CHAPTER VII
THE HUMBLING OF FRANCE
We may probably say that no other man has made so great a difference to the history of the world, by his last will and testament, as did the King of Spain by that will which left all his monarchy to the grandson of him who already was so great as to be called the Grand Monarque. He willed away his vast territories, as it had been a five-acre field, and his subjects, of many nationalities, as they had been the sheep or cattle thereon.
And the Grand Monarque, by accepting the gift on behalf of his infant grandson, united his enemies so that they forgot their own mutual quarrels and formed a great alliance against him.
But he was very strong. He had a huge army, he had great wealth, and he had the advantage of being at the centre of the theatre of conflict, while his foes were on the circumference.
The most formidable in the alliance against him were the English and the Dutch. William III., husband of Mary, daughter of James II., was on the English throne. As Protestants and Stuarts, Mary and her sister Anne, who succeeded in 1702, in some degree conciliated both parties in England. William III., besides being married to England's queen, was himself of the English Royal line, being a grandson of Charles I. An Act of Settlement, as it was called, had been passed by the English Parliament which should exclude, after Anne's death, a son born to James II. by a second marriage. This son, a Catholic, thus excluded, received welcome at the French Court and became the centre of Jacobite intrigues for the Crown of England. It was his recognition as King of England by Louis XIV. which determined William III. to support with all his forces what came to be known as the Grand Alliance against France. William, however, died suddenly as the result of an accident before the war really began.
Queen Anne then, came to the throne, and the command of the allied English and Dutch forces was taken by John Churchill, later Duke of Marlborough. He proved himself a great general. His first great victory was in the battle of Blenheim in 1704, followed by that of Ramillies two years later. The French had received so heavy a beating that the Grand Monarque sought peace; but the terms offered did not satisfy the victors.
The war was not restricted to the Netherlands. The little country of Portugal was in the alliance; so too was, for a while, another small country, the Duchy of Savoy in the north-west corner of Italy. Later Savoy went over to the Habsburg party. The Emperor was on the side of the allies.
Besides the Netherlands, the allies were victorious in Bavaria, in Italy, and for a moment in Spain itself. The approach of an English army to Madrid actually forced the king to leave his throne and his capital; but that advance was not maintained, the allies were defeated in Spain, and he was re-established. Between English and French, the war was fought so far from home as Canada—much to the English advantage in the peace by which it was concluded. But before Louis would make peace on terms that the allies were willing to accept, his armies had to suffer further defeat in the Netherlands at the hands of Marlborough. Oudenarde in 1708 and Malplaquet in the following year are the places and dates of these two English victories which were really decisive of the war.
Marlborough's success and the ascendancy which he and his duchess had gained over the queen, made him many enemies at home. We begin about this time to hear of the two great political parties, Tories and Whigs. Marlborough was of the latter party, which was in power till 1710, in which year they lost place to the former. Marlborough was dismissed from his command in the year following; and with his dismissal negotiations for peace were renewed.