94

DIVERSION IN FAVOUR OF THE DUTCH.

[Book V. engaged to despatch 12,000 men to the Rhine.45 Intelligence of this event, and the encouragements of the Elector, had contributed to make the Prince of Orange reject the demands of England and France. Leopold, in a treaty signed by his minister l'Isola at the Hague, July 25th 1672, and in spite of his former engagement of neutrality with France, agreed to assist the Republic, on condition of receiving a large subsidy.46 But the Emperor was still playing a double game; and though Montecuculi was despatched with 12,000 men to join the Elector of Brandenburg, he received secret orders not to engage the French, and Leopold even assured Louis that he wished him success.47 The advance of the Elector and the Austrians, who formed a junction at Halberstadt, September 12th, was nevertheless favourable to the Dutch by the diversion which it caused. Turenne received orders to proceed to the Rhine, and arrest the progress of the allies; and he prevented them from forming a junction with the Prince of Orange, who had advanced for that purpose to the neighbourhood of Liége. Montecuculi, in pursuance of his secret orders,48 declined to fight, and the Elector of Brandenburg was consequently compelled to retreat beyond the Weser, abandoning to the enemy some of his Westphalian dominions. The Elector now made proposals of peace to France, and on June 16th 1673, a treaty was concluded at Vossem, near Louvain, by which Louis engaged to pay him 800,000 livres, and restored to him all his dominions, including those in the Duchy of Clèves captured from the Dutch, except Wesel, and the forts of Lippe and Rees; which were also to revert to him at the end of the war. The Elector on his side engaged not to assist the Dutch, but reserved to himself the right of taking up arms if war should be declared by the Empire.49 Sweden had not fulfilled her engagements to France, but she offered her mediation; which led to the assembly of a Congress at Cologne in the spring of 1673; but the proceedings had no result, and even arrested not the arms of Louis, so that it is unnecessary to detail them.

Meanwhile the Stadtholder, after failing to form a junction with the Austrian and Electoral troops on the Meuse, made a bold but unsuccessful attempt on Charleroi, and then hastened back to the defence of Holland. Marshal Luxembourg had taken advantage of the frosts of winter to invade that country; but the elements again

45 Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 201.

46 Ibid. p. 208.

47 Puffendorf, Frid. Wilh., lib. xi. § 51., 48 Montecuculi was so disgusted with the orders sent by Lobkowitz, that he wrote to the court to request that, as the shortest way, he might receive his instruc

tions direct from Paris! Puffendorf, lib. xii. $51. Montecuculi was soon recalled at his own desire. Lobkowitz was dismissed in October 1674; after which Leopold became his own prime minister.

49 Puffendorf, lib. xi. § 95; Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 234.

favoured the Dutch; a sudden thaw compelled the French to retreat. The campaign of 1673 presents little of importance except the taking of Maestricht by Louis in person, with the assistance of Vauban, June 30th; and the surrender of Trèves to the same eminent engineer and Rochefort, September 8th. Meanwhile Louis had marched into Alsace, where he occupied the ten imperial cities, and compelled them to renounce the rights guaranteed to them by the Peace of Westphalia.

A great coalition was now organised against France. On August 30th 1673, two treaties were signed at the Hague between the States, the King of Spain, and the Emperor of Germany. By the first of these treaties, Spain promised to declare war against France, and the States engaged to make no peace with that Power till she had restored to Spain all that she had seized since the Peace of the Pyrenees; failing which, the States were to cede to Spain Maestricht and the county of Vroonhove. They were likewise to endeavour at a peace with England on equitable terms; and if they did not succeed, Spain engaged to declare war against England. The Dutch were also to recover their lost possessions. By the second treaty, the Emperor was to assemble near Egra a force of 30,000 men, and march them to the Rhine; the States paying a subsidy of 45,000 rix-dollars per month, and providing on their part 20,000 men. The three confederated Powers also concluded in October a treaty with the Duke of Lorraine, by which they bound themselves to place him at the head of 18,000 men, and to restore him to his dominions.50

From this period the cause of the Dutch Republic began daily to look more promising. The naval war this year was decidedly in her favour. On land, the Stadtholder, after taking Naerden, September 12th, effected a junction near Bonn with the Imperialists, who, in spite of all the efforts of Turenne, had succeeded in passing the Rhine near Mentz, and taking Bonn, after a short resistance, November 12th. This was a signal advantage. The States of Cologne and Münster lay at their mercy; they established themselves along the Rhine, and thus secured the free communication of the Imperialists with the Netherlands; whilst Turenne was compelled to fall back on the Sarre. The French were now obliged to evacuate Holland, which was effected in the winter and spring, 1673-74. Of all their conquests they retained only Grave and Maestricht.

The Prince of Orange on his return was received in triumph by the Dutch. Early in February 1674 he was proclaimed hereditary

50 Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 244 sq.

96

PEACE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND HOLLAND.

[BOOK V. Stadtholder and Captain-General of Holland and Zealand, though the succession was limited to his male heirs; an example which was soon followed by Utrecht, Gelderland and Overyssel. These honours were granted to William in order to smooth the way to a peace with England, which was effected the same month. The war was very unpopular in England. The King could obtain no grants from the Parliament, whose suspicions had been further excited by the recent marriage of the Duke of York with a princess of Modena, a niece of Mazarine's. Louis XIV. had been the chief author of this marriage, and had bestowed a large dowry upon the bride. Charles II. made the best excuses he could to his patron Louis for his defection; but he had, in fact, no alternative, and was compelled to accept the Treaty of Westminster, February 19th 1674. By this treaty the States engaged to salute the British flag between the limits of Cape Finisterre in Spain and Van Staten in Norway, and to pay 800,000 crowns for the expenses of the war. Conquests were to be restored on both sides, and the disputes that had arisen in the East Indies were to be adjudicated by a Commission. The example of England was soon after followed by the Bishops of Münster and Cologne.

51

While Louis was thus deserted one by one by his allies, the Empire was rousing itself to more vigorous action against him. The immediate occasion of this was an occurrence that took place at Cologne. The harsh proceedings of the French King towards the Alsatian cities, as well as other parts of his conduct, were ascribed to the advice of his pensioner, William von Fürstenberg, who was assisting at the congress of Cologne as plenipotentiary of the Elector. The congress rendered that city neutral ground; in spite of which the Emperor caused Fürstenberg to be arrested by some Austrian troops as he was returning from a visit on the evening of February 4th 1674, and he was carried off to WienerNeustadt. France and Sweden loudly exclaimed against this proceeding as a violation of the rights of nations; whereupon their envoys were directed to leave the town, and the congress was dissolved. This event put an end to what good understanding remained between the Emperor and the King of France. Leopold complained of the conduct of the French to the Diet at Ratisbon, and though Gravel, the French envoy there, used every endeavour to bring the German States back to their former dependence on France, yet so much was the position of affairs altered by the late occurrences, that the Emperor was able to dismiss Gravel from the Assembly, and in spite of the opposition of the Elector of Bavaria,

51 Dumont, t. vii. pt. i. p. 253.

several German princes gave in their adhesion to the Emperor and joined the league of the Hague. In June, Leopold made a formal declaration of war against France, and thus enabled the Elector of Brandenburg to join the league (July 1st); that prince, as we have said, having made a special reservation in the Treaty of Vossem for such a contingency.

Louis now found himself, with Sweden alone, opposed to the greater part of Europe. The campaign of 1674, however, went in favour of the French. Louis in person entered Franche Comté, and in the months of May and June again reduced that province. It was never afterwards separated from France, and the Jura henceforward formed the French frontier on the east. Meanwhile Turenne was holding the Imperialists in check by a series of brilliant manœuvres on the Rhine. By his victory at Sintzheim, June 16th, he compelled them to retreat beyond the Neckar. He then entered and ravaged the dominions of the Elector Palatine, who had joined the Imperial League; when his troops, enraged at the murder and mutilation of some of their comrades by the peasants, burnt seven-and-twenty towns and villages in the Palatinate.52 The Elector, who, from his palace at Heidelberg, was a spectator of this calamity, addressed a letter to Turenne, in which he upbraided him with his barbarity and challenged him to single combat; from which Turenne was deterred by the commands of his sovereign. His subsequent campaign in Alsace has been reckoned his masterpiece. By his victory at Entzheim, October 4th, he saved that province from the grasp of the Imperialists; and subsequently, by a combination of the most skilful operations executed in mid-winter, and concluded by the battle of Türckheim, January 5th 1675, he compelled them totally to evacuate it. The Elector of Brandenburg was now forced to separate from the allies and march to the relief of his own dominions, which, as will be related in another chapter, had been occupied by the Swedes. Churchill, afterwards the renowned Duke of Marlborough, served in this campaign under Turenne, as colonel of one of the English regiments in the French service, and learnt some useful lessons in the school of so consummate a master. Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the war had been carried on between the Stadtholder and Condé with

52 M. Martin asserts, after Du Buisson, Vie de Turenne, p. 364 sq. (ed. Cologne, 1687), that these excesses were committed by the English companies in the service of France (Hist. de France, t. xiii. p. 447). But Turenne himself, in his answer to the Palatine, ascribes them to his soldiers. VOL. III.

H

The memory of that great commander must not, however, be loaded with a crime which he was unable to prevent; though he was remotely the cause of it, by consuming, for strategical reasons, all the provisions of the country, and thus driving the peasantry to desperation.

98

DEATH OF TURENNE.

[Book V.

nearly balanced success. At the bloody battle of Senef, fought on August 11th, neither commander could claim the victory, and nothing of much importance was done during the remainder of the campaign.

In the spring of 1675 the struggle was again resumed on the Rhine between Turenne and Montecuculi, where both generals displayed all the resources of their skill. But the career of Turenne was brought to a close before he could fight any decisive action. He had made all his arrangements for a battle near the pass of Sassbach, in the Duchy of Baden, and was reconnoitring the enemy's position, when he was killed by a cannon-ball, July 27th.53 The dejection and despair of the French at the loss of their great commander was uncontrollable. It was followed by their immediate retreat, and Montecuculi was enabled to cross the Rhine and enter Alsace. Condé was now ordered to assume the command in Alsace, as being the only general worthy to succeed Turenne. He contented himself, however, with remaining on the defensive, and succeeded, without fighting a single battle, in holding Montecuculi in check till November, when the Imperialists retired into winter quarters beyond the Rhine. This was the last campaign both of Montecuculi and Condé, who were compelled to retire from service by a more obstinate and irresistible enemy than they had hitherto encountered-the gout.

The fifth year of the war, 1676, was more remarkable for its naval engagements than for those on land. After the peace between England and the United Netherlands, the French, despairing of encountering the Dutch upon the seas on anything like equal terms, had withdrawn into their harbours, and contented themselves with remaining on the defensive. They were induced by a revolution in Sicily to alter this policy. The inhabitants of Messina, exasperated by the oppressions of the Spanish Government, had revolted in the summer of 1674, and invoked the aid of France, which was accorded by Louis. The French made great efforts to retain so important a position as the Straits of Messina; they defeated all the attempts of the Spaniards to regain possession of that city, and even extended their occupation in its neighbourhood. At length, towards the end of December 1675, a Dutch fleet under De Ruyter arrived to the assistance of their allies the Spaniards, and a desperate but indecisive action took place, January 8th, off the Lipari Isles, between the combined fleets and the French under Duquesne. On the 22nd of April 1676 another engagement was fought near Catania with the same result, except that the death of

53 The shot is said to have been directed by Prince Hermann of Baden,

who had recognised Turenne. Basnage, t. ii. p. 616.