The Wars of Louis XIV From the 1660's onwards, Louis XIV

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The Wars 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.
• 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. 

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Louvois imposed a high level of discipline of the
  troops - his drill master was Jean Martinet  -
  so strict an officer that to this day the word
  martinet is used to mean a rigid disciplinarian.
• 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.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Motivation and the world picture in Europe -
  1660 1760
• This is about the struggle bet. Absolutism and
  Constitutionalism
• As Louis, after the Fronde journeys further and
  further toward Absolutism, the English are
  moving, ostensibly, toward Constitutionalism,
• Further, there are the considerations of Spain,
  and Catholic nation, and their incursion into the
  Netherlands, which, by 1648 had been declared a
  free and independent, Calvinist state.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• BY 1688, what major shifts have taken place in
  Europe?
• England, with the invasion of William III has
  eradicated the tide of Catholicism under the
  rules of Charles II and James II
• Louis XIV had established a close relationship
  with both of these rulers, and could not simply
  abandon his desire at empire, and his loyalty to
  James II particularly
• Hence, we see a continuation of the conflict in
  Europe bet. The protestants and the Catholics,
  which means that the Thirty years. war is not
  exactly over.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The treaty of the Pyrenees brought the hostility
  bet. France and Spain, two catholic nations who
  stood tot gain more by being allies than enemies.
• Louis arranges a marriage bet, himself and Maria
  Theresa, daughter of the Hapsburg King of Spain,
  Phillip IV
• Once Phillip dies, Louis, by virtue off his
  marriage to Maria, become the rightful heir to
  the Spanish controlled sections of the
  Netherlands, and invades in 1667

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• We know of the Protestant Stronghold that the
  Netherlands was, and the interest that the
  English have had there.
• But, under the reigns of Charles II and James II,
  and their friendly relationship with Louis XIVlt
  these areas were essentially under siege.
• That is where William of Orange, an Stadholder,
  will make his name for the Protest and cause
• Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle in 1668 concludes the
  first round of fighting, and by the Peace of
  Nijmegen in 1678-79, Holland had gained back all
  of its lost territory.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• What was Louis agenda?
• He sought territory in the East, that had been
  French Domain since the times of Charlemagne.
  This would have to come at the expense of their
  traditional rival, the Habsburgs
• The Rhine River was to be his natural boundary
• France would be involved, in the next sixty year
  in a series of conflicts bet. The protestant
  forces of England, the Dutch, and Prussia.
• This was also part and parcel of the growing
  necessity of a balance of power in Europe, which
  Louis sought to overturn.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Key events that we will be covering
• The Nine years war 1688 1697
• The conflict saw the Battle bet. France and the
  United Forces of Britain, The Netherlands, and
  forces within the holy Roman Empire
• This ends with the treaty of Ryswick in 1697
• Then, we will examine the War of the Spanish
  Succession 1702 1714, which will seek to
  determine the succession of the Habsburg Throne.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• With the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, we see
  the conclusion of the wars of Spanish succession,
  and the growing hegemony of Great Britain as the
  new World become a greater source of conflict
• Remember the growth of mercantile empires in the
  new World, and the gradual diminishing of Spanish
  Power in the Caribbean, and central and South
  America.
• Hence these European rivalries will be played out
  in the colonies as well.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The Impact of the Utrecht signing would place
  Great Britain in an extremely advantageous
  position on the Western Hemisphere
• Specifically, their virtual monopoly on the Slave
  trade, the asciento gained from the Spanish,
  places Great Britain in the drivers seat as it
  were, and is often referred to as the basis of
  the economic capital that will help to find the
  Industrial economy decades later.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• He introduced the flintlock rifle, that fired far
  more efficiently than previous ones tat had a
  cord burn to ignite the gunpowder
• The Bayonet was also introduced, and this one
  could be left on the rifle as it was fired
• 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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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The War of Devolution (1667-68)
• 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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The Wars 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.
• (Remember that Maria Theresa was the product of
  Phillips first marriage!)
• 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.
• By proxy, these lands were now Louis!

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The Wars 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.
• 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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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Armed with this secret treaty, Louis made the
  "generous" peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (May 1668) by
  which he kept many of his conquests in Flanders
  but withdrew from Franche-Comté.
• The towns that Louis retained in the Spanish
  Netherlands - especially Lille - were expertly
  fortified by Vauban. These fortresses served both
  as defensive strong-points and as spring-boards
  for future invasion.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The Dutch war 1672-78
• Louis did not reduce his troop strength after the
  Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, but increased it. By
  1672, the French army numbered almost 120,000 men
  - 8,000 household troops, 86,000 infantry and
  25,000 cavalry.
• 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.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The French army was initially extremely
  successful and soon overran the whole Province of
  Utrecht. The frightened Dutch Pensionary, John de
  Witt sued for peace, but Louis made such
  exorbitant demands that he provoked a violent
  reaction.
• The Dutch opened the sluices and flooded large
  portions of the Netherlands to hold up the French
  troops.
• The Dutch then removed De Witt from power (he was
  murdered soon afterwards) and placed the young
  William of Orange in power.
• French success created new allies for the Dutch.
  Turenne had to detach troops to send against
  Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia, who was
  soon forced to make peace (June 1673).

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• In August 1673 the French and English fleets
  fought another battle against the Dutch at Texel.
  
• The French ships never properly engaged and the
  English fleet bore the brunt of De Ruyter's
  fierce attack.
• The Dutch ships were eventually forced to
  withdraw because they had exhausted their
  supplies of ammunition.
• The English fleet limped home and Charles II
  concluded a separate peace in the Treaty of
  Westminster (February 1674).

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The Holy Roman Empire and Spain also allied with
  the Dutch in the Grand Alliance of The Hague
  (1674).
• The cost of war was producing discontent - high
  taxation led to revolts in Normandy and Brittany.
  Louis XIV made the Peace of Nijmegen (Nymegen)  -
  in 1678 he was confirmed by Spain in possession
  of Franche-Comté, but surrendered Maastricht to
  the Dutch.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• In 1679, the Holy Roman Empire also made peace.
  France continued to occupy Lorraine, but the
  Danes and Prussians were obliged to return
  Stettin and their Baltic conquests to Sweden.
• The Dutch War left France with a deficit of 16
  million livres, but Colbert died in 1683, and
  Louvois believed that continued war was the route
  to French greatness!
• The acquisition of Alsace and Franche-Comté had
  whetted Louis XIV's appetite for expansion.
• He embarked on the policy of réunions - French
  lawyers were commissioned to discover towns that
  were "dependencies" of his new acquisitions, and
  had arguably at some point in the past strictly
  been French. Louis then annexed them to France
  however spurious or antiquated the claim.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The Peace of Nijmegen had split the grand
  alliance formed against Louis, and he used the
  threat of French military might to bully each of
  his opponents singly. While the Empire was
  preoccupied with the threat from Ottoman Turkey,
  Louis invaded the Spanish Netherlands (1683) and
  laid siege to Luxembourg (April 1684).
• In the Truce of Ratisbon (August 1684) Spain was
  forced to recognize French possession of
  Strasbourg, Luxembourg and Oudenarde.
• Genoa had allied itself with Spain, so Louis
  bombarded the city into submission and demanded
  that its Doge come to Versailles and apologize.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• 1684 saw Louis XIV at the height of his power.
  Many resented French intimidation, but the threat
  from the Turks in the East and disunity in the
  West gave Louis the upper hand.
• Between 1685 and 1688 matters changed.
• The successes of the Holy Alliance ended the
  danger of Ottoman invasion.
• The Revocation of the Edict of Nantes deeply
  alienated Protestant powers.
• The Glorious Revolution placed William of Orange
  (Louis's most determined enemy) on the throne of
  England in place of James II (Louis's compliant
  friend).

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• In July 1686, the League of Augsburg was formed
  by the Holy Roman Empire, Bavaria, Saxony, the
  Palatinate, Sweden and Spain to oppose French
  aggression.
• The Imperial army defeated the Turks at the
  Battle of Mohács (August 1687). Louis invaded the
  Palatinate in October 1688 before the Emperor's
  armies had redeployed from the East.
• The French army devastated the area in one of the
  few real war crimes of this period's warfare.
• The Glorious Revolution surprised Louis XIV as
  did the Grand Alliance of Spain, the Empire,
  Savoy and many German states that William of
  Orange was able to forge.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV struck back at William of Orange by
  supplying James II with 6,000 troops in an
  attempt to regain his throne. James went to
  Ireland where the Catholic, anti-English
  population rallied to his support. However,
  William II, helped by the Protestant Ulstermen
  defeated James' army in The Battle of the
  Boyne.The anniversary of this victory is
  celebrated each year by Protestant Orangemen
  marches deeply resented by Ulster's Catholic
  inhabitants.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV planned an invasion of England, but the
  French admiral, Anne-Hilarion de Cotentin, Count
  of Tourville was defeated in May 1692 by the
  Admiral Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford.
• The English intercepted the French fleet off
  Barfleur, pursued it for five days, and when it
  sought shelter in the bay of La Hogue (La Hougue)
  burnt at least 12 (possibly 15) of its ships at
  anchor.
• Both sides were running out of their taxpayers'
  resources and so concluded the Peace of Ryswick
  1697
• France had to restore much of its ill-gotten
  gains (including Trier, Breisach, Lorraine,
  Luxemburg and Catalonia) to recognize William III
  as King of England, and to accept a pension for
  Elisabeth Charlotte in lieu of her claims to the
  Palatinate.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-13
• The death of Charles II of Spain had long been
  anticipated in view of his poor health. Charles
  had no children and all Europe was concerned as
  to who would succeed him.
• Louis XIV's wife, Maria Theresa (sister of
  Charles II and daughter of Philip IV) died in
  1683, but left a son.
• She had formally renounced her claims to the
  throne on marriage. The rest of Europe was
  horrified at the idea of France (already too
  powerful) controlling Spain and its dominions.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• In 1700, Charles II bequeathed the entire
  inheritance to Philip, Duke of Anjou - younger
  grandson of Louis XIV the will stated that if
  France did not accept this, the entire
  inheritance should go to Austria.
• Louis XIV accepted this arrangement to prevent
  encirclement by Hapsburg powers, and (the
  extremely odd) Philip acceded to the throne.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV had an army of almost a quarter of a
  million men, and he maneuvered it as though about
  to start a new offensive war.
• In June 1700, the normally fractious English
  House of Commons voted support for William II
  against the French. In December 1700, Leopold I
  began to raise an army on the Rhine.
• April 1713 - the Peace of Utrecht was agreed.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Philip V retained Spain and its American
  colonies, but the Spanish Netherlands, Milan and
  the Kingdom of Naples became Austrian Hapsburg
  possessions.
• The Dutch were allowed to retain fortresses in
  the Spanish Netherlands to discourage French
  aggression.
• France ceded Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, the
  Hudson Bay territory, and the island of St. Kitts
  (in the Caribbean) to Britain, recognized Queen
  Anne (i.e. stopped supporting James Edward), and
  made certain trading concessions. The Duke of
  Savoy became King of Sicily.
• France did retain much of the territory it had
  seized in Flanders and along the Rhine (although
  Alsace and Lorraine remained a bone of contention
  between France and Germany long after).

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• Louis XIV was king for 72 years - the longest
  reigning monarch in European history - in an age
  of absolutism.
• Theorists such as Jacques Bossuet and Jean Domat
  argued that the king was God's agent on earth and
  to be obeyed faithfully.
• The reign of Louis XIV has excited strong
  reactions amongst historians - some seeing it as
  disastrous, others as glorious.
• Voltaire, one of the great figures of the
  Enlightenment, recognized the suffering caused by
  Louis' warmongering and religious persecution and
  admired him nonetheless.

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The Wars of Louis XIV

• "The superior ability of his early ministers and
  his early generals soon wearied him. He liked
  nobody to be in any way superior to him.
• Thus he chose his ministers, not for their
  knowledge, but for their ignorance not for their
  capacity, but for their want of it. He liked to
  form them, as he said liked to teach them even
  the most trifling things.
• It was the same with his generals. He took credit
  to himself for instructing them wished it to be
  thought that from his cabinet he commanded and
  directed all his armies.
• Naturally fond of trifles, he unceasingly
  occupied himself with the most petty details of
  his troops, his household, his mansions. This
  vanity, this unmeasured and unreasonable love of
  admiration, was his ruin."
• Duke de Saint-Simon on Louis XIV

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