44

France at war with Europe

[1674-8

in the battle of Seneff in Flanders; while on the Rhine Turenne conducted a most brilliant campaign. He defeated the Imperialists on June 16 at Sinsheim, driving them across the Neckar; and then, acting in accordance with the orders of Louvois, he devastated the Palatinate.. A further victory at Enzheim on October 4 had no definite result, as a fresh cancentration of his adversaries, reinforced by 20,000 Brandenburgers, forced Turenne to retire into winter-quarters in Lorraine. His enemies thought that the campaign was over and took no precautions. This was Turenne's opportunity; and, in spite of the opposition of Louis and Louvois, he determined to reconquer Alsace. In December, 1674, he carried out his brilliant Vosges campaign, which closed with the defeat of the Great Elector on January 5, 1675, at Colmar, and the expulsion of the enemy from the country on the left bank of the Rhine.

In 1675 Turenne continued his successful campaign, out-manœuvring the Imperialist general Montecuculi, and forcing him to retire to Sasbach to the east of Strassburg. There, on July 27, 1675, Turenne fell, and with his death the great successes of the French ended. Though Condé preserved Alsace for France, the Créquy was defeated on the Moselle on August 11, and Trier and Philippsburg were lost. The Swedes, on whose intervention in Brandenburg the French had placed high hopes, had on June 18 been decisively defeated in the battle of Fehrbellin by the Great Elector and forced to beat a disastrous retreat. The campaigns of 1676 and 1677 were generally favourable to France. The towns of Condé and Bouchain were taken by Louis in 1676; and in 1677 Valenciennes, Cambray, and St Omer fell into French hands. William of Orange also suffered a disastrous defeat at Cassel, and Christian V of Denmark was overthrown by the Swedes at Lunden. In the Mediterranean the French fleet was on the whole successful. There Duquesne fought engagements off Stromboli (January 8, 1676) and Catania (April 22) with a Dutch fleet under de Ruyter; but both battles remained undecided. The death of de Ruyter, however, was of immense advantage to the French, who for a time remained supreme in the Mediterranean.

In 1678 all the Powers were ready for peace. On November 15, 1677, William of Orange had married Mary, daughter of the Duke of York; and on January 10, 1678, a treaty between England and the Republic was signed. It seemed that at last France would encounter the united opposition of the two countries. But William's hopes were almost immediately disappointed; for the treaty was never ratified, owing to the resolution of the Republic, in consequence of its suspicions of the terms of the treaty of January 10, to make a separate peace with Louis. In May William, convinced of the treachery of Charles, who the same month signed a secret agreement with Louis, consented to negotiate.

But Louis' attempts to gain undue advantages suddenly changed the

1678-9]

The Treaty of Nymegen

45

whole situation. Charles was compelled to tear up his secret agreement with Louis and to sign, on July 26, a treaty with the Dutch. Recognising the strength of public opinion in England and Holland, Louis finally agreed to make peace with the Republic on August 10, 1678; France ceding Maestricht and the Dutch incurring no loss. A second treaty, relating to commerce, abolished the onerous tariffs of 1667 and restored the more moderate of 1664.

On August 14 William of Orange and Luxembourg fought before Mons, then invested by the French, the battle of St Denys. Both generals knew that peace had been concluded, but William had no official knowledge of the fact,

A treaty between France and Spain was signed on September 17. Spain was not in a condition to continue the war. Her King Charles II had attained his majority on November 6, 1675. This event was soon followed by the overthrow of Fernando de Valenzuela, who, with the QueenRegent, now fell into disgrace, and by the temporary ascendancy of Don John of Austria, the King's illegitimate brother. Don John, however, soon became unpopular, and, finding himself surrounded by internal difficulties, was anxious for peace with France. Spain yielded Franche Comté, Valenciennes, Aire, St Omer,Cassel, Bailleul, Poperinge, Warneton, Ypres, Cambray and the Cambrésis, Bouchain, Condé, and Maubeuge, all of which were regarded as necessary for the defence of the French frontier. France on her part restored to Spain, Courtray, Oudenarde, Ath, Ghent, Binch, Charleroi, and the duchy and town of Limburg.

With the Emperor and Empire peace was signed by France on February 26, 1679. Louis restored Philippsburg, but kept Breisach and Freiburg. To Duke Charles V of Lorraine, his duchy was restored on certain conditions, namely, that France should keep Nancy, Longwy and Marsal, and control the four principal roads traversing the country. The Duke refused to accept these conditions, and the duchy remained in French hands till the Peace of Ryswyk. These four treaties are known as the Peace of Nymegen, and were supplemented by the Treaty of St Germain-en-Laye between Brandenburg and Sweden, and by the Treaty of Fontainebleau between Denmark and Sweden. The first of these treaties was signed on June 29, 1679. During the war with Sweden the Great Elector had, besides winning the battle of Fehrbellin, taken Stettin and Stralsund. But, the Emperor having in the name of the Empire agreed to the restoration of Sweden's German possessions, Frederick William was compelled to give up to the Swedes nearly all his conquests in western Pomerania. By the Treaty of Fontainebleau signed on September 26, 1679, Denmark also restored to Sweden the conquests made in Scania and the Baltic.

The Treaties of Zurawna and Nymegen re-established peace in Europe, which now enjoyed a short period of rest. Though the Treaty of Nymegen had in a general way reaffirmed the terms of the Peace of

46

Louis' power at its height

[1678-89 Westphalia, France was in a far stronger position in 1678 than in 1648. Spain in 1678 was in a condition of decadence, while the Empire was not only involved in troubles in Hungary, but was seriously threatened by the resurrection of Turkey. Moreover, though the League of the Rhine no longer existed, the suspicious attitude of the German Princes towards the Emperor was not as yet thoroughly changed. This suspicious attitude was encouraged and strengthened by Louis, who, by adroitly distributing pensions to certain Princes and influential personages in various German States, secured if not their active support at any rate their neutrality.

In its origin the war was an attempt of Louis to conquer and destroy the United Provinces. It had developed into a European struggle, and its end had been that the United Provinces had secured the abolition of the hostile tariffs of 1667, and had gained Maestricht without losing any territory, while Louis secured Franche Comté and some towns in the Spanish Netherlands. Louis' object in entering the war had not been attained, and his triumph was far from being complete. Moreover, he had roused the suspicions of Europe, and the attitude of the German Princes towards France in 1678 was very different from what it had been in 1658. Nevertheless, the concert of Europe was partial and ill-cemented, and, although peace had been made, could not be other than short-lived in face of the jealousies of the various States which the fear of France had temporarily united. The conclusion of the Peace of Nymegen in 1679 seemed, with reason, to the French people to mark a fresh triumph on the part of their King. In their eyes Louis XIV had brought additional glory to himself and his country, which had never stood so high in the eyes of Europe, nor had appeared so strong or so great.

At the Peace of Nymegen Louis reached the greatest height of his power. A large part of the Spanish Netherlands had been added to France, Freiburg in the Breisgau had been retained, Franche Comté had been definitively conquered. One of Louis' great aims since 1661 had been to enlarge and to fortify the boundary of France. Though he had not acquired the whole of the Spanish Netherlands, and though he had failed in his attempt to destroy the Dutch Republic, Louis could at any rate view with satisfaction the extension of the French frontier towards the Rhine, the acquisition of sixteen fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, as well as the possession of Franche Comté. With the King of England he had made a treaty in May, 1678, which had nullified the effects of the marriage of William of Orange with the Princess Mary. Till 1689 England remained a cipher in European politics and offered no opposition to the execution of Louis' schemes. There seemed to be no obstacle to the attainment of the main object of Louis' policy that the Bourbon House should take the position hitherto occupied in Europe by the Habsburgs. This implied the

1679]

Louis XIV and the Empire

47

enlargement of the kingdom of France, the recognition of Louis as the defender of the Church, the acquisition, if possible, of the Imperial Crown for the French Kings. A French Empire, extending over the Continent, was to be the crowning result of Louis' efforts. In 1679 and during the succeeding ten years such a result seemed capable of realisation. The Mediterranean was practically a French lake; England under Charles II and James II showed no desire to oppose Louis' aims; central Europe was divided; the Emperor Leopold was powerless; a Turkish invasion of Austria was imminent.

Till the Peace of Nymegen, Louis had directed his chief attention to Spain, and, taking advantage of her weakness, had enlarged and strengthened the French frontier on the north-eastern side of France. After 1679, Louis was chiefly interested in his plans for strengthening his position in Germany, with the view of ultimately securing the Imperial Crown. Till 1697, Spanish affairs fell into the background; nor do they again become prominent till the era of the Partition Treaties. The time seemed opportune for a further attempt on the part of Louis to push forward his candidature for the Imperial Crown. The treaty

concluded with Bavaria in 1670, by which the Elector had promised to advance Louis' claims to the Imperial dignity in the event of the Emperor Leopold's death, had roused opposition in Germany, and for a brief period "the Empire stood united for its Emperor." But the Peace of Nymegen found Germany again disunited, and the reputation of the French King at a greater height than ever. The times were therefore propitious for a new attempt on the part of Louis to secure, in the event of Leopold's death, the Imperial dignity. In October, 1679, by a secret treaty with Louis, the Elector of Brandenburg engaged, in the event of the Emperor's death, "to secure the election of his Most Christian Majesty."

The danger to Europe was real and unmistakable, for the jealousies and selfishness of the various European Powers rendered them blind to the true meaning of Louis' ambitious policy, and unwilling to combine in the defence of the liberties of Europe. Hardly had the Treaties of Nymegen been signed than Louis entered upon a fresh phase of the policy which he hoped would gain for him the Imperial Crown. It was necessary in his opinion to strengthen France on her north-eastern and eastern frontiers. Lorraine was practically in his hands; the possession of Alsace and Luxemburg would complete the "ceinture de frontières,” and, in Louis' opinion, would give greater weight to his influence in Germany, whenever the Emperor Leopold should die, or whenever it should be attempted to make his son Joseph (who was born in July, 1678) King of the Romans. Placing his own interpretation upon certain clauses in the Treaty of Westphalia, and adopting the view that the German Charles the Great was in reality a French Charlemagne, Louis resolved that "what once belonged to France continued to be by right the

48 The "Chambers of Reunion." - Luxemburg

[1680-2

inalienable possession of the French Crown though it had been sold, exchanged or given away." At Metz, Besançon, Breisach, and Tournay "Chambers of Reunion" were set up, for the purpose of adjudging to France certain territories and towns on the left bank of the Rhine. What these Courts did not declare to have been ceded to France at the Peace of Westphalia was held to be a "dependency," and under this head came Luxemburg and Strassburg. By means of these two fortresses the French King would have the three Spiritual Electors of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier as well as the Elector Palatine in his power, so that by means of them he would be able to carry through without much trouble his election to the Roman Kingship. On March 22, 1680, the Parlement of Breisach gave the support of legal authority to Louis' claim of absolute sovereignty over Alsace; on September 30, 1681, French troops occupied Strassburg, and on the same day a French force seized Casale. Two of the places which were "deemed essential for the rounding-off of French territory" had fallen into the hands of Louis; it only remained to occupy Luxemburg, in order to make France practical mistress of the Netherlands.

The first reply to these aggressions was seen in the opposition in England and Holland to Louis' siege of Luxemburg, which began in November, 1681. So antagonistic were the Dutch to the idea of the town falling into French hands, that, in spite of their dread of the outbreak of a fresh European war, William of Orange was instructed to march to the relief of Luxemburg, whenever its capture by Louis seemed imminent. The outbreak of such a war would have enlisted public opinion in England in opposition to Louis, who at that moment desired above everything to avert a European conflagration. In order, therefore, to tranquillise public opinion in Holland and England, Louis consented early in 1682 to raise the siege of Luxemburg.

Louis had indeed endeavoured to win over Charles to consent to the French occupation of Luxemburg; and, in 1680, the King of England had refused to be united with William of Orange in laying the foundations of a general alliance against France. Thus Charles, if left to himself, would no doubt have consented to be gained; but on the question of Luxemburg the English nation was peculiarly sensitive, and Charles realised that the occupation of the fortress by Louis would probably rouse great indignation in England, necessitating the summoning of Parliament. There was thus, as Ranke says, a close connexion between the siege of Luxemburg and the internal affairs of England. Charles II himself professed to believe Louis' assurance that he merely wished to dismantle the place, not to use it "as a point whence to attack others." He therefore undertook to reassure Louis' opponents on this point, but insisted that while the negotiations were proceeding Louis should not by a strict blockade force the surrender of Luxemburg. During the negotiations the divergence between the views held by William of Orange and those