chief supporters of his war schemes, were the Whigs, and he was working more and more energetically to put their party in power.  Harley and St. John took the place of more violent Tories, and in 1705 a coalition of Whigs and Tories, called the Junto, managed public affairs, more or less under Marlborough’s direction.  The Duchess still held her sway over the Queen, and the two ladies addressed each other as Mrs. Morley (the Queen) and Mrs. Freeman respectively.  Already there were influences at work to undermine the power of the Marlboroughs, but their political downfall was not yet.

Scottish matters were giving a good deal of trouble to the English government.  Two years before, in 1703, the Scotch Parliament had passed an Act of Security, the object of which was to proclaim a different sovereign from that of England, unless Scotland should be guaranteed her own religious establishment and her laws.  Now this year, 1705, the Parliament in London placed severe restrictions on the Scotch trade with England, and ordered the Border towns to be fortified.  The irritation between the two countries grew and grew, and war seemed within sight.  A commission was accordingly appointed to consider the terms of an Act of Union, the greater portion of Scotland, however, being strongly opposed to any such union at all.

The spring of 1705 found the Allies active once more.  The main interest centres in the Netherlands and in Spain.  The Earl of Peterborough, who took the command in Spain, was one of the most extraordinary men of his time.  His energy and activity were amazing, and he would dash about the Continent in a fashion that often astounded his friends and confounded his enemies.  No man knew where Peterborough would next turn up.  “In journeys he outrides the post,” Dean Swift wrote of him, and the Dean goes on to say,

  So wonderful his expedition,
  When you have not the least suspicion,
  He’s with you like an apparition.

Add to this that the Earl was a charming man, full of courage and enthusiasm, and able to command the unbounded affection of his troops, and you have the born leader of men.  Of Peterborough’s brilliant exploits in the Peninsula in 1705 a whole book might be written.  His chief attention was first given to the important town of Barcelona, a place which had successfully withstood Rooke, and in the most remarkable fashion he captured the strong fort of Monjuich, the citadel of the town, with a force of only 1,200 foot and 200 horse.  Barcelona itself fell for a time into the hands of Peterborough and the Archduke Charles, now calling himself Charles III of Spain.  Success followed upon success, and whole provinces, Catalonia and Valencia, were won over.  So marvellous was the story of his doings, indeed, that when, in the course of time, George Fairburn heard it, in the distant Netherlands, he was disposed to wish he had remained in Spain.  Yet he had done very well, in that same year 1705, as we shall see.