84

LOUIS'S INFLUENCE IN GERMANY.

[BOOK V. have Spain, except Navarre and Rosas, the Milanese, certain places in Tuscany, the Balearic Isles, Sardinia, the Canaries, and the Spanish West India possessions; whilst Louis's share was to be the Catholic Netherlands, Franche Comté, Navarre, Rosas, Oran, Melilla, Ceuta, &c. in Africa, the two Sicilies, and the Philippine Isles.31 Soon after this treaty, Auersberg was dismissed from Leopold's service, his subserviency to France having become only too manifest by the attempt of Louis to procure for him a cardinal's hat from Pope Clement X. His successor, Lobkowitz, was however, equally sold to Louis; and down to that monarch's actual invasion of Holland, and in fact till 1674, no step was taken by Leopold to oppose the progress of the French. The leagues of the Emperor in January and June 1672, with the Electors of Mentz, Trèves, Saxony and Brandenburg, Brunswick Lüneburg, Hesse Cassel, and other German Powers, as well as Denmark, were purely defensive, and to prevent the Empire from being attacked; and though an Austrian force under Montecuculi was sent to the Rhine in June, Gremonville was assured that it would not act offensively. Indeed, the true politics of Lobkowitz and the Imperial Court at this juncture are shown by another treaty with France, November 1st 1671; by which it was agreed that neither the Emperor nor the French King should support the other's enemies; and that Leopold should not interfere in any war arising out of the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, and carried on without the boundaries of the Empire.32

It was manifest from this treaty that any coolness between the two Powers was now at an end, and that Louis had nothing to apprehend from the Emperor in his enterprise against the Dutch. The position of most of the other German Powers was equally encouraging to Louis. The Elector of Bavaria was entirely in the interests of France. The ill state of health of the Emperor Leopold had caused Louis to imagine that the imperial crown, as well as that of Spain, would soon be vacant; the Elector had promised the French King his vote, and in 1670, a secret treaty had been concluded between them, the main feature of which was a marriage between the Dauphin and the Elector's daughter. The Elector Palatine followed this example, and was recompensed for his adherence to France by the marriage of his daughter to the King's brother the Duke of Orléans; whose consort Henrietta had expired soon after her visit to Dover. The Duke of Hanover and the

31 Mignet, t. ii. p. 441 sqq. This treaty is not in the usual collections; but it is avowed by Louis himself in a Mém. d'In

struction to the Marquis d'Harcourt. See Garden, Hist. des Traités, t. ii. p. 190. 32 Theatrum Europ., t. xi. p. 37.

CHAP. III.]

POLICY OF FREDERICK WILLIAM.

85

Bishop of Osnaburg espoused Louis's cause so warmly that they granted him the exclusive right to levy troops in their dominions. The Elector of Cologne and the Bishop of Münster, with a view to self-interest, were still more ardent in his cause. They drew closer their former relations with France by a new treaty in January 1672; by which the Elector engaged to aid the King against the Dutch with an army of 18,000 men for a subsidy of 8000 crowns a month, and in consideration of a sum of 400,000 livres to admit a French garrison into Neuss. The Bishop promised to unite his forces with those of the Elector, and both were to receive a share of the future conquests. Among the German princes, the politic Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg seemed to hang doubtful as to which side he should favour. In December 1669, he had concluded a treaty with Louis, by which he agreed not to join the Triple Alliance, and to support the King's claims to the Spanish Netherlands; but he would make no promise with regard to Holland. The ruin of that republic appeared to him to be too great a peril both for Protestantism and for Germany to be ventured on. Yet he had not much reason to be satisfied with the Dutch, who withheld from him Wesel, Rees, Emmerich, and two or three other places in the Duchy of Clèves, which they had taken from the Spaniards during the Thirty Years' War; while Louis endeavoured to entice him to their ruin by the most tempting offers. The French King proposed that the Dutch Republic should be dissolved; that France should take the provinces to the west of the Meuse; that the Elector of Brandenburg should have Gelderland and Zutphen; the Elector of Cologne Utrecht, Münster, and Ober Yssel; the Duke of Luneburg Friesland; the Duke of Neuburg Gröningen; while Holland and Zealand were to fall to the House of Orange; and all these provinces were to form a Confederate State.33 But Frederick William was not to be dazzled; and eventually he threw in his lot with the Dutch, by concluding with them, in April 1672, the Treaty of Cologne-sur-Sprée. By this treaty he engaged to assist them

with 20,000 men. Among the few German potentates adverse to France, the Elector of Mentz took the leading part. This prince had formerly been a warm friend of that country, and had been the principal agent in establishing the Rhenish League; but when the War of Devolution made him better acquainted with the views of Louis, he altered his politics; and it was through his influence that the

"Puffendorf, De. Reb. Gest. Frid. Wilh., lib. xi. § 5.

86

TREATY BETWEEN FRANCE AND SWEDEN.

[Boo

League had been dissolved in January 1668.34 He succeed in negociating an alliance concluded at Marienburg in 172, with the Electors of Trèves and Saxony and the Margrave of Baireuth, which was also joined by the Emperor. This league, however, was a purely defensive one; the whole force which it proposed to raise did not much exceed 10,000 men, to guard the Empire from attack; and thus even the Bishop of Münster, though leagued with the French against the Dutch, conceived himself at liberty to join it.

Secure on the side of England and Germany, Sweden was the only other Power that Louis was desirous of gaining. As Denmark was the firm ally of the States-General, and as the posture of the Elector of Brandenburg became every day more hostile to France, it became highly important to Louis to secure the friendship of the Swedish Government. With that needy but ambitious Power, money was the grand instrument of negociation. When in 1667, France ceased to pay Sweden the subsidies stipulated under the treaty of January 1663, she abandoned, as we have seen, her ancient ally, and attached herself to England and the Dutch. The offer of 400,000 rix dollars in ready money, and a yearly subsidy of 600,000 during the war, sufficed to gain her back to France. The Treaty of Stockholm, concluded April 14th 1672,35 purported to be for the maintenance of the Peace of Westphalia, of which the two contracting Powers were guarantees; but the secret articles showed that it was directed against the Dutch, as Sweden engaged to assist Louis in case he should be attacked by the Emperor, or any German Power, during his war with the United Netherlands.

While thus abandoned by almost all the world, the Dutch fixed their chief hopes of support in an alliance with the Spaniards, their ancient masters and oppressors. A revolution had now taken place in the Spanish Government. The Peace of Aix-laChapelle and the acknowledgment of Portuguese independence had excited great indignation against the Regent and her Jesuit minister; and Don John of Austria availed himself of this feeling to drive Niethard from power. Don John had been appointed

34 It was the Elector of Mentz who attempted to divert Louis from his enterprise against the United Netherlands, by a counter-project for the conquest of Egypt; a scheme which had originated in the fertile brain of the celebrated philosopher Leibnitz, then a young man of five-andtwenty. The Elector sent Leibnitz to Paris to persuade Louis to engage in it; but the French King could not be induced to leave his destined prey for so distant

and doubtful an undertaking. See Menzel, Neuere Gesch. der Deutschen, B. iv. S. 427 f.

The

35 Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 166. treaty was for three years, and was renewed in April 1675. Ibid. p. 291. Sweden engaged to act in Pomerania with 16,000 men against those who should assist the Dutch, that is against Denmark and Brandenburg. The secret articles are in Puffendorf, De Reb. Frid. Wilh., lib. xi. § 35.

CHAP. III.]

BETWEEN THE DUTCH AND SPAIN.

87

governor of the Spanish Netherlands during the French aggression, and was on the point of embarking at Coruña when the news of the arrest and execution of one of his adherents led him to return towards Madrid. The Queen, however, forbade him to approach that capital, and directed him to retire to his seat at Consuegra. Niethard, on pretence that Don John had formed a conspiracy against his life, sent a party of cavalry to arrest the Prince in this retirement; but he succeeded in escaping into Aragon, where having collected a body of 700 determined followers, he advanced to Torrejo, within a few leagues of Madrid, and dictated to the Queen the dismissal of her Confessor. Such was Niethard's unpopularity, that even this small force enabled Don John to effect his object, especially as he was supported by several members of the Council; and, in spite of the tears and entreaties of the Queen, her minister was compelled to retire to Rome (Feb. 1669). Don John, however, was not admitted to a share of the government. Niethard was succeeded by another favourite, Don Fernando de Valenzuela, a gentleman of Granada; but the ambition of Don John was appeased with the viceroyalties of Aragon and Catalonia. It was this new government which, in December 1671, concluded at the Hague a treaty of alliance with the States.36

Louis, besides the formidable combination which he had organised against the Dutch, endeavoured also to promote the success of his enterprise by fomenting their intestine dissensions, and exciting the Orange party against De Witt. Six of the United Provinces were for appointing William III., who had now attained the age of twenty-one, Captain-General for life; a step which they thought might conciliate his uncle, Charles II., and avert a war with England. But the inflexible De Witt would not consent. He would only agree that the Prince should be named CaptainGeneral for the ensuing campaign, and that with very limited power. The province of Holland would not even go so far, and delayed the Prince's nomination till November 1672, when he would complete his twenty-second year. It cannot be denied that the subsequent misfortunes of the Republic must in a great measure be attributed to De Witt. The Dutch army was in a sad condition. Officers had been forbidden to enter foreign service, and thus from the long peace by land, were entirely without experience. Promotion was obtained not through service but favour. Most of the soldiers were foreigners, discipline was neglected, and the fortresses and magazines were ill supplied and suffered to go to decay. The blame of these things must attach to De Witt.37 * Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 155. 37 Van Kampen, B. ii. S. 228.

88

THE DUTCH DEPRECATE LOUIS'S WRATH.

[BOOK V.

The navy, on the other hand, owing to the care of De Ruyter, was in excellent condition.

De Witt could not persuade himself till the last moment that Louis was in earnest in his preparations. On December 10th 1671, the States-General addressed to the French King a most submissive letter, in which they told him they could not believe he meant to turn his arms against his ancient and most faithful allies; they protested that they had not voluntarily infringed the treaty of 1662; they offered to redress any inadvertent breaches of it, and to give His Majesty all the satisfaction he could reasonably require. They even instructed their ambassador, Van Groot, son of the illustrious Grotius, to tell the King that he had only to say the word, and the United Provinces would disarm; an action which would display the King's grandeur in a fairer light than the most complete success of his arms. Louis's reply was haughty and menacing. He contested the title which the States had given themelves of his "faithful" allies; he reproached them with their diplomatic intrigues against France, as well as with their hostile tariffs. He even seemed to affect a great condescension in having replied to their letter; "which," he added, "seems not so much written for us, as to excite against our interests those princes in whose courts it has been made public before we could receive it." 38

On the 6th of April following, Louis published his declaration of war. He alleged no specific cause for hostilities, which indeed was out of his power. He spoke only in general terms of the ingratitude of the Dutch for the benefits they had received from his forefathers, and asserted that his "glory" would not permit him any longer to dissemble the indignation which their conduct had raised in him.39 The English declaration of war had preceded by a few days that of Louis (March 29th). There was an attempt in it to specify some grievances, but their flimsiness was as transparent as that of the French manifesto. It alleged some oppressions of Charles's subjects in India, the detention of some Englishmen in Surinam; the refusal of the Dutch fleet to strike their colours to an English yacht which had on board the wife of Temple, the ambassador; and certain abusive pictures, which turned out to be a portrait of De Witt's brother, the admiral Cornelius, with a view of the burning of Chatham in the background. A public treaty had been signed between France and England, February 12th, which was merely a repetition of the secret treaty of December 31st 1670; except that Charles was

38 Mignet, t. iii. p. 657 sqq.

39 Ibid. p. 710.