The War of the Spanish Succession represented the second round of the great struggle by King William III of England to contain the ambitions and lust for glory of King Louis XIV of France. However, William died in 1702 and the whole of the diplomatic and military negotiations to prepare the Alliance for war fell Marlborough. Although his British regiments formed a vital component of the army he led to successive victories between 1704 and 1711, Marlborough's army was very much an international force containing Dutch, Danes, Prussians, Austrians and other Germans. He was as much an international commander as any NATO general of today.