Of the four great wars which filled a large part of Louis's reign, all but the last were designed to extend the dominions of France on the east and northeast to the Rhine. That river in ancient times had separated Gaul and Germany, and Louis, as well as Richelieu and Mazarin before him, regarded it as a natural boundary of France. A beginning in this direction had already been made at the close of the Thirty Years' War, when France gained nearly all of Alsace and secured the recognition of her old claims to the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun in Lorraine. A treaty which Mazarin negotiated with Spain in 1659 A.D. also gave France most of Artois, as well as part of Flanders. Louis thus had a good basis of further advance through Lorraine and the Netherlands to the Rhine.
TWO WARS FOR THE RHINE, 1667-1678 A.D.
The French king began his aggressions by an effort to annex the Belgian or Spanish Netherlands, which then belonged to Spain. [11] A triple alliance of Holland, England, and Sweden forced him to relinquish all his conquests, except a few frontier towns (1668 A.D.). Louis blamed the Dutch for his setback, and determined to punish them. Moreover, the Dutch represented everything to which he was opposed, for Holland was a republic, the keen rival of France in trade, and Protestant in religion. By skillful diplomacy he persuaded England and Sweden to stand aloof, while his armies entered Holland and drew near to Amsterdam At this critical moment William, Prince of Orange, became the Dutch leader. He was a descendant of that William the Silent, who, a century before, had saved the Dutch out of the hands of Spain. When urged to submit, seeing that his country was surely lost, William replied, "I know one way of never seeing it, and that way is to die on the last dike." By William's orders the Dutch cut the dikes and interposed a watery barrier to further advance by the French. Then he formed another Continental coalition, which carried on the war till Louis signified his desire for peace. The Dutch did not lose a foot of territory, but Spain was obliged to cede to France the important province of Franche Comté (1678 A.D.).
[Illustration: Map, ACQUISITIONS OF LOUIS XIV AND LOUIS XV]
A THIRD WAR, 1689-1697 A.D.
Ten years later Louis again sought to gain additional territory along the Rhine, but again an alliance of Spain, Holland, England, and the Holy Roman Empire compelled 1689-1697 him to sue for peace (1697 A.D.). [12] During the course of the war the French inflicted a frightful devastation on the Rhenish Palatinate, so that it might not support armies for the invasion of France. Twelve hundred towns and villages were destroyed, and the countryside was laid waste. The responsibility for this barbarous act rests upon Louvois who advised it and Louis who allowed it.
THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
Thus far the European balance of power had been preserved, but it was now threatened in another direction. Charles II, the king of Spain, lay dying, and as he was without children or brothers to succeed him, all Europe wondered what would be the fate of his vast possessions in Europe and America. Louis had married one of his sisters, and the Holy Roman Emperor another, so both the Bourbons and the Austrian Hapsburgs could put forth claims to the Spanish throne. When Charles died, it was found that he had left his entire dominions to Philip of Anjou, one of Louis's grandsons, in the hope that the power of France might be great enough to keep them undivided. Though Louis knew that acceptance of the inheritance would involve a war with Austria and probably with England, whose king was now Louis's old foe, William of Orange, [13] ambition triumphed over fear and the desire for glory over consideration for the welfare of France. At Versailles Louis proudly presented his grandson to the court, saying, "Gentlemen, behold the king of Spain."
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION, 1702-1713 A.D.
In the War of the Spanish Succession France and Spain faced the Grand Alliance, which included England, Holland, Austria, several of the German states, and Portugal. Europe had never known a war that concerned so many countries and peoples. The English ruler, William III, died shortly after the outbreak of hostilities, leaving the continuance of the contest as a legacy to his sister-in-law, Queen Anne. [14] England supplied the coalition with funds, a fleet, and also with the ablest commander of the age, the duke of Marlborough. In Eugène, prince of Savoy, the allies had another skillful and daring general. The great victory gained by them at Blenheim in 1704 A.D. was the first of a series of successes which finally drove the French out of Germany and Italy and opened the road to Paris. But dissensions among the allies and the heroic resistance of France and Spain enabled Louis to hold the enemy at bay, until the exhaustion of both sides led to the conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht.