The Battle of Malplaquet (11 September 1709) between the French and the Allies, the largest European battle in the eighteenth century
Richard Blackmore's Instructions to Vander Beck was virtually alone among English poems in attempting to celebrate the "victory" of Marlborough at Malplaquet, while it moved the English Tory party to begin agitating for a withdrawal from the alliance as soon as they formed a government the next year.
The name is an historical in-joke by White; it depends upon knowing that Blenheim was the first of the first duke's great battles, and Malplaquet was his fourth and last.
Goslinga, however, proved cooperative generally and managed to provide a positive contribution during the battles of Ramillies, Oudenaarde, and Malplaquet.