22.

Fresh treaty

between

nature; and the result of the deliberations of the of partition Austrian family was, that the King of Spain made France, En- a testament, in which he bequeathed his whole dogland, and minions to the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, under the solemn injunction to resist any attempt at partition.

Holland.

Had this prince lived, all the calamities which followed might have been averted; but his death, which happened on the 8th of February, 1699, threw every thing open again, and exposed Spain afresh to the cupidity of the allied powers. Negotiations again began afresh at the Hague, and on this occasion England became a participator in the expected spoil. The result was a second treaty of partition, signed on the 13th of March, 1700, at the Hague, between England, France, and Holland, without the privity of the emperor. By it, the whole Spanish dominions were to be divided between the contracting parties in the following proportions. France was to receive Naples, Sicily, Guipuscoa, and Lorraine; and Archduke Charles, second son of the Archduke of Austria, was to obtain Spain, the Low Countries, and the Indies, on condition of renouncing any other succession. But by secret articles annexed to this treaty, the Spanish colonies beyond seas were to be divided between England and Holland.† Both of the latter powers were at the moment in alliance with Spain, and had fought by her side in the very last war, which lasted from 1689 to 1697. It may safely be affirmed that a more infamous proceeding is not recorded in history; and it reveals the melancholy truth that the human heart is ever the same, under whatever banners it may be enlisted; and that, under the mask of zeal for liberty and the reformed religion, may be

* SISMONDI, Xxvi., 277.

† Pars des articles joints du traité, les colonies Espagnoles etaient cedées à la Grande Bretagne et à la Hollande, seule avantage materielle qu'elle et l'autre retiraient de ces stipulations. On donnait beaucoup à la France, parceque Louis XIV. reconnaissait Guillaume III. et les gouvernemens nouveaux, qui veulent le faire admettre par les vœux sont obligés à des sacrifices.-CAPEFIGUE, Hist. de Louis XIV., iv., 277; Lombardy, i., 97; SCHODL, ii., 13, 14.

concealed ambition as grasping, and perfidy as black, as ever lurked under the crown of kings or the cowl of priestly tyranny!

24. The knowl

edge of this

tition determines the King bequest in fa

treaty of par

of Spain to the

vor of the

Uniting duplicity toward his new allies with ambition toward his old enemies, Louis had no sooner concluded this treaty than he secretly caused it to be communicated to Charles II., king of Spain, through his secretary of state, Abilles. The intelligence threw the declining monarch, as well it might, into the utmost consternation. He address- Bourbons. ed in vain the most pressing remonstrances to the cabinets of Versailles, London, and the Hague, pointing out, in just and emphatic terms, the glaring injustice of friendly and allied powers concluding a treaty for the partition of the dominions of a sovereign before he had yet sunk into the grave. It was all in vain. The ambition of France, England, and Holland was proof against every consideration of honor, or faith, or justice. The French embassador at Madrid got orders to quit that capital; the Spanish embassador at London received his passports; a large French army was collecting on the Guipuscoa frontier of the Pyrenees. War seemed inevitable; the fate which subsequently befell Poland seemed to threaten Spain the moment its present sovereign should be no more. In this extremity, Charles II. convened his council of state, and submitted the matter to their decision. By a large majority, they determined that a bequest in favor of the Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., was the most advisable step, as he was the only monarch capable of preventing a partition; and the old king, sacrificing the partiality of family and race to aroused indignation and sentiments of nationality, consented to do so, and signed the bequest which in volved Europe in conflagration.

But though the origin of the evil was to be found in their own unjustifiable ambition, it was not the less real, or deserving of immediate consideration. Threatened with so serious a danger, it is not surprising that the powers of Europe were

25.

Extent of the

in the utmost alarm, and ere long took steps to All had injuries to avenge,

danger which endeavor to avert it.

threatened

the Continen- or inheritances to regain.

tal powers

from this ac

power of

Austria armed to re

gain the Spanish succession, reft from its family by cession to the the ambition and diplomatic ability of the cabinet France. of Versailles. England had a double motive for hostility she had danger to avert, and the mortification of being duped to avenge. Holland saw the enemy at her gates: the white flag floated on the bastions of Antwerp. Such, however, was the terror inspired by the name of Louis XIV., and the magnitude of the addition made by this bequest to his power, that the new monarch, in the first instance, ascended the throne of Spain and the Indies without any opposition. The Spanish Netherlands, so important both from their intrinsic riches, their situation as the certain theater of war, and the numerous fortified towns with which they were studded, had been early secured for the young Bourbon prince by the Elector of Bavaria, who was at that time the governor of those valuable possessions. The distant colonies of the crown of Castile in America and the Indies sent in their adhesion. Sardinia, Naples, Sicily, the Milanese, and the other Spanish possessions in Italy, speedily followed the example. The young Prince of Anjou made his formal entry into Spain in the beginning of 1701, and was crowned at Madrid under the title of Philip V. The principal continental powers, with the exception of the Emperor of Germany, acknowledged his title to the throne. Bavaria united itself in a cordial alliance with France and Spain. The Dutch were in despair; they beheld the power of Louis XIV. brought to their frontier. Flanders, instead of being the barrier of Europe against France, had become the outwork of France against Europe. Bavaria was an important advanced post, which gave the armies of Louis an entrance into the heart of Germany. Italy, France, Spain, Flanders, and part of Germany were united in one close league, and, in fact, formed but one dominion. It was the empire of Charlemagne over again, directed with equal ability, founded

on greater power, and backed by the boundless treasures of the Indies. Spain had threatened the liberties of Europe in the end of the sixteenth century: France had all but overthrown them in the close of the seventeenth. What hope was there of being able to make head against them both, united under such a monarch as Louis XIV. ?

26. Comparative strength of

the forces on

the opposite

Great as these dangers were, however, they had no effect in daunting the heroic spirit of William III. In concert with the emperor and the United Provinces, who were too nearly threatened to be backward in falling into his views, he labored for the sides. formation of a great confederacy, which might prevent the union of the crowns of France and Castile in one family, and prevent, before it was too late, the consolidation of a power which threatened to be so formidable to the liberties of Europe. The death of that intrepid monarch in March, 1702, which, had it taken place earlier, might have prevented the formation of the confederacy, proved no impediment, but rather the reverse. His measures had been so well taken, his resolute spirit had labored with such effect, that the alliance, offensive and defensive, between the Emperor, England, and Holland, had been already signed. The accession of the Princess Anne, without weakening its bonds, added another power of no mean importance to its ranks. Her husband, Prince George of Denmark, brought the forces of that kingdom to aid the common cause. Prussia soon after followed the example. On the other hand, Bavaria, closely connected wth the French and Spanish monarchies, both by the influence of its jealousy of Austria, and by the government of the Netherlands, which its elector held, adhered to France. Thus the forces of Europe were mutually arrayed and divided, much as they afterward were in the coalition against Napoleon in 1813. It might already be foreseen that Flanders, the Bavarian plains, Spain, and Lombardy, would, as in the great contest which followed a century after, be the theater of war. But the forces of France and Spain possessed this advantage,

E

unknown in former wars, but immense in a military point of view, that they were in possession of the whole of the Netherlands, the numerous fortresses of which were alike valuable as a basis of offensive operations, and as affording asylums all but impregnable in cases of disaster. The allied generals, whether they commenced their operations in Flanders or on the side of Germany, had to begin on the Rhine, and cut their way through the long barrier of fortresses with which the genius of Vauban had encircled the frontiers of the monarchy.

CHAPTER II.

CHARACTERS OF LOUIS XIV., WILLIAM III., AND JAMES II.-COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR.-BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.

1.

Strange di

LOUIS XIV., whose unmeasured ambition and diplomatie address had procured the splendid bequest of the Spanish succession for his family, was one of the most remarkable sovereigns who ever sat upon the

versity in the

characters

drawn by his

torians of Louis XIV.

throne of France. Yet there is none of whose character, even at this comparatively remote period, it is more difficult to form a just estimate. Beyond measure eulogized by the poets, orators, and annalists of his own age, who lived on his bounty, or were flattered by his address, he has been proportionally vilified by the historians, both foreign and national, of subsequent times. The Roman Catholic writers, with some truth, represent him as the champion of their faith, the sovereign who extirpated the demon of heresy in his dominions, and restored to the Church, in undivided unity, the realm of France. The Protestant authors, with not less reason, regard him as the deadliest enemy of their religion, and the cruellest foe of those who had embraced it; as a faithless tyrant, who scrupled not, at the bidding of bigoted priests, to violate the national faith plighted by the Edict of Nantes, and