Part 56 (1/2)
THE WARS OF LOUIS XIV.--During the period of his personal administration of the government, Louis XIV. was engaged in four great wars: (1) A war respecting the Spanish Netherlands (1667-1668); (2) a war with Holland (1672-1678); (3) the War of the Palatinate (1689-1697); and (4) the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714).
All these wars were, on the part of the French monarch, wars of conquest and aggression, or were wars provoked by his ambitious and encroaching policy. The most inveterate enemy of Louis during all this period was Holland, the representative and champion of liberal, const.i.tutional government.
THE WAR CONCERNING THE SPANISH NETHERLANDS (1667-1668).--Upon the death of Philip IV. of Spain (1665), Louis immediately claimed, in the name of his wife, portions of the Spanish Netherlands (see p. 568, n.). The Hollanders were naturally alarmed, fearing that Louis would also want to annex their country to his dominions. Accordingly they effected what was called the Triple Alliance with England and Sweden, checked the French king in his career of conquest, and, by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, forced him to give up much of the territory he had seized.
THE WAR WITH HOLLAND (1672-1678).--The second war of the French king was against Holland, whose interference with his plans in the Spanish Netherlands, as well as some uncomplimentary remarks of the Dutch humorists on his personal appearance, had stirred his resentment. Before entering upon the undertaking which had proved too great for Philip II.
with the resources of two worlds at his command, Louis, by means of bribes and the employment of that skilful diplomacy of which he was so perfect a master, prudently drew from the side of Holland both her allies (Sweden and England), even inducing the English king, Charles II., to lend him active a.s.sistance. Money also secured the aid of several princes of Germany. Thus the little commonwealth was left alone to contend against fearful odds.
The brave Hollanders made a stout defence of their land. It was even seriously proposed in the States-General, that, rather than submit to the tyranny of this second Philip, they should open the d.y.k.es, bury the country and its invaders beneath the ocean, and taking their families and household goods in their s.h.i.+ps, seek new homes in lands beyond the sea.
The desperate resolve was in part executed; for with the French threatening Amsterdam, the d.y.k.es were cut, and all the surrounding fields were laid under water, and the invaders thus forced to retreat.
The heroic resistance to the intruders made by the Hollanders in their half-drowned land, the havoc wrought by the stout Dutch sailors among the fleets of the allies, and the diplomacy of the Dutch statesmen, who, through skilful negotiations, detached almost all of the allies of the French from that side, and brought them into alliance with the republic,-- all these things soon put a very different face upon affairs, and Louis found himself confronted by the armies of half of Europe.
For several years the war now went on by land and sea,--in the Netherlands, all along the Rhine, upon the English Channel, in the Mediterranean, and on the coasts of the New World. At length an end was put to the struggle by the Treaty of Nimeguen (1678). Louis gave up his conquests in Holland, but kept a large number of towns and fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, besides the province of Franche-Comte and several Imperial cities on his German frontier.
Thus Louis came out of this tremendous struggle, in which half of Europe was leagued against him, with enhanced reputation and fresh acquisitions of territory. People now began to call him the _Grand Monarch_.
THE REVOCATION OF THE EDICTS OF NANTES (1685).--Louis now committed an act the injustice of which was only equalled by its folly,--an act from which may be dated the decline of his power. This was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, the well-known decree by which Henry IV. secured religious freedom to the French Protestants (see p. 578). By this cruel measure all the Protestant churches were closed, and every Huguenot who refused to embrace the Roman Catholic faith was outlawed. The persecution which the Huguenots had been enduring and which was now greatly increased in violence, is known as the _Dragonnades_, from the circ.u.mstance that _dragoons_ were quartered upon the Protestant families, with full permission to annoy and persecute them in every way ”short of violation and death,” to the end that the victims of these outrages might be constrained to recant, which mult.i.tudes did.
Under the fierce persecutions of the _Dragonnades_, probably as many as three hundred thousand of the most skilful and industrious of the subjects of Louis were driven out of the kingdom. Several of the most important and flouris.h.i.+ng of the French industries were ruined, while the manufacturing interests of other countries, particularly those of Holland and England, were correspondingly benefited by the energy, skill, and capital which the exiles carried to them. Many of the fugitive Huguenots found ultimately a refuge in America; and no other cla.s.s of emigrants, save the Puritans of England, cast
”Such healthful leaven 'mid the elements That peopled the new world.”
[Footnote: See Baird, _History of the Huguenot Emigration to America._]
THE WAR OF THE PALATINATE (1689-1697).--The indirect results of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes were quite as calamitous to France as were the direct results. The indignation that the barbarous measure awakened among the Protestant nations of Europe enabled William of Orange to organize a formidable confederacy against Louis, known as the League of Augsburg (1686).
Louis resolved to attack the confederates. Seeking a pretext for beginning hostilities, he laid claim, in the name of his sister-in-law, to portions of the Palatinate, and hurried a large army into the country, which was quickly overrun. But being unable to hold the conquests he had made, Louis ordered that the country be turned into a desert. The Huns of an Attila could not have carried out more relentlessly the command than did the soldiers of Louis. Churches and abbeys, palaces and cottages, villas and cities, were all given to the flames.
This barbarous act of Louis almost frenzied Germany. Another and more formidable coalition, known as the ”Grand Alliance,” was now formed (1689). It embraced England, Holland, Sweden, Spain, the German emperor, the Elector Palatine, and the Electors of Bavaria and Saxony. For ten years almost all Europe was a great battle-field. Both sides at length becoming weary of the contest and almost exhausted in resources, the struggle was closed by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). There was a mutual surrender of conquests made during the course of the war, and Louis had also to give up some of the places he had unjustly seized before the beginning of the conflict.
[Ill.u.s.tration: DUKE OF MARLBOROUGH. (After a painting by F. Kneller.)]
WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION (1701-1714).--Barely three years pa.s.sed after the Treaty of Ryswick before the great powers of Europe were involved in another war, known as the War of the Spanish Succession.
The circ.u.mstances out of which the war grew were these: In 1700 the king of Spain, Charles II., died, leaving his crown to Philip of Anjou, a grandson of Louis XIV. ”There are no longer any Pyrenees,” was Louis's exultant epigram, meaning of course that France and Spain were now practically one. England and Holland particularly were alarmed at this virtual consolidation of these two powerful kingdoms. Consequently a second Grand Alliance was soon formed against France, the object of which was to dethrone Philip of Anjou and place upon the Spanish throne Charles, Archduke of Austria. The two greatest generals of the allies were the famous Duke of Marlborough (John Churchill), the ablest commander, except Wellington perhaps, that England has ever produced, and the hardly less noted Prince Eugene of Savoy.
For thirteen years all Europe was shaken with war. During the progress of the struggle were fought some of the most memorable battles in European history,--Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet,--in all of which the genius of Marlborough and the consummate skill of Prince Eugene won splendid victories for the allies.
Finally, changes wrought by death in the House of Austria brought the Archduke Charles to the imperial throne. This changed the whole aspect of the Spanish question, for now to place Charles upon the Spanish throne also would be to give him a dangerous preponderance of power, would be, in fact, to reestablish the great monarchy of Charles V. Consequently the Grand Alliance fell to pieces, and the war was ended by the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastadt (1714).
By the provisions of these treaties the Bourbon prince of Anjou was left upon the Spanish throne, but his kingdom was pared away on every side.
Gibraltar and the island of Minorca were ceded to England; while Milan, Naples, Sardinia, and the Netherlands (Spanish) were given to Austria.
France was forced to surrender to England considerable portions of her possessions in the New World,--Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and the Hudson Bay territory.
DEATH OF THE KING.--Amidst troubles, perplexities, and afflictions, Louis XIV.'s long and eventful reign was now drawing to a close. The heavy and constant taxes necessary to meet the expenses of his numerous wars, and to maintain an extravagant court, had bankrupted the country, and the cries of his wretched subjects clamoring for bread could not be shut out of the royal chamber. Death, too, had invaded the palace, striking down the dauphin, the dauphiness, and two grandsons of Louis, leaving as the nearest heir to the throne his great-grandson, a mere child. On the morning of September 1st, 1715, the Grand Monarch breathed his last, bequeathing to this boy of five years a kingdom overwhelmed with debt, and filled with misery, with threatening vices and dangerous discontent.