A Political and Social History of Modern Europe Part 26

[Sidenote: The Grand Alliance against the Bourbons]

Meanwhile, William III and the Emperor Leopold formed the Grand Alliance, to which at first England, Holland, Austria, and the German electors of Brandenburg-Prussia, Hanover, and the Palatinate adhered.

Subsequently, Portugal, by means of a favorable commercial treaty with England,[Footnote: The "Methuen Treaty" (1703).] was induced to join the alliance, and the duke of Savoy abandoned France in favor of Austria with the understanding that his country should be recognized as a kingdom. The allies demanded that the Spanish crown should pa.s.s to the Archduke Charles, the grandson of the emperor, that Spanish trade monopolies should be broken, and that the power of the French king should be curtailed.

[Sidenote: The War of the Spanish Succession]

The War of the Spanish Succession--the fourth and final war of Louis XIV--lasted from 1702 to 1713. Although William III died at its very commencement, he was certain that it would be vigorously pushed by the English government of his sister-in-law, Queen Anne (1702-1714). The bitter struggle on the high seas and in the colonies, where it was known as Queen Anne's War, will be treated in another place. [Footnote: See below, p. 308.] The military campaigns in Europe were on a larger scale than had hitherto been known. Fighting was carried on in the Netherlands, in the southern Germanies, in Italy, and in Spain.

The tide of war turned steadily for several years against the Bourbons.

The allies possessed the ablest generals of the time in the duke of Marlborough (1650-1722), the conscientious self-possessed English commander, and in the skillful and daring Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663- 1736). The great battle of Blenheim (1704) drove the French from the Holy Roman Empire, and the capture of Gibraltar (1704) gave England a foothold in Spain and a naval base for the Mediterranean. Prince Eugene crowded the French out of Italy (1706); and by the victories of Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709), Marlborough cleared the Netherlands. On land and sea one reverse followed another.

The allies at length were advancing on French soil. It appeared inevitable that they would settle peace at Paris on their own terms.

Then it was that Louis XIV displayed an energy and devotion worthy of a better cause. He appealed straight to the patriotism of his people. He set an example of untiring application to toil. Nor was he disappointed in his expectations. New recruits hurried to the front; rich and poor poured in their contributions; a supreme effort was made to stay the advancing enemy.

The fact that Louis XIV was not worse punished was due to this remarkable uprising of the French and Spanish nations and likewise to dissensions among the allies. A change of ministry in England led to the disgrace and retirement of the duke of Marlborough and made that country lukewarm in prosecuting the war. Then, too, the unexpected accession of the Archduke Charles to the imperial and Austrian thrones (1711) now rendered the claims of the allies' candidate for the Spanish throne as menacing to the European balance of power as would be the recognition of the French claimant, Philip of Bourbon.

These circ.u.mstances made possible the conclusion of the peace of Utrecht, with the following major provisions:

[Sidenote: The Peace of Utrecht 1713-1714]

(1) Philip V, grandson of Louis XIV, was acknowledged king of Spain and the Indies, on condition that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united. (2) The Austrian Habsburgs were indemnified by securing Naples, Sardinia, [Footnote: By the treaty of London (1720), Austria exchanged Sardinia for Sicily.] Milan, and the Belgian Netherlands. The last-named, which had been called the Spanish Netherlands since the days of Philip II, were henceforth for a century styled the Austrian Netherlands.

(3) England received the lion's share of the spoils. She obtained Newfoundland, Acadia (Nova Scotia), and Hudson Bay from France, and Gibraltar and Minorca from Spain. She also secured a preferential tariff for her imports into the great port of Cadiz, the monopoly of the slave trade, and the right of sending one ship of merchandise a year to the Spanish colonies. France promised not to a.s.sist the Stuarts in their attempts to regain the English throne.

(4) The Dutch recovered the "barrier" fortresses and for garrisoning them were promised financial aid by Austria. The Dutch were also allowed to establish a trade monopoly on the River Scheldt.

(5) The elector of Brandenburg was acknowledged king of Prussia, an important step In the fortunes of the Hohenzollern family which at the present time reigns in Germany.

(6) The duchy of Savoy was recognized similarly as a kingdom and was given the island of Sicily. [Footnote: The t.i.tle of king was recognized by the emperor only in 1720, when Savoy exchanged Sicily for Sardinia.

Henceforth the kingdom of Savoy was usually referred to as the kingdom of Sardinia.] From the house of Savoy has descended the reigning sovereign of present-day Italy.

[Sidenote: Significance of the Settlement of Utrecht]

The peace of Utrecht marked the cessation of a long conflict between Spanish Habsburgs and French Bourbons. For nearly a century thereafter both France and Spain pursued similar foreign policies for the common interests of the Bourbon family. Bourbon sovereigns have continued, with few interruptions, to reign in Spain to the present moment.

The Habsburg influence, however, remained paramount in Austria, in the Holy Roman Empire, in Italy, and in the Belgian Netherlands. It was against this predominance that the Bourbons were to direct their dynastic policies throughout the greater part of the eighteenth century.

The peace of Utrecht likewise marked the rise of English power upon the seas and the gradual elimination of France as a successful compet.i.tor in the race for colonial mastery. Two states also came into prominence upon the continent of Europe--Prussia and Savoy--about which the new German Empire and the unified Italian Kingdom were respectively to be builded.

[Sidenote: Last Years of the Grand Monarch]

While France was shorn of none of her European conquests, nevertheless the War of the Spanish Succession was exceedingly disastrous for that country. In its wake came famine and pestilence, excessive imposts and taxes, official debas.e.m.e.nt of the currency, and bankruptcy--a long line of social and economic disorders. Louis XIV survived the treaty of Utrecht but two years, and to such depths had his prestige and glory fallen among his own people, that his corpse, as it pa.s.sed along the royal road to the stately tombs of the French kings at St. Denis, "was saluted by the curses of a noisy crowd sitting in the wine-rooms, celebrating his death by drinking more than their fill as a compensation for having suffered too much from hunger during his lifetime. Such was the coa.r.s.e but true epitaph which popular opinion accorded to the Grand Monarch."

[Sidenote: Misgovernment of France during Minority of Louis XV]

Nor had the immediate future much better things in store for exhausted France. The successor upon the absolutist throne was Louis XV, great- grandson of Louis XIV and a boy of five years of age, who did not undertake to exercise personal power until near the middle of the eighteenth century. In the meantime the country was governed for about eight years by the king's uncle, the duke of Orleans, and then for twenty years by Cardinal Fleury.

[Sidenote: John Law]

Orleans loved pleasure and gave himself to a life of debauchery; he cared little for the boy-king, whose education and training he grievously neglected. His foreign policy was weak and vacillating, and his several efforts to reform abuses in the political and economic inst.i.tutions of Louis XIV invariably ended in failure. It was while experimenting with the disorganized finances that he was duped by a Scotch adventurer and promoter, a certain John Law (1671-1729). Law had an idea that a gigantic corporation might be formed for French colonial trade, [Footnote: Law's corporation was actually important in the development of Louisiana.] shares might be widely sold throughout the country, and the proceeds therefrom utilized to wipe out the public debt. Orleans accepted the scheme and for a while the country went mad with the fever of speculation. In due time, however, the stock was discovered to be worthless, the bubble burst, and a terrible panic ensued. The net result was increased misery for the nation.

[Sidenote: Fleury and the War of the Polish Election]

The little sense which Orleans possessed was sufficient to keep him out of foreign war [Footnote: France was at peace throughout his regency, except for a brief time (1719-1720) when Orleans joined the British government in preventing his Spanish cousin, Philip V, from upsetting the treaty of Utrecht.] but even that was lacking to his successor, Cardinal Fleury. Fleury was dragged into a war (1733-1738) with Austria and Russia over the election of a Polish king. The allies supported the elector of Saxony; France supported a Pole, the father-in-law of Louis XV, Stanislaus Leszczinski. France was defeated and Louis XV had to content himself with securing the duchy of Lorraine for his father-in- law. Thus, family ambition merely added to the economic distress of the French people.

It was during the War of the Polish Election, however, that the Bourbon king of Spain, perceiving his rivals engaged elsewhere, seized the kingdom of the Two Sicilies from Austria and put a member of his own family on its throne. Thus, in the eighteenth century, the Bourbons dominated France, Spain, and southern Italy.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE SPANISH SUCCESSION]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BOURBON FAMILY, 1589-1915 KINGS OF FRANCE, SPAIN, AND NAPLES]

ADDITIONAL READING

GENERAL. Brief accounts: J. H. Robinson and C. A. Beard, _The Development of Modern Europe_, Vol. I (1907), ch. i-iii; H. O. Wakeman, _The Ascendancy of France, 1598-1715_ (1894), ch. ix-xi, xiv, xv; A. H.

Johnson, _The Age of the Enlightened Despot, 1660-1789_ (1910), ch i- iii, vi; J. H. Sacret, _Bourbon and Vasa, 1610-1715_ (1914), ch. viii- xii; Arthur Ha.s.sall, _Louis XIV and the Zenith of the French Monarchy_ (1897) in the "Heroes of the Nations" Series; H. T. Dyer, _A History of Modern Europe from the Fall of Constantinople_, 3d ed. rev. by Arthur Ha.s.sall (1901), ch. x.x.xvii, x.x.xix-xl, xlii-xliv; A. J. Grant, _The French Monarchy, 1483-1789_, Vol. II (1900), ch. x-xvi; G. W. Kitchin, _A History of France_, Vol. III (1899), Books V and VI, ch. i, ii; Victor Duruy, _History of Modern Times_, trans. and rev. by E. A.

Grosvenor (1894), ch. xxi-xxiii. More detailed treatments: _Cambridge Modern History_, Vol. V (1908), ch. i-iii, vii-ix, xiii, xiv, Vol. VI (1909), ch. iv-vi; _Histoire generale_, Vol. VI, ch. iii-v, vii-ix, xii-xvi, xx, Vol. VII, ch. i-iii; _Histoire de France_, ed. by Ernest Lavisse, Vols. VII and VIII (1906-1909); _History of All Nations_, Vol.

XIII, _The Age of Louis XIV_, by Martin Philippson.

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS OF FRANCE. Cecile Hugon, _Social France in the Seventeenth Century_ (1911), popular, suggestive, and well- ill.u.s.trated. On Colbert: A. J. Sargent, _Economic Policy of Colbert_ (1899); S. L. Mims, _Colbert's West India Policy_ (1912); emile Leva.s.seur, _Histoire des cla.s.ses ouvrieres et de l'industrie en France avant 1789_, Vol. II (1901), Book VI; Pierre Clement (editor), _Lettres, Instructions et Memoires de Colbert_, 7 vols. in 9 (1861- 1873). H. M. Baird, _The Huguenots and the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes_, 2 vols. (1895), a detailed study by a warm partisan of the French Protestants. Among the numerous important sources for the reign of Louis XIV should be mentioned especially F. A. Isambert (editor), _Recueil general des anciennes lois_, Vols. XVIII-XX, containing significant statutes of the reign; G. B. Depping (editor), _Correspondance administrative sous le regne de Louis XIV_, 4 vols.

(1850-1855), for the system of government; Arthur de Boislisle (editor), _Correspondance des controleurs generaux_, 2 vols., for the fiscal system. Voltaire's brilliant _Age of Louis the Fourteenth_ has been translated into English; an authoritative history of French literature in the Age of Louis XIV is Louis Pet.i.t de Julleville (editor), _Histoire de la langue et de la litterature francaise_, Vol.

V (1898). The best account of the minority of Louis XV is that of J. B.

Perkins, _France under the Regency_ (1892); a brief summary is Arthur Ha.s.sall, _The Balance of Power, 1715-1789_ (1896), ch. i-iv.

FOREIGN WARS OF LOUIS XIV. On Louis XIV's relations with the Dutch: P.

J. Blok, _History of the People of the Netherlands_, Part IV, _Frederick Henry, John DeWitt, William III_, abridged Eng. trans.

by O. A. Bierstadt (1907). On his relations with the empire: Ruth Putnam, _Alsace and Lorraine from Caesar to Kaiser, 58 B.C.-1871 A.D._ (1914), a popular narrative; Franz Krones, _Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs_, Vol. III, Book XVI, Vol. IV, Book XVII (1878), a standard German work. On his relations with Spain: M. A. S.

Hume, _Spain, its Greatness and Decay, 1479-1788_ (1898), ch. ix- xiii. On Louis XIV's relations with England: Osmund Airy, _The English Restoration and Louis XIV_ (1895), in the "Epochs of Modern History" Series; Sir J. R. Seeley, _The Growth of British Policy_, 2 vols. (1895), especially Vol. II, Parts IV and V; Earl Stanhope, _History of England, Comprising the Reign of Queen Anne until the Peace of Utrecht_ (1870), a rather dry account of the War of the Spanish Succession; G. J. (Viscount) Wolseley, _Life of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, to the Accession of Queen Anne_, 4th ed., 2 vols. (1894), an apology for Marlborough; J. S. Corbett, _England in the Mediterranean, 1603-1713_, Vol. II (1904), for English naval operations; J. W. Gerard, _The Peace of Utrecht_ (1885). On the diplomacy of the whole period: D. T. Hill, _History of Diplomacy in the International Development of Europe,_ Vol. III (1914), ch. i-iv, a clear outline; Emile Bourgeois, _Manuel historique de politique etrangere_, 4th ed., Vol. I (1906), ch. iii, iv, vii, ix, xiv; a.r.s.ene Legrelle, _La diplomatie francaise et la succession d'Espagne, 1659-1725_, 4 vols. (1888-1892), a minute study of an important phase of Louis XIV's diplomacy; the text of the princ.i.p.al diplomatic doc.u.ments is in course of publication at Paris (20 vols., 1884-1913) as the _Recueil des instructions donnees aux amba.s.sadeurs et ministres de France depuis les traites de Westphalie jusqu'a la revolution francaise_.

MEMOIRS OF THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV. Among the mult.i.tudinous memoirs of the period, the most significant, from the standpoint of the general historian, are: Marquise de Sevigne, _Lettres_, delightful epistles relating mainly to the years 1670-1696, edited in fullest form for "Les grands ecrivains de la France" by Monmerque, 14 vols. (1862- 1868), selections of which have been translated into English by C. Syms (1898); Duc de Saint-Simon, _Memoires_, the most celebrated of memoirs, dealing with many events of the years 1692-1723, gossipy and racily written but occasionally inaccurate and frequently partisan, edited many times--most recently and best for "Les grands ecrivains de la France" by Arthur de Boislisle, 30 vols. (1879-1916), of which a much-abridged translation has been published in English, 4 vols.; Marquis de Dangeau, _Journal_, 19 vols. (1854-1882), written day by day, throughout the years 1684-1720, by a conscientious and well- informed member of the royal entourage; _Life and Letters of Charlotte Elizabeth_ (1889), select letters, trans. into English, of a German princess who married Louis XIV's brother, of which the most complete French edition is that of Jaegle, 3 vols. (1890). See also Comtesse de Puliga, _Madame de Sevigne, her Correspondents and Contemporaries_, 2 vols. (1873), and, for important collections of miscellaneous memoirs of the period, J. F. Michaud and J. J. F.

Poujoulat, _Nouvelle collection des memoires relatifs a l'histoire de France depuis le 13e siecle jusqu'a la fin du 18e siecle_, 34 vols.

(1854), and Louis Lafaist and L. F. Danjou, _Archives curieuses de l'histoire de France_, 27 vols. (1834-1840).

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRIUMPH OF PARLIAMENTARY GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND

CONFLICTING POLITICAL TENDENCIES IN ENGLAND: ABSOLUTISM _VERSUS_ PARLIAMENTARIANISM

Through all the wars of dynastic rivalry which have been traced in the two preceding chapters, we have noticed the increasing prestige of the powerful French monarchy, culminating in the reign of Louis XIV. We now turn to a nation which played but a minor role in the international rivalries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Later, from 1689 to 1763, England was to engage in a tremendous colonial struggle with France. But from 1560 to 1689 England for the most part held herself aloof from the continental rivalries of Bourbons and Habsburgs, and never fought in earnest except against Philip II of Spain, who threatened England's economic and political independence, and against the Dutch, who were England's commercial rivals. While the continental states were engaged in dynastic quarrels, England was absorbed in a conflict between rival principles of domestic government--between const.i.tutional parliamentary government and unlimited royal power. To the triumph of the parliamentary principle in England we owe many of our modern ideas and practices of const.i.tutional government.

[Sidenote: Absolutism of the Tudors, 1485-1603]