VIII.

The European Wars

The last three decades of Louis’s reign were a time of constant warfare. France was recognized as the dominant continental power, and its strength threatened other European nations. The Catholic powers, especially Austria, were fearful of Louis’s designs upon Spain’s possessions. Meanwhile, the Protestant states, especially England and Holland, worried about the revival of religious warfare.

A.

The War of the League of Augsburg

To oppose French aggression, England, Holland, Denmark, and Austria formed the League of Augsburg, called the Grand Alliance, in 1689. The War of the League of Augsburg (1688-1697) began over a complicated inheritance dispute between Louis and the Austrian Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I. Ultimately, French forces stormed across the Rhine River and captured strategic German towns. The European allies struck back, and soon both sides had massive armies of over 400,000 soldiers in the field. The main areas of fighting were again in the Spanish Netherlands, where fortified towns were besieged for years and townspeople were literally starved into submission. Although Louis had some important successes—his forces invaded Spain and occupied Barcelona—the fighting was largely a stalemate. William of Orange prevented a French breakthrough into Holland and relieved several of the most important fortress towns from French siege.

The war strained French resources nearly to the breaking point. Louis shifted resources to the military and stripped laborers from the countryside for service in the army. Famine resulted in both 1692 and 1694, and the war’s demands on the treasury made relief operations impossible. Riots broke out in the countryside, and the intendants reported widespread discontent. Finally, Louis was forced to seek peace. The Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 gave France the territory of Alsace, but France had to return all the towns it had occupied in the Netherlands and Spain.

B.

The War of the Spanish Succession

Louis was willing to return the towns in part because it was becoming clear that his family would inherit some portion of Spain’s possessions. King Charles II of Spain had no male heirs, and his health suggested that he would not live much longer. He controlled a vast empire that included Latin America and numerous Caribbean islands, the Low Countries with the exception of Holland, and parts of Italy as well as Spain itself. Louis’s interest in the Spanish inheritance went beyond money or glory. His concern was that if the Spanish possessions passed intact to the Austrian Habsburgs, France would face a major threat to its security. The threat would arise because Austria would become the largest territorial power in Europe, with possessions on three sides of France. Thus when Charles II bequeathed his empire to Louis’s grandson Philip, duke of Anjou, Louis was determined that France would fight to help him keep it. Philip became Philip V of Spain in 1700.

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was the most brutal and costly of Louis’s military endeavors. For the first time in over a century, French armies lost battles, most notably by John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, at the Battle of Blenheim (in what is now Germany) in 1704 and at Ramillies (in what is now Belgium) in 1706. The fighting made it clear that France would not gain control of the Spanish Netherlands (they were ultimately ceded to Austria). However, it also revealed that the allies could not dislodge Philip from the Spanish throne.

Realizing a stalemate, the warring nations worked to find an acceptable formula for peace, which took nearly as long as did the fighting. The Peace of Utrecht recognized Philip as king of Spain but dismembered the Spanish inheritance to balance power among France, Spain, Austria, and Great Britain. It was also agreed that France and Spain would never be united as one monarchy. Louis XIV died in 1715, just after the war ended. He was succeeded by his great-grandson, Louis XV.