1664 - War with England
In the balmy days of his reign, Louis XIV saw war break out between England and the Dutch (1664). He was slowly preparing to take part in war against Charles II when the death of Philip IV of Spain changed his views completely. He made peace with England in July 1667 (treaty of Breda), and plunged into those complications of European law and usage which interested him intensely. The Spanish succession question came up, for no one expected Charles II of Spain to live long or leave posterity; and the immediate question of the claims of the queen of France on a large part of the Spanish Netherlands occupied his energies.
Louis and Lioune snapped their fingers at the queen's renunciations of her Spanish rights, and went even further; they made claims which, to modern international law, seem to be utterly indefensible. The claim for the Spanish Netherlands was based on the "Jus Devolutionis," the old feudal custom by which certain territories descended to the offspring, male or female, of the first wife, to the exclusion of the children by the second. Now Maria Theresa, queen of France, was daughter of Elizabeth of France, the first wife of Philip IV, while his other children sprang from his second wife, Maria Anna of Austria; and Louis therefore proposed to apply ancient customs of feudal lordship to international matters, to the transfer of territories from one monarch to another.
The customs of different districts varied much; in one way or another he hoped to lay undisputed hands on the Netherlands, Hainault, part of Luxembourg, even of part of Franche Comte; he was prepared to support these flimsy claims by the stronger argument of war. To war it came; the king with Turenne overran the Netherlands in 1667; Conde, who was governor of Burgundy, overran Franche Comte in 1668. It was a little war of town-taking; places fell, like ripe fruit, for the shaking. Meanwhile Lionne, busy over the negotiations which sprang out of the succession question, had sketched out a partition treaty, in which Leopold and Louis arranged the whole affair to their liking.
With this in hand the king, who had returned in high triumph to Paris, and who knew of Sir William Temple s Triple Alliance, which had been signed in the spring of 1668, made peace as easily as he had made war, and on May 2, 1668, signed the treaty of Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, by which he restored Franche Comte to Aix-la- Spain, and secured the Netherlands. It was to all appearance a very moderate peace, and much enhanced the king's reputation; men did not know that it was meant to lay the basis for an entire reconstruction of the map of Europe, so soon as ever sickly young Charles II of Spain had died; and that, every one thought, must follow very soon. The long reign of that prince (who lived till 1700) had much to do with the great wars which followed, and with the consequent exhaustion of France. Louis now set himself to break up the Triple Alliance.
Sweden was her old ally; and her policy was to encourage the two sea powers, England and Holland, to weaken one another on the water, so as to give France a chance of constructing a navy. Therefore she was necessarily jealous of the Alliance; nor was it hard to overthrow it. Sweden, as was said, had joined it as a speculation, and had her price; Charles II of England could easily be bought; Holland thus left defenseless, having lost her barrier of the Spanish Netherlands, could expect nothing but the anger of her new neighbor. But how changed were the world's politics, when the three Protestant powers, England, Holland, and Sweden could unite, even for a short time, for the defense of their ancient foe, Catholic and cruel Spain.
