READING HALL

THE DOORS OF WISDOM

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

CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE SUPREMACY OF FRANCE

ONE of the principal motives with the Spanish Court for concluding the Treaty of the Pyrenees was the desire to prosecute with vigour the war with Portugal, and again to reduce that kingdom under the crown of Spain. The Portuguese throne was now occupied by a new sovereign. John IV, the founder of the House of Bragança, had died in 1656; and as his eldest son Theodosio was dead, he was succeeded by his second sou, Alfonso VI, then only thirteen years of age. In the Queen-Mother, Dona Luisa de Gusman, who now assumed the reins of government for her minor son, Portugal acquired both a spirited and a prudent Regent. Of such a ruler she stood much in need. Besides the Spanish war, she now became involved in a war with the Dutch. The relations between Portugal and the United Netherlands had been for many years of the most singular kind. The Dutch, as already related, had supported the Portuguese revolution and declaration of independence, events which were highly favorable to them in their war with Spain; in June, 1641, a truce of ten years had been concluded between the two nations, and they mutually agreed to assist each other against the common enemy with a fleet of twenty ships. But this truce did not extend to America and the East Indies. Although the Portuguese colonies had, like the mother country, thrown off the Spanish yoke, and declared for the House of Bragança, yet the Dutch continued to attack them; and this colonial warfare was carried on many years with varying success, without any breach of the peace between the two nations in Europe. At the time when John IV ascended the throne of Portugal, the Dutch had succeeded in wresting half Brazil from the Spaniards; but the Portuguese colonists, without any aid from the mother country, gradually recovered it, and in 1654 had entirely expelled the Dutch from that colony: a success which they owed in no small degree to the threatening attitude assumed by England towards the United Netherlands, and the naval war which subsequently broke out between these two countries. The Portuguese had also recovered Angola and St. Thomas, whilst, on the other hand, the Dutch had made themselves masters of the Cape of Good Hope and of Colombo in Ceylon.

In this state of things, the death of John IV of Portugal, and the accession of a minor King under the guardianship of his mother, inspired the States-General with the hope of extorting favorable conditions by means of a formidable demonstration. A fleet of fourteen Dutch ships of war, under Wassenaar, appeared in the Tagus to demand from the Regent the restoration of the Portuguese conquests in Africa and Brazil, together with an indemnification for losses suffered; and when these terms were refused, the Dutch ambassadors quitted Lisbon, after making a formal declaration of war. De Ruyter, who had been cruising in the Mediterranean, now came to the assistance of Wassenaar; the combined fleets cruised on the coasts of Portugal, molested her Brazilian commerce, and blockaded her harbours, so that in 1658 the trade of Lisbon was almost annihilated.

Meanwhile the war between Spain and Portugal still continued, but without any memorable or decisive events. It was expected that the Peace of the Pyrenees would enable Spain to crush her adversary; but the Portuguese averted such a catastrophe by forming alliances with France and England. Louis XIV still dreaded that Spain, with whose utter exhaustion he was unacquainted, might again become formidable if she succeeded in reuniting Portugal under her sceptre; and he resolved, in spite of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, secretly to assist the Portuguese Regent. Dona Luisa formed a still closer alliance with England, where Charles II, with the assistance of General Monk, had remounted the throne of his ancestors, May 29th, 1660. The Portuguese Regent induced Charles to conclude a marriage contract with her eldest daughter, Catharine, by which he was to receive, besides a dowry of half a million sterling, the settlements of Tangiers in Africa and Bombay in the East Indies; whilst he in turn engaged to succour Portugal with 3,000 men and ten ships of war. The marriage was celebrated in May, 1662. So far was Louis from feeling any jealousy of this connection, and the introduction of the English into the Mediterranean, that he promoted the marriage, as favorable to his policy with regard to Spain, and agreeable to the alliance which he had formed with the House of Stuart. In March, 1661, his brother Philip had married Henrietta, sister of Charles II, and had been invested on the occasion with the Duchy of Orleans.

These alliances enabled Portugal to withstand all the assaults of her enemies. Through the mediation of England she concluded a peace with the Dutch in August, 1661. This treaty, however, only freed her from immediate annoyance in Europe. Disputes arose about its ratification; the Dutch availed themselves of the delay to make conquests in the Portuguese colonies; and it was not till July, 1669, that a definitive treaty of peace was signed at the Hague. Portugal derived more assistance from her allies against the Spaniards. In 1661 Louis dispatched Marshal Schonberg, a German, to Lisbon with 4,000 men; and when Philip IV complained of this proceeding, as an infringement of the Treaty of the Pyrenees, he was answered that the French Government had no concern in it; that Schonberg and most of his men were foreigners over whom they had no control; and though decrees were issued against enlistment and volunteering, care was taken that they should not take effect till the men had reached Portugal. The French and English troops under Schonberg proved the salvation of Portugal. Philip IV’s illegitimate son, Don John of Austria, who commanded the Spanish army, was at first successful, and took Evora; but being defeated at Estrenoz in 1663, he retired from the command. His successor, the Marquis de Caracena, sustained a complete defeat at Villa Viciosa in 1665. This was the last remarkable event during the reign of Alfonso VI. Don Pedro, his younger brother, induced Alfonso, by threats and remonstrances, to sign an act of abdication, upon which he was banished to Terceira, and subsequently removed to the castle of Cintra, where he died in 1683. After his brother’s abdication Don Pedro was proclaimed Regent; and he soon afterwards married his sister-in-law, a princess of the House of Nemours, she having procured from the Pope a divorce.

Meanwhile Louis XIV was beginning to display that overbearing pride and ambition which during so many years disturbed the peace of Europe. Agreeably to his maxim, l’état c'est moi, he seemed to regard himself as the vicegerent of the Almighty upon earth, and responsible to Him alone; in accordance with which principle he required from his subjects a blind and unlimited obedience. The tone which he adopted towards foreign Powers was equally haughty and uncompromising. Thus he dismissed M. de Pomponne, an able negotiator, because he had not sufficient force and grandeur for the representative of so great a monarch; and, in spite of the remonstrances of Colbert, he sacrificed the commercial interests of France in the treaty of Nimeguen for the sake of some clauses which only flattered his pride. His lofty pretensions were manifested in his very bearing. His bigotry was almost as remarkable as his pride. His religious education had been conducted by his mother, who had inspired him with all the prejudices of a Spanish devotee. Yet he did not suffer even these to stand in the way of his absolute authority. He required as implicit a submission from his clergy as from his other subjects; and we shall have to record several instances in which he disputed and opposed the authority of the Pope.

These are the darker shades in Louis’s character. He possessed, on the other hand, many solid as well as brilliant qualities, which gained him the admiration, if not the love, of his subjects, and entitled him, in their view at least, to the appellation of “Louis le Grand”. He was one of the handsomest men in his kingdom, and excelled in all bodily exercises, especially dancing. With a grave and dignified deportment he united affability towards his own sex, and a refined gallantry in his intercourse with ladies. His apprehension was quick, his judgment sound; and to these qualities were added great strength of will and an indefatigable industry and application. He entered his cabinet at ten o'clock every morning, and remained in it with his ministers till twelve. He also gave them separate audiences in the evening. He encouraged literature and art; while the victories of his generals, often ascribed by popular flattery to himself, threw a military lustre over his reign.

Louis had very early given some specimens of his haughtiness. He had instructed his ambassadors always to assert their precedence over those of Spain; and the Spanish ambassador at London having, by the aid of an English mob, carried off this privilege, Louis compelled Philip IV, by threatening him with hostilities, solemnly to renounce all such pretensions in future, a concession which Louis recorded in presence of the assembled diplomatic body. Soon afterwards a somewhat similar occurrence took place at Rome. The Duke of Crequi, the French ambassador in that city, had offended the Papal government by his haughtiness; an affray took place in consequence between the Pope’s Corsican guard and Crequi’s people, in which the latter were worsted, and the ambassador himself was insulted and fired upon. But Louis took up the cause of his representative with so much vigour, that Pope Alexander VII was obliged to dismiss his Corsicans, and to erect before their former guardhouse a pyramid, with an inscription recording the decree for their expulsion. Alexander also consented to send his nephew, Cardinal Chigi, into France to make excuses, the first legate of the Court of Rome who had ever been employed on such a mission. These acts showed the vigour which might be expected in the foreign policy of the young king of France. Ever since his marriage his views had been directed towards reaping the eventual succession of the Spanish Crown. He always regarded the Treaty of the Pyrenees as a step towards further acquisitions, and all his measures had been calculated to assert his claims when the proper opportunity should arrive. The death of the young brother of his wife, the heir of the Spanish crowns, in June, 1661, seemed to clear the way to this succession, but in the following November it was again barred by the birth of another sickly infant, the future Charles II.

The death of Philip IV of Spain, in September, 1665, supposed to have been accelerated by the battle gained by the Portuguese at Villa Viciosa, opened out to Louis the prospect of realizing at least part of his plans. Franche-Comté and the Spanish Netherlands, transferred by Phillip II to his daughter Clara Eugenia, had, on the death of that princess without heirs, in 1633, reverted to Philip IV. Philip’s first consort was then alive, and the only surviving issue by this marriage at the time of Philip’s death was Maria Theresa, the Queen of France. Now by a law of the countries in question, called the Jus Devolutionis, the children of the first bed, whether male or female, were entitled, on the death of their father, to inherit his real estate; and on this law Louis founded the claim of his consort to the provinces of Brabant, Mechlin, Antwerp, Upper Gelderland, Namur, Limburg, Hainault, Artois, the Cambresis, a fourth part of Luxembourg, and a third of Franche-Comté, to the exclusion of Charles II, who, though Philip’s male heir, was the offspring of a second bed. The Spaniards, on the other hand, pleaded that the Jus Devolutionis concerned only private persons, and could not abrogate the fundamental laws of Spain, which established the indivisibility of the monarchy; and they further urged the renunciation made by Maria Theresa of all her claims at the time of her marriage. To this it was replied that the French Queen was not then of age, and consequently not capable of renouncing her legitimate rights, and, moreover, that the renunciatory clause had been rendered null by the non-payment of the dowry of 500,000 gold crowns, in consideration of which the renunciation had been made. On this point some discussions had taken place between the French and Spanish Cabinets in 1661, when Louis declared that if the dowry was not paid he should regard his consort’s renunciation as cancelled.

It was with a view to secure the Flemish provinces of Spain that Louis had concluded with the Dutch, in April, 1662, a treaty of commerce and alliance. Towards the close of the same year, the recovery of Dunkirk, disgracefully sold to him by the English King, Charles II, gave France additional strength in that quarter. Louis had also placed his army on a most effective footing, both by reforming its constitution and discipline, and by gradually raising its numbers through secret levies which attracted no attention. In addition to these circumstances, the long minority of Charles II, an infant of three years, seemed to favour the projects which Louis had formed against Spain. The government of that country had been assumed by the Queen-Mother, Maria Anna, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand III.; but she in turn was ruled by her German confessor, the Jesuit Niethard. Louis, however, did not feel himself in a position to prosecute his claims immediately and by force. The chief obstacle arose out of that very alliance with the Dutch which he had entered into with the view of facilitating his operations. A war had broken out between England and the United Netherlands, and the Pensionary De Witt claimed the assistance of France by virtue of the treaty of 1662.

We shall not relate at any length the naval struggle between England and Holland, which lasted from 1665 to 1667, and must be familiar to most English readers. Few wars have been commenced so lightly, or have produced such memorable events in so short a period. It was entered into both by the English Court and people from interested motives, though of a different kind. The King encouraged it as a pretence to get subsidies from his Parliament, and also as a means to place his nephew, the Prince of Orange, at the head of the Dutch Republic. Charles showed that he would accept very moderate conditions, provided he could attain this last object. De Witt, as well from hatred of England, which after the Restoration knew no bounds, as from his extreme republican opinions, opposed the nomination of the Prince, even as Captain-General; though in order to please the friends of the House of Orange, he had caused William to be adopted as “Child of the State”, and had taken upon himself the care of his education. Both Charles II and De Witt resorted to unworthy means to gratify their enmity. Charles is said to have incited a Jesuit to murder De Witt; while the Pensionary, on his side, sought to revive the civil war in England through Ludlow and Algernon Sydney. While such were the motives of the King, his brother, the Duke of York, was led to encourage the war by the prospect of employment and the hope of distinguishing himself as an admiral. Lastly, the nation was envious of the commercial prosperity of the Dutch. In April, 1664, the Commons had passed a resolution that the indignities offered by the Dutch to English subjects in the Indies, Africa, and elsewhere, were intolerable; and they promised to assist the King with their lives and fortunes in suppressing them. A fleet was soon after dispatched under Admiral Holmes to Africa, who seized the Dutch forts in Guinea, and the Isle of Goree, besides a number of ships. Holmes then proceeded to America, and reduced the Dutch possessions there, which were renamed New York. These aggressions, however, did not pass unavenged. De Ruyter succeeded in recapturing the places on the Guinea coast, and, though he was not successful in America, he molested the English East India commerce. Meanwhile, in Europe, upwards of one hundred and thirty Dutch vessels were seized, and that without any declaration of war, which was not formally made till March 4th, 1665. On June 13th following, was fought the battle of Lowestoft, in which, after a brave and obstinate resistance, the Dutch, under Admiral Opdam, were totally defeated with great loss.

It was under these circumstances that the Dutch called upon Louis to assist them, agreeably to treaty. Such an application was very unwelcome to the French King, especially when the situation of affairs became complicated by the death of Philip IV. He endeavored, but in vain, to extort from the Dutch a recognition of his claims on the Spanish Netherlands; and in order to gain time, he sent an embassy to London to attempt a mediation between the belligerents. This having failed, he could find no further excuses for postponing the assistance which he had bound himself to afford to the Dutch, and he accordingly declared war against England, January 26th, 1666. Louis took this step with the greatest reluctance, and he assured Charles that nothing should have constrained him to it but the necessity of keeping his word. In this profession he was doubtless sincere. Throughout the war the French fleet kept at a distance from the scene of action, and the only loss which it suffered was that of a frigate taken by the English while endeavoring to run into Brest. Louis, however, was compelled by this state of affairs to postpone his designs upon the Spanish Netherlands; for a war at once with Great Britain and Spain, and probably also with the Emperor, was not to be lightly ventured.

Besides the aid of the French, the Dutch had also procured that of the King of Denmark, with whom a treaty was concluded, February, 1666; and this alliance was extended and confirmed by another treaty at the Hague in the following October, to which the Duke of Brunswick Luneburg acceded. The States had also formed an alliance with the Elector of Brandenburg at Cleves, in February of the same year. But these Powers were of more use to the Dutch in the war which they were then waging with the Bishop of Munster than in their contest with England. Louis XIV also had rendered the Dutch a more loyal assistance in that war, and in April, 1666, the warlike Prelate, who was in the pay of England, and had cruelly ravaged some of the Dutch provinces, was compelled to lay down his arms. The naval war of that year went, on the whole, in favor of England. The memorable battle off the North Foreland, which commenced on the 1st of June and lasted four days, was indeed left undecided; but the Dutch were defeated in a subsequent action, July 25th, and the English appeared to be masters of the seas. These advantages, however, had not been purchased without severe losses, which were aggravated by other disasters. London, after being ravaged by a dreadful pestilence, had been almost destroyed by the Great Fire. Under these circumstances, the English Cabinet was disposed to peace. In February, 1667, an envoy was dispatched to Paris to discuss preliminaries; and in the following April a secret agreement was concluded between the French and English Courts, by which Louis engaged to withdraw his assistance from the Dutch. This agreement, in itself a breach of faith towards the Dutch Republic, was, however, accompanied with a perfidy highly disastrous to England. Whilst Louis assured the English Cabinet that the Dutch would have no fleet at sea that summer, he pressed the latter to fit out their ships, and encouraged them by promising to join them with his own, though he had not the smallest intention of executing that promise. The fatal effects to England are well known. Relying on Louis’s word, as well as on the negotiations for a peace already begun at Breda, under the mediation of the King of Sweden, no preparations were made for defence; in June, 1667, the Dutch sailed up the Thames without opposition, took Sheerness, destroyed our ships in the Medway, infested our coasts, and threatened the safety of the capital itself.

LOUIS XIV INVADES THE NETHERLANDS, 1667

While these disasters moved the English to accelerate the conclusion of the Peace of Breda, the unexpected march of Louis XIV into the Spanish Netherlands, in May, had the same effect on the Dutch. On the 31st of July three treaties of peace were signed between England on the one side, and Holland, France, and Denmark on the other. The basis adopted in the Dutch treaty was the status quo from the 10th to the 20th May, 1667. Hence the English retained New York and New Jersey, while Surinam, and the Isle of Polerone in the Moluccas, remained to the Dutch. The Navigation Act was so far modified that all merchandise coming down the Rhine was allowed to be imported into England in Dutch vessels; a measure which rendered the Dutch masters of great part of the commerce of Germany. In the treaty with France, that Power restored to England the Isle of St. Christopher’s, which she had seized, and ceded Antigua and Montserrat, while she recovered Acadia and Cayenne. The chief difficulty with Denmark was the Sound dues. By a clause in the treaty, Denmark reserved her right to the Orkney Isles, anciently pledged by the Kings of Norway to the Kings of Scotland.

By the invasion of the Spanish Netherlands, Louis took all parties by surprise. He had fortified himself for that step by a new offensive alliance with Portugal (March 31st, 1667), by which he engaged to pay to that Power a subsidy of 1,800,000 livres annually, till he should himself declare war against Spain. The death of Louis’s mother, Anne of Austria, who expired January 20th, 1666, had removed one obstacle to his enterprise. Anne’s political influence in her later years was not very great: but she had exerted what she had to prevent a war between her son and the house from which she sprang. Louis had succeeded in blinding the Regent of Spain and her incompetent minister and confessor. Up to the 1st of May he had given them the most pacific assurances; on the 8th he announced to the Regent his intention of marching in person into the Netherlands to possess himself of what belonged to him in right of his wife. The Dutch were equally taken by surprise. As late as the 27th of April Louis had assured De Witt that nothing should be undertaken without his knowledge. It was indeed a question of vital importance to the United Netherlands, which might next be swallowed up if the barrier between them and France were removed. Long and anxious negotiations on the subject had been going on between the two countries, but without result. At first a plan had been discussed to erect the Spanish Netherlands into a republic under the joint protection of France and the States, and this had been succeeded by another, to divide them between these two Powers, which, however, could not agree, either as to the method or the time of the division.

 Louis XIV had accompanied his announcement to the Spanish Regent with a little treatise, in which were set forth his pretensions not only to the Burgundian provinces, but also eventually to the whole Spanish monarchy. This treatise, which was in fact a sort of manifesto, was also forwarded to all the European Governments. The claim to the Spanish Netherlands was not rested on the law of devolution alone. By confounding the Kingdom of France with that of the Franks, it was asserted that the people of the Netherlands were Louis’s natural subjects. This was only another form of those claims which France has so often urged, sometimes on the ground of natural boundaries, sometimes of nationalities. It was plain that she meant to seize the Spanish provinces, and would always be able to find a justification.

Louis placed himself at the head of his army May 20th. He had announced his invasion of the Netherlands to the European Powers simply as a “journey”, as if he were going to occupy his own undisputed possessions. Armentières, Binch, Charleroi, Ath, Bergues, Furnes, Tournai, Douai, Courtrai, Oudenarde, Alost were occupied without resistance, or capitulated after a short siege; Lille made a better defence, but surrendered on August 28th. The French army now appeared before Ghent. But a rainy season had set in; it was doubtful whether the Flemish towns would surrender so readily as the Walloon, which were better inclined to the French, and spoke their language; Louis, too, was desirous of avoiding a breach with the Dutch; and for all these reasons he determined to do no more this year. He had accompanied Turenne’s division of the army, had taken a personal share in some of the sieges, and had displayed no lack of courage.

Louis had also determined to strike a blow in another direction. Franche-Comté, nominally a Spanish province, was in fact almost an independent state. Being completely isolated from the Spanish possessions, the Government of Spain found it necessary to accord great privileges to the inhabitants, lest they should transfer their allegiance elsewhere. Although ostensibly subject to the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, the real authority lay with the Governor of the province, elected from among its nobles, and with the Parliament of Dole, which enjoyed the chief share in the administration. Franche-Comté yielded but a trifling revenue to Spain, and little care had consequently been taken for its defence. Its reduction was entrusted to the Prince of Condé, who, as Governor of Burgundy, was advantageously situated for that purpose. A considerable body of troops was secretly assembled; the attention of the Swiss was diverted, who, like the Dutch, did not wish to have the French for their neighbors; and in February, 1688, Condé’s forces invaded Franche-Comté. Louis hastened from Paris to the scene of action, and joined Condé before Dole. That capital surrendered February 13th, and in a fortnight the whole province was reduced. Louis now placed both Burgundies under the government of Condé.

These rapid conquests inspired not only Spain, but all Europe also with alarm. To give any efficient aid to the Netherlands was totally out of the power of the Spanish Government. It was impossible to raise fresh taxes in Spain; the galleons which brought the American tribute were not due till the end of the year; a national subscription was tried, but failed; and to add to these embarrassments, the Portuguese, at the instigation of the French King, invaded Estremadura. Spain had declared war against France, July 14th, 1667, but without the means to carry it on. She appealed to all Europe for help, but nobody was inclined to give her any active succour. She had recently concluded a commercial treaty with England, on terms favourable to this country; but she was not permitted to levy soldiers in Great Britain. The Elector of Brandenburg resolved to maintain a neutral position. The Emperor Leopold, to whom Spain might have looked with more confidence, was actually negotiating with France, as will be explained further on. The Marquis of Castel Rodrigo, the Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, in vain invoked the aid of the Dutch States, and offered to give up the tolls on the Maes and Schelde for a loan of two million guilders. The Spanish ambassador, Gamarra, proposed still more tempting conditions, and engaged to place Bruges, Ostend, Damme, and the forts of St. Isabella and St Donas in the hands of the Dutch, in return for a loan of one million guilders, and the aid of 12,000 men. These negotiations form a turning point in the career of De Witt. They affect not only his fame as a states­man, but may even be said to have been the cause of his death. His situation, no doubt, was one of extreme difficulty. He knew that a league with Spain would be considered by France as a declaration of war; nor did the weakness of Spain, and the lukewarmness of her Belgian subjects, offer much encouragement to embark with her in such a contest. On the other hand, it should be considered that a war with France would have been popular with the Dutch, who for the most part detested the French; and that to allow the latter to fix themselves in the Spanish Netherlands was only to facilitate a future attack on the United Provinces themselves. In these circumstances De Witt adopted the dangerous expedient of a compromise. He resolved to avoid an immediate breach with France, and yet to force her to set a bound to her conquests, though he could not but have been aware how offensive such a course would be to a young and ambitious monarch like Louis XIV. Such was the policy he followed in the alliance with England and Sweden, which we have now to relate.

After the Peace of Breda, Louis had endeavored to conciliate England by enticing offers. He held out the baits of a treaty of commerce, subsidies, the cession of a Netherland port, and the abandonment of Spanish America to the English arms, provided he might be allowed to occupy the Spanish Netherlands without opposition. Charles himself was lured with the offer of aid in case of need against his rebellious subjects. But, though Clarendon had been disgraced, the time was not yet ripe for so intimate a connection between the French and English Crowns. The English Cabinet listened in preference to the envoys of the United Provinces, who were continually pressing Charles to join them in interposing between France and Spain. In December, 1667, Sir William Temple, the British resident at Brussels, received instructions to proceed to the Hague and negotiate a treaty with the States. In his conferences with De Witt, Temple urged him to conclude an offensive alliance, by which France should be compelled to relinquish all her recent conquests. But the policy of De Witt was, as already said, more temporizing. He dreaded an open breach with France, and wished to have Louis for a friend, though not for a neighbor. Temple yielded to his arguments, and, after a few days’ negotiation, an alliance was concluded at the Hague, January 23rd, 1668, which, from the accession to it of Sweden, has been called the Triple Alliance. There were two treaties: one established a defensive alliance between Great Britain and the States; the other, with a reservation for the accession of Sweden, erected those two Powers into mediators between the belligerent Crowns. France was to be persuaded to an armistice; Spain was to be forced to accept one of the alternatives already offered by Louis: namely, that he should be left in possession of all the places he had conquered in 1667; or that he should have instead of them either the Duchy of Luxembourg or Franche-Comté; and together with either of these provinces, the Cambresis, Douai, Aire, St. Omer and Furnes. There were also three secret Articles: 1. That no question should be raised about the renunciation of Maria Theresa; 2. That if the war should continue between Spain and Portugal, France should respect the neutrality of the States; 3. That if France rejected a peace on these conditions, England and the States should assist Spain till matters were restored to the footing established by the Peace of the Pyrenees. This last clause, which came to the knowledge of Louis, gave him very great offence. Dolina, the Swedish envoy, acceded to the treaty on the day of its execution; but the object of it was attained before it was formally ratified by Sweden. The key to this change of policy on the part of the Swedish Court, after an alliance of nearly half a century with France, lies in the circumstance that the latter Power had withdrawn the subsidies which she formerly paid to Sweden, and that the Dutch had undertaken to furnish them.

 About the same time a peace was concluded between Spain and Portugal. After the War of Devolution had broken out, Spain became inclined to listen to English offers of mediation, and the negotiations for a peace were conducted during the revolution in Portugal already described. Don Pedro, the new Regent of Portugal, though secretly inclined to France, whose interest it was that the war should be prolonged, was compelled by the Cortes to sign the Treaty of Lisbon, February 13th, 1668. The independence of Portugal was acknowledged, and all conquests were restored on both sides, except Ceuta, which was ceded to the Spaniards. Thus was at length concluded a war which had lasted more than a quarter of a century.

The peace between Spain and Portugal had the effect of facilitating in some degree the negotiations between France and the allies. Louis did not learn the conclusion of the Triple Alliance till he had completed the conquest of Franche-Comté. The question of pushing the war with vigour, or submitting to the arbitrament of the allies, was discussed with great warmth and much difference of opinion among Louis’s generals and ministers; but the King himself was inclined to abide by the alternatives which he had offered. Louis consented to a fresh truce till the end of May, and a Congress was opened at Aix-la-Chapelle; but the negotiations were really conducted at St. Germain. The Marquis of Castel Rodrigo accepted, as Spanish plenipotentiary, the first of the two alternatives just specified, and a preliminary treaty was signed at St. Germain, April loth, 1668. This injudicious choice, which placed in the hands of France the keys of the Netherlands, is said to have been made by Spain, in order to compel the allies, from the desperate nature of her situation, and the danger with which it threatened the Dutch provinces, to aid her in case of further attack. After the treaty of St. Germain, the definitive treaty, signed at Aix-la-Chapelle, May 2nd, was little more than a form. France retained all her conquests in the North, and restored Franche-Comte to Spain, the integrity of whose other possessions was guaranteed. England proposed to make the Triple Alliance permanent, and to obtain the accession of Spain; but De Witt either feared to offend France too far, or distrusted the sincerity of the British Cabinet.

The conduct of the Dutch had inflicted on the pride of Louis a wound too deep to be easily healed. His heart was bent on revenge, and his whole policy was directed to obtain it. His anger was further inflamed by the boasting of the Dutch. That little republic had now reached the summit of her good fortune. She had not only achieved her own independence against the colossal power of Spain, but had also vindicated the rights of other nations, including those of Spain herself. She had saved Denmark from the grasp of Sweden; she had fought at least a drawn battle with England for the dominion of the seas; and now she had prescribed bounds to the haughty and powerful sovereign of France. There was nothing, therefore, but what was strictly true in the inscription on the medal which the Council of State caused to be struck in commemoration of the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in which credit was taken for having asserted the laws, purified religion, aided, defended, and conciliated kings, vindicated the liberty of the seas, conquered by arms an advantageous peace, and established the tranquillity of Europe. The assertion of having done all this was, however, far from being the less offensive because it was true. Matters were rendered worse by the loud and offensive boasting of the Dutch journals, and by the personal bearing of Van Beuningen, the ambassador of the States at the French Court, whose republican frankness, not to say rudeness, was offensive to Louis and his ministers.

 It was not, however, merely from personal feeling that Louis wished to humble or destroy the Dutch Republic. He had political motives also. He hated the United Netherlands because they were the asylum of civil and religious liberty, and the centre of those ideas which were directly opposed to his own principles and institutions. Another cause of complaint was that the importation of French goods and manufactures, except wine, into the United Provinces had been prohibited, or at all events allowed only under very exorbitant duties; though this, indeed, was only a retaliation for the policy of Colbert. Add that the Dutch were the chief obstacle which prevented Louis from seizing the whole of the Spanish provinces, and we need not be surprised at his determination to ruin them. As a preliminary step, however, the Triple Alliance must be dissolved. Louis first attempted to effect this by means of the Dutch themselves; but De Witt resisted all Pomponne’s endeavors for that purpose. After this failure, which embittered Louis all the more against the Dutch, he turned his views to England and Sweden. De Witt, who saw the danger to which he had exposed his country, endeavored, when it was too late, to disarm the French King by advances and propositions of various kinds; but Louis had made up his mind, though he kept up an appearance of negotiation, in order to amuse the Dutch. His kingly pride was deeply offended by the idea that a few republican traders should attempt to arbitrate between two of the greatest monarchs of Europe.

The chief aim of Louis was to cement a firm alliance with England, in which Charles II was disposed to meet him half-way. After the disgrace of Clarendon, Charles fell more and more into the hands of Buckingham, Arlington, and the other members of the Cabal. The few religious ideas entertained by Charles were in favor of the Roman Catholic faith. He harboured, as is well known, the dream of re-establishing, some day or other, with the aid of the French King, that worship in his dominions; a project which, however chimerical, contributed to form a bond of union between the two sovereigns. Want of money, however, was the chief motive with Charles to form the French alliance. While his exchequer was always empty, that of Louis was overflowing, and the surplus at the disposal of such princes or ministers as were willing to be bought. At the same time there is reason to believe that Charles hoped to further England’s colonial interests by the capture of the Dutch possessions in the East and West. France was yet no formidable rival to England in the colonial world, and as long as the English held the Dutch islands off the coast of Holland a French attack on Britain could be easily prevented. In December, 1669, Charles offered his services to Louis on terms which show that if he and his advisers were ready to barter away the civil and religious liberties of England, they were at the same time anxious to promote her foreign interests, at least as they were then understood. They claimed, besides large money payments, a considerable eventual share in the Spanish succession; and from the spoils of the Dutch Republic, Sluys and the Isles of Walcheren and Cadsand. These claims were afterwards modified. Charles consented to postpone the question of the Spanish succession, and to reduce his pecuniary demands; and on May 22nd, 1670, a secret treaty was arranged at Dover between Charles and his sister, Henrietta of Orleans, who went thither on pretence of a friendly visit. Charles engaged to declare himself a Roman Catholic, on condition of Louis giving him two million livres, and supporting him with 6,000 foot against the consequences which might ensue. Charles was to declare his conversion at what time he pleased, and after his declaration had been made, to join Louis in a war against the Dutch whenever Louis should think proper. He was to assist him with 6,000 foot and the English fleet, to which were to be added thirty French ships of, at least, forty guns; and Charles was to receive a subsidy of three million livres a year during the war. The treaty was signed by Colbert de Croissi, the French ambassador, and on the part of Charles by four commissioners, all Catholics. Louis ratified it by an autograph letter to Charles, June 10th. Charles gave his sister to understand that he would permit the French King to attack Holland before he had declared his own conversion, notwithstanding the article to the contrary in the treaty. The goodwill of Charles had been conciliated by ministering to one of his foibles. Henrietta had brought in her suite Mademoiselle de Querouaille, with whom Charles was immediately captivated. She departed with the Duchess of Orleans, but was persuaded without much difficulty to return to England, where she became the noted Duchess of Ports­mouth; and, as Charles’s mistress, contributed to keep alive the good understanding between him and the French Court.

Charles was probably never sincere in the design of  publicly changing of religion, or rather, perhaps, of assuming any at all; but the treaty seems to have encouraged his brother, the Duke of York, openly to profess his adherence to the Catholic faith, and may thus be considered as having prepared the fall of the Stuart dynasty. A second treaty, intended to be made public when the war should break out, and relating, therefore, only to the affairs of Holland, was signed on the 31st of the following December by Colbert de Croissi and those of Charles’s ministers who were not in the secret of his contemplated apostasy. Louis was in hopes to have begun the war in the spring of 1671, but the state of his negotiations in Germany and elsewhere induced him to put it off till the following year. In order to facilitate his attack on the United Netherlands, he had seized the Duchy of Lorraine (September, 1670). The restless Duke Charles IV had afforded the French King a pretext for this aggression, by having, in contravention of the treaty of the Pyrenees, revoked his engagement that his dominions should fall to France after his death; as well as by levying troops, fortify­ing several places, and contracting alliances without the knowledge of the King. The occupation of Lorraine caused a great sensation in Europe, and especially among the Dutch, to whom it presaged the coming storm. The acquisition was of great importance to France, not only from its magnitude, but also strategically, as the communication between the Netherlands and Franche-Comté was thus intercepted. Charles IV, who was closely connected with the Imperial family, fled to Vienna, and afterwards served against Louis in the Dutch war. Leopold addressed to the French Court some remonstrance in his favor; but though this occurrence produced for some time a coldness between the Emperor and Louis, it did not eventually put an end to the good understanding, the origin of which we must now relate.

Louis had, early in 1667, made proposals to the Emperor for dividing between them the dominions of Spain in the event of the death, without issue, of the sickly young king, Don Carlos II. The present object of Louis in these negotiations was to prevent the Emperor from interfering in his designs upon the Spanish Netherlands. Leopold and the House of Austria had, perhaps, equal pretensions to the Spanish succession with Louis and his heirs. Neither Leopold’s mother, Maria Anna, daughter of Philip III, nor his wife, Margaret, daughter of Philip IV, had renounced her claims to the Spanish throne, as both Anne of Austria, the mother, and Maria Theresa, the wife of Louis XIV, also daughters respectively of Philip III and Philip IV, had done. But as neither Leopold nor Louis could hope to reap the entire succession, and as Leopold was at that time governed by his minister, Auersberg, who was in the pay of Louis, he was easily induced to enter into the views of the French King. In January, 1668, a secret treaty was accordingly concluded at Vienna with Gremonville, the French ambassador; by which it was agreed that in the event just specified, the Emperor should have Spain, except Navarre and Rosas, the Milanese, certain places in Tuscany, the Balearic Isles, Sardinia, the Canaries, and the Spanish West India possessions; while Louis’s share was to be the Catholic Netherlands, Franche-Comté, Navarre, Rosas, Oran, Melilla, Ceuta, &c., in Africa, the two Sicilies, and the Philippine Isles. Soon after this treaty, Auersberg was dismissed from Leopold’s service, his subserviency to France having become only too manifest by the attempt of Louis to procure for him a cardinal’s hat from Pope Clement X. His successor, Lobkowitz, was, however, equally sold to Louis; and down to that King’s actual invasion of Holland, and, in fact, till 1674, no step was taken by Leopold to oppose the progress of the French. The leagues of the Emperor in January and June, 1672, with the Electors and Princes of Mainz, Treves, Saxony, Brandenburg, Brunswick Lüneburg, Hesse Cassel, and other German Powers, as well as Denmark, were purely defensive, and to prevent the Empire from being attacked; and though an Austrian force under Montecuculi was sent to the Rhine in June, Gremonville was assured that it would not act offensively. Indeed, the true politics of Lobkowitz and the Imperial Court at this juncture are shown by another treaty with France, November 1st, 1671; by which it was agreed that neither the Emperor nor the French King should support the other’s enemies; and that Leopold should not interfere in any war arising out of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and waged outside the boundaries of the Empire.

It was manifest from this treaty that Louis had nothing to apprehend form the Emperor in any enterprise against the Dutch. The position of most of the other German Powers was equally encouraging to him. The Elector of Bavaria was entirely in the interests of France. The ill state of health of the Emperor Leopold had caused Louis to imagine that the Imperial Crown would soon be vacant; the Elector had promised the French King his vote, and in 1670 a secret treaty had been concluded between them, the main feature of which was a marriage between the Dauphin and the Elector’s daughter. The Elector Palatine followed this example, and was recompensed for his adherence to France by the marriage of his daughter to the King’s brother, the Duke of Orleans, whose wife, Henrietta, had expired soon after her visit to Dover. The Duke of Hanover and the Bishop of Osnaburg espoused Louis’s cause so warmly that they granted him the exclusive right to levy troops in their dominions. The Elector of Cologne and the Bishop of Munster, with a view to self-interest, were still more ardent in his cause. They drew closer their former relations with France by a new treaty in January, 1672; by which the Elector engaged to aid the King against the Dutch with an army of 18,000 men for a subsidy of 8,000 crowns a month, and in consideration of a sum of 400,000 livres to admit a French garrison into Neuss. The Bishop promised to unite his forces with those of the Elector, and both were to receive a share of the future conquests. Among the German Princes the politic Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg seemed long doubtful as to which side he should favor. In December, 1669, he had concluded a treaty with Louis, by which he agreed not to join the Triple Alliance, and to support the King’s claims to the Spanish Netherlands; but he would make no promise with regard to Holland. The ruin of that Republic appeared to him to be too great a peril both for Protestantism and for Germany to be ventured on. Yet he had not much reason to be satisfied with the Dutch, who withheld from him Wesel, Rees, Emmerich, and two or three other places in the Duchy of Cleves, which they had taken from the Spaniards during the Thirty Years’ War; while Louis endeavored to entice him to their ruin by the most tempting offers. The French King proposed that the Dutch Republic should be dissolved; that France should take the provinces to the west of the Meuse; that the Elector of Brandenburg should have Gelderland and Zutphen; the Elector of Cologne, Utrecht, Munster, and Overyssel; the Duke of Lüneburg, Friesland; the Duke of Neuburg, Groningen; while Holland and Zealand were to fall to the House of Orange; and all these provinces were to form a Confederate State. But Frederick William was not to be dazzled; and eventually he threw in his lot with the Dutch, by concluding with them, in April, 1672, a treaty by which he engaged to assist them with 20,000 men.

Among the few German potentates adverse to France, the Elector of Mainz took the leading part. This Prince had formerly been a warm friend of France, and the principal agent in establishing the Rhenish League; but when the War of Devolution made him better acquainted with the views of Louis, he altered his politics; and it was through his influence that the League had been dissolved in January, 1668. He succeeded in negotiating an alliance in 1672 with the Electors of Treves and Saxony and the Margrave of Baireuth, which was also joined by the Emperor. This league, however, was a purely defensive one; the whole force which it proposed to raise did not much exceed 10,000 men, to guard the Empire from attack; and thus even the Bishop of Münster, though leagued with the French against the Dutch, conceived himself at liberty to join it.

Secure on the side of England and Germany, Sweden was the only other Power which Louis was desirous of gaining. As Denmark was the firm ally of the States-General, and as the posture of the Elector of Brandenburg became every day more hostile to France, it became highly important to Louis to secure the friendship of Sweden. With that needy but ambitious Power, money was the grand instrument of negotiation. When, in 1667, France ceased to pay Sweden the subsidies stipulated under the treaty of January, 1663, she abandoned, as we have seen, her ancient ally, and attached herself to England and the Dutch. The offer of 400,000 rix-dollars in ready money, and a yearly subsidy of 600,000 during the war, sufficed to gain her back to France. The Treaty of Stockholm, concluded April 14th, 16 72,2 purported to be for the maintenance of the Peace of Westphalia, of which the two contracting Powers were guarantors; but the secret articles showed that it was directed against the Dutch, as Sweden engaged to assist Louis in case he should be attacked by the Emperor or any German Power, during his war with the United Netherlands.

While thus abandoned by almost all the world, the Dutch fixed their chief hopes of support on an alliance with the Spaniards, their ancient masters and oppressors. A revolution had now taken place in the Spanish Government. The Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle and the acknowledgment of Portuguese independence had excited great indignation against the Regent and her Jesuit minister; and Don John of Austria availed himself of this feeling to drive Niethard from power. Don John had been appointed Governor of the Spanish Netherlands during the French invasion, and was on the point of embarking at Coruna when the news of the arrest and execution of one of his adherents led him to return towards Madrid. The Queen, however, forbade him to approach that capital, and directed him to retire to his seat at Consuegra. Niethard, on pretence that Don John had formed a conspiracy against his life, sent a party of cavalry to arrest the Prince in its retirement; but he succeeded in escaping into Aragon, where, having collected a body of 700 determined followers, he advanced to Torrejon, within a few leagues of Madrid, and dictated to the Queen the dismissal of her Confessor. Such was Niethar’'s unpopularity, that even this small force enabled Don John to effect his object, especially as he was supported by several members of the Council; and, in spite of the entreaties of the Queen, her minister was compelled to retire to Rome (February, 1669). Don John, however, was not admitted to a share of the government. Niethard was succeeded by another favorite, Don Fernando de Valenzuela; but the ambition of Don John was appeased with the viceroyalties of Aragon and Catalonia. It was this new government which, in December, 1671, concluded at the Hague a treaty of alliance with the States.

Louis, besides the formidable combination which he had organized against the Dutch, endeavored also to promote the success of his enterprise by fomenting their intestine dissensions, and exciting the Orange party against De Witt. Six of the United Provinces were for appointing William III, who had now attained the age of twenty-one, Captain-General for life; a step which they thought might conciliate his uncle, Charles II, and avert a war with England. But De Witt would not consent. He would only agree that the Prince should be named Captain-General for the ensuing campaign, and that with very limited power. The province of Holland would not even go so far, and delayed the Prince's nomination till November, 1672, when he would complete his twenty-second year. It cannot be denied that the subsequent misfortunes of the Republic must, in great measure, be attributed to De Witt. The Dutch army was in a sad condition. Officers had been forbidden to enter foreign service, and thus, from the long peace by land, were entirely without experience. Promotion was obtained not through service but favor. Most of the soldiers were foreigners, discipline was neglected, and the fortresses and magazines were ill supplied and suffered to go to decay. The blame of these things must attach to De Witt. The navy, on the other hand, owing to the care of De Ruyter, was in excellent condition. De Witt could not persuade himself till the last moment that Louis was in earnest in his preparations. On December 10th, 1671, the States-General addressed to the French King a most submissive letter, in which they told him they could not believe he meant to turn his arms against his ancient and most faithful allies; they protested that they had not voluntarily infringed the treaty of 1662; they offered to redress any inadvertent breaches of it, and to give his Majesty all the satisfaction he could reasonably require. They even instructed their ambassador, Van Groot, son of the illustrious Grotius, to tell the King that he had only to say the word, and the United Provinces would disarm; an action which would display the King’s grandeur in a fairer light than the most complete success of his arms. Louis’s reply was haughty and threatening. He contested the epithet which the States had given themselves of his “faithful” allies; he reproached them with their diplomatic intrigues against France, as well as with their hostile tariffs. He even seemed to affect a great condescension in replying to their letter; “which”, he added, “seems not so much written for us, as to excite against our interests those princes in whose courts it has been made public before we could receive it”.

On the 6th of April following, Louis published his declaration of war. He alleged no specific cause for hostilities, which, indeed, was out of his power. He spoke only in general terms of the ingratitude of the Dutch for the benefits they had received from his forefathers, and asserted that his “glory” would not permit him any longer to dissemble the indignation which their conduct had raised in him. The English declaration of war had preceded by a few days that of Louis (March 29th). There was an attempt in it to specify some grievances, but their flimsiness was as transparent as that of the French manifesto. It alleged some oppressions of Charles’s subjects in India, the detention of some Englishmen in Surinam; the refusal of the Dutch fleet to strike their colours to an English yacht which had on board the wife of Temple, the ambassador; and certain abusive pictures, which turned out to be a portrait of De Witt’s brother, the Admiral Cornelius, with a view of the burning of Chatham in the background. A public treaty had been signed between France and England, February 12th, which was merely a repetition of the secret treaty of December 31st, 1670; except that Charles was released, during the year 1672, from his obligation to furnish the French army with a corps of infantry. A few days before the declaration of war, Admiral Sir Robert Holmes had attacked the Dutch Smyrna fleet at the back of the Isle of Wight, but with such small success as was a poor compensation for this shameful breach of international law.

Early in May, 1672, the French marched against the United Netherlands in three divisions. Louis himself accompanied the main division, which, under the command of Turenne and Condé, advanced to Viset on the Meuse, a place between Liége and Maestricht. The King was accompanied by Louvois, his minister of war, and Vauban, the celebrated engineer. The Dutch had only about 20,000 ill-disciplined men to oppose to ten times that number of French, under generals like Condé and Turenne. It is not our intention to detail at any length the campaigns of Louis XIV. They have now lost much of their interest through the grander and more important ones of recent times; and we shall content ourselves with indicating some of the chief results. The French army, neglecting Maestricht, into which the Dutch had thrown a strong garrison, advanced into the duchy of Cleves, occupied with little or no resistance Orsoy, Rheinberg, Buderich, and Wesel, and penetrated into the province of Gelderland. The passage of the Rhine, or Lech, at Tolhuys, June 12th, which the flatterers of Louis magnified into a grand exploit, and celebrated in poetry, painting, and sculpture, has since been estimated at its true value. The river, with the exception of a few yards in the middle, was fordable by cavalry, and the passage of the French was disputed only by some 1,200 men under Würz; the Prince of Orange with the main body of the Dutch army, having retired to Utrecht. The passage cost the French only a score or two of troopers. The operation was, however, important in its consequences, since the French, with the assistance of their allies from Cologne and Münster, occupied in a few weeks the provinces of Gelderland, Utrecht, Overyssel, and part of Holland. Amsterdam itself might probably have been surprised, had Condé’s bold advice been followed to direct against it a body of 6,000 cavalry.

So sudden and overwhelming an invasion, which might be compared to the bursting of their dykes, and an irruption of the sea, filled the Dutch with consternation. Every man, says a Dutch writer, seemed to have received sentence of death. Manufactures and trade were suspended; all the shops were closed, as well as the schools, universities, and courts of law; the churches alone remained open, and sufficed not to contain the anxious crowds which thronged to them. Many sent their wives and children to England, Brabant, Denmark, and even to France, together with their treasures, which others buried. In this low ebb of their fortunes, the dejection of the Dutch prompted them to make the most submissive proposals to the conqueror, in order to secure what remained to them. They offered to surrender to Louis Maestricht and its dependencies, together with Dutch Brabant and Flanders, and to pay him six millions for the expenses of the war. Pomponne pressed the King to accept these offers, but Louis listened in preference to the violent counsels of Louvois. By the advice of this minister, counter-proposals were made of the most extravagant nature. The cession of Dutch Brabant and Flanders was accepted; only, as the King was bound by treaty to make over Sluys and Cadsand to the English, Delfzyl and its dependencies, near the mouth of the Ems, was demanded in their stead. In like manner, instead of Maestricht, Louvois required Nimeguen and the Isles of Batavia and Bommel; that is, the Lech for a frontier instead of the Meuse; a proposition which, while it was more injurious to the Dutch, was in reality less advantageous to the French. He also demanded Grave on the Meuse and the county of Meurs; and he doubled the indemnity to be paid for the expenses of the war. But more offensive to the Dutch than all these demands were others which injured their commerce, shocked their religious prejudices, and wounded their pride. The prohibitions and new customs duties on French goods were to be revoked, without any reciprocity; the public exercise of the Roman Catholic religion was to be restored throughout the United Provinces, and, in all places which had more than one church, one was to be consecrated to the Popish worship; while, in acknowledgment of the King’s goodness in granting them a peace, the Dutch were to present him every year with a gold medal, bearing an inscrip­tion that they owed to him the preservation of that liberty which his predecessors had helped them to acquire.

The injustice and arrogance of these demands inspired the Dutch with a resolution to defend themselves to the last extremity. They determined to pierce the dykes, and lay the country under water; a heavy sacrifice, but which would at least secure them till the frosts of winter. They even resolved, if these measures should prove useless, to abandon their homes, and seek in their possessions beyond the seas that civil and religious freedom which was denied to them in Europe. An account was taken of the shipping in the harbours, and it was found that they had the means of transporting 50,000 families to the East Indies.

REVOLUTION IN HOLLAND

These events were accompanied with a revolution which proved fatal to the Pensionary and his brother Cornelius. The advance of the French had roused the popular resentment against the De Witts to the highest pitch. They were denounced from the pulpits as the enemies and betrayers of their country; the Pensionary was even suspected by many to be in the pay of France. On the night of the 12th of June he was attacked by four assassins and wounded, but not mortally, though he was obliged for some weeks to keep his bed. Among his assailants were two sons of Van der Graaf, a member of the Council, the younger of whom was captured, condemned, and beheaded on June 29th. This last spark lighted up the train. A cry was raised in the little town of Vere in Zealand, and ran through the other provinces, that the Perpetual Edict must be abolished, and the Prince of Orange appointed Stadholder. Cornelius de Witt, who was confined to his bed by sickness, was compelled by the people to sign the abolition of the Edict. It was abrogated by the States of Holland, July 3rd, and on the 8th of the same month, the States-General recognized William Prince of Orange as Stadholder, Captain-General, and Admiral for life.

This revolution was soon followed by the murder of the two De Witts. On the 24th of July, Cornelius was arrested on a charge of having plotted against the life of the Prince of Orange. The charge rested on the testimony of one Tichelaar, a barber or surgeon, a man of infamous character, who deposed that Cornelius had attempted to bribe him to murder the Prince. Cornelius was cited before the Court of Holland, of which the father of Van der Graaf was a member, and by order of the judges was put to the rack and condemned to perpetual banishment. The party in power, unable to murder the De Witts judicially, had resolved to sacrifice them to the fury of the populace, and had enticed the Pensionary, by a false message, to share his brother’s fate. The States of Holland, indeed, made a show of protecting the De Witts by a guard of cavalry; but this was soon withdrawn, and the infuriated mob broke into the prison, dragged the two brothers into the streets and murdered them. A Gomarist preacher, Simon Simonides, presided, like a priest of Moloch, at these orgies (August 20th). Thus miserably perished John De Witt, who had directed the counsels of the Dutch Republic during a period of twenty-years with honest and single-minded patriotism, if not, in the last eventful crisis, with a wise and successful policy; whilst his brother Cornelius had sustained her honor upon the seas with valour and reputation. Their murder may not be directly imputable to the Prince of Orange; but he at least accepted it, and made himself an accessory after the fact by protecting and rewarding the assassins. The Stadholder proclaimed an amnesty; the principal leader of the riot was made Mayor, or Bailiff, of the Hague; and Tichelaar obtained a place and a yearly pension of 400 guilders, which was paid to him during the life of William.

The Dutch entertained a hope that the appointment of the Prince of Orange as Stadholder would disarm the anger of Charles II; and this feeling was strengthened by the arrival of his two principal ministers, Buckingham and Arlington, at the Hague, early in July. The English ambassadors were received by the people with enthusiasm and shouts of “Long live the King of England and the Prince of Orange!” But their expectations were doomed to disappointment. After an interview with William, Buckingham and Arlington repaired to the camp of Louis, near Utrecht; and on the 16th of July, they signed a new treaty with the French King. The demands of England were as intolerable as before. Whole fleets were to strike to a single man-of-war; England was to receive an indemnity of a million sterling, and a yearly pay­ment of £10,000 for the herring fishery on the British coast; Sluys, with the Isles of Walcheren, Cadsand, Goree and Voome, were to be made over to England as security for these conditions; and no separate peace was to be made by either Power. The Prince of Orange, whom the allies persisted in protecting in spite of himself, was to have the sovereignty, or at least the hereditary Stadholdership, of the United Netherlands. Nor did France abate a single article of her former demands. When Buckingham and Arlington again went to the Prince of Orange with these conditions, and urged him to throw himself into the arms of their King, William answered, “My country confides in me, and I will never betray it for any unworthy objects of personal ambition. If I cannot avert its ruin, I can at least defend every ditch, and I will die in the last”.

The confidence of the Prince in his cause was justified. The Republic had already passed the most alarming crisis of its fortunes. At sea, the Dutch, if not absolutely victorious, had maintained a resistance which inspired good hopes for the future. In a great action fought off Solebay, on the coast of Suffolk, May 28th, De Ruyter had engaged the combined English and French fleets a whole day, and the losses on both sides were so equally balanced that neither could claim the victory. The French, indeed, had taken but little part in the action, by the secret orders, it is supposed, of Louis, who was not displeased to let the two Maritime Powers destroy each other’s forces. The landing of the English at the Texel had been subsequently hindered by an extraordinary ebb tide of twelve hours, and then by a great storm. On land, the inundations had arrested the progress of the French. On July 26th Louis had taken his departure for St. Germain, leaving Turenne in command of the army, but with instructions to attempt nothing more that year.

The successes of the French had at length awakened the Emperor from his lethargy. Leopold entered into a defensive treaty with the Elector of Brandenburg June 23rd, by which each engaged to dispatch 12,000 men to the Rhine. Intelligence of this treaty, and the encouragements of the Elector, had contributed to make the Prince of Orange reject the demands of England and France. Leopold, in a treaty signed by his minister l'Isola at the Hague, July 25th, 1672, in spite of his former engagement of neutrality with France, agreed to assist the Republic, on condition of receiving a large subsidy. But the Emperor was still playing a double game; and though Montecuculi was dispatched with 12,000 men to join the Elector of Brandenburg, he received secret orders not to engage the French; and Leopold even assured Louis that he wished him success. The advance of the Elector and the Austrians, who formed a junction at Halberstadt, September 12th, was nevertheless favorable to the Dutch by the diversion which it caused. Turenne received orders to proceed to the Rhine, and arrest the progress of the allies; and he prevented them from forming a junction with the Prince of Orange, who had advanced for that purpose to the neighborhood of Liége. Montecuculi, in pursuance of his secret orders, declined to fight, and the Elector of Brandenburg was consequently compelled to retreat beyond the Weser, abandoning to the enemy some of his Westphalian dominions. The Elector now made proposals of peace to France, and on June 16th, 1673, a treaty was concluded at Vossem, near Louvain, by which Louis engaged to pay him 800,000 livres, and restored to him all his dominions, including those in the Duchy of Cleves captured from the Dutch, except Wesel, and the forts of Lippe and Rees; which were also to revert to him at the end of the war. The Elector on his side engaged not to assist the Dutch, but reserved to himself the right of taking up arms if war should be declared by the Empire. Sweden had not fulfilled her engagements to France, but she offered her mediation; which led to the assembly of a Congress at Cologne in the spring of 1673

Meanwhile the Stadholder, after failing to form a junction with the Austrian and Electoral troops on the Meuse, made a bold but unsuccessful attempt on Charleroi, and then hastened back to the defence of Holland. Marshal Luxembourg had taken advantage of the frosts of winter to invade that country; but the elements again favored the Dutch; a sudden thaw compelled the French to retreat. The campaign of 1673 presents little of importance except the taking of Maestricht by Louis in person, with the assistance of Vauban, June 30th; and the surrender of Treves to the same eminent engineer and Rochefort, September 8th. Meanwhile Louis had marched into Alsace, where he occupied the ten imperial cities, and compelled them to renounce the rights guaranteed to them by the Peace of Westphalia.

A great coalition was now organized against France. On August 30th, 1673, two treaties were signed at the Hague by the States, the King of Spain, and the Emperor. By the first of these treaties, Spain promised to declare war against France, and the States engaged to make no peace with that Power till she had restored to Spain all that she had seized since the Peace of the Pyrenees; failing which, the States were to cede to Spain Maastricht and the county of Vroonhove. They were likewise to endeavor at a peace with England on equitable terms; and if they did not succeed, Spain engaged to declare war against England. The Dutch were also to recover their lost possessions. By the second treaty, the Emperor was to assemble near Egra a force of 30,000 men, and march them to the Rhine; the States paying a subsidy of 45,000 rix-dollars per month, and providing on their part 20,000 men. The three confederate Powers also concluded in October a treaty with the Duke of Lorraine, by which they bound themselves to place him at the head of 18,000 men, and to restore him to his dominions. From this period the cause of the Dutch Republic began daily to look more promising. The naval war this year was decidedly in her favor. On land, the Stadholder, after taking Naerden, September 12th, effected a junction near Bonn with the Imperialists, who, in spite of all the efforts of Turenne, had succeeded in passing the Rhine near Mainz, and taking Bonn, after a short resistance, November 12th. This was a signal advantage. The States of Cologne and Münster lay at their mercy; they established themselves along the Rhine, and thus secured the free communication of the Imperialists with the Netherlands; whilst Turenne was compelled to fall back on the Sarre. The French were now obliged to evacuate Holland, which was effected in the winter and spring, 1673-74. Of all their conquests they retained only Grave and Maestricht.

The Prince of Orange on his return was received in triumph by the Dutch. Early in February, 1674, he was proclaimed hereditary Stadholder and Captain-General of Holland and Zealand, with succession to his male heirs; an example which was soon followed by Utrecht, Gelderland, and Over-yssel. These honors were conferred on William in order to smooth the way to a peace with England, which was effected the same month. The war was very unpopular in England.

The King could obtain no grants from the Parliament, whose suspicions had been further excited by the recent marriage of the Duke of York with a princess of Modena, a niece of Mazarin. Louis XIV had been the chief author of this marriage, and had bestowed a large dowry upon the bride. Charles II made the best excuses he could to his patron Louis for his defection; but he had, in fact, no alternative, and was compelled to accept the Treaty of Westminster, February 19th, 1674. By this treaty the States engaged to salute the British flag between the limits of Cape Finisterre in Spain and Van Staten in Norway, and to pay 800,000 crowns for the expenses of the war. Conquests were to be restored on both sides, and the disputes that had arisen in the East Indies were to be adjudicated by a Commission. The example of England was soon after followed by the Bishops of Munster and Cologne.

While Louis was thus deserted one by one by his allies, the Leopold at Empire was rousing itself to vigorous action against him. The immediate occasion of this was an occurrence which took place at Cologne. The harsh proceedings of the French King towards the Alsatian cities, as well as other parts of his conduct, were ascribed to the advice of his pensioner, William von Furstenberg, who attended the congress of Cologne as plenipotentiary of the Elector. Although the congress rendered that city neutral ground, the Emperor caused Furstenberg to be arrested by some Austrian troops as he was returning from a visit on the evening of February 4th, 1674, and he was carried off to Wiener-Neustadt. France and Sweden loudly exclaimed against this proceeding as a violation of the rights of nations; whereupon their envoys were directed to leave the town, and the congress was dissolved without any result. This event put an end to any good understanding which still subsisted between the Emperor and the King of France. Leopold complained to the Diet of Ratisbon of the conduct of the French, and though Gravel, the French envoy there, used every endeavor to bring the German States back to their former dependence on France, yet so much was the position of affairs altered by the late occurrences, that the Emperor was able to dismiss Gravel from the Assembly, and in spite of the opposition of the Elector of Bavaria, several German princes gave in their adhesion to the Emperor and joined the coalition of the Hague. In June, Leopold formally declared war against France, and thus enabled the Elector of Brandenburg to join the league (July 1st), according to his special reservation in the Treaty of Vossem.

Louis, supported by Sweden alone, now found himself opposed to almost all Europe. The campaign of 1674, however, went in favor of the French. Louis in person entered Franche-Comté, and in the months of May and June again reduced that province. It was never afterwards separated from France, and the Jura henceforward formed the French frontier on the east. Meanwhile Turenne was holding the Imperialists in check by a series of brilliant manoeuvres on the Rhine. By his victory at Sinzheim, June 16th, he compelled them to retreat beyond the Neckar. He then entered and ravaged the dominions of the Elector Palatine, who had joined the Imperial League; when his troops, enraged at the murder and mutilation of some of their comrades by the peasants, burnt seven-and-twenty towns and villages in the Palatinate. The Elector, who, from his palace at Heidelberg, was a spectator of this calamity, wrote to Turenne upbraiding him with his barbarity and challenging him to single combat; from which Turenne was deterred by the commands of his sovereign. His subsequent campaign in Alsace has been reckoned his masterpiece. By his victory at Enzheim, October 4th, he saved that province from the grasp of the Imperialists; and subsequently, by a combination of the most skillful operations executed in midwinter, and concluded by the battle of Türckheim, January 5th, 1675, he compelled them totally to evacuate it. The Elector of Brandenburg was forced to separate himself from the allies and march to the relief of his own dominions, which, as will be related in the next chapter, had been occupied by the Swedes. Churchill, afterwards the renowned Duke of Marlborough, served in this campaign under Turenne, as colonel in one of the English regiments in the French service, and learnt some useful lessons in the school of so consummate a master. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the war had been carried on between the Stadholder and Condé with nearly balanced success. At the bloody battle of Senef, fought on August 11th, neither commander could claim the victory, and nothing of much importance was done during the remainder of the campaign.

In the spring of 1675 the struggle was again resumed on the Rhine between Turenne and Montecuculi, where both generals displayed all the resources of their skill. But the career of Turenne was brought to a close before he could fight any decisive action. He had made all his arrangements for a battle near the pass of Sassbach, in the Duchy of Baden, and was reconnoitring the enemy’s position, when he was killed by a cannon-ball, July 27th. The dejection and despair of the French at the loss of their great commander was uncontrollable. It was followed by their immediate retreat, and Montecuculi was enabled to cross the Rhine and enter Alsace. Condé was now ordered to assume the command in Alsace, as being the only general worthy to succeed Turenne. He contented himself, however, with remaining on the defensive, and succeeded, without fighting a single battle, in holding Montecuculi in check till November, when the Imperialists retired into winter quarters beyond the Rhine. This was the last campaign both of Montecuculi and Condé, who were compelled to retire from service by a more obstinate and irresistible enemy than they had hitherto encountered—the gout.

The fifth year of the war, 1676, was more remarkable for its naval engagements than for those on land. After the between England and the United Netherlands, the French, despairing of encountering the Dutch upon the seas on anything like equal terms, had withdrawn into their harbours, and contented themselves with remaining on the defensive. They were induced by a revolution in Sicily to alter this policy. The inhabitants of Messina, exasperated by the oppressions of the Spanish Government, had revolted in the summer of 1674, and invoked the aid of France, which was accorded by Louis. The French made great efforts to retain so important a position as the Straits of Messina; they defeated all the attempts of the Spaniards to regain possession of that city; and even extended their occupation in its neighborhood. At length, towards the end of December, 1675, a Dutch fleet under De Ruyter, arrived to the assistance of their allies, the Spaniards, and a desperate but indecisive action took place, January 8th, off the Lipari Isles, between the combined fleets and the French under Duquesne. On the 22nd of April, 1676, another engagement was fought near Catania with the same result, except that the death of the gallant De Ruyter.might be considered equivalent to a victory. A cannon-ball carried away the left foot and shattered the right leg of the veteran admiral, as he was giving his orders on the quarter-deck. He died of his wounds a few days after at Syracuse. In a third naval action off Palermo, June 2nd, the French gained a complete victory; they now remained masters of the seas, and the allied fleet was compelled to take refuge at Naples.

The campaigns of 1676 and the following year present but little that is remarkable. They were conducted on the part of the French by the Duke of Luxembourg, Marshals Crequi, Schomberg, and D'Estrades, besides Louis XIV himself, and were, on the whole, in favour of the French. Valenciennes, Cambrai, St. Omer, and Freiburg in the Breisgau were taken. The Stadholder, while hastening to the relief of St. Omer, sustained a complete defeat at the hands of the Duke of Orleans and Luxembourg, April 11th, 1677. By these conquests the Spanish Netherlands were deprived of nearly all their frontier fortresses. Only Mons and Namur, on the land side, and Ostend and Nieuport on the sea, remained to them; the rest of the towns were incapable of defence. These events could not but have a considerable influence on the negotiations at Nimuegen, where a congress had been assembled under the mediation of the English King. Charles was again become the pensioner of France. Unable to procure any money from his Parliament, he listened to the temptations of Ruvigni, the French ambassador; and in February, 1676, signed a secret treaty, by which, as the price of his neutrality, he consented to accept from Louis a yearly subsidy. This bargain presented a serious obstacle to the scheme of the Prince of Orange to draw Charles into an offensive alliance against France. Although the Dutch, alarmed by the conquests of the French, were very desirous of peace, the fall of Cambrai, the defeat of the Stadholder, and the surrender of St. Omer had a precisely reverse effect in England, and roused a cry for war which Charles had some difficulty to resist. Spain and the Emperor on one side, France on the other, competed with one another to buy the votes of members of Parliament. The Commons were capricious as well as venal. They pressed the King to declare war against France, yet withheld the means to carry it on. Charles, on his side, got rid of their importunities by repeated adjournments, in consideration of which he obtained from Louis an addition of 200,000 to his pension. Meanwhile the French King was endeavoring to detach the Dutch from their allies, and to effect with them a separate peace; but though the States-General and the Dutch people were inclined to such a course, William was for carrying on the war and adhering to his engagements with the Emperor and Spain; and with this view he resolved to make a closer alliance with England, and, if possible, to draw that Power into the war. He now made proposals for the hand of the Princess Mary, eldest daughter of the Duke of York, which he had declined three years before. His advances were at first received with coldness, but were ultimately accepted, and he was invited into England, though on condition that he should leave the country before the Parliament met. The marriage was arranged at Newmarket and solemnized in November, 1677. The careless Charles let slip the opportunity of compelling the Prince to accede to his views respecting a peace; but in the conferences which ensued the basis of a treaty was agreed upon. France was to remain in status quo with regard to Spain, and she would thus retain possession of Franche-Comté, besides the places which she had conquered in the Spanish Netherlands, with the exception of Ath, Charleroi, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Tournai, Conde, and Valenciennes; which places were to be restored to Spain in order that they might form a barrier between France and the Dutch Republic. The Duke of Lorraine was to be reinstated in his dominions, and the Dutch and French were mutually to restore their conquests. Thus Holland was to be saved at the expense of Spain.

Charles II had thus exchanged the character of a mediator for that of an arbiter, and taken upon himself to dictate terms to the monarch whose pay he was receiving. Louis endeavored to soften these demands, but meanwhile prepared for a winter campaign, and took Ghislain. The pride of Charles was offended by these proceedings, and he resorted to some vigorous steps, which surprised the Prince of Orange as well as Louis. He broke his secret compact with France by summoning the Parliament to meet in January, though he had agreed to adjourn it till April; and he followed up this measure by proposing to his nephew an offensive alliance against France. The Stadholder joyfully accepted so un­looked-for a proposal, and on January 10th, 1678, a treaty was signed at the Hague between England and the States-General, with a view to compel France to a peace nearly on the conditions already mentioned. Louis, in alarm, immediately recalled his ships and troops from Sicily, which were now exposed to the risk of being cut off by the English and Dutch fleets; abandoning without remorse the Messinese, whose rebellion he had encouraged, to the fate they might expect at the hands of their Spanish tyrants. He also suspended Charles’s pension, though he endeavored to bribe the English monarch, but without effect, to abandon the demand for Condé, Valenciennes, and Tournai. Encouraged by the exhortations of his brother and his minister Danby, who were for war, Charles displayed for some time an unwonted firmness. He recalled the English regiments in the service of France, made vigorous preparations for war, and, with the permission of the Spaniards, occupied Ostend with a garrison of 3,000 men. The French King was on his side not idle. In the midst of winter he threatened the whole frontier of the Netherlands, from Luxembourg to Ypres; then, suddenly concentrating his forces, he appeared unexpectedly before Ghent, and compelled that town to surrender (March 11th); thus opening up a road into the Dutch territories. Ypres soon after also surrendered. Louis had tampered with the opposition party in the English Parliament; supplies were refused, and Charles found himself drifting into a war with France without the means to carry it on. In these circumstances he again threw himself into the arms of Louis, and concluded with that monarch, May 27th, another secret treaty, by which, in consideration of receiving six million livres, he agreed to withdraw his forces from the Continent, except the garrison in Ostend, unless the States-General accepted within two months the ultimatum which Louis had recently offered at Nijmegen as the basis of a general peace. The terms were: the satisfaction of Sweden and her ally the Duke of Holstein Gottorp; the release of Prince Furstenberg, and his restoration to his estates and dignities; the entire re-establishment of the Peace of Westphalia, the Emperor either restoring Philipsburg, which he had taken, or ceding Freiburg; the restitution to Spain of Charleroi, Limburg, Binch, Ath, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Ghent, and St. Ghislain, in order to form the barrier desired by the Dutch; Spain, in her turn, ceding Franche-Comté, Valenciennes, Bouchain, Conde, Cambrai, Aire, St. Omer, Ypres, Castel, and other places in what was afterwards called French Flanders; Maestricht and its dependencies to be restored to the Dutch, who were, however, to make it over to Spain; and lastly, the restoration of the Duchy of Lorraine.

A peace was on the point of being concluded on these conditions, when the negotiations were again interrupted, by Louis signifying that he should not restore to Spain the towns in the Netherlands till his ally the King of Sweden had been reinstated in his possessions in Germany which he had lost during the war. This demand produced an immediate reaction in England and Holland. Charles again prepared for war; the English army in Flanders was reinforced, and on the 26th of July a fresh treaty was signed between England and the States, by which they engaged to declare war against France, unless Louis should agree to restore to Spain the towns in question, without any reference to the affairs of Sweden, before the 11th of August, on which day the truce between France and the Republic would expire. Louis was extricated from this embarrassment by the Swedes themselves, who declared they should be satisfied if the States-General engaged no longer to assist their enemies; and on the night of August 10th the Peace of Nimeguen was signed. All that Holland lost in a war which had threatened to annihilate her, were her settlements in Senegal and Guiana, which had been taken by the French. The delay of the French ministers in signing the treaty produced a collision between the Stadholder and the Duke of Luxembourg, by which much blood was needlessly spilt. The Prince of Orange had advanced with his army and his English reinforcements to the relief of Mons, which place had been blockaded by the French since the winter, and was in a state of great distress. On the 14th of August he attacked Luxembourg’s army, when a furious battle ensued, which was put an end to only by the night. William protested that he had received no intelligence of the signature of the treaty till the following day.

Spain acceded to the peace, September 17th, by a treaty signed at Nimeguen, on the conditions, with little variation, proposed by Louis in the ultimatum already specified. The Cabinet of Madrid wished to delay the ratification till the Emperor should also have made his peace; but were compelled by the threats and movements of Louis to ratify the treaty, December 15th. Louis was now in a condition to dictate to the Emperor and his allies almost what terms he pleased, especially as the campaign of 1678 had been unfavorable to the Austrian arms. On the 5th of February, 1679, a treaty was signed between France and the Emperor on the basis of that of Munster. The Duke of Lorraine, now Charles V, was restored to his dominions, but on the most onerous conditions. He was obliged to exchange Nanci and Longwi against Toul, and Louis reserved four military roads through his dominions. The Duke of Lorraine protested against the articles, and rather than accept them became a voluntary exile. The Emperor consented that the King of France should compel the princes of North Germany to make satisfaction to Sweden, and should retain for that purpose a chain of posts in the Rhenish provinces to assure the march of his armies. But to the pacification of Northern Europe we shall return in the nest chapter.

The Peace of Nimeguen is the culminating point of Louis XIV’s glory. From that time Louis' ambition led him to numerous acts of aggression which brought against him the united forces of Europe in the War of the League of Augsburg and in the Spanish Succession War.

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE NORTH AND EAST OF EUROPE