Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/615

 REVOLUTION OF 1689.] FRANCE 579 stiff-necked remainder, with whom ho need not scruple to deal sharply, finally ordered the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and therewith the total abolition of all the privi leges unwillingly granted ninety years before to the Hugue nots, and always permitted with a grudging hand. The severities of 1G85, and the exodus of the Huguenots, finally brought that party to an end as a political organization. Whatever difference of opinions there may be as to the numbers who fled from the kingdom at this time, there can be no doubt as to the quality of them. They were the thriftiest and readiest hands in France ; they carried the arts and taste which were till then the special gift of their country, to Spitalfields, or Amsterdam, or even to Berlin. They crowded into the armies which were arrayed against their oppressor ; they helped to man the ships which de stroyed the navy of France ; they planted their industries in many places, and gave that wealth and prosperity to other lands which was driven from their homes. In England they influenced opinion not a little, and stedfastly sup ported the house of Orange against the Stewarts, friends of the king of France. In this same year 1685 Louis pushed his plans in Germany also further than was prudent. He alarmed tho greater princes by intriguing, seriously or not, for the im perial dignity, against the next vacancy ; he alarmed the Rhine princes also by claiming the Lower Palatinate for Charlotte Elizabeth of Bavaria, the Princess Palatine, who had married the king s brother the duko of Orleans, and who in this prime of her fortunes and brilliancy almost scared the dismal court with her bright sallies and the freedom of her tongue. When the princes heard this claim, coming so soon after the loss of Strasburg, a claim which would have brought Louis into the very heart of Germany, they hesitated no longer ; and in July 168G was signed that great league of Augsburg which was the beginning of the long struggle between France and the rest of Europe. The emperor, the king of Spain, the Dutch, the elector of Saxony, the Palatine elector, and a number of lesser princes, all joined it; in 1687 the pope secretly acceded; the duke of Savoy and the elector of Bavaria also came in ; the soul of the combination w T as William of Orange. It is a strange moment of history in which the pope and the emperor, the king of Spain and the elector of Bavaria, unite to resist the advance of Catholic France and the Catholic king of England. The league was at first purely defensive, and for two years held simply an observant and ready position. The tension, however, was too great, and by 1688 Louis saw clearly that peace could not last much longer. France had had peace for ten years, yet her strength had not increased ; for the court had been very profuse in these days, and the &quot; reunions &quot; had cost somewhat, the exodus of the Hugue nots still more. The works at Versailles had wasted men and money ; the great ministers and generals were dead, and the country was surely drifting into war again. In the last war the king s armies had followed two lines that of the Rhino and that of Flanders. Then, however, war was being made on the Dutch alone ; now it would have to be against the Dutch and Germans combined. To all ap pearance the hostility of Germany was likely to bo more &quot;angerous than that of Holland, and the Rhine had been proved to be tho best roadway of attack for both countries. For this purpose the Cologne country, the electorate and its territory, appeared to Louis to be of the utmost value to him. Occupied with this idea, and not realizing either the force of the character of William of Orange, or the depth of dissatisfaction against James II. in England, the king now committed the great blunder of his life. A small de monstration against Holland would have made it impossible for William to make his attempt on England, and would have cost France very little in expense or risk. But when it came to decision, Louis and Louvois, here as ever his 1688-92. evil genius, were both in favour of securing the influence of France on the Rhine ; both thought the dynastic question involved in the Palatinate to be more important than the great European question involved in the plans and move ments of William. Moreover, the vacancy in the electorate of Cologne in 1688, in which question the pope was openly opposed to the king s nominee, excited the royal pride, and made interference in Germany n point of honour ; a French garrison was sent to occupy Cologne. For these reasons Louis, underrating the danger elsewhere, and thinking that a threat would keep the timid Dutch quiet, despatched the dauphin to the east with the main army in September 1688. He took Philipsburg; the Palatinate and the three Rhine electorates fell easily into his hands, Immediately William, freed from his worst anxieties, set The sail for England, and the Revolution took place at once and English without bloodshed. The Declaration of Rights was issued ^ evolu by parliament in February 1689, and William and Mary were seated on the throne of England. James II. took refuge at the French court, and was established at the palace of St Germairis ; his presence in France, and that of his family, becomes an element in the politics of more than half a century. And now Louis recognized the error he had committed ; his troops were withdrawn from tho Palatinate, which (again at the advice of Louvois) had to undergo that scathing of fire and sword which moved the feelings of all Germans, and gave earnestness to the war. Early in 1689 the Diet of Ratisbon declared war against France. The great duke of Marlborough, now only General Churchill, defeated the French at Walcourt near the Sambre; the French were also thrust back into Alsace and Lorraine. King James was furnished with a strong force of troops and Aflairsin ships, with which he landed safely in Ireland, and almost all the island declared for him. A French-Irish court was established at Dublin. William III. sent Schombergto the north of Ireland to make head against this great danger ; and William himself followed so soon as ever he could ven ture to leave England. Things were looking very serious for him. The French had kept up communications with Ireland without difficulty; the English fleet was not thought to be loyal to the new government, for King James had been a sailor, and many of the higher officers were held likely to side with him. The battle of the Boyne (1st July 1690), however, cleared away this peril. James lost heart, and fled to France ; in a very short time the ascendency of William III. was secured in Ireland. It was not too soon. A veiy few days after the battle of the Boyne, Tourvillc, commanding the French fleet, had defeated the Anglo-Dutch navy off Beachy Head ; and in the same month, Marshal Luxemburg won the battle of Fleurus from Waldeck with his German and Dutch troops. In Piedmont Catinat in flicted a grave defeat on Victor Amadeus at Staffarda. Still, the war of 1690 was in the end indecisive, thanks to the battle of the Boyne. In 1691 Louis seemed determined to make a greater effort, and himself besieged Mons, which he took in spite of the attempts of William to relieve it. Little, however, followed after the fall of Mons ; the year was marked by the death of Louvois, whose brutal energy had done much to sustain the war. The campaigns of 1692 were to be differently planned : in Catalonia, in Piedmont, and in Germany, there should be no offensive movement ; the whole energy of the nation should be staked on. a fresh descent of King James in Ireland, and on a land-attack on the Netherlands. The war was therefore to be a duel be tween Louis and William. Tourville was ordered to engage the English fleet wherever he might meet it; it was believed that Admiral Russell and half the ships would desert in action. The experiment was tried off Cape La Hogue, and with disastrous results to the French arms: