Editing Battle of Denain (section)

==Aftermath==
The battle was not immediately recognised to be as decisive as it turned out to be; most of Prince Eugene's army was relatively unscathed. However, with the loss of Denain, the Allied position began to unravel, and over the next few months, the French recovered Le Quesnoy, Marchines, Douai, and Bouchain.

Almost immediately, Villars began a siege of the key allied supply base at [[Marchiennes]], whose 100 cannon fell into French hands along with up to 9,000 prisoners and large volumes of stores and equipment. This movement threatened Eugene's line of communications, compelling the Austrians to lift the siege of [[Landrecies]] and retire north. Villars responded by seizing [[Douai]] (31 July) and [[Le Quesnoy]] (8 October) after short sieges. The loss of Le Quesnoy alone cost the Allies 3,000 killed or wounded.{{sfn|Clodfelter|2017|p=70}} Villars next moved against [[Bouchain]], the site of Marlborough's [[Siege of Bouchain (1711)|last triumph]], taking the city 19 October. This had the effect of reestablishing the ''{{ill|pré carré|fr}}'', the vital double-line of fortifications protecting Paris, dashing any remaining allied hopes of bringing Louis XIV to terms by a march on the French capital.

When news of the victory reached [[Palace of Versailles|Versailles]] the court erupted in an outpouring of joy; Louis XIV was reportedly so moved that, for the first time in his sixty-year reign, the monarch thanked his courtiers for their support.

With Louis XIV's realm secure, the decade-long war in Flanders came to a close. Few other [[theater (warfare)|theatres]] held comparable promise for advancing the Allied war aims: in the Alps, Marshal Berwick with some 35,000 men safely contained the opposing 50,000 Austrians and Savoyards; in Catalonia the Allies under [[Guido Starhemberg|Starhemberg]] were reeling after defeats at [[Battle of Brihuega|Brihuega]] and [[Battle of Villaviciosa|Villaviciosa]]; on the Portuguese frontier, the remaining Anglo-Portuguese army was falling back before a Spanish army under the [[Alexandre Maître, Marquis de Bay|Marquis de Bay]], removing the last serious threat to Philip V's succession; on the Rhine, the [[Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg|Duke of Württemberg]] could only bombard French lines, to which the French responded with cavalry raids into Germany before both sides settled into winter quarters.

Against this backdrop, the Dutch Estates General joined the British in [[Peace of Utrecht|negotiating]] a separate peace with Louis XIV, forcing Eugene to march the Imperial army back to Germany to continue the war in the [[Rhineland]]. When Villars and Eugene renewed operations in this new theatre the following season, the Frenchman again emerged victorious, taking the strongpoints of [[Rhine campaign (1713)|Freiburg and Landau]] and compelling the Emperor to sue for peace. The two men were then given power to negotiate a peace agreement and eventually drew up the terms of the [[Treaty of Rastatt]] which finally brought the last of the fighting to an end.<ref>Henderson pp.&nbsp;215–218</ref> Eugene's reputation soon recovered when he won a major victory by defeating the Turks at the 1717 [[Siege of Belgrade (1717)|Siege of Belgrade]].