Page:A General Sketch of Political History from the Earlist Times.djvu/307

 LOUIS XIV. 295 a great coalition, and the brilliant achievements of her generals had not carried her far forward. In 1678, in spite of the opposi- tion of William of Orange, the treaty of Nimeguen The Treaty brought the war to an end for the time. Spain of Nimeguen, finally surrendered Franche Comte, but otherwise 1678, the possessions of the belligerents were restored practically as they had been when the war began ; and France still held the fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. For ten years after the Peace of Nimeguen there was com- parative peace. Circumstances favoured Louis in making his own use of the treaties without actually inviting the The armed attack of a European combination. The Reunions, territories which had been ceded to France in the Rhine district were conveyed under terms which left many open questions. Louis appointed his own courts to interpret the rights of the French Crown under the treaties. As a matter of course the interpretation was in all points favourable to the maximum possible French claim. When Spain declined a complete surrender to Louis's curious principle of arbitration, Louis opened an attack on the towns which were in dispute. Spain could get no help, because the emperor was occupied with a Turkish war. Brandenburg was sulky over the manner in which its interests had been neglected by the allies, and in Holland the old republican peace-party was temporarily in the ascendent. So Louis got his own way in what is called the ' Affair of the Reunions.' Louis, however, soon forced Europe to combine against him again. Down to 1683 Colbert was able to exercise some in- fluence in checking his master's aggressiveness, which was fostered by the war minister Louvois. But in that year Colbert died j there was no check on Louvois, while the king fell to a great extent under the influence of Madame de Louis and Maintenon to whom he was secretly married. She the Church, was a religious zealot, and urged Louis forward to a disastrous attack on the Huguenots. At the same time Louis, like Henry viii. in England in the past, while parading his championship of orthodoxy was determined himself to be the head of the Church as well as of the state. His arrogant treatment of the pope