Chapter XV

THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION
AND THE DEATH OF LOUIS XIV.

The campaign of Prince Eugene in Italy--Appointment of Marlborough to the command in the Netherlands--His character and abilities--He establishes himself upon the Rhine--Advance of the French upon Vienna--Savoy joins the Grand Alliance--Critical position of the Emperor--The campaign and battle of Blenheim--The English gain the command of the Mediterranean--Death of the Emperor Leopold--The campaign and battle of Ramillies--Expedition of the Archduke Charles to Spain--The battle of Almanza--The campaign and battle of Oudenarde--Siege and capture of Lille--Negotiations for peace--Appeal of Louis to his people--The campaign and battle of Malplaquet--Dismissal of Marlborough--Victories of the Spaniards over the Allies--The negotiations at Gertruydenberg--The peace of Utrecht--Its policy and justification--The end of the seventeenth century--The death of Louis XIV.

MAP
TO ILLUSTRATE
THE CAMPAIGNS IN
NORTH ITALY,
1701–1706.]

[Sidenote: =Campaign of prince Eugene in Italy, 1701.=]

The war broke out in Italy. By a treaty concluded with the duke of Savoy in the spring of 1701 the road to north Italy was opened to the soldiers of France, and Catinat at the head of 40,000 men occupied the Milanese. Pushing forward his advanced guard to the frontiers of the territories of Venice at the Lago di Garda, he prepared to fall upon the Austrian army as it debouched into the plain from the passes of the mountains. To an invader who comes from Austria or the east, the plain of north Italy presents serious military difficulties. His path to the south is blocked by the strong and deep stream of the Po, which, with its surrounding marshes, treacherous banks, and swift currents, forms an almost impassable obstacle in the face of an active enemy; especially as the most important points of its course are defended by the fortresses of Alessandria, Piacenza, and Mantua. From the Alps on the north descend into the Po a series of rivers, similar in character though less in volume, each of which forms, both from the nature of its stream, and the cities which command it, a strategical position very easy to defend and exceedingly difficult to attack directly. From the Lago Maggiore runs the stream of the Ticino joining the Po a little below Pavia. From the Valtelline through the Lago di Como the Adda pours its waters into the Po at Cremona, passing a little to the east of Milan. To the east of the Adda, from the mountains of Bergamo, flows the stream of the Oglio, receiving on its way to its home in the Po the waters of a tributary which protects the important city of Brescia. Further to the east, from the southern end of the Lago di Garda, close to the fortress of Peschiera, the Mincio makes its way directly into the Po below Mantua. A few miles further, from the wide valley leading to the Brenner pass, descends the great stream of the Adige, which, running through the dominions of Venice, passing the fortresses of Verona, Legnago and Carpi, makes its own way into the sea north of the Po amid impassable marshes. Invaders of the Milanese from Germany and Austria must therefore either force the positions of these rivers one by one in the face of the enemy, or turn them by thrusting their way through the mountains on the north. Catinat had made up his mind that the Austrians would attempt the latter feat, and was carefully watching the mountain valleys north of the Lago di Garda, when prince Eugene suddenly appeared behind him at Brescia. Quickly descending the valley of the Adige he had not scrupled to violate Venetian territory. Marching behind Verona he crossed the Adige at Carpi, then turning north-west crossed the Mincio above Mantua without opposition, and appeared between Peschiera and Brescia, in the rear of the French, before Catinat knew that he had left the obscurity of the mountains. The French had only just time to beat a hasty retreat to the Oglio and cover Milan.

[Sidenote: =Defeat and capture of Villeroy, 1702.=]

Louis was highly indignant at this ominous beginning to the war, and sent his friend and courtier Villeroy to supersede Catinat. The change was not to his advantage. Villeroy was a good dancer but an indifferent general. Having an army far outnumbering that of prince Eugene, he crossed the Oglio and attacked him on the 1st of September 1701 at Chiari, but was repulsed. Acquiescing in his failure he took up a position on the Oglio defending Milan, and placed his headquarters at Cremona for the winter, where he amused himself in all security. Prince Eugene saw his opportunity. From Mantua, which he was besieging, he advanced in February 1702, surprised Cremona under cover of night, captured the French general and his staff, and obliged his army to retire behind the Adda. The results of this bold stroke were quickly seen. The dukes of Modena and Guastalla joined the imperialists, the duke of Savoy began to trim, and to look out for an opportunity of changing sides. But reinforcements soon came to the French. The duke of Vendôme and Philip V. left Naples and appeared on the flank of prince Eugene in Lombardy in August 1702. Greatly outnumbered, the Austrians had to fall back to a defensive position behind the Adige, where the French did not dare to attack them.

[Sidenote: =Marlborough appointed to the command in the Netherlands.=]

Meanwhile the war had become general. In May 1702 Marlborough, who had been appointed to the chief command of the English forces by Anne, and had been elected captain-general of the Dutch forces by the states-general, took command of the allied army in the Netherlands. He had under him about 10,000 English troops, about 20,000 Dutch troops, and about as many mercenaries, chiefly Germans, in the pay of England and the United Provinces. It is interesting to notice how small the body of purely British soldiers was who fought in the armies of Marlborough. They were never as numerous as the mercenaries, though they increased in numbers regularly as the war went on. At the commencement of hostilities, owing no doubt to the great jealousy of a standing army evinced by all Englishmen, and to the national distrust of William III., there were very few English soldiers fit to take the field against the veterans of France.

[Sidenote: =His military qualities.=]

What England lost through want of training among her soldiers was more than made up to her by the eminent capacity of her general. Marlborough had learned his first lessons of war in the school of Turenne, he had shown his talents for command in his successful management of an expedition to the south of Ireland in 1689, but no one could have anticipated from his past, when he was appointed to the supreme command in 1702, the singular combination of qualities which made him incomparably the first man in Europe. Full of resource, gifted with a notable mastery over men, and thoroughly trained in the science of war, he is one of the few generals who have had the power of conceiving and executing combined movements on a large scale. His provident eye could take in the whole of Europe as a theatre of operations, and direct the movements of four or five armies to a common end. As a strategist, he was too seldom permitted freedom of action for his originality and resourcefulness fully to display themselves. In this he must be compared, not with Frederick the Great or Napoleon or Moltke, but with Wellington or Turenne, and he need not fear the result. Even when driven by the timidity and unreasonableness of the Dutch, or by political danger at home into the commonplace, his campaigns show a grasp of the proportion of things, which is only found in the highest order of intellects. He fixes with lightning rapidity upon the important thing to be done, and sees at once how best to do it with the resources at his command. He never fritters away his strength, he never wastes life,[7] or runs risks unnecessarily, or for mere effect. He strikes directly at the key of the position, his combinations are all aimed at the central point of the enemies’ power. In this capacity to appreciate exactly the ratio of his strength and resources to those of the enemy, he strongly resembles his great successor Wellington. Like him he never lost a battle, unlike him he never failed in a campaign. The same characteristics are observable in the battle-field. He had an extraordinarily quick eye for the weak point in an enemy’s position, and saw at once how best to utilise the opportunities which the ground afforded for attaining his object. At Blenheim and at Ramillies, it was his skilful use of difficult ground that mainly contributed to the victory. And when his real attack was developed, he showed something of Napoleon’s power of combining the whole strength of his army upon the end to be achieved. At Blenheim he forced his way through the centre of his adversaries’ position, and reduced the enemy from a disciplined army into disorganised masses at a stroke, much as Napoleon did afterwards by Soult’s famous attack at Austerlitz. But apart from his military genius, he was no less conspicuous for his powers of diplomacy, and his singular management of men. [Sidenote: =His character.=] Of unwearied patience, imperturbable temper, and immovable resolution he rarely failed to gain his end in the long run. The Grand Alliance of 1701–2, and the negotiations with Charles XII. of Sweden at Altranstadt in 1708, are undeniable proofs of his diplomatic ability. His close friendship with prince Eugene and Godolphin, and his tender love for his imperious and fretful wife, attest the warmth of his affections, and the amiableness of his disposition. The wonderful self-command with which he saw his best plans ruined, his reputation endangered, his motives suspected, his very successes decried, by the stupidity of the half envious and half timid Dutch, and the malignancy of English party spirit, is no mean tribute to the steadfastness of his patriotism. If France had not the resources of the allies upon which to draw, neither had she their divisions and quarrels with which to contend.

MAP
TO ILLUSTRATE THE
DUTCH WAR OF 1672,
AND THE WAR OF THE
SPANISH SUCCESSION
IN THE NETHERLANDS.

_The advance of Condé & Turenne
open Amsterdam 1672_ -=-=

_Typo. Etching Co. Sc._]

[Sidenote: =Dangerous isolation of Austria, 1702.=]

When Marlborough took command of the allied armies in the Netherlands in 1702, it was clear to him, that the danger to the cause of the allies generally lay in the isolation of Austria. Cut off from the sea, she could not be directly assisted by the English and Dutch fleets. Accessible from Italy through the passes of Tirol, she might easily be taken in flank should she receive a repulse in that quarter. On the side of the Rhine the danger was not only threatening, but imminent. Bavaria was about to make common cause with Louis, and a united French and Bavarian force might be at the gates of Vienna long before tardy succours could force their way there from north Germany or the Netherlands. It was therefore all-important to Marlborough to gain command of the lower Rhine valley, so as to be able to open up communications with the imperial troops on the upper Rhine or upper Danube if necessary. But in the way of this policy there were considerable difficulties. The Netherlands formed one vast intrenched camp in the hands of the French. Behind the curtain of their fortresses they could make their preparations in secret for a sudden advance upon Amsterdam, or recruit their armies after a repulse. Boufflers at the head of the French forces occupied a line which stretched from Antwerp on the Scheldt, through Venlo on the Meuse, to Kaiserwerth on the Rhine, thus blocking the three river valleys. If driven from that by a front attack, he had but to retire on the line of the Demer, between Antwerp and Liége, or a little further back to the line of the Mehaigne from Antwerp through Louvain and Tirlemont to Namur, or further back still to the line of the frontier, and take refuge under the great fortresses of Lille, Tournai, Mons, Charleroi and Namur. To force these positions one after another, and capture the fortresses which defended them, in the face of a watchful and valiant enemy, was a task of much difficulty, and must take many years. [Sidenote: =Marlborough gains a footing on the Rhine, 1702.=] To try and turn the fortresses by advancing on France by the valleys of the Rhine and the Moselle was sure to be bitterly opposed by the Dutch, whose timidity already pictured the French at the gates of Amsterdam. Marlborough had therefore to act very cautiously. He took advantage of Boufflers’s too extended position, and directed an attack as if to turn his left in Brabant. Boufflers fell into the trap, moved his troops in all haste to defend his left, and so gave his right flank over into the enemies’ hands. Marlborough easily turned his right flank between the Meuse and the Rhine, drove him back on the line of the Mehaigne, and established himself strongly on the valleys of the Meuse and the Rhine, capturing Venlo, Ruremonde, and Liége.

[Sidenote: =His indecisive campaign of 1703.=]

The next year he prepared to push his success further. Instructing the Dutch to advance on the right wing into Flanders, capture Antwerp, and seize the line of the Scheldt, he with the left wing pushed down the Rhine, overran the electorate of Köln, and in May 1703 made himself master of Bonn. He was now secure of his communications with north Germany, and was preparing to organise a German army to operate upon the Moselle, and keep up communications between himself and the Emperor, when he was recalled to the Netherlands in hot haste to assist the Dutch. Tired of waiting for the siege train and transport necessary to form the siege of Antwerp, the Dutch had begun to send out detachments into Flanders for pure plundering purposes. One of these under Opdam was suddenly attacked by Boufflers, and completely destroyed in June 1703. Whereupon the Dutch, in the extremity of terror, absolutely refused to undertake the siege of Antwerp at all. On Marlborough’s arrival Boufflers withdrew behind the lines of the Mehaigne, which he had carefully fortified by ramparts and towers. Marlborough, sure of his ability to force the lines, made preparations for the attack, but the Dutch declined to co-operate, and the English general, baffled and dispirited, was obliged to content himself with the capture of a few inferior fortresses.

[Sidenote: =Advance of the French upon Vienna, 1703.=]

Meanwhile on the upper Rhine things were going badly for the allies. Louis had always intended to make his main attack in this quarter. His plan included a simultaneous advance upon Vienna by the Danube and by Italy, with the help of the duke of Savoy and the elector of Bavaria, while Boufflers in the Netherlands merely kept the English and the Dutch army occupied and entangled amid fortresses and fortifications. The success of prince Eugene in Italy, and his own want of preparation delayed for some time the commencement of this movement, but by the beginning of the year 1703 all was ready. Vendôme was facing prince Eugene upon the Adige ready to attack. The elector of Bavaria had definitely declared himself on the French side and captured Ulm. Accordingly in February 1703 Villars crossed the Rhine at Strasburg, took Kehl by storm, forced the passes of the Black Forest, and joined the elector on the Danube; while Tallard at the head of another army on the Rhine supported his movements, and protected his communications with France. Prince Louis of Baden, and count Stirum, who commanded the allied forces, unable to make head against the enemy, withdrew into the lines of Stolhofen, a little below Kehl, which they had carefully fortified in order to form a base of operations for the imperial armies on the upper Rhine, and there kept Tallard at bay. The Emperor was in terrible straits. The Hungarians had risen under Ragotsky, and were preparing to attack Vienna from the east. Vendôme was pushing prince Eugene slowly before him over the Brenner pass to Innsbruck. The only other Austrian force was cooped up behind Stolhofen. There was not a man between the elector and Vienna, and Villars strongly urged Max Emanuel to march at once with all his forces on Vienna, and end the war at a blow, while he posted himself on the Danube at Donauwörth, and defended Bavaria from a flank attack.

[Sidenote: =Savoy joins the Grand Alliance, 1703.=]

Unfortunately for himself and his ally the elector had not the required energy. The opportunity passed never to return. Max Emanuel determined to crush prince Eugene first. In June he was at Kufstein on his way to Innsbruck, while Vendôme had penetrated up the pass as far as Trent. The army of Eugene was entangled in the mountains between them. He owed his preservation to fortune, not to skill. Just at this moment Victor Amadeus of Savoy, after hesitating some months, made up his mind that the winning side would be that of the allies. He joined the Grand Alliance, and Vendôme had to hasten back to Piedmont to preserve his communications. The elector hearing of the retreat of Vendôme, dared not face Eugene by himself in such a country, and began to retire. The Tirolese at once rose on behalf of their much-loved master, and Max Emanuel had to fight his way back to Bavaria as best he could. He found Villars defending himself with difficulty against prince Louis of Baden and Stirum. On the arrival of the elector before Augsburg, prince Louis left Stirum and marched to Augsburg, hoping to raise the siege, but Villars was too quick for him. Falling upon Stirum he defeated him completely at Höchstadt on the 20th of September, and drove him back on Nuremberg. Prince Louis had at once to retire to the lines of Stolhofen, and Augsburg fell into the hands of the elector.

[Sidenote: =Dangerous position of the Emperor, 1704.=]

For the moment the Emperor was safe. The year was too far advanced to permit of a combined movement upon Vienna. But it was clear to all parties that the attempt would be made in the next campaign. It seemed equally certain that if made it must succeed, unless Marlborough and the army of the Netherlands could come to the rescue. Louis made great preparations for the effort. Villars, whose arrogance was displeasing to the elector, was recalled and sent to the Cevennes, where the remnants of the Huguenots had risen under the name of the Camisards. His place was taken by Marsin, and his army strongly reinforced. The plan of campaign was simple. Marsin and the elector were to march straight upon Vienna down the Danube, while Ragotsky attacked the city from the side of Hungary. Tallard, at the head of 35,000 men, was posted in Alsace to support the movement, preserve the communications, and defend the army from any flank attack. Villeroy, with 30,000 men, was sent to the Netherlands to keep Marlborough at bay and prevent him from coming to the rescue. Against this overwhelming force Austria could only oppose the armies of prince Louis of Baden, and prince Eugene. If the Emperor was to be saved, it must be by Marlborough, and how could Marlborough leave the Netherlands without throwing open the United Provinces to invasion? Was it likely that the Dutch would endanger their own safety for the sake of the Emperor? Even if they did, was it possible to escape the combined attack of the armies of Tallard and Marsin and the elector when the Danube was reached?

[Sidenote: =Plan of Marlborough.=]

These were the questions to which Marlborough was preparing to give an answer in the summer of 1704. He had conceived the brilliant plan of moving the whole of his army, except the Dutch, from the field of operations in the Netherlands to a totally new base upon the upper Danube, and of crushing Marsin and the elector before Tallard could come to their help from the Rhine, or Villeroy overtake him from the Meuse. It was a scheme which was certain to fail except in the hands of a consummate general, for it involved not merely a victory over equal and possibly superior forces, but a long and extremely hazardous flank march over difficult country, and a race against time. And that was not all, for before he could even undertake it, he had to deceive the Dutch and lull Villeroy into a false security. If the Dutch once suspected that he was going to move his army away from the protection of their frontier, they would impose an energetic and decided veto. If Villeroy once divined that Marlborough was engaged in making a long march up the Rhine, he could ruin the whole plan in a moment by a well-directed flank attack. To surmount these difficulties, Marlborough, keeping his real plan an absolute secret, let it be generally known that he intended to try and turn the lines and fortresses of the Netherlands, by advancing into France by way of the Moselle, and he publicly asked for, and obtained, the permission of the Dutch to that scheme. This enabled him to summon the Brandenburg contingent to the Rhine at Mainz, and to move his own headquarters to Coblentz without incurring suspicion, and to leave Overkirk with the Dutch army and the Dutch deputies at Maestricht on his extreme right, to guard the line of the Meuse should Villeroy advance on Amsterdam during his absence. The plan succeeded admirably. Villeroy, completely deceived, took up a strong position on the upper Moselle near Trier to resist the advance of the allies, and waited in vain for the first signs of the invading army. [Sidenote: =His flank march to the Danube.=] The Dutch left behind at Maestricht could not interfere with Marlborough’s plans. All was ready.[8] In June 1704 he threw off the mask, advanced up the Rhine by forced marches to Mainz, then, picking up the Brandenburg contingent as he went, he left the Rhine and directed his army straight upon the upper Danube at Donauwörth. At Heilbronn he was joined by a German force, and near Ulm by prince Eugene and prince Louis of Baden. It was agreed that Eugene should return to Stolhofen to prevent Tallard, and possibly Villeroy if he appeared upon the scene, from coming to the assistance of the elector and Marsin before the allies could attack them. Marlborough himself and prince Louis of Baden marched straight against the elector, who had entrenched himself on the Schellenberg near Donauwörth, carried the lines by assault on the 2d of July and drove the elector back on Augsburg, thus thrusting themselves in between the French and Vienna and completely protecting the latter city.

[Sidenote: =Difficulties of Marlborough.=]

So far the campaign had been brilliantly successful, but the most difficult part was yet to come. Villeroy on discovering the trick played upon him by Marlborough marched across Alsace and joined Tallard before Stolhofen with 30,000 men. This enabled Tallard to leave prince Eugene to the care of Villeroy, and to march to the assistance of Marsin and the elector, whom he joined at Augsburg early in August. Counting the army of Villeroy, the French and Bavarians far outnumbered the allies. Marlborough himself was a long distance from his true base of operations. He had no fortress or entrenched camps where he could collect stores, establish his hospitals, or recruit his army. It was essential to his safety to be able to strike hard and quick. Fortunately for him the French played into his hands. Marsin and Tallard were anxious to have the sole credit of crushing this impudent Englishman. They would not wait for Villeroy. They would not hear of Fabian tactics. They determined to destroy him at a blow, and marched down the Danube to meet him. Prince Eugene, who had abandoned Stolhofen in pursuit of Tallard, effected his junction with Marlborough near Donauwörth on the 11th of August, and on the 13th the two armies found themselves facing each other on the field of Blenheim.

[Sidenote: =The battle of Blenheim.=]

The French generals had taken up a defensive position at right angles to the Danube, just behind the little stream of the Nebel. Tallard at the head of the right wing occupied in force the village of Blenheim, the left wing under Marsin and the elector the village of Lutzingen. The centre was considered sufficiently protected from serious attack by the stream of the Nebel and its adjacent marshes, and was weakly held, chiefly by cavalry. The plan of battle which they had adopted, clearly was to permit the allies to dash themselves in vain against the strong positions of Blenheim and Lutzingen, and when they were exhausted finally to overwhelm them by an advance from the two wings. Marlborough on reconnoitring the ground saw at once that the weakness of their position lay in the centre, and that the marshes were not so impassable as they seemed. Accordingly he instructed prince Eugene to direct a strong attack upon Marsin and the elector at Lutzingen, and Cutts to do the same upon Tallard at Blenheim. Under cover of these assaults he made his real attack on the centre. With some difficulty he succeeded in crossing the marshes, then, thrusting himself in between the two wings of the enemy he completely drove the Maison du Roi off the ground and cut the French line in two. Then turning to the left he hemmed Tallard in at Blenheim between his army and the Danube, and forced him to surrender with all his infantry. Marsin and the elector finding their centre and right wing annihilated fled as best they could through the Black Forest to Villeroy on the Rhine pursued by the fiery Eugene. Never was defeat more complete As the sun set on the field of Blenheim the glory of Louis XIV. departed.

[Sidenote: =Its results.=]

No one can wonder at the outburst of joy which thrilled through England and Europe at the news of the battle of Blenheim. It was felt to be decisive of the main issues of the war. France had other armies in the field and could raise new troops, but she could never replace the loss of her veterans. She could not again tyrannise over Europe. She might win victories, she might defend her frontiers, she might emerge honourably from the contest, but she could no more hope to dictate terms to Europe after Blenheim, than she could a century later after the retreat from Moscow. But Blenheim had not only put a bridle in the mouth of Louis XIV., it had not only destroyed his veteran army, it had not only saved the Emperor from absolute ruin, it had unexpectedly brought to light a new and most important factor among the decisive forces of Europe. The English sailor had been recognised as a formidable power since the days of the Armada, but the English soldier had not had an opportunity of proving his real worth since the fight of Agincourt. Blenheim was as important an event in the history of civilised warfare as Rocroy, not because it gave the death-blow to an antiquated system of tactics, but because it was the birthplace of a new military power of the first class. From Blenheim to Waterloo the English soldier stands out as the best fighting material in Europe, and England takes her place among the first military nations of the world.

[Sidenote: =The English gain the mastery in the Mediterranean, 1702–1704.=]

While France was losing her military prestige and superiority at Blenheim she received a humiliating reminder of her inferiority at sea. In 1702 a combined fleet of English and Dutch ships was sent under the command of Sir George Rooke to the coast of Spain, which by a stroke of good luck fell in with the Spanish plate fleet and the French ships which were protecting it in the harbour of Vigo, and after a spirited action completely destroyed them both. Two years afterwards, in the summer of 1704, Rooke captured the impregnable rock of Gibraltar, and defeated the French fleet which attempted its recovery. This gave England an important position in the Mediterranean, the value of which made itself gradually recognised as the century wore on, and established the superiority of the allies at sea, the effect of which soon resulted in the loss of Italy to the French power. Directly north Italy fell into the hands of the imperialists, as it did after the brilliant campaign of prince Eugene in Italy in 1706, there was no means of keeping up communications between Naples and France. Consequently after the victory of prince Eugene at Turin in 1706 had finally driven the French back behind their own frontier, a revolution broke out at Naples which ended in the total loss of Italy to the French cause.

After the battle of Blenheim the French armies were obliged to act upon the defensive, and the interest of the war turned once more to the Netherlands. In 1705 Marlborough took up in earnest the plan with which he had deceived Villeroy and the Dutch the year before. [Sidenote: =Death of the Emperor Leopold, 1705.=] He arranged with Prince Louis of Baden (for Eugene had returned to his command in Italy), a combined attack upon France by the Moselle and the Saar, in order to turn the defensive fortresses of the Netherlands. But time slipped away, and the allies had not completed their preparations, when in May 1705 the Emperor Leopold died, and the imperial troops were summoned home. All hope of a combined movement had to be abandoned. At the same time Villeroy, who commanded upon the Meuse, moved forward and threatened Liége. [Sidenote: =Marlborough forces the lines of the Mehaigne, 1705.=] Marlborough at once left the Moselle and marched to relieve Liége, and Villeroy retired into the fortified lines of the Mehaigne between Antwerp and Namur, just as Boufflers had done in 1703. But by this time the Dutch had learned to have somewhat more confidence in Marlborough’s skill, and he was permitted to attack. Making a feint at the two extremities of the lines he easily forced them in the centre at Tirlemont, and drove Villeroy back on Louvain and Brussels, thus cutting him off from Namur and his direct communications with France. The marshal took up a position behind the Dyle, which the Dutch thought too strong to be safely attacked in front, and Marlborough moved to the west to turn it and threaten Brussels. To save Brussels the French retired on the city, and stood at bay near the forest of Soignes, on ground which in a little more than a hundred years was to become celebrated for all time as the English position at Waterloo. Marlborough in pursuit took up the ground afterwards occupied by Napoleon and prepared to attack. But Dutch timidity stepped in to prevent this most interesting rehearsal of the last tragedy of the Napoleonic war with the parts reversed. Marlborough was forced to retire when the prey was in his grasp. Deeply chagrined he contemplated leaving the struggle in the Netherlands to the Dutch, and combining his forces with those of the gallant Eugene in Italy, but this was not permitted. He could not be spared as long as Villeroy was unhurt on the Dyle, and Villars held his own upon the Rhine. [Sidenote: =Campaign of 1706.=] So in the spring of 1706 he again took command of the army of Flanders and prepared to bring Villeroy to book. That incapable and boastful general was equally anxious to cross swords with the hero of Blenheim. Refusing to wait for the arrival of a reinforcement of 15,000 men under Marsin, who were on their way, he left the line of the Dyle in the spring, and marched towards Namur. On his way Marlborough met him at Ramillies on 23d of May.

[Sidenote: =Battle of Ramillies.=]

Villeroy had chosen his ground with some skill. His right occupied the village of Tavières, which stood on a slight eminence above the Mehaigne, and was protected by that stream. His centre rested upon the village of Ramillies, which, with the mound called the tumulus of Ottomond behind it, formed the key of the position. His left was defended by the marshes in which the stream of the little Gheet rises. The bulk of his troops were massed at Tavières and Ramillies, and his left being so well defended by the nature of the ground was very weakly held. The quick eye of Marlborough soon detected this defect. He saw too that owing to the nature of the ground within his own position he could move troops from his own right to his centre without being observed by the enemy. On these two facts he based his plan of battle. Early in the morning of the 23d of May he directed a strong and imposing attack against the French left. Villeroy thinking that he was going to force his way over the marshes of the little Gheet, as he had forced his way over the marshes of the Nebel, began to hurry up troops from his centre in hot haste to defend his threatened left. Directly Marlborough saw this movement, he marched the bulk of his troops from his right to his centre under cover of the ground, so that the operation could not be seen by the enemy, merely leaving enough men before the French left to keep Villeroy persuaded that the main attack was still being made in that quarter. When all was prepared he suddenly launched the bulk of his army upon the weakened French centre between Tavières and Ramillies. Tavières was carried by the impetuous rush but the battle was not yet won. The Maison du Roi, mindful of their old fame, and burning to avenge the disgrace of Blenheim, checked the advance of the allies upon Ramillies by repeated and heroic charges. The French infantry hurried back to their old posts from the left, and round the village of Ramillies the battle swayed backwards and forwards for some time. At last the French fell slowly back, the village was won, and the centre of the French position forced. Villeroy gave the signal for a retreat which quickly changed into a rout. His army was destroyed as a fighting force. In rapid succession the chief towns of the Netherlands opened their gates to the victorious allies, and the French were driven back to the line of the frontier fortresses.

[Sidenote: =Expedition of the Archduke Charles to Spain.=]

The battle of Turin and the battle of Ramillies had reduced France to the line of her frontiers, but in the next year a gleam of success visited the arms of her indefatigable master. Marlborough was too much occupied with the negotiations at Altranstädt and hampered by the badness of the weather to attempt anything of importance, while on the Rhine Villars succeeded in capturing the lines of Stolhofen and preventing the imperialists from moving. But the best news came from Spain. In the year 1703 through the exertions of Methuen, the English ambassador at Lisbon, a treaty had been negotiated between England and Portugal, which had the effect of making Portugal the devoted political adherent of England for more than a century, and of introducing English statesmen to the too seductive influences of port wine. By the accession of Portugal to the Grand Alliance an opening was made for the archduke Charles to make good his claims to his kingdom. In 1704 he landed at Lisbon with a force of 12,000 English and Dutch troops under Schomberg with the object of invading Spain. The expedition met with little success and Galway replaced Schomberg in 1705. In the same year the English ministry sent the earl of Peterborough at the head of 5000 men to the assistance of the duke of Savoy, but gave him permission to employ himself in Spain if he found an opportunity. Peterborough, who was a man of brilliant imagination and boastful temperament, induced the archduke to trust himself to his guidance. Sailing round the coast of Spain he landed in Catalonia, captured Barcelona, chiefly through the efforts of prince George of Darmstadt in October 1705, and quickly made himself master of Arragon.

[Sidenote: =His power limited to Catalonia.=]

In the following year Galway determined to support the success achieved in Arragon by marching upon Madrid from Portugal. The French armies were engaged in a fruitless siege of Barcelona, and Galway occupied Madrid and proclaimed the archduke Charles as king almost without opposition. But now the political wisdom of the determination of Louis not to force a foreign king upon the Spaniards against their will showed itself. A national opposition to Charles quickly grew up in 1706, just as it did a century later to Joseph Buonaparte. Wherever the English soldiers were quartered, all was submission. Directly their backs were turned all was opposition. To make things worse disease broke out among the troops, and Galway found it necessary to retire from Madrid and join Charles and Peterborough in Arragon. In the next year he determined to repeat the attempt, and leaving Charles at Barcelona sailed down to Valencia, and marched from there on Madrid. At Almanza he was met by Berwick, who had lately been strongly reinforced from the army of Italy, and was completely crushed. Valencia and Arragon were lost, and the power of Charles limited to the turbulent province of Catalonia. From that time the allies ceased for some years to make any serious efforts to oust Philip V. by force from the throne of Spain. Galway was recalled and Stanhope appointed in his place, but with the exception of the capture of Port Mahon in Minorca in 1708 he was unable to achieve anything of importance. Having failed in open warfare the allies found diplomacy a better weapon with which to effect the retirement of Philip V.

[Sidenote: =Great efforts of Louis in 1708.=]

The security of Spain and the defeat of the imperialists on the Rhine in 1707 nerved Louis to make a great effort in 1708 to recover the ground which he had lost. He fitted out a fleet to land the Chevalier in Scotland and take advantage of the hostility felt to the Act of Union with England, which had been lately passed. He placed one army under Berwick on the Moselle to watch Eugene and the imperialists, while the main force under Vendôme advanced and occupied almost without opposition the great towns of Ghent and Bruges in Flanders, and established itself behind the Scheldt, prepared to move forward when Berwick was ready to co-operate. In July, finding Marlborough still inactive, Vendôme advanced his right wing as far as Mons, and laid siege to Oudenarde in the centre, thus spreading himself out in an extended line over the whole country between Mons and Bruges. Marlborough saw his opportunity. Sending in haste to Eugene to join him with his cavalry he struck sharply at the centre of the French position. Vendôme at once perceived his mistake and concentrated his army on Oudenarde by a hurried retreat. Marlborough and Eugene followed him with all speed, pushed his rear guard over the Scheldt, and finally forced it to turn and give battle a few miles from Oudenarde on the left bank of the river. The battle did not begin till three o’clock in the afternoon. It was a soldiers’ fight. Each regiment as it came up took ground as it best could and engaged. But the allies had the advantage of a single command. [Sidenote: =The battle of Oudenarde, 1708.=] The French generals Vendôme and the duke of Burgundy in the excitement and hurry of a disorganised melée gave contradictory orders, and made confusion worse confounded. Eventually Marlborough succeeded in outnumbering the French right, turning it and driving it off the field. That operation put an end to the battle. The French retired on Ghent. Marlborough had succeeded in interposing his army between the French and the frontier. Nothing stood between him and Paris except the great fortresses of the frontier, of which Lille was the greatest. It is said that he wished to neglect that fortress altogether and march straight upon Paris, but the scheme was too bold even for Eugene, considering that Boufflers held the place with 15,000 men and Berwick was at Mons with 30,000. In August the siege was begun. Eugene took charge of the trenches, while Marlborough, posted between the Lys and the Scheldt, protected the convoys coming from Ostend, and prevented Berwick or Vendôme from marching to the assistance of the doomed city. Neither dared to attempt a rescue. [Sidenote: =Capture of Lille.=] They contented themselves with trying to cut off convoys. After an attempt of this sort had been entirely defeated at Wynendaal on September 27th, more by the valour of General Webb than by the skill of Marlborough, Lille could hold out no longer. On the 22nd of October the city surrendered. Vendôme made his way safely to Mons, which with Namur now remained the only great fortress in the hands of France. Paris lay open to the advance of the allies.

[Sidenote: =Unpopularity of the war in England.=]

But just in proportion as the opportunities for a brilliant and decisive campaign were opening out to the allies their ability to take advantage of them was diminishing. In England the strain of the long war was making itself felt in spite of the accessions to her colonies and trade which her supremacy over the sea was daily making. Tory feeling reasserted itself directly the danger to European liberty and English commerce passed away after the battle of Blenheim. No one in England cared one straw whether Bourbon or Habsburg sat on the throne of Spain, as long as the free and peaceful development of Europe and England went quietly on. Within the precincts of the court itself a revolution was in progress, and every courtier knew that the ascendency of the duchess of Marlborough over the mind of Anne was a thing of the past. In this state of affairs Marlborough did not dare to run the risk of a doubtful campaign. In the field he restricted himself to the commonplace. In the cabinet he professed himself willing to listen to suggestions of peace. [Sidenote: =Exhaustion of France.=] Louis was overjoyed at the news. France was in a state of extreme exhaustion. Her veteran armies were destroyed, her magazines empty, her generals discredited. The taxes had reached a point beyond which taxation could no further go. Offices were created by the hundred to be sold for what they would fetch. Loans could be raised no longer. The capitation tax was made permanent, and even births, marriages and deaths were obliged to contribute to the revenue. To make the misery still more intolerable the terribly severe winter of 1708–9 destroyed the fruit-trees and the vines, and brought the horrors of famine into the fairest districts of France. Early in 1709 negotiations were begun at the Hague, but it soon appeared that the allies were determined not merely to humiliate Louis but to disgrace him. They demanded as a condition precedent to entering on negotiations for a final treaty of peace, that Louis was to surrender Mons and Namur, evacuate Alsace including Strasburg, and force his grandson Philip V. to retire from Spain. [Sidenote: =Appeal of Louis to France against the demands of the allies.=] The obligation to make war upon his own grandson in the interests of the enemy was more than Louis, dispirited as he was, could with honour accept. He determined to appeal to French patriotism against terms so cruelly unjust. France responded nobly to his call. Men volunteered everywhere to protect the sacred soil of France from the invader. Nobles sent their plate, ladies their jewels, and the peasants their hoarded sous to organise a national army. Never was Louis more truly king and leader of his people than when in the days of his humiliation he sent the last army of France to the front in 1709.

[Sidenote: =Battle of Malplaquet, 1709.=]

Villars was selected as the general to be intrusted with the last hopes of France. He proved himself equal to the responsibility. Carefully entrenching himself in strong positions, while he trained his recruits and collected supplies, he trusted to the great ally Time whom he knew could not fail him. At last as the summer grew on Marlborough and Eugene, not daring to attack him in his camp near Lens, marched upon Mons, and Villars was forced to advance in order to relieve it. He took up an almost impregnable position at Malplaquet, resting his two flanks on wooded heights, and holding the gap in the middle, which he had strongly entrenched, with his main force. There he awaited the onslaught of the allies. There was nothing for it but a front attack. The position, if taken at all, must be taken by a direct assault. On the 11th of September Marlborough and Eugene hurled their troops up the gap. It was not a battle, it was a carnage. Fighting desperately hand-to-hand, the victors of Blenheim and Ramillies at last forced the position. Villars himself was wounded, but Boufflers who succeeded to the command effected his retreat in good order. Mons remained the prize of the conquerors.

The battle of Malplaquet was more honourable to the vanquished than to the victors. It did not even re-establish Marlborough’s influence in England. In the year in which it was fought the duchess was dismissed from her court appointments. [Sidenote: =Dismissal of Marlborough, 1711.=] In the following year a definitely Tory and peace ministry was formed under Harley. It was obvious that the dismissal of Marlborough was only a question of time. Determined to run no risk, he contented himself with forcing Villars slowly back into France. At the beginning of 1711 he learned that the ministry had secretly opened negotiations for peace, and he proceeded methodically to drive Villars back from one position to another while awaiting the final blow. Political necessities had entirely superseded military opportunities. At last the blow fell. On December 31st, 1711, he was dismissed from a command which had long ceased to be a reality.

[Sidenote: =Defeat of the allies in Spain, 1710.=]

Meanwhile in Spain the necessities of Louis actually strengthened the position of Philip V. In 1709 all the French troops were withdrawn to defend their own frontiers. Stanhope and Stahremberg, who commanded the imperialists, accordingly advanced against Philip in 1710, drove him first out of Arragon, then almost out of Castile to Valladolid, and occupied Madrid. The result was a national movement of the Spaniards in favour of their king. Louis allowed Vendôme to take command of the Spanish army. The allies found it impossible to maintain themselves at Madrid, and retreated in two divisions upon Arragon. Vendôme manœuvring with great skill forced himself between them, surrounded Stanhope at Brihuega and obliged him to capitulate, then throwing himself on Stahremberg, routed him at Villa Viciosa, and drove him back to Barcelona. Again the Spaniards had emphatically pronounced their determination that Philip, and none but Philip, should reign over them.

In spite of this the allies were still endeavouring to compel Louis to make war upon his grandson. In the winter of 1709–10 negotiations were resumed at Gertruydenberg. [Sidenote: =Negotiations of Gertruydenberg.=] Louis consented to surrender Alsace, and offered not only to recognise the archduke Charles as king, but to forbid his subjects to serve in Spain, and even to provide supplies for the allied armies in Spain. But the allies were determined to put Louis openly to shame before the face of Europe, and insisted that he should force his grandson to resign the crown. Again the negotiations fell through. They were not renewed. Directly a Tory ministry came into power they opened private communications with Louis without taking their allies into their confidence. [Sidenote: =The treaty of Utrecht, 1713.=] By September 1711 an agreement was arrived at between France and England alone, and preliminaries of peace settled. These were then communicated to the Dutch and the other allies, and were accepted with some protests by all except the Emperor. In accordance with the preliminaries a congress was held at Utrecht in 1712, and the final peace drawn up there and signed in 1713.

[Sidenote: =The war continued by the Emperor.=]

The Emperor still stubbornly refused to yield. In 1711, that terrible year of mortality among princely houses, Joseph I. had died, and the archduke Charles was now Emperor. His pride would not suffer him to surrender the crown of Spain to his rival, and Eugene was instructed to push on military operations in spite of the defection of the English. Without the aid of Marlborough even Eugene was powerless against the patriotism of France. Beaten at the bridge of Denain by Villars in 1712, he was driven back to the frontier of the Netherlands, and had in consequence of the conclusion of the peace to transfer his army to the upper Rhine. [Sidenote: =Treaties of Rastadt and Baden.=] But misfortune pursued him there. In 1713 Villars burst into Alsace, crossed the Rhine at Strasburg, forced Eugene from his entrenched camp at Freiburg, and obliged the Emperor at last to consent to make peace. The definitive treaties were eventually signed at Rastadt and Baden in 1714.

[Sidenote: =Terms of the Peace of Utrecht.=]

By the treaties of Utrecht, Rastadt, and Baden, generally grouped together under the name of the Peace of Utrecht, the following arrangements were effected.

(1) Philip V. was recognised as King of Spain and the Indies, on the condition that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united on the same head.

(2) Naples, the Milanese, Sardinia, and the Netherlands were given to the Emperor, subject to the right of the Dutch to the military government of Furnes, Ypres, Menin, Ghent, Tournai, Mons, Charleroi and Namur as their barrier against France.

(3) France was permitted to retain Alsace including Strasburg, as she had been by the peace of Ryswick, but she had to surrender the fortresses of Kehl, Breisach, and Freiburg, which she had seized on the right bank of the Rhine.

(4) The electors of Köln and Bavaria were restored, the succession of the House of Hanover in England acknowledged, and the Chevalier banished from France.

(5) England received Gibraltar, Minorca, Newfoundland (subject to certain rights of fishing on the banks), Hudson’s Bay, Acadia, and S. Kitts, and acquired by an assiento, or agreement, with Spain the right to trade under strict limitations with certain towns in Spanish waters set apart for the purpose.

(6) The kingdom of Prussia was recognised and received upper Guelderland.

(7) Sicily and part of the Milanese were given to the duke of Savoy, and the fortifications of Dunkirk were agreed to be demolished.

[Sidenote: =The peace justly liable to censure.=]

The peace of Utrecht has been denounced perhaps with greater fervour than any of the great settlements of European affairs, except the treaty of Vienna in 1815. But in these denunciations attention has usually been directed more to the particular interests of nations and parties than to the general welfare of Europe. From this circumscribed point of view much may be said against the treaty itself, and still more against the means which were taken to bring it about. To institute secret negotiations for a private peace, behind the back of her own allies, was a proceeding most unworthy of England. To leave the Catalans, and the Cevennois, entirely without protection, to the tender mercies of Philip and Louis, after they had been induced to rise against their rulers by the promises and assistance of the allies, was both a crime and a blunder. Who could trust to English faith again? To permit Philip to retain the crown of Spain, and France to keep Alsace, to the detriment of the House of Habsburg, was unfair to the one power which had consistently opposed the supremacy of France, and unfaithful to the pledges of the Grand Alliance. All this is to a certain extent true. [Sidenote: =Yet a recognition of existing fact.=] After the concessions made by Louis at the Hague and Gertruydenberg, there is no doubt that he would eventually have signed a treaty much more favourable to the Emperor and his supporters than the peace actually made, rather than run the risk of continuing the war. It may be admitted that the Tory ministry made peace as quickly as they could, without much consideration for anybody except themselves, in order to be free from foreign complications when the crisis of the succession should occur at home. Yet from the larger point of view of the welfare of Europe, the peace of Utrecht, like its predecessor the peace of Westphalia, mainly registered and sanctioned accomplished facts. Substantially it ordered Europe for the future on the basis of development at which it had then arrived.

Since the last great settlement of the affairs of Europe three great changes had occurred in European politics.

[Sidenote: =1. It recognised the due position of France.=]

(1) France had acquired beyond all question the position of the leading nation of Europe, and that, not merely through the extension of her frontiers, the splendour of her court, or the ambition of her king; but through the energy and ability of her people, the richness of her soil, and the advantages of her geographical position. A settlement of Europe, which ignored this fact, could not stand for ten years, and the allies showed their wisdom in permitting France to retain the position which she had legitimately won, and guarding against her abuse of it by forming states on her frontiers, powerful enough to keep her in check. Events proved that they were right. Austria and the Dutch in combination on the dangerous northern frontier, Prussia and the Empire to the east, Savoy to the south-east, with Austria in reserve in Italy, were as a matter of fact found strong enough to deal with France in the eighteenth century; and it was not until the balance of power and the European states system were alike swept away by the militant democracy of the Revolution, that France became once more a menace to the liberties of Europe.

[Sidenote: =2. The commercial and maritime supremacy of England.=]

(2) England had launched herself on that career of colonial and commercial ascendency which has made her the most prosperous country in the world. She was learning to found her colonial empire more upon the conquests of colonies, which France could not support, than upon the efforts of her own children. Her acknowledged superiority at sea, dating from the battle of La Hogue, emphasised by the battle of Vigo, and the capture of Gibraltar and Minorca, might from time to time be questioned by France and Spain, it could never be overthrown, and it brought naturally with it the acquisition of French colonies and Spanish trade privileges. The assiento was the thin end of the wedge by which England soon obtained the lion’s share of the lucrative and nefarious slave-trade. The cessions in north America were the beginning of her hold over the vast stretches of land to the north of her plantations, which were to be reduced wholly under her rule during the eighteenth century, and are now known as the Dominion of Canada, and the colony of British Columbia. In securing to England power and privileges, which she alone, owing to her maritime supremacy could properly use, the peace not only helped her forward on her true line of national development, but contributed in no slight degree to add to the resources and prosperity of the world at large.

[Sidenote: =3. It established European safe-guards against France.=]

(3) The dismemberment of the Empire, which had been recognised and made permanent by the peace of Westphalia, had finally removed the last vestiges of national feeling and national policy in Germany. The smaller German states grouped themselves for purposes of offence or defence naturally around the larger powers of the north and south,--Prussia and Austria. The barrier to French aggression on the Rhine had therefore to be sought, not in bolstering up an effete institution like the Empire, out of which vitality had long ago departed, but in strengthening and utilising the national forces of the two leading powers. The peace of Utrecht adopted this policy as far as was at that time possible. It planted Prussia as a sentinel over against France on the lower Rhine, and added to her possessions in that quarter as well as to her general dignity, in order to make her discharge her duties with the greater zeal. The subsequent history of Europe is one long commentary on the wisdom of this policy. Austria required no incentive to fulfil a similar task in the upper Rhine and in Italy, but she was sadly deficient in the necessary resources. In the last war the gold of England and the armies of England alone had saved her from irretrievable ruin. By giving over to her the richest part of Italy, and defending her from French attack by the buffer state of Savoy, the peace did all that was possible to strengthen the defences of Europe against a renewal of French tyranny, while ministering to the dynastic ambition of the House of Habsburg.

[Sidenote: =Advantages gained by the peace.=]

If Europe had no just reason to find fault with the peace of Utrecht from the point of view of her larger interests, neither could the nations themselves complain that their individual aspirations had been unduly neglected. In the Austrian Netherlands, in spite of the grotesque device of the barrier fortresses, the United Provinces gained a protection against the aggression of France and the rivalry of Antwerp, not less efficient than the Spanish Netherlands had proved to be. By the partial opening of the Spanish trade, and the establishment of a colonial empire by England, the maritime nations obtained the extension of their commerce, which was one of the principal objects which they hoped to gain by taking up arms. Portugal regained its independence and opened up through the Methuen treaty an important and lucrative trade with England. Savoy retained its political importance as a buffer state, and was encouraged to make itself more definitely an Italian power. Prussia was received into the brotherhood of independent monarchies. Even Spain, though she lost the integrity of her empire, was able to retain the king of her own choice. It is here that the provisions of the peace have been most violently assailed, but with little justice. The war of the Spanish Succession was fought, say the critics of the peace, to prevent the House of Bourbon from ascending the throne of Spain, and after eleven years of terrible bloodshed the peace of Utrecht sanctioned the very connection between the two crowns of France and Spain, which the Grand Alliance was formed to render impossible. The family compacts of the eighteenth century are adduced to show the evil effects of such a policy. It may be frankly admitted that the relations between the houses of Habsburg and Bourbon were the least satisfactory parts of the settlements effected at Utrecht, and for the simple reason that they were the most difficult satisfactorily to settle. It might have been possible to impose the archduke Charles upon the Spanish people under the Partition Treaty or at the beginning of the war. It had become impossible in 1712, when the Spaniards themselves had driven him out without French assistance. It was wholly out of the question when after the death of his brother Joseph he had become Emperor. Philip V. was left on the throne of Spain because there was no one else who could be put there. Events soon proved that Austria could not even hold Naples and Sicily against Spain, much less could she conquer her. The weak point in the peace of Utrecht, the danger to Europe from the family compacts, much exaggerated as it has been, came from a cause over which the negotiations of the peace could have no control whatever--the inherent weakness of the House of Habsburg. The danger to Europe from the family compacts lay not in the fact that France and Spain were intrinsically so much more powerful than Austria, the Milanese and Naples, but in the far greater ability to use their opportunities which distinguished the House of Bourbon and their political advisers.

[Sidenote: =It is the end of the seventeenth century.=]

The seventeenth century ends properly speaking with the peace of Utrecht. The earnestness and the ambitions to which it had given birth found in that peace either their accomplishment or their burial-place. The attempt of France to establish a dictatorship over Europe, which has formed the dramatic interest of the century, has failed. France remains but one, and not always the chief, of the nations of Europe. The determination of England on the contrary to attain the commercial leadership of the world, the effort made by Prussia to obtain leadership in Germany, of Austria to obtain command of the left bank of the Danube, and a footing in Italy, have been crowned with success. By the treaties of Passarovitch and Nystädt, which were to follow the peace of Utrecht, as the treaties of Oliva and the Pyrenees followed the peace of Westphalia, Sweden and Poland have to give way to Russia and Prussia in the north, while Turkey stands face to face with Russia on the Pruth and the Black Sea. In the peace of Westphalia the religious rivalries of the century found their appropriate solution. In the treaties of Utrecht and Nystädt the political questions of the century received their appropriate answer. The rivalry between the House of Bourbon and the House of Habsburg for the Rhine was over. The aggrandisement of Prussia, the rise of Russia, the development of England, the failure of Sweden, the decline of the Ottoman Turks, were accomplished facts, recognised and dealt with by the treaties. In the future the great political questions of Europe take a somewhat different form. As the power of the Austro-Spanish house is finally broken at Utrecht, the Franco-German question begins to take the place of the Franco-Imperial question. As Russia advances to the Pruth, and the Turks retire behind the Danube the Eastern Question takes its rise. As English traders press into every part of the world the old rivalry between France and England breaks out again and again in another ‘hundred years war.’ But these are the problems of the years which are to come, and as they appear upon the scene the questions of the seventeenth century which have given birth to them pass into history.

[Sidenote: =The last years of Louis XIV.=]

Two years were still to drag their weary length along before the greatest figure of the seventeenth century passed away from the struggles and the disappointments of life. They were years of domestic misfortune and public gloom. In the fatal year 1711 the Dauphin and his eldest son, the duke of Burgundy, the much-loved pupil of Fénélon, were carried off by the smallpox. The heir of France was the baby duke of Anjou, and the only legitimate member of the royal family capable of acting as regent was the libertine and atheist Philip of Orléans. As Louis XIV. looked into the future he could see nothing but what he most dreaded for France. As he turned his eyes to the present the picture was one of sombre misery unrelieved. In his despair of being able to make public affairs better, Louis turned in the closing years of his life with almost feverish excitement to the task of atoning for his sins. Urged on by Madame de Maintenon he determined to root out heresy from his dominions while still it was possible. He attacked the Jansenists, procured their condemnation by Pope Clement XI., and destroyed Port Royal, the home of the keenest intellects and perhaps the noblest lives in France. [Sidenote: =His death, 1715.=] In the middle of this strife of mistaken duty his own call came, and on the 15th of September 1715 the great king breathed his last, leaving a weakly child of five the inheritor of his power. It was a sad and pathetic ending to a career often mistaken, but never ignoble. The sun set indeed amid dark and murky clouds. Yet on the page of history he shines out in clear predominance over all contemporary sovereigns, and of him it may be said, with more truth than of most kings or statesmen, that during a reign extending over more than half a century the motive and inspiration of his every thought and plan was the glory and welfare of his country.