Hoping to influence public opinion in England and force the French into making substantial concessions, Eugene prepared for a major campaign. But on 21 May 1712—when the Tories felt they had secured favourable terms with their unilateral talks with the French—the Duke of Ormonde (Marlborough's successor) received the so-called 'restraining orders', forbidding him to take part in any military action. Eugene took the fortress of Le Quesnoy in early July, before besieging Landrecies, but Villars, taking advantage of Allied disunity, outmanoeuvred Eugene and defeated the Earl of Albermarle's Dutch garrison at Denain on 24 July. The French followed the victory by seizing the Allies' main supply magazine at Marchiennes, before reversing their earlier losses at Douai, Le Quesnoy and Bouchain. In one summer the whole forward Allied position laboriously built up over the years to act as the springboard into France had been precipitously abandoned.