some unforeseen occurrences.

In the course of 1710 that famous

change of administration had taken place in England by which the Whigs were supplanted by the Tories. The influence of Marlborough and Godolphin gave place to that of Harley and St. John; the new ministry were inclined to peace, and were supported by the nation; for the people were weary of a war of which they bore the chief burthen, though its advantages and emoluments were destined for others. While the English nation were in this temper, the death of the Emperor Joseph I., who expired April 17th 1711, at the age of thirty-two, changed the whole character of the War of the Spanish Succession. As Joseph left no male heirs, the hereditary dominions of the House of Austria devolved to his brother, the Archduke Charles; and though that prince had not been elected King of the Romans, and had therefore to become a candidate for the imperial crown, yet there could be little doubt that he would attain that dignity. Hence, if Charles should also become sovereign of Spain and the Indies, the vast empire of Charles V. would be again united in one person; and that very evil of an almost universal monarchy would be established, the prevention of which had been the chief cause for taking up arms against Philip V.

The English ministry had already made advances to the French King in January, before the death of the Emperor, and Louis had expressed his willingness to enter into a separate negociation with them. The terms proposed by the English Cabinet were: security that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united on the same head (a tacit acknowledgment of Philip V.); barriers for Holland and the Empire; the restitution of the conquests made from the Duke of Savoy and others; and a vague stipulation for "the satisfaction of all the allies." As regarded the particular interests of Great Britain, it was required that Louis should recognise Queen Anne and the Protestant succession in the House of Hanover, and dismiss the Pretender from France; that the fortifications of Dunkirk should be razed; that Gibraltar, Minorca, and St. Christopher's should be ceded to England, and that the privilege of the Asiento, that is, the monopoly of the slave-trade, should also be transferred to her; that the English should be placed on the footing of the most favoured nations in their trade with Spain; and that France should cede Newfoundland and Hudson's Bay and Straits; each country otherwise retaining its possessions in North America. These articles were signed as the preliminaries of a peace between France and England by Ménager, Louis's envoy to London, October 8th.

200

CAMPAIGN OF 1711.

[Book V.

Meanwhile the war still continued. Marlborough, though he had lost his political influence at home, retained the command of the army in Flanders; but his only exploit in this campaign was the capture of the little town of Bouchain (September 12th). The war was almost equally null in other quarters. In Spain, Philip V. took Gerona and Balaguer; in the East, Marshal Berwick again prevented the Duke of Savoy from penetrating into Dauphiné. In Germany, Eugene, who had been recalled from the Netherlands to command the united army of Austria and the Empire, contented himself with covering the Electoral Diet which had assembled to choose an Emperor; nor was the Marquis d'Harcourt, the French commander, disposed to molest an assembly whose purpose would be of essential service to the actual policy of France. After an interregnum of half a year, during which the affairs of the Empire had been conducted by the Elector Palatine and the Elector of Saxony, as imperial vicars for South and North Germany, the Archduke Charles was unanimously named emperor by the Electoral College (October 12th); except that the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne, being under the ban of the Empire, had not been summoned to that assembly, and entered a solemn protest against its proceedings. Charles, who had embarked for Italy and Germany towards the end of September, leaving his consort at Barcelona as regent, and as a pledge for his return, received the imperial crown at Frankfort, December 22nd, with the title of Charles VI.

The news of preliminaries having been signed between France and England had been received with dismay and dissatisfaction at Vienna, and the Hague; and indeed the conduct of the new Tory ministry in thus separating from their allies can hardly be defended, although Great Britain had just reason to complain that neither the Emperor nor the States-General had borne their fair share in a war conducted chiefly for their benefit. It can scarcely be doubted that the measures of the Tory Cabinet were as much prompted by the desire of ruining Marlborough and his party as by any patriotic motives; and though the arrangement which they proposed to the French King was perhaps on the whole a politic one, and the concessions demanded for Great Britain no more than she was entitled to for her sacrifices, yet it would have been more becoming in a great nation to have made it openly, and if not with the concurrence, at least with the knowledge, of her allies. The envoys at London of the Emperor, the States-General, and the Elector of Hanover, the last of whom was embittered against France as the protector of his rival, strained every nerve

to overthrow the new ministry and defeat the peace; but though Prince Eugene came in person to support their representations, their efforts served only to confirm the English Court in its new policy. The majority of the House of Lords, which was adverse to the ministry, was swamped by the creation of twelve new peers; and Marlborough, besides being dismissed from all his offices, was accused of peculation. He was succeeded as commander-in-chief by the Duke of Ormond.

There was now no alternative but to agree to a conference for a general peace, which was opened at Utrecht, January 29th 1712. Three French plenipotentiaries, the Marshal d'Huxelles, the Abbé de Polignac, and Ménager, who had settled the preliminaries at London, had the difficult task of replying to eighty ministers of the allies; but they were supported by the English plenipotentiaries, the Bishop of Bristol and Earl Strafford. It had been a principle of the Grand Alliance that the allies should treat jointly for a peace, which the ministers of the Allied Powers interpreted to mean, all together, in one act or treaty. The French, however, insisted that it merely meant at one and the same time, but by separate acts or treaties; and this interpretation being approved by the English envoys, all general conferences ceased, and the ministers of the various States assembled in private to deliberate on their proceedings. France gave in her propositions, February 11th, which were in the main conformable to the preliminaries already mentioned as signed at London: viz., the recognition of Queen Anne and the Protestant succession in England; a barrier for Holland; the cession of Landau to the Empire, and of the two Sicilies, the Spanish Netherlands, and the Milanese to the House of Austria; the re-establishment of the Electors of Bavaria and Cologne, and the transfer of the Island of Sardinia to the former as compensation for the Upper Palatinate; finally, Louis engaged to agree to any measures that might be deemed requisite to prevent the reunion of the crowns of France and Spain. To these propositions the allies, with the exception of England, replied only by counter-propositions still more extravagant than those they had already made. The Emperor demanded to be recognised as universal heir of the monarchy of Charles II.; the Empire insisted on the restoration of Alsace, the three bishoprics, and Franche Comté; the States-General required as a barrier all the towns of the Netherlands which France had acquired by the treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle and Nimeguen, except St. Omer and Cambrai; even the Duke of Savoy demanded an accession of territory on the side of Dauphiné and the principality of Monaco.

202

DEATH OF THE DAUPHIN AND HIS SON.

[Book V. These extravagant demands only further stimulated Louis to make a separate peace with England; but some fatal events which had taken place in France tended to protract the negociations even. between these two countries.

The Dauphin had died in April 1711, and was succeeded in that title, as heir of the French monarchy, by his son, the Duke of Burgundy, the elder brother of Philip V. of Spain. The Duke of Burgundy had been the pupil of Fénélon, the Telemachus for whom the precepts of Mentor had been elaborated; and his talents and virtues, though the latter were perhaps of too ascetic and monastic a kind, had caused him to be regarded, both by his grandfather and the French nation, with joy and hope as the future king of France. Unfortunately, however, in February 1712, he sickened and died of a fever which had carried off, a few days before, his amiable consort, Mary Adelaide of Savoy. Nor was this the extent of the misfortunes of the royal House of France. The two children of the Dauphin were seized with the same disorder which had proved fatal to their parents; the elder, who bore the title of Duke of Brittany, expired in a few days; the younger, the Duke of Anjou, survived indeed the crisis of the malady, but was left in so debilitated a condition that it was feared he must soon follow his parents to the tomb.44 This languishing infant of two years was, therefore, now the only life between Philip V. and the crown of France; and the English Cabinet, naturally desirous of fresh guarantees against its union with that of Spain, demanded that Philip should cede his eventual rights to his younger brother, the Duke de Berri. Louis objected that such a renunciation was contrary to the fundamental laws of France, which could be abolished by God alone; 45 nevertheless the English Cabinet stated that it should be satisfied with such a renunciation, on the ground that it would be regarded in England as valid, and that, at all events, the claims of the prince, in whose favour the renunciation was made, could be justly supported by the parties to the convention. The negociations on this subject, which were confined to the English, French, and Spanish Cabinets, were protracted several months.

These events left only two lives, besides the Duke of Anjou, between Philip, Duke of Orléans, the nephew and son-inlaw of Louis XIV., and the throne; viz., Philip V., who had renounced it, and the Duke of Berri, Philip's younger brother. The Duke of Berri had married the daughter of the Duke of Orléans, and was entirely governed by her. As the Duke of Orléans, as well as his daughter,

bore an infamous character, he was sus pected of having poisoned the Dauphin and his family, and his addiction to art and science tended to confirm the suspicion. The physicians and surgeons who had opened the bodies were divided in their opinions on the subject; but it seems most probable that they died from natural causes.

45 Mémoires de Torcy, t. iii. p. 292.

Philip at length consented to abandon the country of his birth for that of his adoption. In November 1712, in presence of the Cortès assembled at Madrid, and of Lord Lexington, the English ambassador, he publicly renounced the rights and pretensions of himself and his posterity to the crown of France, to which the Duke of Berri was named next in succession after the Duke of Anjou; and in default of male heirs, the Duke of Orléans, Philip's uncle, the Duke of Bourbon, his cousin; and the remaining French princes in their order. The Dukes of Berri and Orléans also renounced in turn their claims to the Spanish monarchy; the succession to which, in default of heirs of Philip V., was assured to the House of Savoy, as descended from Catherine, sister of Philip II. Philip's renunciation was enregistered by the parliament of Paris in March 1713, and Louis cancelled the letters patent by which he had reserved to Philip his eventual claims to the French throne.46

Louis XIV. had acceded to these terms several months before, upon the English ministry showing a resolution to adopt vigorous measures. Meanwhile the allied armies had taken the field as usual in May; but Ormond had declined all active cooperation with Eugene; and in June, on receipt of intelligence that Louis had agreed to the proposed terms, he announced to the Germans in the pay of England an armistice of four months with France. On July 17th Ormond and the English troops separated from the allies; and about the same time a body of 5000 English took possession of Dunkirk as the price of the truce and a gage for the fulfilment of the promises made by the French King. Eugene, left to contend alone against Marshal Villars, soon felt the disastrous consequences of the defection of his allies. On July 24th he was defeated by Villars at Denain, who pursued this success by the recapture of Douai, Le Quesnoi, and Bouchain. In other quarters the war this year was wholly unimportant.

The defeat of the allies at Denain greatly modified the views of the Dutch; while Louis felt the advantage of his position, and insisted on a considerable modification of the barrier which they demanded. The English Cabinet persuaded the States-General to accept most of these alterations; and on January 29th 1713, a new Barrier Treaty was signed between the two Maritime Powers. The places destined to serve as a barrier were now reduced to Furnes,

6 Dumont, t. viii. pt. i. p. 310. Philip had rejected another proposition of the English Cabinet, though it was warmly supported by his grandfather; viz., to relinquish Spain in favour of the Duke of Savoy, and to receive in return Naples,

Sicily, and the duchies of Savoy and Mantua, which, with the exception of Sicily, were to be united to the crown of France, in case Philip succeeded to that kingdom; to which he was to retain his claims.