READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

A HISTORY OF MODERN EUROPE : A.D. 1453-1900

CHAPTER XXXIX.

EUROPEAN OPPOSITION TO FRANCE

THE ambition of Louis was not satisfied with the Peace of Nimeguen. He contemplated it, like those of Westphalia and the Pyrenees, only as a stepping-stone to further acquisitions, which were to be made by means of the very treaties themselves. Disputes had been going on the last twenty years between France and the Empire as to the extent of the cessions made by the Treaty of Westphalia. Louis XIV contended that the cession of the three bishoprics, Metz, Toul, and Verdun, with their dependencies, included the sovereignty of the German fiefs which held under them; thus identifying vassalage with the sovereignty of the feudal lord—a principle at variance with the public law of Germany. The Imperial plenipotentiaries had neglected to discuss the principle at Nimeguen, and Louis now proceeded to reopen the whole question; not only with regard to the bishoprics, but also his more recent acquisitions of Alsace and Franche-Comté. In 1680 were established in the Parliaments of Metz, of Besançon, in Franche-Comté, and in the Sovereign Council of Alsace, then sitting at Breisach, certain Chambers called Chambres Royales de Réunion, in order to examine the nature and extent of the cessions made to France by the Treaties of Westphalia, the Pyrenees, and Nimeguen. The researches of these Chambers were carried back to the times of the Frankish kings. The Alsatian Chamber, whose decisions seem to have been justified by the text of the Treaty of Westphalia, adjudicated to France the bishopric of Strassburg, the abbeys of Murbach, Lure, Andlau, and Weissemburg, a great part of the bishopric of Spires, and the counties of Horburg, Lichtenberg, and other places. The Chamber of Metz, though with less appearance of equity, went still further, and reunited to the French Crown all the Hundsruck, the Duchy of Zweibrucken, or Deux-Ponts, the counties of Saarbruck, Veldenz, and Salm, the Lordships of Bitsche, Sarreburg, Homburg, part of the states of the Rhinegraves and Counts of Linange, and a number of immediate territories and lordships. Nay, this Chamber eventually adjudged to Louis the dependencies of the county of Chiny, comprising a full third of the Duchy of Luxembourg, besides the sovereignty of the Duchy of Bouillon, of the territory between the Sambre and the Meuse, and of some other districts in the Bishopric of Liege. The Chamber of Besançon, although Franche-Comté had been but so recently annexed to the French Crown, was as zealous for its interests as the others, and adjudged to it the county of Montbeliard, and four lordships holding of the county of Burgundy. These assignments affected the domains of several considerable potentates; as the Elector of Treves, the Elector Palatine, the Duke of Wurtemberg, the King of Sweden for the Duchy of Deux-Ponts, and others of less name. The King of Sweden remonstrated, but without effect. The Chamber of Metz decreed that if homage were not rendered within a certain time, the Duchy of Deux-Ponts would be reunited to the Crown; and as Charles XI refused thus to abase his royal dignity, the duchy was confiscated, and Louis XIV invested with it as a fief the Prince Palatine of Birkenfeld.

The possession of the Imperial city of Strassburg was a principal object with Louis. Till that city was in his hands, Alsace could never be considered in safety, and the passage of the Rhine might at any time be secured to the Imperial armies. In the late war Strassburg had retained a neutral posture, which was regarded by the French as a want of loyalty, and it was resolved to seize the city on the first opportunity, under the decree of the Chamber of Breisach. The municipal government was gained by bribes, and on July 28th, 1681, an army of 35,000 men, concentrated from various quarters with great celerity, appeared before its walls. Resistance was useless; the Imperial Resident attempted to raise the people, but the magistrates had taken care to deprive the city of all means of defence, and no alternative remained but to accept the favourable capitulation offered by the French. Strassburg, by recognizing Louis as its sovereign lord, obtained the confirmation of all its civil and religious rights and liberties, and continued to form a sort of republic under the authority of France down to the time of the French Revolution. Louis XIV entered Strassburg in person, October 23rd. It was then consigned to the skill of Vauban, who rendered it a fortress of the first order, and the bulwark of France on the east.

Louis also sought to make acquisitions in the Spanish Netherlands. By forced interpretations of the Treaty of Nimeguen, he pretended a right to all the towns and districts which had been occupied by his troops during the late war, although these had been withdrawn either at or before the peace, on the ground that the restitution of such places had not been expressly stipulated. On this pretext he claimed the Burgraviate, or ancient borough of Ghent, Beveren, Alost, Gramont, Ninove, and Lessines. The real object of these claims, however, the granting of which, as Louis himself admitted, would have entirely compromised the safety of the Spanish Netherlands, was to obtain concessions on the side of Luxembourg; and therefore to the indignant remonstrances of the Spanish Cabinet, he coolly replied that he should be ready to listen to any proposals of exchange. To keep the French out of Flanders, Spain ceded the county of Chiny, adjudged, as we have said, to the crown of France by the Parliament of Metz. But it was then asserted that this inconsiderable domain, whose capital was a mere village, possessed dependencies which extended to the very gates of Luxembourg; and the King of Spain was called on to do homage for a multitude of arriere fiefs. At the same time Louis was seeking to extend his dominions on the side of Italy. He entertained the project of obtaining Savoy, by procuring the marriage of the young duke, Victor Amadeus II, who had succeeded to his father, Charles Emmanuel II, in 1675, with the heiress of Portugal. Victor, it was expected, would cede his duchy to France on obtaining the Portuguese crown; he had already been betrothed (March, 1681), and was on the point of setting off for Lisbon, when he was deterred by the remonstrances and threats of the Piedmontese from completing the marriage. Louis, however, was in some degree consoled for this disappointment by the occupation of Casale in September, 1681, which he had purchased from the profligate and needy Duke of Montferrat.

These pretensions and acquisitions alarmed all Europe. Louis, it was said, was aiming at a universal monarchy, and the suspicion was encouraged by his attempts on the Empire itself. A pretended Imperial capitulation was circulated in Germany in July, 1681, by which the Dauphin was to be elected King of the Romans, and consequently the presumptive successor of the Emperor Leopold. Symptoms of resistance began to appear. In October, 1681, the King of Sweden concluded a treaty with the United Netherlands to guarantee the Treaties of Münster and Nimeguen against violation. The Emperor acceded to this treaty in February, 1682, and Spain in the following May. It was probably these movements that caused Louis to withdraw the troops which were blockading Luxembourg, and to offer to refer his claims to the mediation of the King of England. This appears from a treaty which he concluded about this time (January 22nd), with the Elector, Frederick William of Brandenburg. Although many of the German States were joining the league against French ambition, that politic Prince, from the hope apparently of regaining Pomerania by the aid of Louis, not only refused to participate in such an alliance, but also undertook to use his endeavors for a peaceful solution of the points in question between France and the Empire : in other words, to induce the Emperor to give up to the French the places which they had occupied. Louis promised in return to put a stop to further reunions, and not to resort to arms so long as any hope remained of a friendly settlement. He claimed for his motives the praise of a disinterested generosity, and he gave out that he had no wish to disturb the peace of Europe at a moment when it was menaced by the Turks, or to prevent Spain from succouring the Emperor against the common enemy of Christendom. His plans, therefore, were for the present postponed, though not abandoned. But Europe knew how to appreciate his moderation. The alliances of the German States against France were pushed more vigorously than ever, and were even joined by the young Elector of Bavaria, Louis’s son-in-law; and in the spring of 1682, the Emperor, Spain, Sweden and Holland renewed their conventions for mutual succour. Louis, however, who, in spite of his pretended generosity, was secretly encouraging the Turks to attack the Emperor, gave an ostensible colouring to his assertions by bombarding Algiers (June, 1682), in punishment of the many piracies committed by the Algerines on French subjects. The bombardment was renewed in the following year; but it was not till April, 1684, that the Dey was reduced to submission.

Louis invades the Netherlands

The pretended forbearance of Louis had come to an end while the motive alleged for it was not only still in existence but had even become more powerful than ever. In the summer of 1683, while the Turks were in full march upon Vienna, Louis was preparing to assert by arms his claims on the Spanish Netherlands. During the two months, indeed, that the Turks were encamped before Vienna, he suspended the blow which he was prepared to strike. A certain respect for the public opinion of Europe, his previous magnanimous declarations, as well, perhaps, as his treaty with the Elector of Brandenburg, arrested his hand; nay, he even made a show of offering his forces to the Emperor, who at once declined the aid of so dangerous an ally. Louis probably expected, as he certainly hoped, that the Turks would take Vienna, after which blow the States of the Empire would be compelled to seek his aid. Amid the rejoicings of Europe for the deliverance of that city, the French Court was remarkable by its sadness. Immediately after the retreat of the Turks, the French troops entered Flanders and Brabant. The mediation of Charles II had been without result. Louis had fixed the end of August as the term for Spain’s reply to his demands; she would yield nothing except Chiny, and on the 28th of October she declared war against France, though she was without the means of prosecuting it. Courtrai and Dixmuyde were taken by the French early in November. Louis proposed to exchange these places against Luxembourg, and granted to the Spaniards a suspension of hostilities till the end of January, 1684, to consider the proposal. Meanwhile the French laid the districts they had occupied under contribution; and when the garrison of Luxembourg, by way of reprisal, made some incursions into the French territory, Marshal Crequi punished that city by a terrible bombardment.

The Spanish Cabinet in vain looked around for aid. Neither the King of Sweden, nor the Emperor, the latter of whom was still embarrassed with the Turkish war, was in a condition to interfere. The King of England at first showed some disposition to assist the Spaniards. After the Peace of Nimeguen a coolness had arisen between Charles and Louis, who would not continue his subsidies except on terms too onerous to be endured; and in June, 1680, the English King formed an alliance with Spain to guarantee the treaty. In the following year, however, the venal Charles promised to abandon his new allies in consideration of his pension being renewed. Louis, by a verbal agreement, promised him two million livres for the present year, and 500,000 crowns for the two following years; and Charles now advised the Spaniards to submit to the demands of France. Even the Dutch Republic, on which Spain most relied, did nothing. The Stadholder, indeed, strained every nerve to bring an army into the field, but he could not persuade the States-General to second his views. The field was thus left open to the operations of the French. In March, 1684, Marshal d'Humieres bombarded Oudenarde; in April, Louis in person took the command of the army in Hainault; while Marshal Crequi, with another division of 32,000 men, proceeded to invest Luxembourg, and after a short siege compelled that city to capitulate (June 4th). Shortly after, Treves was taken and dismantled, though not occupied, by the French, and a truce of twenty years was concluded between France Truce of and the States-General. Louis XIV, at the commencement of the siege of Luxembourg, had given the Dutch to understand that he should be content with that place, together with Beaumont in Hainault, Bovines, and Chimai, which would not compromise their boundary; and that he would restore Courtrai and Dixmuyde to Spain. These conditions were accepted by the States, who promised to abandon the Spanish alliance if they were not acceded to, and the truce was accordingly signed June 29th. The Emperor acceded to the truce at Ratisbon, August 15th, both in his own name and that of the King of Spain, by whom he had been furnished with plenipotentiary powers for that purpose. It was agreed, in addition to the articles already mentioned in the Dutch treaty, that, during the truce, France should remain in possession of all the places adjudged to her by the Chambres de Réunion up to August 1st, 1681, including Strassburg, but should, during the same period, make no further claims on territories belonging to the Empire.

As these proceedings display Louis XXV’s unjust and insatiable ambition, so, about the same time, he gave equally striking examples of his pride and bigotry. The little Republic of Genoa was to become a victim to the "glory" of the great King. The alliance of the Genoese with Spain was too intimate to please Louis; he proposed that they should accept his protectorate instead of that of the Catholic King, and when this was declined, he sought a pretext for war. The Genoese were charged with having supplied the Spaniards with four galleys, contrary to his prohibition; with having furnished the Algerines with ammunitions of war; with having stopped the passage of French salt through Savona, etc.; above all, like their brother republicans the Dutch, they had ventured to talk of the French King with disrespect. Louis treated them like rebellious vassals instead of an independent people. He imprisoned their envoy in the Bastille, and sent a fleet to bombard their city, which reduced “Genoa the Superb”, with its marble palaces, almost to a heap of ruins (May, 1684). The Genoese, having in vain besought the aid of Spain, implored the mediation of the Pope, at whose intercession Louis abated many of his demands, but only on conditions calculated to humiliate the Genoese, and gratify his own inordinate pride. The Doge of Genoa, whom the laws forbade to leave the city, was required to appear in person at Versailles, and deliver a speech prepared for him by one of Louis’s flatterers, in which the King was described as “a monarch who had surpassed in valour, grandeur, and magnanimity all the kings of past ages, and who would transmit to his descendants his unassailable power”. Louis, indeed, who possessed the most polished manners, affected to alleviate the feelings of the Doge by the gracious reception he accorded to him; but he could not escape the indignation of Europe at the barbarities he committed, merely for the barren satisfaction of gratifying his pride.

About the same time he gave an equally signal instance of his bigotry and intolerance. During the latter days of Cardinal Mazarin the liberties granted to the Protestants by the Edict of Nantes had been gradually curtailed; but when Louis himself assumed the reins of power, these retrograde acts became still more frequent and striking. The private meetings, or colloquies, of the Protestants, as well as their national triennial synods, were suppressed (1661, 1662). In April, 1663, appeared a Royal Declaration, forbidding all Protestants who had become Catholics to return to the Reformed religion, and all priests or ecclesiastics to embrace it at all. These were followed by many other decrees of the same kind; such as the forbidding any but Catholics to be admitted as masters of trades, except in certain special cases; the allowing of boys of fourteen years of age, and girls of twelve, to change their religion in spite of their parents; the prohibiting of Protestants to keep schools of a superior kind for the education of the higher classes; with others of the like description. These proceedings were viewed with great sorrow and disapprobation by Colbert, as they affected the most active and industrious portion of the population, and consequently the trade and prosperity of the kingdom; and it seems to have been from his representations, seconded by the remonstrances of the Elector of Brandenburg, that Louis was induced to put a stop for some years to these persecutions, or, at all events, to restrain them within moderate bounds; and from the year 1666 to 1674, the Huguenots enjoyed comparative tranquillity, though the policy of persecution never ceased. The return to a severer policy has been ascribed to a change in the domestic life of Louis.

In the year 1666, Louis, at the recommendation of his mistress, Madame de Montespan, had allowed her to take as the governess of their children the widow of the burlesque writer, Scarron. Madame Scarron was descended from a distinguished Huguenot family, being the grand-daughter of D'Aubigne, the Protestant historian and friend of Henry IV; but her husband had left her in the greatest poverty. The house of Scarron was not a school of strict morality. His wife, who had been converted to the Romish faith, had made in it some acquaintances of more than doubtful character, and among them Ninon de l'Enclos; yet she appears, nevertheless, to have been sincere in the character she had assumed of a prude and devotee. Madame Scarron, at the middle period of life, had preserved in a remarkable degree a beauty of no ordinary kind; she had much wit and many accomplishments, which were enhanced by a grace and dignity of manner. These qualities made by degrees an irresistible impression on the heart of Louis; in a few years her empire over the King was completely established, and in 1675 he created her Marquise de Maintenon. This influence was employed in conducting Louis back into the paths of morality. His youth had been engrossed by a succession of mistresses. Elizabeth Tarneaux, Mdlles. Louise de la Valliere, La Motte d'Argencourt, Fontanges, and Madame de Montespan, had successively ruled his heart; by the last he had a numerous offspring whom he had legitimatized and compelled the Queen to receive. Yet Madame de Maintenon succeeded in reclaiming the affections of the King even from her haughty patroness, and restoring them to the Queen. Madame de Maintenon soon found her reward. In 1683 Maria Theresa died, and in the following year, the King and Madame de Maintenon were privately married in the chapel at Versailles.

This reform in the King’s life was accompanied, unhappily for France, with an increase of his bigotry. To bring back those of his subjects who had wandered from the Church of Rome appeared to him a work which might merit the redemption of past sins; and thus his own reformation and the conversion of his heretic subjects became inseparable ideas. This new bent of his mind was encouraged by those whom he chiefly consulted in the affairs of his conscience: the illustrious Bossuet, Harlai, Archbishop of Paris, and Father La Chaise, the King’s confessor. The renewal of persecution dates, as we have said, from 1674, and the establishment of Madame de Maintenon's influence. Naturally gentle and moderate, Madame de Maintenon herself was indeed at heart averse to the severe measures adopted against her former coreligionists; yet it appears from her own confession that she was led to encourage them, lest the King, who had heard that she was born a Calvinist, should suspect her of a want of zeal. These measures, therefore, were not directly owing to her; but they were the result of the King's misinterpretation of the principles with which she had inspired him; a misinterpretation, which, out of interest and self-love, she encouraged instead of repressing. Louis found in his proud and unfeeling minister, Louvois, a fitting instrument of his bigotry. This policy was calculated to strip the Huguenots, one by one, of all the privileges accorded by the Edict of Nantes, and thus to prepare the final blow, the revocation of the Edict itself. The Protestant churches were gradually demolished; the so-called Chambres mi-parties, before which Protestant suits were pleaded in the Parliaments of Toulouse, Bordeaux, and Grenoble, were suppressed; Roman Catholics were forbidden to apostatize under pain of penance, confiscation of goods, and perpetual banishment; mixed marriages, of Catholics and Protestants, were prohibited, and the children of such marriages were declared bastards; it was forbidden that Huguenots should be employed as clerks or otherwise, in the management of the finances; nay, these savage decrees penetrated into and divided the family household; and by a royal declaration of June 17th, 1681, it was decreed that children of the tender age of seven years should be capable of conversion in spite of their parents, as if already competent to distinguish the true path of salvation. Such are a few specimens of the numerous edicts published against the Huguenots. Louvois, who had opposed the King’s moral conversion, and had caballed with Montespan against Maintenon, zealously threw himself into the cause of persecution, and effected conversions by means of his own department. Converted Protestants were exempted from military billets; while the additional charge which would thus have been thrown on Catholic house­holders was diverted by billeting on the richer Huguenots twice the number of soldiers that fell legally to their share.

Flight was the only mode of escaping these persecutions. In spite of the surveillance exercised by the police on the frontiers and in the ports, emigration took place on a great scale. England, Holland, Denmark offered hospitality to the emigrants, and were enriched by their industry, skill, and capital. The French Government endeavored to stop the emigration by forbidding Huguenot families to leave France under the penalty for the heads of them of perpetual relegation to the galleys (May, 1682). The stoppage of this outlet occasioned an explosion within. The Huguenots began to band together in the south of France. Their prohibited provincial synods were replaced by secret unions; they began to arm, and in some places it was necessary to suppress their movements by force and bloodshed. After the death of the wise Colbert in 1683, these persecutions assumed new vigour. The influence of Louvois, now uncontrolled, was displayed in a multitude of the most rigorous edicts (1684-1685). Troops were dispatched into the southern provinces, where the Huguenots were chiefly seated; and though the soldiers were publicly forbidden to use any violence, their brutalities were secretly connived at. By these means the Protestants of Bearn, estimated at 22,000, were converted, within a few hundreds. Terror harbingered the approach of the dragoons, at whose appearance whole towns hastened to announce their submission. The same method was used with success in Guienne, the Limousin, Saintonge, Poitou, Languedoc, and Dauphine. Conversions were announced by the thousands; though the value of such a conversion is easily estimated. Louis was quite intoxicated with his success. It seemed as if he was as great a conqueror over men's souls as over their bodies and worldly possessions; that he had but to speak the word, and all those proud and obstinate heretics, who had once almost dictated the law to his ancestors, must fall down and yield to his infallible genius; a thought gratifying at once to his bigotry and his pride. And now when the Huguenots were reduced, in appearance at least, to a small fraction of their former number, Louis conceived that the time was arrived when he might strike the final blow by repealing the Edict of his grandfather Henry IV. The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, drawn up by the aged Chancellor Le Tellier, father of Louvois, was signed by the King, October 17th, 1685. 1685. It meant the complete future annihilation of Calvinism in France. All Protestant churches were to be immediately demolished; the Reformed worship was forbidden on pain of confiscation and perpetual imprisonment; the ministers who refused to be converted were to quit the kingdom in a fortnight; the children of Protestant parents were to be baptized by the curé of the parish, and instructed in the Roman Catholic faith. Only by the last article some indulgence was shown to those who still remained unconverted. They were permitted, "till such time as it should please God to enlighten them like the rest", to remain in France, and to exercise their callings and professions, without let or molestation on account of their religion. Such was the text; but the practice hardly corresponded with it. In fact, Louvois instructed the leaders of the dragonnades to disregard the last article of the Declaration, and to treat with the extremity of rigour all those who should have the absurd vanity of persisting in a religion which differed from that of His Majesty the King! Louvois gave the order to let the soldiery live "licentiously". The most horrible tortures were resorted to. Those Huguenots who had the most influence with their brethren, either from their character or their social position, were sent to the Bastille or other state prisons. From Dauphiné the dragonnades were extended to the Vaudois. At the command of Louis, the Duke of Savoy, Victor Amadeus II, joined in their persecution; the ministers, or barbes, of the Vaudois, their schoolmasters, and the French Protestants who had taken refuge among them, were ordered, under pain of death, to quit the Ducal territories in a fortnight; while their worship was prohibited, and their schools were ordered to be closed under the same penalty (February, 1686). The Vaudois attempted to defend their liberties by arms against the French troops, led by Catinat, a brave soldier and enlightened man, who performed the task with reluctance. Many thousands of the Vaudois perished in this massacre, in which neither age nor sex was spared. A remnant of them who had managed to defend themselves in the more inaccessible parts of the mountains, obtained, through the intervention of the Protestant Powers, and especially of the Swiss, permission to emigrate.

These cruelties naturally produced a reaction. Emigration became more vigorous than ever, in spite of all the endeavors of the Government to prevent it, though seamen or others assisting the emigrants were threatened with fine and corporal punishment, the galleys, and even death. It is computed that between the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and the end of the century between 200,000 and 300,000 persons left France for the sake of their religion. These too, from their wealth and character, were amongst the most valuable citizens of France, and included many men of high literary reputation; as Basnage, the historian of the United Netherlands; Lenfant, historian of the Councils of Basle and Constance; Beausobre, author of the History of Manicheism; Rapin, author of the History of England, and others. It was now that whole colonies of French established themselves at London, at Berlin, in Holland, and other places, and planted there the silk manufacture and other arts and trades.

It happened singularly enough that while Louis was engaged in this crusade against the Protestants, he was also involved in a warm dispute with Pope Innocent XI respecting the Régale, in some of the southern provinces. The matter belongs to the domestic history of France, and is chiefly remarkable as having produced Bossuet's celebrated Declaration of the Clergy of France, which forms an epoch in the Gallican Church (March, 1682). The substance of it is, that the Pope has no power in temporal affairs; that, as decreed by the Council of Constance, the Pope’s spiritual authority is subordinate to that of a General Council; that the constitutions of the Gallican Church may not be subverted; and that, though the Pope has the first voice in questions of faith, his judgment is not irrevocable unless confirmed by the Church. This declaration was converted into a law by a royal edict.

The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes excited unbounded sorrow and indignation in all the Protestant States of Europe. These feelings were nowhere more conspicuously manifested than in the Electorate of Brandenburg. Frederick William, a zealous Calvinist, even overstepped the bounds of Christian moderation by publishing a retaliatory Edict against his Catholic subjects; but the steps which he took for the protection of the French refugees were of a nobler character. Partly out of compassion for his fellow-religionists, partly also perhaps with the politic view of encouraging arts and manufactures in his dominions, he granted to the French emigrants more privileges than were enjoyed even by his own subjects; he gave them ground and materials for building; he supplied them with money to open manufactories, pay their clergy, and erect their own consistories, tribunals, schools, and churches. Sweden, the ancient ally of France, participated in the feeling now awakened against that kingdom, both on religious grounds and from the personal injury which Charles XI had sustained at the hands of the French King with regard to his Duchy of Zweibrücken. In the spring of 1686 a secret treaty was concluded between the King of Sweden and the Elector of Brandenburg, lately such bitter enemies, for mutual defence and for the protection of the Empire against the attacks of France. In the United Netherlands, Louis completely alienated, through his persecution of the Huguenots, the goodwill of the party which had supported him, and the ancient adherents of the De Witts now went over to the Prince of Orange. The anger of the commercial portion of the Dutch nation had been further excited because Louis, in his indiscriminate hatred of the Calvinists, had not spared the persons and property of Dutch merchants naturalized in France, and had thus annihilated the trade between that kingdom and Holland. Thus by an infatuated policy, the French King, besides weakening his kingdom, and alienating a large portion of his own subjects, who subsequently fought against him under the banners of his enemies, also incurred the hostility of every Protestant country of Europe; while Spain and the Catholic States of the Empire were provoked and alarmed by his grasping ambition, and even the Pope himself was irrevocably alienated by the contempt which he displayed for the apostolic chair.

William III and the League of Augsburg, 1686

There was one prince whose keen and penetrating glances saw all these mistakes, and whose hatred of the French King and nation incited him to take advantage of them. Among the earliest reminiscences of the Dutch Stadholder, William, were the injuries which his country had received at the hands of Louis XIV. At his entrance into public life, William had found himself reduced to choose between submitting to the haughty conqueror, or half ruining his country, perhaps abandoning it altogether, in order to escape the vassalage of France. These things had engendered in him an inextinguishable hatred which recent occurrences had served still further to inflame. Although a Calvinist, William was a friend of toleration; and, like the rest of his countrymen, had beheld with disgust the religious persecutions in France. This feeling was increased by a private injury. Louis had seized his principality of Orange, properly an Imperial fief, and had annexed it to the French Crown. William had publicly declared that he would make Louis repent the outrage, and had refused to retract his words when called upon by D'Avaux, the French minister in Holland, for an explanation. Thus, by all his steps at this juncture, Louis was not only embittering the enmity which the Prince of Orange entertained against him, but also preparing those events which ultimately enabled William to curb his power and humble his pride. From this time the Dutch Stadholder must be regarded as the chief opponent of French ambition, as the man on whose counsels the destiny of Europe hung. It is in this character, as Lord Macaulay justly remarks, and not as King of England, that William’s conduct as a statesman should be viewed and estimated. His plans for wresting the English sceptre from the hands of his Popish father-in-law were only part of his grand scheme for humiliating Louis. He wished to reign in England chiefly, if not solely, in order to wield her power against the French King. In this struggle the principles of Rome and those of the Reformation are still in presence, however mixed up with political events and secular ambition. The bigoted Louis XIV, though at enmity with the actual Pope, is still the representative of those ancient monarchical traditions which leaned for support on the Church of Rome; while the Calvinist William, the child and heir of the Reformation, is the champion of religious toleration and civil liberty. Nature had admirably qualified him for the part which he had assumed; in which defeat and disappointment were often to be endured without discouragement, and success at last achieved by long and complicated combinations, pursued with indomitable perseverance and unflinching courage.

It was some fresh symptoms of aggression on the part of Louis which enabled the Stadholder to unite the greater part Europe in a league against him. The Duke of Orleans, the French King's brother, had married the sister of the Elector Palatine, the last of the House of Simmern, who died in May, 1685, when his next relative, the Count Palatine Philip William, Duke of Neuburg, took possession of the Electorate. The Duchess of Orleans had by her marriage contract renounced all her feudal rights to the Palatinate, but not her claims to the allodial property and the movables of her family. In these latter, Louis, on the part of his sister-in-law, insisted on including not only the furniture of the electoral palaces but even the cannon of the fortresses; and the new Elector was forced to satisfy these claims by the payment of 100,000 livres. The claims of the Duchess on the allodial property were far more embarrassing. Under this head were demanded the principalities of Simmern and Lautern, the County of Sponheim, with numerous other territories, towns, and lordships; in short, the larger portion of the whole Electorate. Philip William resisted these demands, and Louis, who was now busy at home with the Huguenots, and who was shortly afterwards seized with a dangerous illness, did not at present attempt to assert them by force. He had, however, done enough to arouse general alarm, and to show that he had not abandoned his designs of enriching himself at the expense of his neighbors. The new Elector implored the protection of the Empire, and thus redoubled the uneasiness felt in Germany, and indeed throughout the greater part of Europe, respecting the schemes of Louis. The Prince of Orange availed himself of these suspicions to forward his plans against Louis. He at length succeeded in inducing the Emperor Leopold, the Kings of Spain and Sweden, as princes of the Empire, the Electors of Saxony and Bavaria, the Circles of Suabia, Franconia, Upper Saxony and Bavaria to enter into the celebrated League of Augsburg (July 9th, 1686). The object of this league was to maintain the Treaties of Münster and Nimeguen and the Truce of Ratisbon. If any member of it was attacked he was to be assisted by the whole confederacy: 60,000 men were to be raised, who were to be frequently drilled, and to form a camp during some weeks of every year, and a common fund for their support was to be established at Frankfurt. The League was to be in force for three years, but might be prolonged at the expiration of that term should the public safety require it.

The Elector Palatine, who was in fact the party most directly interested, acceded to the League early in September, as well as the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. The Elector of Brandenburg had already made a separate alliance with the Emperor, by which certain exchanges of territory were made between them; and the Elector had pledged himself to defend the Empire against all assailants. He did not, therefore, join the League of Augsburg, to avoid giving any open cause of offence to the French King. Nor did the Stadholder himself become a party to it, since it ostensibly professed to be an association only of the members of the Empire. Most French writers are of opinion that William organized this league in order to assist his scheme for seizing the Crown of England. It seems, however, more probable that William, without any definite view of self-advantage, merely organized the League as part of his general policy against the French King.

The establishment of the League of Augsburg gave rise to some sharp correspondence between Louis and the Emperor; and, by way of defiance, the French King caused a fort to be built opposite Hüningen, on the right bank of the Rhine, in the territory of the Margrave of Baden. It was not, however, till two years afterwards, as we have already said, that war actually broke out between France and the Empire. The reason why it should have been so long postponed, or why it should have been entered into at that particular juncture, it is not easy to explain. Some French writers have attributed it to a quarrel between Louis and his minister Louvois respecting the size of a window in the little palace of Trianon; when Louvois, mortified by the hard words which he received from his master, resolved to divert his attention from such subjects by finding employment for him in a war. The main grounds its causes, assigned for declaring war were, that the Emperor intended to conclude a peace with the Turks in order that he might turn his arms against France; that he had supported the Elector Palatine in his unjust hesitation to do justice to the claims of the Duchess of Orleans; and that he had deprived the Cardinal von Furstenberg, an ally of the French King, who had been elected Coadjutor by part of the Chapter of the Archbishopric of Cologne, and had procured to be chosen in his stead the Bavarian Prince, Joseph Clement. Louis also called upon the Emperor to convert the truce of Ratisbon into a definite peace; or, in other words, to cede to him in perpetuity the acquisitions which had been assigned to him only for a limited period. There is little doubt that Louis's main object in going to war was to compel the Emperor to yield on this point.

With regard to the first of these charges, it is true, as we have related in another chapter, that Austria, since the siege of Vienna, had achieved some signal triumphs both over the Turks and the Hungarians, triumphs which had excited great jealousy and anger in the French Court, but which can hardly be regarded as affording Louis any legitimate cause of war against the Emperor. The affair of the Duchess of Orleans we have already explained. It had been referred, with the consent of Louis, to the arbitration of the Pope; and the delay which had taken place was, therefore, imputable to Innocent XI and not to the Emperor. It is certain, however, that Innocent was the implacable adversary of France. No Pope since the Reformation had exercised so much political influence as he; and, strange to say, for the sake of opposing Louis, this influence was ranged on the side of the heretic William, against his orthodox uncle, James II, the Sovereign whose devotion to Rome was so blind and implicit that he hesitated not to sacrifice three kingdoms for a mass. Innocent had also thrown in his weight against Louis in the affair of the Electorate of Cologne, which requires a few words of explanation.

The Suabian family of Fürstenberg was entirely devoted to France. Egon von Fürstenberg, Bishop of Strassburg, had been very instrumental in putting the French in possession of that city; his brother William had, as we have seen, been seized by the Emperor at the Congress of Cologne for being too warm a partisan of French interests, but had subsequently recovered his liberty at the Peace of Nimeguen. Egon having died in 1682, Louis obtained for William, who had purposely entered the Church, the Bishopric of Strassburg, and subsequently a cardinal’s hat. Nor did the French King's views in his favour stop here. Louis resolved to procure for him the Archbishopric and Electorate of Cologne; a step by which the electorate would become almost a French province, while, at the same time, Louis would obtain through his creature and dependant a voice in the affairs of the Empire. Early in 1688, Maximilian, the Archbishop-elector of Cologne, and the Chapter being gained by French money, elected, by nineteen votes out of twenty-four, William von Fürstenberg Coadjutor; that is, successor to the archbishopric when it should become vacant by the death of Maximilian, an event which happened a few months later (June, 1688). But the Pope, who was in the interests of the Emperor, annulled the election of the Coadjutor; the League of Augsburg brought forward the Bavarian Prince, Joseph Clement, as a rival candidate for the Archbishopric and Electorate, and though Clement was only seventeen years of age, the Pope gave him a dispensation and a brief of eligibility. As both the candidates possessed bishoprics, they could only be elected by postulation, for which the canon law requires a majority of two-thirds of the votes. But of the twenty-four votes, Fürstenberg obtained only fifteen, or one short of the required number. Clement had the remaining nine; and as he had been declared eligible by the Pope, while Fürstenberg had been rejected, the election fell upon Clement. Louis, however, declared that he would support Fürstenberg and the majority of the Chapter, and his troops took possession of most of the places of the electorate.

Thus the enmity between the Pope and the French King, first excited by the Régale, became irreconcilable. It had been recently aggravated by another dispute, which had involved the Parliament of Paris in Innocent's displeasure. The Pontiff, with a view to the better administration of police in Rome, had abrogated a privilege enjoyed by foreign ambassadors resident in that capital, by which not only the palace, but even the quarter which they inhabited, was considered inviolable, and thus afforded an asylum to malefactors of all kinds. All the other Powers submitted without a murmur to this wholesome regulation; but Louis haughtily declared "that his Crown had never been guided by the conduct of others; but, on the contrary, God had established it to be for them an example, and he was determined, so long as he reigned, never to forfeit any of its rights". The Marquis of Lavardin, who proceeded to Rome as French ambassador in November, 1687, was instructed to disregard the Pope's abrogation of the ambassadorial franchise, although a bull of excommunication had been launched against all who should neglect it. Lavardin entered Rome at the head of near a thousand armed men; but Innocent refused to receive him, and placed the French church of St. Louis, which the ambassador was accustomed to attend, under an interdict. The matter was taken up by the Parliament of Paris. Several members, and especially De Harlai, the Procureur-general, and Talon, the Avocat-general, inveighed vehemently against the Pope, and appealed to a future Council. The Parliament passed an Arret (January, 1688), that the King should be supplicated to assemble Provincial Councils, or a National Council, in order to put an end to the disorder created by the vacancy of bishoprics (through the Régale); and that all commerce with Rome, and the remitting of money thither, should be forbidden.

These quarrels show how near France was to an absolute separation from Rome. Louis's rage and disappointment are shown in a violent letter which he addressed to the Pope (September 6th), through the Cardinal d'Estrées, with orders to communicate it to Innocent and the Consistory. In this letter, which may almost be regarded as a declaration of the war he was meditating, he declared that he had lost all hope of reawakening in Innocent the feelings of the common father of Christendom, or to obtain any justice at his hands; and he intimated that the Pope's conduct would probably cause a general war in Europe. He declared that he could no longer recognize Innocent as mediator in the affair of the Palatine succession, and that he should take care to obtain justice by the means which God had placed in his hands. He further announced that he should continue to assist the Cardinal Von Fürstenberg; and that if his ally, the Duke of Parma, was not immediately put in possession of the Duchies of Castro and Ronciglione, withheld from him by the Holy See since the Treaty of Pisa, the French troops would enter Italy and Avignon would be seized. This last threat was carried into execution in October.

Innocent XI replied by proclaiming Clement of Bavaria Archbishop of Cologne, and by excommunicating the Parliament of Paris and the Advocate-General Talon. Louis, on his side, followed up his philippic against the Pope by the declaration of war against the Emperor already mentioned. For some weeks the French troops had been marching from Flanders towards the eastern frontier. One division, ostensibly commanded by the Dauphin, but in reality by Marshal de Duras and Vauban, laid siege to Philippsburg early in October; another smaller corps, under Boufflers, occupied, almost without resistance, Kaiserslautern, Neustadt, Kreutznach, Worms, Oppenheim, Bingen, Bacharach—in short, almost all the possessions of the Elector Palatine and the Elector of Mainz on the left bank of the Rhine. The latter admitted the French into his capital on condition that the neutrality of his dominions beyond the Rhine should be respected.

William III’s Invasion of England

The joy of the Dutch Stadholder was boundless when he learnt that the French King had irrevocably committed him-self to a policy which insured the success of the Stadholder'’ designs upon England, and would enable him at no distant period to add the might of that country to the already formidable coalition against France. Louis, unfortunately for himself, listened to the counsels of Louvois instead of those of D'Avaux. The latter had advised him to menace the Dutch frontier, and thus keep William at home. Louvois, on the other hand, represented that unless a diversion were made by an attack upon the Empire, the Turks, humiliated by their defeats, and threatened with the loss even of Belgrade, their frontier town, would be compelled to submit to whatsoever conditions the Emperor might be pleased to impose upon them, and would thus enable him to concentrate all his forces against France. This advice coincided with the policy, long pursued by Louis, of enriching himself at the expense of the Empire; whose frontiers, but slightly guarded, seemed to offer an easy conquest. Considerations of a personal nature had also, perhaps, some influence on the decision of the French King. He had to gratify his own pride, which had received a wound in the affair of Cologne; and he was, perhaps, also not unwilling to mortify the pride of the King of England. The blindness and infatuation of James II in this crisis of his fortunes almost surpasses belief. Ever since the end of May Louis had been warning that his son-in-law was meditating a descent upon England. William had formed, near Nimeguen, a camp of 20,000 men; he was notoriously preparing large quantities of arms and warlike stores; the Dutch fleet had been put in preparation to sail at a few days' notice. James, however, refused to believe that these preparations were directed against himself, and listened to the assurances of William that they were occasioned by the state of affairs on the Continent. Another notion, that the States-General would not permit the departure of a force which was necessary for the defence of the Republic, was better founded. William himself had assured the States that such was the motive for his preparations. Nevertheless, had James had the least discernment, he must have perceived, from the state of feeling among his subjects, that it was not a moment to reject the aid of France. Louis, who wished to save James in spite of himself, instructed D'Avaux, his minister at the Hague, to signify to the States-General, early in September, that he should consider any act of hostility against his ally, the King of England, as a declaration of war against himself; at the same time preparations were made to march a force to the Dutch frontier, and Bonrepaux was dispatched to England with offers of naval aid. But James, who had formerly been the pensioner of Louis, now indignantly disclaimed any alliance with him, thus giving him the lie in the face of Europe; and Skelton, the English ambassador at Paris, who had been privy to these steps on the part of the French Court, was recalled and committed to the Tower. James was seized with an unseasonable fit of pride, and exclaimed that a King of England needed not, like an Archbishop of Cologne, the patronage of any sovereign. The French King would have acted more wisely by overlooking James's folly, and listening only to the dictates of policy. Probably, however, Louis did not anticipate that the Stad­holder would have achieved so speedy and triumphant a success. He might reasonably have expected that James would have been able to make a better stand; that a civil war would have ensued, which, for a year or two at least, might have found employment for all William's resources, and in which he might have been ultimately baffled by the help of a moderate French force. But when the crisis actually came, James himself took a juster view of his position. No sooner were the French troops withdrawn from Flanders than his desolate situation at once stared him in the face; and especially when Louis, in his declaration of war against the Emperor, intimated that he meant to observe the peace with Holland, as well as the twenty years' truce with Spain. James, in his despair, now almost went the length of declaring war against France. He assured the States that he had no alliance with that nation; that he regarded the siege of Philippsburg as a breach of the Truce of Ratisbon; that he was ready to join Spain and the States in maintaining the peace of Europe. But the States listened in preference to William, who opened to them his intended expedition, and persuaded them that the safety and independence of their religion and country were involved in its success; and, in their answer to James, instead of entering into his proposal concerning the peace of Europe, they intimated their desire to restore peace and confidence in England, by securing the civil and religious rights of his subjects. William hastened on his preparations, and on November 1st, 1688, he finally sailed with his fleet to seize the Crown of England. The Spanish ambassador at the Hague caused a grand mass to be performed for his success. In the same year of the preceding century Spain had fitted out the Armada, in order to wrest the English sceptre from the hands of a heretic sovereign and compel the nation to accept the Papal authority. Now she was favouring and abetting the attempt of a Calvinist Prince to expel a Roman Catholic King, and thus to consolidate the civil and religious liberties of England.

William landed at Torbay on November 5th, the anniversary of the Popish plot; on December 18th he was at St. James's, his march having been interrupted only by one or two trifling skirmishes. Meanwhile James had fled. On December 28th the fugitive monarch arrived at St. Germains, and found in Louis XIV, whom he had rejected as an ally, a generous protector. On February 13th, 1689, William and his wife Mary solemnly accepted the English Crown, the Parliament having previously voted (January 23rd) that James, by withdrawing himself out of the kingdom, had abdicated the government, and that the throne was thereby vacant. In Scotland the authority of the new King was established after a slight attempt at resistance; Ireland, from the religion of the people, was naturally more favourable to James's cause, and it was here that, with French aid, he was enabled for a year or two to dispute the ground with William. On March 12th, 1689, James, escorted by a large French fleet, and accompanied by some 1,200 of his own soldiers, paid by France, landed at Kinsale; the Irish flocked to his standards, and he soon found himself at the head of a large, but ill-armed and ill-disciplined force. This hostile act on the part of Louis caused William, as King of England, to declare war against France, May 17th, 1689. The Irish campaign of that year was indecisive. James was held in check by the Irish Protestants, and particularly by the heroic defence of Londonderry; and by the landing of Marshal Schomberg, at the head of 10,000 men (August), he was compelled to retire into winter quarters. That celebrated general, who was a Protestant, had renounced the service of Louis upon the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and, after a short residence in Brandenburg, had entered that of William, along with many other French refugees. In the campaign of the following year (1690) William opposed his father-in-law in person, and completely defeated him at the battle of the Boyne (July 1st). Schomberg fell in this engagement, while animating his Huguenot troops to avenge themselves on their persecutors. James again escaped to France, and became a pensioner on Louis's bounty. In the same year a naval engagement took place off Beachy Head, between the French fleet, under Tourville, and the combined English and Dutch fleets, under the Earl of Torrington (June 30th). Victory remained with the French, who, however, neglected to pursue their advantage, except by the burning of Teignmouth. In 1691 William proceeded into Holland, to take part in the campaign against the French; but the Irish were reduced to obedience by his forces under General Ginkell. They obtained a favourable peace by the treaty called the Pacification of Limerick (October 3rd), and William was thus enabled to devote his whole attention to the affairs of the Continent, to which we must now return.

Louis XIV devastates the Palatinate, 1688

The success of the English revolution caused a great sensation throughout Europe. The ancient prejudices of religion, the theories of absolute monarchical power, of the divine and indefeasible rights of kings all vanished before the political interests of the moment, and the success of William was hailed with almost unmixed delight by the Courts of Madrid, of Vienna, and even of Rome. All nations seemed absorbed in the one thought of repressing the ambition of Louis XIV; while Louis, on his side, wantonly defied united Europe. One of his first steps on learning William’s descent on England had been to declare war against the United Netherlands (November 26th, 1688), and thus to convert the Dutch from indirect into open and active enemies. This declaration, indeed, was not founded on William's expedition, but on the intervention of the Dutch in the affairs of Cologne, to the prejudice of Fürstenberg. Yet at this moment France was not strong enough to hold the conquests which she had made. Louis now hearkened to the diabolical counsels of Louvois. From the Court of Versailles, the model of politeness, the centre of European refinement, issued a mandate which might have disgraced Attila or Zingis Khan. The French generals were ordered to burn the towns and villages they could not garrison, lest they should be occupied by the enemy! Heidelberg, the residence of the Elector Palatine, was one of the first places abandoned to the flames, and the ruins of the magnificent electoral palace still attest this act of ferocious barbarity. These orders were soon afterwards followed by others for a more wholesale destruction—nothing less than the burning of all the places near the Rhine between Mainz and Philippsburg! Spires, Worms, Oppenheim, Frankenthal, Bingen, and other places, with their beautiful cathedrals and churches and their ancient medieval monuments, became a prey to the flames, and all that smiling region assumed the aspect of a desert. Altogether, more than forty towns and villages were burnt. A hundred thousand houseless human beings wandered about in search of some refuge for their misery, demanding vengeance at the hands of the Empire and of Europe. Voltaire suggests, in excuse for Louis, that he would not have caused this misery could he have seen it with his own eyes. The exasperation of the Germans may be better imagined than described. The Emperor Leopold, in confirming the Decree of the Diet of Ratisbon of January 24th, 1689, for war, denounced the King of France as the enemy not only of the Empire, but of all Christendom, and worthy to be regarded in the same light as the Turk. The Diet decreed the expulsion of every Frenchman from Germany, and interdicted, under the penalty of high treason, all commerce with France.

The Grand Alliance.

It was in the midst of these horrors and disasters that Leopold extended the bounds of the coalition against Louis XIV by entering into an offensive and defensive treaty with the Dutch Republic, May 12th, 1689, in which both parties engaged not to lay down their arms, or separate from each other, till Louis should have been deprived of all his conquests, and reduced within the limits of the treaties of Westphalia and the Pyrenees. William III, as King of England, acceded to the treaty, December 30th, 1689, and his example was followed by the King of Spain (June 6th, 1690). The greater part of Europe was thus confederated against France, and the treaty obtained the name of the Grand Alliance. Frederick III of Brandenburg—the Great Elector, Frederick William, had died April 29th, 1688—had also joined the party of his uncle William and the Emperor, and, following the footsteps of his father as protector of the Reformed Faith, had done all that lay in his power to promote the success of William's enterprise upon England. The death of Pope Innocent XI (August, 1689) seemed to be the only event favourable to France. But although Louis XIV expended three million livres to procure the election of Alexander VIII (Cardinal Ottoboni), as Innocent's successor, and though he restored Avignon to that pontiff, and yielded on the subject of the ambassadorial franchise, yet he did not succeed in gaining his friendship. Alexander confirmed the election of Clement to the Archbishopric of Cologne, and continued to refuse bulls of investiture to the French bishops who had been parties to the declaration of 1682.

Our limits will not permit us to describe at any length the war between Louis XIV and the Grand Alliance, which lasted till the Peace of Ryswick, in 1697, but only to note some of the chief incidents of the different campaigns. The Imperialists had, in 1689, notwithstanding the efforts it was still necessary to make against the Turks, brought an army of 80,000 men into the field, which was divided into three bodies, under the command of the Duke of Lorraine, the Elector of Bavaria, and the Elector of Brandenburg; while the Prince of Waldeck, in the Netherlands, was at the head of a large Dutch and Spanish force, composed, however, in great part of German mercenaries. In this quarter Marshal d'Humieres was opposed to Waldeck, while Duras commanded the French army on the Rhine. In the south the Duke of Noailles maintained a French force in Catalonia. Nothing of much importance was done this year; but on the whole the war went in favour of the Imperialists, who succeeded in recovering Mainz and Bonn.

Campaign of 1690.—This year Marshal d'Humieres was superseded by the Duke of Luxembourg, who infused more vigour into the French operations. Luxembourg was a general of the school of Condé; that is to say, he achieved success by vigour and impetuosity rather than by cautious skill and scientific combinations. On the other hand, these last qualities, which were the characteristics of Turenne, were possessed in an eminent degree by Catinat. Belonging to a family of the Robe, or legal profession, and at first an advocate himself, Catinat had attained his military rank solely by his merit and almost in spite of the Court. Mild and simple in his manners, wary and prudent in his manoeuvres, he was beloved by his soldiers, who called him “Pere La Pensée”. Catinat was sent this year into Dauphiné to watch the movements of the Duke of Savoy, who was suspected by the French Court, and not without reason, of favouring the Grand Alliance. The extravagant demands of Louis, who required Victor Amadeus to unite his troops with the army of Catinat, and to admit a French garrison into Vercelli, Verrua, and even the citadel of Turin itself, till a general peace should be effected, caused the Duke to enter into treaties with Spain and the Emperor, June 3rd and 4th; and on October 20th, he joined the Grand Alliance by a treaty concluded at the Hague with England and the States-General. This last step was taken by Victor Amadeus in consequence of his reverses. He had sustained from Catinat in the battle of Staffarda (August 17th) a defeat, which only the skill of a youthful general, his cousin the Prince Eugene, had saved from becoming a total rout. As the fruits of this victory, Catinat occupied Saluzzo, Susa, and all the country from the Alps to the Tanaro. During these operations another French division had reduced, without much resistance, the whole of Savoy, except the fortress of Montmelian. The only other event of importance during this campaign was the decisive victory gained by Luxembourg over Prince Waldeck at Fleurus, July 1st. The captured standards, more than a hundred in number, which Luxembourg sent to Paris on this occasion, obtained for him the name of the Tapissier de Notre Dame. Luxembourg was, however, prevented from following up his victory by the orders of Louvois, who forbade him to lay siege to Namur or Charleroi. Thus, in this campaign, France maintained her preponderance on land, as well as at sea by the victory off Beachy Head. The Imperialists had this year lost one of their best leaders by the death of the Duke of Lorraine (April). He was succeeded as commander-in-chief by Maximilian Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria; but nothing of importance took place upon the Rhine.

Campaign 1691.—The campaign of this year was singularly barren of events, though both the French and English Kings took a personal part in it. In March, Louis and Luxembourg lay siege to Mons, the capital of Hainault, which surrendered in less than three weeks. King William, who was in the neighborhood, could not muster sufficient troops to venture on its relief. Nothing further of importance was done in this quarter, and the campaign in Germany was equally a blank. On the side of Piedmont, Catinat took Nice, but being confronted by superior numbers, was forced to evacuate Piedmont; though, by way of compensation, he completed the conquest of Savoy by the capture of Montmelian. Noailles gained some trifling successes in Spain; and the celebrated French corsair, Jean Bart, distinguished himself by his enterprises at sea. One of the most important events of the year was the death of Louvois. That minister had become altogether insupportable to Louis by his insolence, and by the errors and even crimes into which he had led him; and the French King could not help expressing the satisfaction he felt at his death. Nevertheless, in spite of all his faults, Louvois had great administrative abilities, and particularly a wonderful talent for military organization, the loss of which it was impossible to supply.

Campaign of 1692.—Louis had made extraordinary exertions for the campaign of this year. The French armies were estimated at nearly 450,000 men, while 100,000 were levied for the navy. So great a force had never before been raised in France. Enraged by the loss of Ireland in the preceding year, Louis had resolved to make a grand attempt for the restoration of James II by a descent upon England. For this purpose, and for an attack upon the Spanish Netherlands, his whole power was to be concentrated, whilst in Germany, Piedmont, and Catalonia his armies were to stand on the defensive. Five hundred transports, calculated to convey 30,000 men, chiefly Irish and British emigrants, were assembled at La Hogue, Cherbourg, and Havre; and their passage was to be covered by a French fleet of fifty ships of the line under Tourville. The failure of this attempt by Admiral Russell's victory over Tourville, May 19th, and the subsequent destruction of great part of the French ships which had taken refuge at La Hogue, are well known to the English reader. With this defeat vanished James's last chance of ever regaining the English throne. Louis's success on land afforded him some compensation for this misfortune. In May, the King and Luxembourg undertook the siege of Namur with upwards of 100,000 men. The town surrendered in less than a week, but one of the forts constructed for its protection by the celebrated Butch engineer Cohorn, and defended by himself, held out nearly a month. William III, who was in the neighborhood with about 70,000 men, was unable to render Namur any assistance. After the fall of that place, Louis returned to Versailles, leaving Luxembourg with a much reduced force to make head against William. On August 3rd, he was attacked, almost surprised, by William, near Steinkirk. The day was obstinately contested; both sides suffered enormous loss, and though William was at length obliged to retire, he conducted his retreat in good order and without molestation. On the side of the Rhine, and on that of the Pyrenees, the war was altogether insignificant. In the Alps the French suffered some reverses. The Duke of Savoy crossed into Dauphiné, took Embrun, burnt Gap, and devastated the surrounding country, by way of reprisal for the destruction committed by the French in Piedmont and the Palatinate. Here a youthful heroine, Mdlle. de la Tour-du-Pin, directed against the invaders a partisan warfare in a way which procured for her a military pension, and a trophy in St. Denis near that of Joan of Arc.

Battle of Neerwinden 1693.—Early in June, for the campaign opened late, the kings of France and England found themselves almost in presence in the neighborhood of Louvain. William III was encamped at the Abbaye du Parck, Louis at Gemblours; William had scarcely 50,000 men, Louis had more than double that number. The defeat of William would have insured the conquest not only of Liege and Brussels, but of the whole Spanish Netherlands. The French army was impatiently awaiting the order of attack, when Louis suddenly set off for Versailles, and dismembered his army by dispatching part of it into Germany, under pretence of making a diversion in favour of the Turks. In fact Louis, who was fond of besieging towns that were sure to be taken, was afraid of risking his military reputation in the open field, and in spite of the earnest entreaties of Luxembourg, flung away one of those opportunities which fortune never offers twice. This conduct, said to have been counselled by Madame de Maintenon, who had accompanied Louis to Namur, rendered him the object of derision not only to his enemies, but also to his own subjects, and deprived him of the confidence and respect of his soldiers. He never again appeared at the head of his troops. The French army was in some degree compensated for its disappointment by Luxembourg's victory over William at Neerwinden, July 29th; purchased, however, by an enormous loss on their side as well as on that of the allies. William, as usual, conducted his retreat with skill and safety, so that Luxembourg, who was momentarily expected at Brussels, did not venture to follow him, and was fain to content himself with the capture of Charleroi. Meanwhile the campaign in Germany, for the sake of which Louis had relinquished the prospect of conquering the entire Spanish Netherlands, was almost null. Here a fine army, nominally under the command of the Dauphin, but in reality of Marshal De Lorges, achieved only the reconquest of the ruins of Heidelberg, and disgraced itself by pillaging and burning what had escaped the former devastation, and by exercising the most ruthless barbarity on the miserable inhabitants. In Piedmont, Catinat, now a marshal, gained a great victory over the Duke of Savoy at Marsaglia, October 4th, but was unable to follow it up for want of money and siege materials. Prince Eugene commanded the allied infantry on this occasion. The battle of Marsaglia, like that of Neerwinden, was in a great measure decided by charges with the bayonet. In Catalonia, Marshal Noailles captured Rosas, June 9th. Thus the advantage of this campaign rested with the French, who were also successful at sea. The battle of La Hogue, though a severe blow, had not been so fatal to the French navy as represented by some historians. France had never had larger fleets at sea than in 1693; when she had 93 vessels afloat, of which 71 were ships of the line, besides 30 galleys. On June 27th, Tourville defeated, in the Bay of Lagos, Admiral Rooke, who was convoying the English and Dutch Smyrna fleet, of which a great part was captured or destroyed.

In the midst of his successes, however, Louis was desirous of peace. By the death of Louvois he had lost a minister who provided him with the means of winning great victories. The French treasury was exhausted, and the nation in general in a state of the deepest distress and misery. As Voltaire remarks, "the people were perishing to the sound of Te Deums”. Even at the beginning of the war, in 1689, the kingdom was so exhausted by Louis's wars, by the money spent in bribing foreign princes and ministers, and by his own profusion and extravagance, that recourse had been had to the disgraceful expedient of recasting the specie, and reissuing it at an advance of ten per cent, in its nominal value; while, at the same time, such was the scarcity of the precious metals, that private individuals were compelled to send their silver plate and utensils, above a certain weight, to the mint. Louis himself set the example by melting some of his finest vases and other articles. In order to meet the current expenses and the growing national debt, absurd taxes were put upon trade and agriculture, which tended to check production and augment the public misery. The cultivation of the land was rendered more difficult and expensive by the large draughts upon the peasantry to recruit the army; and these artificial causes of distress were aggravated in 1692 and 1693 by two successive deficient harvests. To these domestic motives for peace add another of foreign aggrandizement. The feeble and childless Charles II of Spain might die at any moment, and Louis could not hope to reap his succession while all Europe stood confederated and in arms against him. Denmark and Sweden, though they had at first furnished some troops to the Coalition, had afterwards assumed a neutral posture, and had recently entered into a treaty with each other to make their maritime neutrality respected (March 17th, 1693). Through these Powers, as mediators, Louis offered to make great concessions to the Empire; to evacuate almost all his recent acquisitions; to abandon his sister-in-law's claims on the Palatinate; nay, even to refer the question of the Réunions, with the exception of Strassburg, to the arbitration of Venice. Louis made concessions equally ample to Spain and to the Duke of Savoy. But though the two Northern Powers and the Pope zealously endeavored to effect a peace, the Emperor and the King of England, who were encouraged by the exhaustion of France to continue the war, frustrated all their attempts for that purpose. A new Pontiff now occupied the Apostolic Chair. Alexander VIII had died after a short reign in February, 1691, and was succeeded by Cardinal Pignatelli, who assumed the title of Innocent XII. This Pope was of a more placable temper than his predecessors, and Louis XIV purchased his friendship by what the French call a transaction; that is, a compromise on the subject of the Declaration of 1682. No retractation was made of the Gallican doctrines promulgated in the Declaration; but the bishops who had signed it, made, in their individual capacity, a humble, though somewhat equivocal, apology, with which Innocent XII professed himself satisfied, and granted the bulls which had been withheld.

Campaign of 1694.— We now return to the course of the war. Want of means compelled Louis XIV to remain on the defensive, except in Catalonia, where, by inflicting some vigorous blows, he hoped to compel Spain to a peace. Marshal Noailles having forced the passage of the Ter (May 27th), drove the Spaniards from their intrenched position on the other side, and captured the towns of Palamos, Gerona, and Ostalric: thus threatening Barcelona, which, however, the presence of the English fleet under Admiral Russell deterred him from attacking. The campaigns in Piedmont and Germany this year were wholly insignificant. Even that in the Netherlands, notwithstanding the vast preparations of William III, went off without a battle, through the skillful manoeuvres of Luxembourg. The only advantage gained by the allies was the capture of Hui. This was the last campaign of Marshal Luxembourg, the greatest general then in the French service, who had gained almost every battle he fought. He died at the age of sixty-seven, January 4th, 1695, in consequence of his gallantries and debaucheries, which he still continued to pursue, in spite of his years and his deformed person.

The naval war this year was more fertile in incidents than that on land. An attack of the English and Dutch fleets upon Brest was repulsed with some loss, chiefly through the treachery of Marlborough, who had privately informed James II of the intended enterprise, and had thus enabled the French to put themselves in a posture of defence. The combined fleet, in retiring, bombarded Dieppe, Havre, Dunkirk, and Calais; but, except the burning of Dieppe, without much effect. Meanwhile, the celebrated French corsairs, Jean Bart, Duguai Trouin, Petit Renau, and others, filled the narrow seas with the renown of their valour, and the hearts of the Dutch and English merchants with grief for their losses.

Campaign of 1695.—After the death of Marshal Luxembourg the command of the French army in the Netherlands was bestowed on Villeroi, son of Louis's tutor, and the companion of his youth; a favourite at Court, but little qualified for the important post with which he was intrusted. His only feat during the campaign was a savage and useless bombardment of Brussels, which, however, did not save Namur from falling into the hands of the allies (September 6th). This was almost the only considerable success of William since the commencement of the war; and as it was also the first of Louis's conquests retaken from him by force, it produced a great sensation in Europe. On the banks of the Rhine the French repeated without hindrance their usual summer ravages, but attempted nothing further. In Piedmont, Louis and the Duke of Savoy had already come to an understanding with each other. Victor Amadeus deceived the Imperial and Spanish generals by a collusion with France, by which it was arranged that Casale should be surrendered to him by the French commandant after a kind of mock siege, but on condition that its fortifications should be demolished, and its military importance thus annihilated. Victor Amadeus contrived, by his dilatoriness, to make this the only operation of the year. In order, however, to throw dust into the eyes of the allies, he acceded to the renewal of the Grand Alliance, which was again signed this year by the Emperor, the King of Spain, the King of England, the States-General, the Bishop of Münster, the Duke (now Elector) of Hanover, and the Electors of Bavaria and Brandenburg. The war at sea was confined to useless bombardments of a few places on the French coast by the English and Dutch fleets.

Campaign 1696.—The campaign in Flanders this year was a vast and almost ridiculous display of force, without the striking of a single blow. Armies of 250,000 men, under William and Vaudemont on one side, Villeroi and Boufflers on the other, watched one another several months, without coming to an engagement. The campaign in Germany was, as usual, equally featureless. In Piedmont, Victor Amadeus threw off the mask, and concluded an advantageous treaty, offensive and defensive, with Louis XIV (August 29th). The Duke, who was to be allowed a fair and reasonable period to disengage himself from the Grand Alliance, was to recover, at the general peace, Pinerolo, the key of Italy, which Richelieu had been at such pains to acquire; Savoy, Susa, and the county of Nice were also to be restored to him. The Duke of Burgundy, the eldest of the French King's grandsons, was to marry the Duke's eldest daughter. If the neutrality of Italy was not effected by that time, the Duke was to unite his forces with those of France, to take the command of the combined army, to receive a subsidy of 100,000 crowns a month, and to be invested with whatsoever conquests should be made in the Milanese. The Cabinets of Vienna and Madrid, exasperated by the Duke's treachery, at first refused the neutrality of Italy, in spite of the instances of the Pope, the Venetians, and other Italian Powers; but Victor Amadeus, having united his forces with those of Catinat, laid siege to Valenza, and threatened the invasion of the Milanese; and the allied generals, finding themselves unable to oppose him, used the power with which they had been furnished in case of extreme necessity, to accept the neutrality of the Italian peninsula (October 7th).

Although the treaty with Victor Amadeus strengthened the hands of Louis by placing another army at his disposal, he nevertheless made advances to the allies for peace. William III seemed not disinclined to listen to them. The Dutch and English, whose commerce bad suffered enormously by the French privateers, had begun to perceive that they were bearing almost the whole brunt of the war for the benefit of the Emperor. Leopold alone was averse to a peace for the very same reason that Louis desired one—the question, namely, of the Spanish Succession. At length, however, on the intimation of Sweden, the mediating Power, that if he persisted in his refusal to negotiate, Great Britain and the States-General would conclude a separate peace with France, he consented to send plenipotentiaries to Ryswick, a village near the Hague, where a Congress was opened May 9th, 1697, in William's Chateau of Neuburg Hausen.

While the negotiations were going on, preparations were made by the French for conducting on a grand scale the campaign in the Netherlands. They were also pushing with vigour the war in Catalonia. The Duke of Vendome, who succeeded Noailles in this quarter in 1695, had not hitherto been able to effect anything of importance; but this year, being assisted by the French fleet under D'Estrées, he laid siege to Barcelona, and compelled it to surrender, August 10th. The fall of this place, and the distracted and distressed condition of the Spanish monarchy, induced the Cabinet of Charles II to accept the ultimatum offered by Louis; and on the 20th of September, three separate treaties were signed between France on the one side, and Holland, England, and Spain on the other. The only article of importance in the treaty between France and the States-General was the restoration by the latter of Pondicherry, which they had captured, to the French East India Company. The Dutch also concluded on the same day a very advantageous treaty of commerce with France. By the treaty with Great Britain, Louis XIV recognized William as the lawful king of that country, and bound himself to lend no further help to his enemies, that is, to James II; a step which must have been most painful to Louis, both from his love of the Stuarts and his hatred of the Prince of Orange. The points in dispute between William and his father-in-law had, indeed, formed the chief difficulties in the secret preliminary discussions held this summer at Hall, between Marshal Boufflers and William’s confidant, Bentinck, Earl of Portland. The only other article of much importance in this treaty was the restoration, by both parties, of the conquests they had made in America.

By the third treaty, with Spain, Louis restored to that Power Gerona, Rosas, Cervera, and Barcelona in Catalonia; also, with a few exceptions, all the places in the Spanish Netherlands which had been taken by him during the war, as well as all the places in that country which had been reunited since the Peace of Nimeguen, except certain towns and villages which Louis pretended to be dependencies of Charlemont, Maubeuge, and other towns previously ceded to him.

By a separate article Leopold and the Empire were allowed all the month of October to accede to the ultimatum, and a suspension of arms was granted for the same period. The Imperial plenipotentiaries signed a treaty with France, October 30th, on the basis of those of Westphalia and Nimeguen. Louis restored all the places which had been reunited to his Crown with the exception of those in Alsace; and thus the Bishop of Strassburg, the nobles of Higher and Lower Alsace, the ten Imperial cities, and the immediate nobility of Lower Alsace, became thenceforward the vassals and subjects of France. The Duke of Lorraine was restored to his dominions, with the reservation of Sarre Louis. The Bavarian Prince, Joseph Clement, remained in possession of the Electorate of Cologne; while the Elector Palatine engaged to pay the Duchess of Orleans 200,000 francs per annum till the Pope should have pronounced his arbitration.

At the last moment before the treaty was signed, the French ministers, under threats of renewing the war, effected the insertion of the following clause into the fourth article: "That the Roman Catholic religion should remain, in the places restored, on the same footing as it then was". In the numerous Protestant towns and villages which the French had reunited, they had introduced the Roman Catholic service, and had compelled the Protestants to lend their churches for that purpose. This clause laid the foundation for new dissensions between the Catholics and Protestants of Germany.

Thus a war which had lasted nine years, and which had been carried on with such mighty efforts on all sides did not produce consequences so important as might have been expected. For the first time since the ministry of Richelieu France had lost ground, and, with the exception of Strassburg, had abandoned the acquisitions of 1684 for the limits prescribed by the Peace of Nimeguen in 1678. For Europe in general the most important result was that the Stuarts were for ever deprived of the throne of England; and that country, liberated from French influence, became the counterpoise of France in the European system. From this period the colonial interests of England gradually became of the first importance; and she adopted, for the most part, the policy of allying herself with those countries which had reason to dread the ambition of France.

CHAPTER XL

THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION