The War Of The Spanish Succession

(1697--1714.)



New European Troubles. --Intrigues at the Spanish Court. --Leopold I.

declares War against France. --Frederick I. of Brandenburg becomes

King of Prussia. --German States allied with France. --Prince

Eugene in Italy. --Operations on the Rhine. --Marlborough enters

Germany. --Battle of Blenheim. --Joseph I. Emperor. --Victory of

Ramillies. --Battle of Turin. --Victories in landers. --Louis XIV.

asks for Peace. --Battle of Malplaquet. --Renewed Offer of France.

--Stupidity of Joseph I. --Recall of Marlborough. --Karl VI.

Emperor. --Peace of Utrecht. --Karl VI.'s Obstinacy. --Prince

Eugene's Appeal. --Final Peace. --Loss of Alsatia. --The Kingdom of

Sardinia.





[Sidenote: 1700. TROUBLES IN SWEDEN AND SPAIN.]



The beginning of the new century brought with it new troubles for all

Europe, and Germany--since it was settled that her Emperors must be

Hapsburgs--was compelled to share in them. In the North, Charles XII. of

Sweden and Peter the Great of Russia were fighting for "the balance of

power"; in Spain king Charles II. was responsible for a new cause of

war, simply because he was the last of the Hapsburgs in a direct line,

and had no children! Louis XIV. had married his elder sister and Leopold

I. his younger sister; and both claimed the right to succeed him. The

former, it is true, had renounced all claim to the throne of Spain when

he married, but he put forth his grandson, Duke Philip of Anjou, as the

candidate. There were two parties at the Court of Madrid,--the French,

at the head of which was Louis XIV.'s ambassador, and the Austrian,

directed by Charles II.'s mother and wife. The other nations of Europe

were opposed to any division of Spain between the rival claimants, since

the possession of even half her territory (which still included Naples,

Sicily, Milan and Flanders, besides her enormous colonies in America)

would have made either France or Austria too powerful. Charles II.,

however, was persuaded to make a will appointing Philip of Anjou his

successor, and when he died, in 1700, Louis XIV. immediately sent his

grandson over the Pyrenees and had him proclaimed as king Philip V. of

Spain.



[Sidenote: 1701.]



Leopold I. thereupon declared war against France, in the hope of gaining

the crown of Spain for his son, the Archduke Karl. England and Holland

made alliances with him, and he was supported by most of the German

States. The Elector, Frederick III. of Brandenburg (son of "the Great

Elector"), who was a very proud and ostentatious prince, furnished his

assistance on condition that he should be authorized by the Emperor to

assume the title of King. Since the traditional customs of the German

Empire did not permit another king than that of Bohemia among the

Electors, Frederick was obliged to take the name of his detached Duchy

of Prussia, instead of Brandenburg. On the 18th of January, 1701, he

crowned himself and his wife at Koenigsberg, and was thenceforth called

king Frederick I. of Prussia. But his capital was still Berlin, and thus

the names of "Prussia" and "the Prussians"--which came from a small

tribe of mixed Slavonic blood--were gradually transferred to all his

other lands and their population, German, and especially Saxon, in

character. Prince Eugene of Savoy saw the future with a prophetic glance

when he declared: "the Emperor, in his own interest, ought to have

hanged the Ministers who counselled him to make this concession to the

Elector of Brandenburg!"



The Elector Max Emanuel of Bavaria and his brother, the Archbishop of

Cologne, openly espoused the cause of France. Several smaller princes

were also bribed by Louis XIV., but one of them, the Duke of Brunswick,

after raising 12,000 men for France, was compelled by the Elector of

Hannover to add them to the German army. With such miserable disunion at

home, Germany would have gone to pieces and ceased to exist, but for the

powerful participation of England and Holland in the war. The English

Parliament, it is true, only granted 10,000 men at first, but as soon as

Louis XIV. recognized the exiled Stuart, Prince James, as rightful heir

to the throne of England, the grant was enlarged to 40,000 soldiers and

an equal number of sailors. The value of this aid was greatly increased

by the military genius of the English commander, the famous Duke of

Marlborough.



[Sidenote: 1703. FIGHTING ALONG THE RHINE.]



The war was commenced by Louis XIV. who suddenly took possession of a

number of fortified places in Flanders, which Max Emanuel of Bavaria,

then governor of the province, had purposely left unguarded. While the

recovery of this territory was left to England and Holland, Prince

Eugene undertook to drive the French out of Northern Italy. He made a

march across the Alps as daring as that of Napoleon, transporting cannon

and supplies by paths only known to the chamois-hunters. For nearly a

year he was entirely successful; then, having been recalled to Vienna,

the French were reinforced and recovered their lost ground. An important

result of the campaign, however, was that Victor Amadeus, Duke of Savoy

(ancestor of the present king of Italy), quarrelled with the French,

with whom he had been allied, and joined the German side.



The struggle now became more and more confused, and we cannot undertake

to follow all its entangled episodes. France encouraged a rebellion in

Hungary; the Archbishop of Cologne laid waste the Lower Rhine; Max

Emanuel seized Ulm and held it for France; Marshal Villars, in 1703,

pressed back Ludwig of Baden (who had up to that time been successful in

the Palatinate and Alsatia), marched through the Black Forest and

effected a junction with the Bavarian army. His plan was to cross the

Alps and descend into Italy in the rear of the German forces which

Prince Eugene had left there; but the Tyrolese rose against him and

fought with such desperation that he was obliged to fall back on

Bavaria.



Marshal Villars and Max Emanuel now commanded a combined army of 60,000

men, in the very heart of Germany. They had defeated the Austrian

commander, and Ludwig of Baden's army was too small to take the field

against them. But the Duke of Marlborough had been brilliantly

victorious in Belgium and on the Lower Rhine, and he was thus able to

march on towards the Danube. Prince Eugene hastened from Hungary with

such troops as he could collect, and the two, with Ludwig of Baden, were

strong enough to engage the French and Bavarians. They met on the 13th

of August, 1704, on the plain of the Danube, near the little village of

Blenheim. After a long and furious battle, the French left 14,000 men

upon the field, lost 13,000 prisoners, and fled towards the Rhine in

such haste that scarcely one-third of their army reached the river.

Marlborough and Eugene were made Princes of the German Empire, and all

Europe rang with songs celebrating the victory, in which Marlborough's

name appeared as "Malbrook." His proposal to follow up the victory with

an invasion of France was rejected by the Emperor, and the war, which

might then have been pressed to a termination, continued for ten years

longer.



[Sidenote: 1705.]



In 1705 Leopold I. relieved Germany, by his death, of the dead weight of

his incapacity. He was succeeded by his son, Joseph I., who possessed,

at least, a little ordinary common sense. He manifested it at once by

making Prince Eugene his counsellor, instead of surrounding him with

spies, as his jealous and spiteful father had done. Both sides were

preparing for new movements, and the principal event for the year took

place in Spain, where the Archduke, who had been conveyed to Barcelona

by an English fleet, obtained possession of Catalonia and Aragon, and

threatened Philip V. with the loss of his crown. The previous year,

1704, the English had taken Gibraltar.



In 1706 operations were recommenced, on a larger scale, and with results

which were very disastrous to the plans of France. Marlborough's great

victory at Ramillies, on the 23d of May, gave him the Spanish

Netherlands, and enabled the Emperor to declare Max Emanuel and the

Archbishop of Cologne outlawed. The city of Turin, held by an Austrian

garrison, was besieged, about the same time, by the Duke of Orleans,

with 38,000 men. Then Prince Eugene hastened across the Alps with an

army of 24,000, was reinforced by 13,000 more under Victor Amadeus of

Savoy, and on the 7th of September attacked the French with such

impetuosity that they were literally destroyed. Among the spoils were

211 cannon, 80,000 barrels of powder, and a great amount of money,

horses and provisions. By this victory Prince Eugene became also a hero

to the German people, and many of their songs about him are sung at this

day. The "Prussian" troops, under Prince Leopold of Dessau, especially

distinguished themselves: their commander was afterwards one of

Frederick the Great's most famous generals.



The first consequence of this victory was an armistice with Louis XIV.,

so far as Italian territory was concerned: nevertheless, a part of the

Austrian army was sent to Naples in 1707, to take possession of the

country in the name of Spain. The Archduke Karl, after some temporary

successes over Philip V., was driven back to Barcelona, and Louis XIV.

then offered to treat for peace. Austria and England refused: in 1708

Marlborough and Prince Eugene, again united, won another victory over

the French at Oudenarde, and took the stronghold of Lille, which had

been considered impregnable. The road to Paris was apparently open to

the allies, and Louis XIV. offered to give up his claim, on behalf of

Philip V., to Spain, Milan, the Spanish-American colonies and the

Netherlands, provided Naples and Sicily were left to his grandson.

Marlborough and Prince Eugene required, in addition, that he should

expel Philip from Spain, in case the latter refused to conform to the

treaty. Louis XIV.'s pride was wounded by this demand, and the

negotiations were broken off.



[Sidenote: 1708. PEACE REJECTED BY JOSEPH I.]



With great exertion a new French army was raised, and Marshal Villars

placed in command. But the two famous commanders, Marlborough and

Eugene, achieved such a new and crushing victory in the battle of

Malplaquet, fought on the 11th of September, 1709, that France made a

third attempt to conclude peace. Louis XIV. now offered to withdraw his

claim to the Spanish succession, to restore Alsatia and Strasburg to

Germany, and to pay one million livres a month towards defraying the

expenses of expelling Philip V. from Spain. It will scarcely be believed

that this proposal, so humiliating to the extravagant pride of France,

and which conceded more than Germany had hoped to obtain, was rejected!

The cause seems to have been a change in the fortunes of the Archduke

Karl in Spain: he was again victorious, and in 1710 held his triumphal

entry in Madrid. Yet it is difficult to conceive what further advantages

Joseph I. expected to secure, by prolonging the war.



Germany was soon punished for this presumptuous refusal of peace. A

Court intrigue, in England, overthrew the Whig Ministry and gave the

power into the hands of the Tories: Marlborough was at first hampered

and hindered in carrying out his plans, and then recalled. While keeping

up the outward forms of her alliance with Holland and Germany, England

began to negotiate secretly with France, and thus the chief strength of

the combination against Louis XIV. was broken. In 1711 the Emperor

Joseph I. died, leaving no direct heirs, and the Archduke Karl became

his successor to the throne. The latter immediately left Spain, was

elected before he reached Germany, and crowned in Mayence on the 22d of

September, as Karl VI. Although, by deserting Spain, he had seemed to

renounce his pretension to the Spanish crown, there was a general fear

that the success of Germany would unite the two countries, as in the

time of Charles V., and Holland's interest in the war began also to

languish. Prince Eugene, without English aid, was so successful in the

early part of 1712 that even Paris seemed in danger; but Marshal

Villars, by cutting off all his supplies, finally forced him to retreat.



[Sidenote: 1713.]



During this same year negotiations were carried on between France,

England, Holland, Savoy and Prussia. They terminated, in 1713, in the

Peace of Utrecht, by which the Bourbon, Philip V., was recognized as

king of Spain and her colonies, on condition that the crowns of Spain

and France should never be united. England received Gibraltar and the

island of Minorca from Spain, Acadia, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the

Hudson's Bay Territory from France, and the recognition of her

Protestant monarchy. Holland obtained the right to garrison a number of

strong frontier fortresses in Belgium, and Prussia received Neufchatel

in Switzerland, some territory on the Lower Rhine, and the

acknowledgment of Frederick I.'s royal dignity.



Karl VI. refused to recognize his rival, Philip V., as king of Spain,

and therefore rejected the Treaty of Utrecht. But the other princes of

Germany were not eager to prolong the war for the sake of gratifying the

Hapsburg pride. Prince Eugene, who was a devoted adherent of Austria, in

vain implored them to be united and resolute. "I stand," he wrote, "like

a sentinel (a watch!) on the Rhine; and as mine eye wanders over these

fair regions, I think to myself how happy, and beautiful, and

undisturbed in the enjoyment of Nature's gifts they might be, if they

possessed courage to use the strength which God hath given them. With an

army of 200,000 men I would engage to drive the French out of Germany,

and would forfeit my life if I did not obtain a peace which should

gladden our hearts for the next twenty years." With such forces as he

could collect he carried on the war along the Upper Rhine, but he lost

the fortresses of Landau and Freiburg. Louis XIV., however, who was now

old and infirm, was very tired of the war, and after these successes, he

commissioned Marshal Villars to treat for peace with Prince Eugene. The

latter was authorized by the Emperor to negotiate: the two commanders

met at Rastatt, in Baden, and in spite of the unreasonable stubbornness

of Karl VI. a treaty was finally concluded on the 7th of March, 1714.



[Sidenote: 1714. END OF THE WAR.]



Austria received the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, Mantua and the

Island of Sardinia. Freiburg, Old-Breisach and Kehl were restored to

Germany, but France retained Landau, on the west bank of the Rhine, as

well as all Alsatia and Strasburg. Thus the recovery of the latter

territory, which Joseph I. refused to accept in 1710, was lost to

Germany until the year 1870.



By the Treaty of Utrecht, Duke Victor Amadeus of Savoy had received

Sicily as an independent kingdom. A few years afterwards he made an

exchange with Austria, giving Sicily for Sardinia: thus originated the

Kingdom of Sardinia, which continued to exist until the year 1860, when

Victor Emanuel became king of Italy.