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 658 LOUIS XIV. (FBANOE) growing navy might not be crushed by the power of the two chief maritime states of Eu- rope. This was effected by bribing the Eng- lish cabinet, and by playing off upon Charles II. not only the seductions of French gold, but the influence of his sister Henrietta, the duch- ess of Orleans, and the charms of Mile, de Querouailles, who afterward became the noto- rious duchess of Portsmouth. On May 22, 1670, a treaty was signed at Dover, by which the king of England became a pensioner of France, and promised to make war upon his ally the Dutch republic. In the same year Louis resumed military operations by taking possession of Lorraine. In 1672 Charles began his promised war on the Dutch by an attack upon their Smyrna fleet as it was passing through the English channel. Louis in person invaded Holland at the head of 100,000 men, accompanied by Turenne, Condg, Vauban, and Louvois, and speedily made himself master of three provinces and 40 fortresses. He behaved throughout the campaign with marked clem- ency to his prisoners and to the peaceful popu- lation. No plunder was permitted, and what- ever was taken for the use of the army was amply paid for. His activity and courage were also conspicuous. He frequently exposed him- self to the fire of the enemy, went to bed late, rose at 3 A. M., and gave almost every moment to the performance of his duties as king and general. The Dutch, alarmed at the rapid progress of the French, sent deputies to sue for peace. Louis demanded an indemnity of 20,- 000,000 livres, the cession of extensive terri- tories, the public exercise of the Catholic re- ligion throughout the United Provinces, and other severe and humiliating conditions. The ancient spirit of the Dutch rose at these de- mands, and they resolved to perish rather than submit. The grand pensionary De "Witt, who counselled submission, was torn to pieces by the people. William of Orange was elected stadtholder and commander-in-chief, and the dikes which shut out the ocean were cut in several places, covering the country with water, which, though it ruined the land, effec- tually impeded the progress of the invaders. Preparations were also made to transport in the last emergency the whole nation to the East Indies. In the mean time formidable alliances were rapidly forming against France. The emperor of Germany sent 20,000 men under Montecuculi to join the great elector of Brandenburg, the founder of the military power of Prussia, who had already taken the field with 30,000 troops for the relief of Holland ; Spain herself was making exertions for the same purpose, and had raised 15,000 men to reenforce the prince of Orange ; and even the debased English court, pressed by the murmurs of the people, who could not see with indifference a Protestant country con- quered by a Catholic monarch, began to waver in its subserviency. Louis, leaving Vauban to fortify the places he had taken, hastened to Paris to devise measures to counteract the combinations against him. He provided with prompt vigor for the preservation of his con- quests and for the defence of his eastern fron- tier against the Germans. A war of several years followed, in which the French armies, led by Turenne, Conde, Luxembourg, and other great generals, combated more or less success- fully against the forces of half of Europe. Louis himself, in June, 1673, commanded at the siege and capture of Maestricht; and in 1674 he led an army to the conquest of Franche-Comte, which was now permanently annexed to France. In this year the devastation of the Palatinate by the army of Turenne, under orders from the minister Louvois, brought upon Louis general execration. In 1676-'8 the king made bril- liant campaigns in Flanders, and took in person the towns of Conde, Bouchain, Valenciennes, Cambrai, Ghent, and Ypres. The war was at length terminated by the treaties of Mme- guen, concluded in 1678 and 1679, by which Louis retained Franche-Comte, French Flan- ders, Alsace, and some of his conquests on the Rhine. The negotiations were in great part carried on directly by himself, and his letters during their progress exhibit great diplomatic ability. He did not suffer Europe to remain long at peace. In 1680 he advanced claims to various German territories, and in September, 1681, seized by force upon the important city of Strasburg. This led to war with the Ger- man empire and with Spain, resulting in the acquisition by France of the town and territory of Luxemburg, which were confirmed to Louis by the treaty of Ratisbon, August, 1684. The prince of Orange was unwearied in his efforts to array Europe in opposition to the French monarch, whose schemes of aggrandizement were now clearly manifested ; and in 1686 the league of Augsburg was formed, by which Hol- land, Austria, Spain, Bavaria, and Savoy form- ed a coalition against France. Louis prepared with his usual energy for the contest, which he began himself in September, 1688, by inva- ding and overrunning the Palatinate, which was again desolated with fire and sword in the most cruel and barbarous manner. These atrocities, however, like those of the former war, were committed by order of Louvois, and were strongly condemned by the king when they came to his knowledge. In the war that ensued, his armies, no longer led by Conde and Turenne, met with severe reverses. Col- bert had died in 1683, and France was begin- ning to feel seriously the immense expenses of war, carried on as it was by Louis with standing armies of a magnitude unknown in Europe since the days of the Romans. The treasury was exhausted, and to replenish it the king and the principal nobles sent their plate to the mint, and various other extreme means were resorted to. As the war advanced, the military genius of the duke of Luxembourg re- deemed the honor of the French arms at Leuze, Steenkerk, Neerwinden, and in other battles.