negociations, a secret treaty was concluded at the Hague, October 11th 1698, between France, England, and Holland. By this, which has been called the First Treaty of Partition, it was agreed that on the death of Charles II. without issue, the Dauphin should have the two Sicilies, the Tuscan ports, the marquisate of Finale in Liguria, and the province of Guipuscoa; that the Archduke Charles should have the Milanese; and that all the remainder of the Spanish possessions, including the Belgian provinces, should fall to the Electoral Prince of Bavaria.3

Although the share thus assigned to France in the Spanish spoils was far inferior to that apportioned to her by the eventual treaty with the Emperor, and though, to conciliate England and Holland, she had renounced her pretensions to the Flemish provinces, still the share which she thus obtained of Italy was so important as to render it probable, that William III. was not sincere in these negociations, and that his sole object was to prevent Louis, who alone was prepared, from immediately resorting to force, in case of the early death of the King of Spain. However this may be, it is certain that Charles II. was very indignant on learning-for the secret treaty soon oozed out-this dismemberment of his monarchy; and he resented it by making a new will, in which he appointed the Electoral Prince his universal heir, and named the Queen his wife Regent during the minority of Ferdinand Joseph. But all these arrangements were suddenly overthrown by an unexpected catastrophe. The Bavarian prince died at Brussels in February 1699, at the age of six years; an event which, by its happening so soon after the Partition Treaty, threw a violent suspicion of unfair play on the Austrian Cabinet, though there is no evidence to justify it.

By this event the contests of the Austrian and French parties were renewed with more vigour than ever at Madrid, the choice being now restricted between two parties, instead of three. The Spanish Queen exerted herself in favour of the Archduke Charles, while Portocarrero and the French party endeavoured to sway the mind of the King by superstitious terrors. Meanwhile Louis XIV. made overtures to William III. for another partition treaty, which was executed at the Hague in March 1700 by the parties to the former one. Louis being aware that the Maritime Powers would never consent that Spain and the Indies should fall to the share of France, now agreed that the greater part of the Spanish succession should be assigned to the Archduke Charles, but on condition that

Dumont, t. vii. pt. ii. p. 442.

See Martin, t. xiv. p. 356.

170

DECISION OF THE POPE.

[Воок у the crown of Spain should never be united with that of the Empire, the Dauphin retaining what had been apportioned to him in the former treaty, with the addition of Lorraine. The Duke of Lorraine, provided he should accede to the treaty, was to have the Duchy of Milan, which in the previous treaty had been given to the Archduke Charles. Three months were to be allowed to the Emperor to adhere to the treaty; and upon bis definitive refusal, the share of the Archduke was to pass to a third party, not named, but who was understood to be the Duke of Savoy.5

Thus the Spanish Succession was disposed of by two foreign Powers, one being a party interested in it, without consulting the Spanish monarch or nation, whose spoils were thus unceremoniously divided. Such a proceeding naturally irritated the courts both of Vienna and Madrid, and their anger was principally directed against William III. for interfering in a matter in which he was not directly concerned. So loud were the complaints of the Spanish minister at London that William ordered him to quit the kingdom; a step that was retaliated by the dismissal of Mr. Stanhope, the British ambassador, and Van Schonenberg, the Dutch ambassador, from Spain. The Emperor at first endeavoured to persuade Louis XIV. to enter into a direct and separate negociation; but not succeeding, refused to accept the Treaty of Partition. The other European Powers, to whom the treaty had been officially communicated, hesitated to guarantee it, and seemed inclined to await the course of events. Only the Duke of Lorraine accepted the proposed exchange.

Meanwhile the struggle of the contending parties was redoubled at Madrid. Each seemed alternately to gain the ascendant over the wavering mind of Charles, who was inclined to listen to every body except those to whom the decision of the question rightly belonged the Spanish nation, through the Cortès. At length Portocarrero, availing himself of his sacred office, and representing to the King that his eternal salvation depended on the appointment of a rightful successor, prevailed on him to submit the question to the profoundest lawyers of Spain and Italy. These decided unanimously in favour of the House of Bourbon, provided means were taken to prevent the union of the French and Spanish crowns, the sole object of the renunciation of Maria Theresa. Charles, not content with this decision, referred the matter to Pope Innocent XII., who confirmed it, and added a letter strongly urging Charles, as he valued his salvation, to secure the undivided inheritance of the Spanish monarchy to a son of the Dauphin, the rightful heir.

Dumont, t. vii. pt. ii. p. 477.

It was not, however, till after he had obtained the opinions of the Council of Castile and the Council of State, which agreed with that given by the Pope, that Charles, under the renewed spiritual menaces of Portocarrero, at last drew up a testament in favour of the House of Bourbon. But as Louis XIV. had ostensibly bound himself to a different course of policy by the Treaty of Partition, Charles appears first of all to have obtained from that monarch an assurance that he would accept a bequest of the whole Spanish monarchy, instead of a dismemberment that was highly distasteful to the nation. On October 2nd 1700, Charles signed a will in which, after many injunctions to his successor on the subject of religion, he declared his heir to be his nearest relation after those destined to mount the throne of France; that is to say, the Duke of Anjou, second son of the Dauphin. Should the Duke of Anjou inherit the throne of France, and prefer it to that of Spain, then his younger brother, the Duke of Berri, was named in his stead; and in his default, the Archduke Charles and the Duke of Savoy successively. Charles strictly enjoined his successors not to alienate any part of the Spanish monarchy. He expired about a month after signing this will (Nov. 1st), in the thirty-ninth year of his age and thirtyseventh of his reign."

Had Spain consulted her real interests, she would probably have adopted another pretender, Don Pedro II. King of Portugal; whose claims, derived from Joanna, putative daughter of Henry the Impotent, were, however, never seriously regarded. By such a choice the union of Spain and Portugal might have been pacifically achieved; but the Spaniards, anxious to keep together a monarchy of whose extension they were proud, though they had not themselves the power to defend it, preferred the French prince as more capable of maintaining an empire that was at once their glory and their ruin.

By the will, a Junta, or Council, of Regency was established, consisting of the Queen, as President, the Primate, Cardinal Portocarrero, the Inquisitor-General, the Presidents of Castile and

• See Mémoires de Torci, ap. Coxe, Memoirs of the Bourbon Kings of Spain, vol. i. p. 74.

The will is in Dumont, t. vii. pt. ii. p. 485. Respecting the Spanish Succession in general, see Lamberty, Mém. pour servir à l'Hist. du xviiième Siècle, t. i.: Mem, secrets sur l'établissement de la maison de Bourbon en Espagne, extraits de la correspondance du Marquis de Louville, t. i. (Paris, 1818); Mignet, Négoc.

172

DELIBERATIONS ABOUT THE SUCCESSION.

[Book V. Aragon, and two representatives of the grandees and Council of State. The Junta immediately assumed the direction of affairs, and despatched a messenger to Louis with a copy of the will. Should Louis refuse to accept the inheritance, the messenger was instructed to proceed to Vienna and offer it to the Archduke Charles. The matter had been already discussed and decided; a French courier had previously arrived with the news, when Louis summoned a council consisting of the Dauphin, and the three ministers of state, the chancellor Pontchartrain, the Duke de Beauvilliers, and Torci the foreign secretary, to discuss the momentous question of acceptance or rejection. Louis had to decide between a crown for his grandson, or the aggrandisement of France according to the Treaty of Partition. A decision either way might produce a war; but in the one case it would probably be short and successful, in the other it would be impossible to predict either its length or its issue. Beauvilliers alone is said to have declared against accepting the offer. His principal arguments were; that Louis would be accused of violating his engagements with England and Holland, who would not suffer him to give the law, in the name of his grandson, to the vast monarchy of Spain; that the wounds which France had received were still bleeding, and in case of acceptance must be again opened in a general European war; and that it would be a hundred times more advantageous for France to unite several fine provinces to the monarchy than to place a French prince on a foreign throne whose descendants would themselves shortly become strangers to the country of their ancestors. On the other side it was urged by Torci that the question lay not between war and peace, but between one war and another-between the totality of the Spanish monarchy or nothing; that, the will substituting the House of Austria for France, there could be no ground for claiming part of the inheritance, after rejecting the whole; that even this part would have to be conquered from the Austrians, aided by the Spaniards, who would support the integrity of their monarchy; that the English and Dutch would lend only a feeble aid, and probably abandon the contest altogether; and that thus an Austrian prince would be again planted on the Pyrenees. The chancellor merely summed up the arguments without pronouncing any opinion; while the Dauphin, with unwonted energy, demanded the acceptance of the will, and declared that he would not renounce his claims except in favour of his son, the Duke of Anjou.

⚫ For the arguments, see Mignet, Négociations, &c.

This discussion seems to have been a mere farcical ceremony for the sake of appearances, and it is probable, as we have already said, that Louis XIV. had signified his assent to the will before its execution. Louis carried out the farce by not declaring his resolution till three days after the meeting of the council; when, in the presence of the Spanish ambassador, at Versailles, he announced it by addressing the Duke of Anjou as follows: "Sir, the King of Spain has made you a King. The grandees demand you, the people of Spain desire you, and I give my consent." The Spanish ambassador, on his knees, then saluted and complimented his new master as "Philip V.," the folding doors were thrown open, Louis presented his grandson to the assembled courtiers with the words, "Sirs, here is the King of Spain,"-and the ceremony ended by Louis exhorting Philip to be a good Spaniard, but at the same time to remember that he was born a Frenchman; exhortations which from their contradictory nature it might be sometimes difficult to reconcile.

By character, however, Philip V. might easily have been a lineal descendant of Philip IV., so closely did his habits resemble those of the legitimate Spanish House. Shy, hypochondriac, docile, monotonously regular, doatingly uxorious, without either great faults or striking virtues, he was fit only to be governed, as his predecessors had been before him. At the time of his accession, indeed, being then only seventeen years of age, Philip's character was as yet undeveloped, and consequently unknown to the Spaniards; with whom, however, it might perhaps have been only an additional recommendation. Immediately on receipt of Louis XIV.'s answer, the Junta caused Philip V. to be proclaimed at Madrid, and addressed a letter to the Very Christian King, in which they begged him to dispose of everything in Spain, and assured him that his orders should be as exactly obeyed as in France. Philip passed the Bidassoa Jan. 22nd 1701, and on Feb. 18th, entered Madrid, where he was received with the acclamations of the people. All the European provinces, all the American and Asiatic possessions, of the vast Spanish empire immediately recognised the new monarch; nor was his title at first disputed by the greater part of the European Powers. The Elector of Bavaria, then resident at Brussels as governor of the Catholic Netherlands-a dignity which had been procured for him by William III.—was the first foreign prince who recognised Philip V.; both from hatred of the Emperor, whom he suspected of having poisoned his son, and from the hope that Louis would convert his government in the Netherlands into an hereditary one. Louis XIV., as was indeed