War of Louis XIV

Voltaire on Louis XIV
[It is certain that he passionately
wanted glory, rather than the
conquests themselves. In the
acquisition of Alsace and half of
Flanders, and of all of FrancheComté, what he really liked was the
name he made for himself].
War of Louis XIV
From the 1660's onwards, Louis XIV aimed at
expanding French territory by force of arms.
He thought in this way to acquire gloire
(glory).
 Another war aim was giving France a
defensible frontier - especially "the line of
the Rhine" in the East. Louis XIV did not
doubt his right to "reunite" with France the
territory once held by Charlemagne.
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War of Louis XIV

Michel Le Tellier, Marquis of Louvois
and Henri de la Tour d'Auvergne,
Viscount Turenne had created a large
and efficient army that became Louis's
main instrument in overawing
neighboring countries.
War of Louis XIV
Louvois also organized a commissariat
department to supply the French army.
 Until his system of magazines and supply
dumps was introduced, armies had to forage
(often to loot) the surrounding area for food
and supplies.
 Efficient supply enabled the French army to
concentrate on military operations.

War of Louis XIV
Louis XIV saw England as weak, and
believed he could easily control its
monarchs by bribes.
 The Dutch he regarded as trading
rivals, seditious republicans, and
heretics. Nonetheless, his first military
expedition was in the Spanish
Netherlands.
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War of Louis XIV
When Louis XIV married Maria Theresa,
daughter of Philip IV, she formally
renounced her claims to succeed as ruler of
any Spanish territory.
 Louis insisted that this renunciation was
conditional on prompt payment by Spain of
Maria Theresa's dowry (500,000 gold écus) an undertaking Spain failed to fulfill.
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War of Louis XIV
In 1665, Philip IV died, and was succeeded
by his son by his second marriage (to Mariana
of Austria), the four-year-old Charles
(Carlos) II.
 Louis XIV announced that because the dowry
had not been paid, and because the local
laws of Brabant gave the children of a first
marriage priority in inheritance over those of
a second, Maria Theresa was the true ruler
of much of the Spanish Netherlands.
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War of Louis XIV
The ease and rapidity of Louis XIV's invasion
so alarmed the English and the Dutch that
they ended the trading war in which they
were involved.
 In May 1668, they joined with Sweden to
form the Triple Alliance against France.
Equally alarmed by French aggression, Spain
made peace with Portugal.
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War of Louis XIV
Recognizing the growing forces against him,
Louis made a secret treaty with the Holy
Roman Emperor, Leopold I, in which Leopold
agreed to French expansion into the Spanish
Netherlands after the death of Charles II of
Spain.
 (This death was expected to be soon, as
Charles was such a sickly child).
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War of Louis XIV

Armed with this secret treaty, Louis
made the "generous" peace of Aix-laChapelle (May 1668) by which he kept
many of his conquests in Flanders but
withdrew from Franche-Comté.
War of Louis XIV
Louis did not reduce his troop strength after
the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, but increased
it.
 Louis was allied with the British against the
Dutch.
 By 1672, the French army numbered almost
120,000 men - 8,000 household troops,
86,000 infantry and 25,000 cavalry.

War of Louis XIV
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Louis XIV's foreign minister, Arnauld de Pomponne,
worked diplomatically to isolate the Netherlands.
The French arranged alliances or benevolent
neutrality with Charles II of England (the Treaty of
Dover), the Swedes, and various German princes
(including Bavaria, Münster, Cologne and Hanover).
Louis saw the Dutch both as obstacles to French
expansion into the Spanish Netherlands and as
trading rivals.
War of Louis XIV

William of Orange organized an alliance
against Louis XIV.
 Lewis was viewed as a Christian Turk;
 The Peace of Nijmwegen in 1678-1679
ends hostilities briefly.
War of Louis XIV

Louis XIV makes a huge mistake by
revoking the Edict of Nantes. By hounding
the Huguenots out of public life ending of
from office excluding them from jobs.
 He ended up creating far more enemies by
appearing to be the bully of Catholicism in
Western Europe.
War of Louis XIV

Protestant churches are closed. Ministers
exile. Ministers are used as slaves, and
Protestant children are baptized by Catholic
priests.
 Once the Edict was revoked Protestant
emigrated from France and join the
resistance in neighboring countries.
War of Louis XIV

By 1689 alliances against France, including
England’s Spain’s Sweden and the United
provinces.
 Post 1688 – Get it?
 The nine years war was a battle between
France and the alliance listed above.
 The Peace of Ryswick was a victory for
William of Orange and a defeat for Louis
XIV.
War of Louis XIV

Charles II of Spain dies in 1700. This
continues to encourage Louis XIV to make
a claim to the Spanish inheritance.
 Both Lewis and Leopold (Habsburg) and
claims to the Spanish throne.
 Lewis feared that should that Habsburgs
gained control Spain, they would gain
control of all of Europe.
War of Louis XIV

Meanwhile the rest of Europe feared the
same of France.
 Charles II had actually left his entire
inheritance Phillip of Anjou, which
immediately placed all Spanish possessions
and Frances hands
 Charles has his grandson Philip Madrid to
be declared Philip the fifth of Spain.
War of Louis XIV

In September of 1701, the Grand Alliance
of England Holland and Holy Roman
Empire qualm against Louis XIV
 Louis XIV increased animosity against the
Grand Alliance by recognizing the fact that
the son of James II of England was the real
ruler of the English throne, not William of
Orange.
War of Louis XIV

This is the so-called war of the Spanish
Succession – 1701 – 1714.
 This was the first time France had gone to
war, prepared inadequately.
 It proved to be a catastrophic mistake Louis
XIV. By 1713 France had signed an
armistice with England.
War of Louis XIV

Ultimately, Louis XIV would not achieve
his territorial goals.
 France would have to wait for the conquest
of Napoleon which you any similar
successes