25. in the utmost alarm, and ere long took steps to Extent of the endeavor to avert it. All had injuries to avenge,

danger which

threatened

the Continen- or inheritances to regain.

tal powers

power of

France.

Austria armed to re

from this ac- gain the Spanish succession, reft from its family by cession to the the ambition and diplomatic ability of the cabinet 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.

strength of

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 Prov- Comparative inces, who were too nearly threatened to be back- the forces on ward 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

to persecute with unrelenting severity the unhappy people who, from conscientious motives, had broken off from the Church of Rome. One set of writers paint him as a magnanimous monarch, whose mind, set on great things, and swayed by lofty desires, foreshadowed those vast designs which Napoleon, armed with the forces of the Revolution, afterward for a brief space realized. Another set dwell on the foibles or the vices of his private character-depict him as alternately swayed by priests, or influenced by women; selfish in his desires, relentless in his hatred, and sacrificing the peace of Europe, and endangering the independence of France, for the gratification of personal vanity, or from the thirst of unbounded ambition.

Which arose

It is the fate of all men who have made a great and durable impression on human affairs, and powerfully af- 2. fected the interests, or thwarted the opinion of from the greatness of large bodies of men, to be represented in these op- his deeds. posite colors to future times. The party, whether in church or state, which they have elevated, the nation whose power or glory they have augmented, praise as much as those whom they have oppressed and injured, whether at home or abroad, strive to vilify their memory. But in the case of Louis XIV., this general propensity has been greatly increased by the opposite, and, at first sight, inconsistent features of his character. There is almost equal truth in the magniloquent eulogies of his admirers, and in the impassioned invectives of his enemies. He was not less great and magnanimous than he is represented by the elegant flattery of Racine or Boileau, nor less cruel and hard-hearted than he is painted by the austere justice of Sismondi or D'Aubigné.

3.

Remarkable

Like many other men, but more than most, he was made up of lofty and elevated, of selfish and frivolous qualities. He could alternately boast, with truth, that there was no longer any Pyrenees, and rival

his youngest courtiers in frivolous and often heartless

diversities contradiccharacter.

and seeming

tions of his

gallantry. In his younger years he was equally assiduous in

his application to business, and engrossed with personal vanity. When he ascended the throne, his first words were, “I intend that every paper, from a diplomatic dispatch to a private petition, shall be submitted to me;" and his vast powers of application enabled him to compass the task. Like Louis Philippe, he was his own prime minister; and even when he acted through others, he never failed to communicate the impress of his own lofty mind and great capacity to the conduct of all his subordinate authorities. Discerning in the choice of his ministers, swayed only, at least in matters of state, by powerful intellects, patriotic and unselfish in the choice of his ministers, he collected round himself the first talent in France, and yet preserved his ascendency over them all. Yet, at the same time, he deserted the queen for Madame la Vallière, and soon after broke La Vallière's heart by abandoning her for Madame de Montespan. In mature life, his ambition to extend the bounds and enhance the glory of France was equaled by his desire to win the admiration or gain the favor of the fair sex. In his later days he alternately engaged in devout austerities with Madame de Maintenon, and, with mournful resolution, asserted the independence of France against Europe in arms. Never was evinced a more striking exemplification of the saying, so well known among men of the world, that no one is a hero to his valet-de-chambre; nor a more remarkable confirmation of the truth, so often proclaimed by divines, that characters of imperfect goodness constitute the great majority of mankind.

That he was a great man, as well as a successful sovereign, 4. is decisively demonstrated by the mighty changes Vast changes which he effected in his own realm, as well as in

which he ef

fected on

France dur- the neighboring states of Europe. When he asing his reign. cended the throne, France, though it contained the elements of greatness, had never yet become great. It had been alternately wasted by the ravages of the English, and torn by the fury of the religious wars. The insurrection of the Fronde had shortly before involved the capital in all the