(1701-1714), the war of France with a pan-European coalition for the possession of Spain and its possessions - the Netherlands, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, Sicily and vast colonies in South and Central America.

The cause of the war was the dynastic dispute between the French Bourbons and the Austrian Habsburgs over the right to inherit the Spanish throne after the death in November 1700 of Charles II (1665–1700), the last representative of the Spanish Habsburgs. Charles II appointed his great-nephew, Philip of Anjou, grandson of the French King Louis XIV (1643–1715), as his successor. The Austrian party nominated Archduke Charles of Habsburg, the second son of the German Emperor Leopold I (1657–1705), who was the great-nephew of Charles II's father, Philip IV (1621–1665), as their candidate. In April 1701, Philip of Anjou entered Madrid and was crowned King Philip V of Spain (1701–1746); The French occupied all the fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands. The prospect of Spain falling into the hands of the French Bourbons aroused serious concerns among France's main maritime rival, England, which had been in a personal union with another major maritime power, Holland, since 1689. In September 1701, Leopold I entered into an anti-French military alliance with the English king and the Dutch stoutholder William III; he was joined by the Prussian king Frederick I, Elector Georg-Ludwig of Hanover, many imperial cities and petty princes of Upper Germany. On the side of Louis XIV were Elector Maximilian-Immanuel of Bavaria, Elector Joseph-Clement of Cologne, Dukes Vittore Amedeo II of Savoy and Carlo IV of Mantua.

Frey L. A question of empire: Leopold I and the War of Spanish Succession, 1701– 1705 . boulder; New York, 1983
Dickinson W.C., Hitchcock E.R. The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702– 1713: a selected bibliography. Westport (Conn.); London, 1996
Corvisier André. La bataille de Malplaquet, 1709: l "effondrement de la France evite. Paris, 1997
Naujokat U. England and Preussen im spanischen Erbfolgekrieg. Bonn, 1999
Plasmann M. Krieg und Defension am Oberrhein: die vorderen Reichskreise und Markgraf Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden (1693-1706). Berlin, 2000
Falkner J. Great and glorious days: Schellenberg, Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, and Malplaquet. Staplehurst, 2002

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From the second half of the reign of Louis XIV, a new period in the diplomatic history of Europe began, which was marked by the gradual strengthening of the international role of England in its struggle with France for supremacy in the robbery of the colonies. The most important stage of this struggle was the War of the Spanish Succession. It began as a dynastic war, but in fact turned into the first huge clash between France and England for dominance of the sea and the colonies.

The reason for the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) was the death of the childless Charles II of Spain. Louis XIV considered himself the heir to the Spanish possessions. It was the richest legacy that ever existed. It was not only about the violation of the "political balance" in favor of France, but in fact about the world hegemony of France. In addition to Spain itself, the "heir" - Louis XIV - was supposed to get Italian, Dutch, as well as numerous African and American possessions of Spain.

Back in the 90s of the 17th century, Louis was negotiating with other powers on the division of this inheritance. England and Holland willingly listened to his proposals in the hope of profiting from rich booty. But the Spanish king had another heir - the Austrian Archduke Karl, who was the grandson of the Spanish king Philip III. Louis hoped, having interested England and Holland, to act with them as a united front against the claims of the Habsburgs and, thus, to prevent a possible anti-French coalition. The French ambassadors in London and The Hague urged the British and Dutch that the accession of the Bourbons or the Habsburgs alone to the throne of Spain would upset the balance. The French ambassador in Vienna persistently urged the emperor to divide Spain among the pretenders in the name of preserving European peace. French diplomats have achieved very significant results. In 1698 and 1700 two agreements were made to partition Spain - both, needless to say, secret from the Spanish king Charles II himself. One can easily imagine his indignation when he found out what was going on behind his back. At first, Karl, in defiance of France and the Empire, decided to do good with his inheritance to a distant "poor relative" - ​​the Elector of Bavaria. But that seven-year-old boy died suddenly and for some unknown reason. Then Charles II decided to transfer the entire inheritance, but always in its entirety, to the French prince: he correctly calculated that the French prince at the head of undivided Spain was better than dividing the country. This decision of the king was pushed by French diplomacy and the Spaniards themselves, because, says Mignet, "the national party hated the Austrians, because they had long been in Spain, and loved the French, because they had not yet entered Spain." On October 2, 1700, Charles II, after consulting with his confessor, theologians, lawyers and the pope himself, signed a will that, after his death, transferred Spain with all its possessions in the Old and New Worlds to the grandson of Louis XIV, Duke Philip of Anjou. On November 1 of that year, the king died. Louis XIV was faced with two possibilities, created by his own diplomacy and directly opposed to each other. Acceptance of the inheritance meant war with almost all of Europe. Failure to accept it and loyalty to the partition treaties concluded with England, Holland and the emperor could cause a war with Spain, which naturally did not want to be partitioned. In the end, the ambition of the king and his chief advisers prevailed, among whom there were no longer large people of the first half of the reign. The words of the Spanish ambassador to the French court, that "the Pyrenees have almost collapsed," were picked up and attributed to Louis XIV himself; the king seemed to have said: "No more Pyrenees!"

Neither England nor Holland intended to fight the French king, preferring peace to the dangers of war and disruption of trade. They contented themselves with Louis XIV's solemn promise that Spain would never be united with France. But the subsequent behavior of the French government seemed to confirm the worst assumptions. At the beginning of 1701, Louis XIV recognized the rights of Philip V to the French throne with a special letter, introduced French garrisons into the fortresses of the Dutch provinces of Spain, and ordered the Spanish governors and viceroys to obey him as their sovereign. The supporters of the war in the Netherlands and in England raised a cry, reproaching Louis XIV that he had obtained their consent to grant him a part of the inheritance, but in fact seized it completely. Wilhelm began to spread rumors that Louis XIV intended to intervene in English affairs in favor of the Stuarts, who had just been expelled from England. Louis XIV, for his part, seemed to be making every effort to make these rumors plausible. He visited the former deceased in France English king James II and gave him a solemn promise that he would recognize the royal title for his son, despite his own, a few years earlier, the official recognition of King William III. Upon learning of this, the House of Commons voted subsidies for the war. The emperor was most militant at that time. The international situation seemed to him extremely favorable for delivering a decisive blow to the Bourbons, centuries-old enemies of the House of Habsburg. Shortly before that, he made peace with the Turks (in Karlovichi in 1699). His diplomatic agitation among the German princes, irritated by the French bossing in Germany, was also crowned with success: they expressed their readiness to help the emperor. Denmark and Sweden also responded positively; they feared French hegemony ever since the Peace of Westphalia. However, the Great Northern War, which began almost simultaneously with the War of the Spanish Succession, diverted their forces to the northeast, and the emperor did not receive any help from them.

Things in Europe took an unfavorable turn for France. The coalition of the 80s of the 17th century was again restored, when almost all of Europe was against France. The war that began in the spring of 1701 was unsuccessful for France. She was seething on four fronts at once: in Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and in Rhineland Germany. The dubious successes of France in its first period (1702-1704) were followed by years of defeats and severe setbacks. Exhausted by previous wars, the country was starving in these years (1704 - 1710) and the uprisings of the Camizars - the Protestants of the Cevennes mountains - expressed its extreme indignation. In the last period (1710-1714), the French managed to somewhat improve the military valleys. This allowed Louis XIV to conclude a peace that was not too humiliating for France.

The second half of the reign of the "sun king" was generally poor prominent people and military talent. The living forces of the country stood outside the official circles of the brilliant monarchy that had begun to decrepit. Meanwhile, outstanding diplomats and generals were on the side of her opponents: William III of Orange, Marlborough and the gifted Austrian commander Prince Eugene of Savoy. Louis XIV dreamed of only one thing, how to get out of the war with not quite plucked feathers.

Disagreements and contradictions among his enemies helped. The diplomats of Louis XIV after almost every campaign tried to establish relations with the Dutch, convincing them that the British were going to seize the East and West Indies, and the Habsburgs, having taken possession of Spain, wanted to restore the empire of Charles V and its former hegemony in Europe. The Dutch only needed to secure themselves from France and continue their commercial affairs; therefore, they sought only profitable trade agreements and the establishment of a so-called "barrier", that is, the right to keep garrisons in present-day Belgium, which then belonged to Spain. In general, they were not inclined to expensive warfare.

The British were privateers at that time at sea, managed to seize the key to the Mediterranean Sea - Gibraltar (1704) - and imposed a trade agreement on Portugal (Methuensky, 1703), which subordinated Portugal to England economically. On the basis of the agreement, the British received the right to import duty-free their manufactured products into Portugal, which then poured into Spain as a stream of smuggling. In America, the Boston and New York colonists seized one area after another of the new France. But the main expenses of the war fell on England; England was also at peace. The election of 1710 produced a Torian majority hostile to the war: the hero of many campaigns, Marlborough, was accused of embezzlement, which was true. In 1711 (April), Emperor Joseph I died, and his younger brother Charles, the pretender to the Spanish throne, was elected to the throne. Under these conditions, the threat of the restoration of the empire of Charles V and the new flourishing of Central Europe (Germany and Italy), due to which both England and Holland grew, began to seem quite real. The empire, it seemed, was ready to rise again from the coffin boarded up by the Peace of Westphalia. By 1710, the protege of the French, Philip V of Spain, finally managed to establish himself in his new fatherland: the campaigns of 1711 and 1712. did not lead to the victory of the allies, and the British were the first to extend the hand of peace to the French in true English, that is, behind the backs of their allies. As early as January 1711, a secret agent of the British government appeared in France, offering to conclude a separate peace without the Dutch, "who had lost the favor of the king." The proposal was accepted, and further negotiations were carried on so secretly that they did not even want to devote even British diplomats to them. The English demands were brought to France by the poet Pryars in a note that was marked by Queen Anne herself. In October, the amazed allies of England, the Dutch and Germans, read about the terms of peace between England and France, vaguely guessing about the points concerning them, which, of course, were not published.

Utrecht world. In February 1712, a congress was convened in Utrecht, at which peace treaties were signed - Utrecht - April 11, 1713. and Rastadt - 1714. Both treaties were of great importance in the history of Europe in the 18th century.

The Bourbons were allowed to remain in Spain, but on the condition that the king of Spain would never be king of France at the same time. For this, Spain had to yield: 1) to the Habsburgs - the Kingdom of Naples, Sardinia, part of Tuscany, the Duchy of Milan and the Spanish Netherlands; 2) Elector of Brandenburg - Spanish Geldern (in the Netherlands); 3) the Duke of Savoy - Sicily; 4) England - Gibraltar, a fortified point on the island of Minorca; England, on the other hand, acquired the vile "asiento", that is, the exclusive right granted to an English company to trade in Negroes. France paid small chunks of territory in favor of the Habsburgs in the Netherlands, withdrew its troops from Lorraine and ceded insignificant lands in the south to the Duke of Savoy. France suffered the greatest losses in America. Here she had to give up the lands around the Hudson Bay, Newfoundland and Acadia, that is, the lands north of the St. River. Lawrence, settled by French colonists since the beginning of the 17th century. This was a prologue to the elimination of French possessions in North America. For England, a period of complete domination of the sea began.

French diplomacy under LouisXV. The reign of the successor of Louis XIV is the beginning of the complete decay of French absolutism and the failure of its foreign policy. The three wars in which Louis XV took part - the War of the Polish Succession (1733 - 1735), the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748), the Seven Years' War (1756 - 1763), were not to such an extent necessary for France so that they could not be avoided: they were therefore called "wars of luxury". From the point of view of the interests of the growing bourgeoisie, these wars were clearly harmful. Instead of focusing on the defense of the French colonies in America, Louis XV allowed himself to be drawn into a series of continental wars that weakened France. The result of this was the loss of the American colonies (Canada and Louisiana), which passed to the British and Spaniards, and the complete failure of French policy in India, which, as a result of the activities of the famous French entrepreneur and organizer Jean Dupleix, almost became French.

France of that time had no shortage of capable ministers and diplomats (Vershen, Choiseul, d'Argenson), but even the most talented diplomat could not make good the bad policy of his government.

War of the Polish Succession. At the beginning of the first half of XVIII century, Russia, strengthened by Turkey, Poland and Sweden, was looking for an alliance with France. But the French government was afraid of losing its old friends, which were these three states, and Russia went to rapprochement with Austria. When the Elector of Saxony died, he was also King of Poland August II, Russia and Austria supported the candidacy of his son August III for the Polish throne, while France nominated Stanislav Leshchinsky, who had previously been king, but was overthrown from the throne. The policy of the French court was explained by the fact that Louis XV was married to the daughter of Stanislav Mary. “His Majesty,” wrote d “Argenson, “married a simple girl, and it was necessary that the queen become the daughter of the king.” So the war that France was going to incur by supporting Leshchinsky’s candidacy for the Polish throne was based on royal vanity.

Monti, the French ambassador in Warsaw, spent 3 million livres to win over the Poles in favor of Leszczynski. In order to divert the attention of the Russians and Austrians, a certain gentleman Tianand, posing as Leshchinsky, landed at Brest with great fanfare and headed for the Baltic; at the same time, the real Leshchinsky was secretly making his way to Warsaw, disguised as a traveling salesman. However, the Polish gentry, having received French money, quickly went home and did not show much willingness to fight with Russia and Austria for the honor of the French queen, especially since the party against Leshchinsky was quite strong in Poland itself. Russia was out of reach for France, and for the first time the French government received a substantive lesson on how dangerous it was for him to neglect Russian friendship. France tried to set Sweden and Turkey against Russia, but met with their refusal. I had to defend the unfortunate Leshchinsky on my own. But the fleet sent to Danzig was put to flight by Russian ships, and the French landing force was taken long and sent to Petersburg. Then Louis XV, who heard rumors that the Russian tsarina still favored France, sent a secret ambassador to Russia, a certain abbot Langlois under the name Bernardoni, to invite Anna Ivanovna to recognize Stanislav Leshchinsky as king of Poland. The abbot, with the greatest difficulty, constantly changing his dress and hiding, finally reached Petersburg; but he was soon expelled from there. Left to its own forces, Poland had to agree to the demand of Austria and Russia (1735).

"King's Secret" The personal influence of King Louis XV began to show itself after 1743, when he himself took over the affairs. The result of this was, above all, a sharp change in policy towards Germany. Instead of the traditional struggle against the Habsburgs and the support of the Protestant princes, by the middle of the 50s of the 18th century, i.e., by the beginning of the Seven Years' War, Louis XV turned sharply towards Austria, against Prussia and its king Frederick II. By itself, this turn is not was bad for France. On the contrary, he liberated France from the traditional threat from her primordial enemy Habsburg and could untie her hands to fight England for dominance at sea and in the colonies, but Louis XV was outraged by the "insidious" policy of Frederick II. In January 1756, the Prussian king suddenly concluded an agreement with England on the protection of the Hanoverian possessions. More precisely, Frederick was hired by the English king George II to protect the family estates of the English dynasty (English kings were Hanoverian electors by origin). Louis XV got involved in an absolutely unnecessary war on the Continent in order to help Empress Maria Theresa recapture Silesia from Frederick II, captured by him during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748). The results for France were the most deplorable. Silesia remained with Frederick II, and France was defeated at sea and in the colonies. French America and India fell into the hands of the British (1763).

All this was the result of the personal policy of Louis XV.

The king distrusted others to such an extent, fearing their impact on his will, and despised his ministers to such an extent that he created a special secret cabinet, headed by Prince Conti from 1743. It was a kind of conspiracy of the king against his own ministers. The king, in addition to official ambassadors, had his own secret agents in other states, with whom he corresponded through the head of his ministers. Among these secret agents were such eminent diplomats as Comte Broglie, Breteuil and Vergène. Often, by order of the king, they pursued a policy directly opposite to that pursued by the official representative of the French government, and, in spite of all their art, they were eventually forced to do stupid things. The king liked to lead his ministers by the nose, not dedicating them to the "king's secret", and the fact that France was suffering from such a secret policy twice, Louis XV worried little.

Causes of the War of the Spanish Succession

In the first half of the 17th century, the Peace of Westphalia ended the period of religious movements and wars for Western Europe, and the second half of the century represented the desire of the most powerful state in Western Europe, France, to strengthen even more at the expense of weak neighbors and gain hegemony. With the common life of peoples, to which Europe is already accustomed, the weak begin to form alliances against the strong in order to restrain his aggressive movements. This is not the first time we have seen this phenomenon: at the beginning new history France also sought to strengthen itself at the expense of her weak neighbors, namely Italy, as a result of which alliances were also formed against her; even the huge state of Charles V was formed against it, embracing France from different sides. But neither external obstacles nor internal disturbances prevented the growth and strengthening of France, strong in its roundness and cohesion, and Louis XIV appeared more dangerous than Francis I, especially since there was no powerful Charles V against him. The soul of the alliances against Louis XIV is William of Orange, a leader of a different kind, a representative of a different force than the old Charles V. As the stadtholder of Holland and the king of England together, William concentrated in himself the representation of maritime trading powers, which were not in a position to fight with large armies against large continental states, but they had another powerful means, the nerve wars are money. This means has long since appeared in Europe as a result of its industrial and commercial development and has become near the power of the sword; a naval power could not put up its large army, but could hire an army, buy an alliance.

Thus, as a result of the common life of the European peoples, in their activity, in their struggle, a division of occupations is noticed: some field an army, others pay money, give subsidies - this is a kind of combination of labor and capital. Maritime merchant powers are not hunters for wars, especially long ones: such wars are expensive; maritime powers fight only out of necessity or when it is required by commercial advantages, for them continental wars are aimless, because they do not seek conquest on the continent of Europe; the goal of their war is trade gain or a rich colony across the ocean. But now it was necessary for England and Holland to intervene in the continental war. Direct violence, offensive movement, the seizure of someone else's possessions without any pretext were uncommon in the new, Christian Europe, and Louis XIV looked for various pretexts to expand his possessions, established the Chambers of Connection. But even without violence, conquests and legal exaggerations, there was an opportunity for European states to strengthen themselves, to annex entire other states, precisely through marriages, inheritances, wills: we know that at one time the Scandinavian states were united in this way, Poland was united with Lithuania, and The Habsburgs were especially famous for their ability to arrange advantageous marriages and through them, by wills and inheritances, form a vast state.

Now we, taught by historical experience and influenced by the principle of nationality, affirm the fragility of such unions, point to the short duration of the Kalmar Union, the bad consequences of the Jagiellian marriage for Poland, the fragility of the motley Habsburg monarchy; but they did not look like that before, and even now they do not completely refuse to attribute great importance to family ties between the possessing houses: the terrible, exterminating war that we recently witnessed began because one of the princes of Hohenzollern was called to the Spanish throne. When the happy heir to all his relatives, Charles V, formed a vast state from Austrian, Spanish and Burgundian possessions, no one armed himself against him for this, he was even chosen as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, because they saw in his strength a bulwark against French power; but now that the most powerful of the French kings, Louis XIV, turned his eyes to the Spanish inheritance, Europe could not remain calm, for there was no equivalent power against the power of the Bourbons. Holland could not be at peace with the thought that between her and terrible France there would no longer be a possession belonging to a separate independent state; that France, which recently almost destroyed her, will now be even stronger; the Whig party in England, which expelled the Stuarts, could not rest at the thought that the already powerful patron of the Stuarts would also have the forces of Spain; in Vienna they could not reconcile themselves to the idea that Spain would pass from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons, that Austria would cease to be happy for marriages (et tu, felix Austria, nube) and that happiness would pass to France. Austria, Holland and England were to prevent Louis XIV from receiving the Spanish inheritance, and William III was stadtholder in Holland and king in England.

The fatal Spanish inheritance was to lead to a terrible, general war; but the war was not wanted: the maritime powers did not want it because of their usual policy, naturally and necessarily peaceful, out of natural disgust to spend a penny of labor on a war that would not bring direct trade benefits, direct profits; the emperor did not want her, according to the custom of non-belligerent Austria, due to lack of funds, due to a bad hope of helping Germany, due to an unfinished, albeit happy, war with Turkey. Louis XIV did not want war: we saw the sad state of France at the end of the 17th century; voices were heard from different sides about the need to stop the warlike policy and could not help impressing the king, no matter how great his pride, no matter how strong the habit of contemptuously treating opinions that are not similar to his opinions and desires, considering these opinions fantasies ; besides last war, which did not end the way Louis would have liked, showed him that it was not very easy to fight coalitions. Everything is thus

The fatal Spanish inheritance was to lead to a terrible, general war; but the war was not wanted: the maritime powers did not want it because of their usual policy, naturally and necessarily peaceful, out of natural disgust to spend a penny of labor on a war that would not bring direct trade benefits, direct profits; the emperor did not want her, according to the custom of non-belligerent Austria, due to lack of funds, due to a bad hope of helping Germany, due to an unfinished, albeit happy, war with Turkey. Louis XIV did not want war: we saw the sad state of France at the end of the 17th century; voices were heard from different sides about the need to stop the warlike policy and could not help impressing the king, no matter how great his pride, no matter how strong the habit of contemptuously treating opinions that are not similar to his opinions and desires, considering these opinions fantasies ; moreover, the last war, which did not end as Louis would have liked, showed him that it was not very easy to fight coalitions. Everyone, therefore, was afraid of war and therefore came up with various means to solve a difficult matter through diplomacy.

The Spanish inheritance was opened due to the fact that King Charles II, sickly, mentally and physically undeveloped, ended his miserable existence childless, and with him the Habsburg dynasty in Spain ended. The pretenders to the throne were: Louis XIV, the son of a Spanish princess and married to a Spanish princess, from whom he had offspring; Emperor Leopold I, representative of the Habsburg dynasty, son of a Spanish princess; In his first marriage, he had a Spanish princess, sister of the French queen, daughter of Philip IV, Margarita, to whom her father, in case of suppression of the male line, transferred the inheritance of the Spanish throne, while her older sister, marrying Louis XIV, renounced this inheritance. But Margarita died, leaving Leopold one daughter, Maria Antonia, who married the Elector of Bavaria and died in 1692, leaving a son; this child was the third pretender and, on the basis of the will of Philip IV, had the most rights to the Spanish throne; moreover, this Bavarian prince satisfied the interests of the maritime powers and the political balance of Europe. But Louis XIV did not want to give up the Spanish inheritance, only to maintain political balance and satisfy the interests of the maritime powers, he offered the following concessions: Spain, passing to the Bourbon dynasty, was supposed to have a king separate from France in the person of one of the grandsons of Louis XIV; in order to secure Holland, Spain must renounce her Netherlands, which will pass into the possession of the Elector of Bavaria, and Holland will retain the right to have her garrisons in the Belgian fortresses, as hitherto she had; maritime powers will receive moorings for their ships in the Mediterranean; Dunkirchen will be returned to England to secure her shores from a French landing.

But the war was not avoided by this deal: the Elector of Bavaria could be satisfied with the Spanish Netherlands, but the other most powerful pretender, Emperor Leopold, did not receive any satisfaction. And now William III, to satisfy the third applicant, proposes to divide the Spanish monarchy: the grandson of Louis XIV will take Spain and America, the elector of Bavaria - the Netherlands, and the emperor - the Italian possessions of Spain.

Western historians, who speak so much against the partition of Poland, usually either keep silent about the partition of Spain, or try to show that it was not really a partition similar to the partition of Poland; they argue that there was no national connection between the parts of the Spanish monarchy, but the question of national connection is a question of our time; that between Spain and the Southern Netherlands there was a strong connection, and besides the national one, it proves that they did not separate from Spain when the Northern Netherlands separated from it; there was no doubt that between Spain and her possessions in Italy and the Netherlands there was much more connection than between Western Russia and Poland, between which there was antagonism due to differences in nationality and faith.

Louis XIV did not like William's proposal to give the Spanish possessions in Italy to the emperor, for a direct increase state area it was considered much more profitable than planting a relative, although very close, on the Spanish throne, therefore, Austria received more benefits than France. Louis agreed to cede Spain, the Catholic Netherlands and the colonies to the Bavarian prince, so that Naples and Sicily would be ceded to France, and the emperor would take Milan alone. Such an agreement did follow in the autumn of 1698.

When they found out in Spain that they wanted to divide it, King Charles II declared the Prince of Bavaria the heir to all his possessions, but this heir was no longer alive in February 1699, and troubles about the fatal inheritance began again. Louis XIV was busy rounding France with Lorraine and Savoy, so that the dukes of these lands would be rewarded with Spanish possessions in Italy. At the end of 1699, a second agreement took place: Spain and the Catholic Netherlands were to pass to the second son of Emperor Leopold, and France received all Spanish possessions in Italy. However, the emperor constantly shied away from entering into these agreements.

But Madrid still did not want to divide the monarchy. Of the two candidates now, the grandson of Louis XIV and the son of the emperor Leopold, it was necessary to choose the one who gave more hope that he would keep Spain indivisible; the French envoy Harcourt was able to convince the court of Madrid that the grandson of Louis XIV was such a candidate, and Charles II signed a will according to which Spain passed to the second son of the Dauphin, Duke Philip of Anjou; he was to be followed by his brother, the Duke of Berry, this by the Archduke Karl of Austria; if all these princes renounce their inheritance or die childless, then Spain passes to the House of Savoy; in no case shall Spain be united under one sovereign either with France or with Austria).

The calculation forced Louis XIV to accept this will: although the direct increase in France by certain parts of the Spanish monarchy was more profitable for him, however, refusing the will of Charles II in order to enforce the partition agreement concluded with William III, Louis had to enter into a war with the emperor, whose son received the entire Spanish monarchy indivisibly and could rely on the strong support of the Spanish people, who rejected the offensive thought of division; there was little hope for the support of the maritime powers, because the vast majority in Holland and especially in England disagreed with William III in their views, considering the erection of one of the grandsons of Louis XIV to the Spanish throne less dangerous for Europe than the strengthening of France in Italy; all the parties in England considered it a wild and incredible thing that England should help France to get Italy.

In November 1700, England learned about the will of Charles II. Wilhelm expected that the French would respect the decorum and begin negotiations on this matter in connection with the previous year's treaty. But France kept a deep silence, and Wilhelm, in great irritation, wrote to a man who fully shared his views, the Dutch rat-pensionary Gainsius, complaining of French shamelessness, that Louis had tricked him; he also complained about the stupidity and blindness of the English, who are very pleased that France preferred the testament to the partition treaty. Indeed, in England, where they most of all had in mind commercial advantages and most of all spared money for a continental war, loud complaints were heard about the treaty for the partition of Spain about the foreign policy of the king, about the terrible losses that Italian and Levantine trade must suffer as a result of the assertion French rule in both Sicilies. Several times already the Tories had raised a storm in Parliament against the king's unkind advisers, and the treaty for the division of the Spanish monarchy was the subject of strong parliamentary antics.

Thus the news that the Spanish monarchy fell wholly to one of the Bourbon princes was received with joy in England; even the ministers directly told the king that they considered this event a grace of heaven, sent down to deliver him, the king, from the difficulties in which the partition agreement had placed him; this agreement is so unpleasant to the people that the king would not be able to carry it out and it would cause him much trouble and grief. Numerous pamphlets that appeared on this occasion looked at the matter in exactly the same way, arguing that the power of France would not increase at all from the planting of Philip on the Spanish throne; some praised the wisdom of Charles II, others the moderation of Louis XIV. The Whigs dared not say anything against it. Indeed, it was difficult to say anything except that it was too early to praise the moderation of Louis XIV, that Philip's placement on the Spanish throne did not actually increase the power of France; but France was already powerful, and the king still did not consider means to increase his possessions, and now, in case of war with him, the Spanish Netherlands will be at his disposal, and these Netherlands are the key to an independent Netherlands. This is how the militant Stadtholder Party looked at the matter in the Netherlands, in whose brow stood Wilhelm's personal friend, the Dutch rat-pensionary Anton Geinsius; but the majority of the deputies of the United Provinces looked upon the accession of the Duke of Anjou in Spain as the desired outcome of the matter. However, the friends of the English king were not in favor of a separate treatise: they could not but realize that this treatise was a mistake on the part of William; Gainsius knew what disgust the Spaniards had for the idea of ​​dividing their state, and therefore he wanted the undivided transfer of the Spanish possessions not only to the Bourbon, but to the Habsburg prince: for this, in his opinion, it was necessary to raise a national movement in Spain in favor of the Habsburgs and put 70,000 troops to support the emperor, who should be encouraged to immediately enter Italy and conclude an alliance with Denmark, Poland, Venice, Savoy and all other states against France.

But without England it was impossible to start anything, and in England things were going badly for William. The Whig ministers struggled with a hostile majority in the lower house and with fellow Thorians who had recently been called into office. Thus, there was discord in the government. In the country, the Tori trend intensified. In the new parliamentary elections, the Tories prevailed because they promised peace. But Louis XIV was in a hurry to justify the policies of William III and the Whigs. November 1, 1700 Charles II of Spain died; his heir, Philip of Anjou, going to Spain, handed over to his grandfather, Louis XIV, the management of Belgian affairs, the French troops immediately crossed the Belgian borders and captured the Dutch garrisons in the fortresses, and in his defense, Louis announced that he had done this to prevent those directed against him US weapons.

Even before the occupation of Belgium, French troops crossed the Alps and established themselves in Milan and Mantua. The Whigs in England raised their heads, their flying political leaflets called on the patriots to arm themselves for the protection of the Dutch borders, Protestant interests, the balance of Europe. The London merchants were not alarmed by the danger threatening Protestant interests and the balance of Europe, they were alarmed by rumors that Louis XIV intended to prohibit the importation of English and Dutch goods into the Spanish colonies. In this case, the war was already a lesser evil for the peace-loving British. From horror for some time stopped all trade transactions in London. Tories, in turn, should have quieted down. But they had a majority in Parliament; in the spring of 1701, a memorial of the Dutch Republic was handed over to Parliament, which stated that the States intended to demand a guarantee of their future security from Louis XIV, but did not want to start business without the consent and assistance of England; since serious conflicts with France may arise from these negotiations, it is desirable for the States to know how far they can rely on England. Parliament agreed that the English government should take part in the Dutch negotiations, without, however, giving the king the right to enter into alliances, insisting on maintaining peace.

European Union vs. Louis XIV

In the same month, negotiations began in The Hague. In the first conference, the representatives of the maritime powers demanded that Belgium be cleared of French troops and, conversely, the right for Holland and England to keep their garrisons in the well-known Belgian fortresses; in addition, they demanded for the English and Dutch the same trading privileges in Spain as the French enjoyed. The representative of Louis XIV, Count d "Avaux, rejected these demands and began to fuss about how to quarrel the British with the Dutch, began to inspire the Dutch representatives that his sovereign could conclude an agreement with their republic and on the most favorable terms, if only England was removed from the negotiations; otherwise, he threatened an agreement between France and Austria and the formation of a large Catholic alliance. But the Dutch did not give in to deception: sensing danger, they stood firm and unanimous. The Dutch government informed the English about d'Avo's suggestions, and announced that it would hold fast to England. “But,” said the US letter, “the danger is approaching. The Netherlands is surrounded by French troops and fortifications; now it is no longer a matter of recognizing the previous treaties, but of their immediate execution, and therefore we are waiting for British help.

In the House of Lords, where the Whigs predominated, the letter of the States was answered with a fervent address to the king, authorizing him to conclude a defensive and offensive alliance not only with Holland, but with the emperor and other states. In the House of Commons, where the Tories dominated, they did not share this fervor, they did not want war, fearing that when it was announced, the hated Whigs would again be in the brow of government. But there was nothing to be done: the people spoke out loudly for the war, because fears for trade gains grew more and more intense: news came that societies were formed in France to seize Spanish trade, a company was formed to transport Negroes to America. The entire merchant class of England cried out about the need for war, curses against the deputies appeared in the press, they were accused of forgetting their duties, of treason. The Tories saw that if they continued to oppose the war with France, Parliament would be dissolved, and in new elections the Whigs would certainly gain the upper hand. Thus, the lower house was forced to declare that it was ready to fulfill the previous treaties, was ready to give aid to the allies and promised the king to support European freedom.

But the maritime powers alone could not support European freedom: they needed an alliance of continental European powers, and mainly the strongest of them, Austria. Could Emperor Leopold allow the Spanish monarchy to pass entirely from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons, even at a time when Austria was in the most favorable circumstances? Thanks to the Holy Alliance between Austria, Venice, Russia and Poland, Turkey, having suffered severe defeats, had to make important concessions to the allies. Austria acquired Slavonia, Croatia, Transylvania, almost all of Hungary in the Karlovtsy Peace; but besides these acquisitions, Austria also acquired a guarantee of future success - a good army and a first-class commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy; finally, the triumph of Austria over Turkey, a brilliantly advantageous peace, was a painful blow to France, because the Porte was her constant ally against Austria, and the Karlovci peace was concluded with the strong assistance of the maritime powers, despite the efforts of France to support the war. Everything therefore promised that Austria, freeing her hands in the East, encouraged by her brilliant successes here, would immediately turn her weapons to the West and take an active part in the struggle for the Spanish inheritance. But Austria took this part very slowly. This behavior of her depended, firstly, on the constant slowness in politics, aversion to decisive measures, on the habit of waiting for favorable circumstances to do everything for her without much effort on her part.

The Austrian ministers, quick in drawing up plans and slow when it was necessary to carry them out, were afraid to approach the Spanish question, which contained really great difficulties. It seemed to them much more profitable to attach part of the Spanish possessions directly to Austria than to fight to exclude the Bourbons from the Spanish inheritance and to deliver it entirely to the second son of Emperor Leopold, Charles; for all Spanish possessions in Italy, they agreed to cede the rest to the grandson of Louis XIV, even the Catholic Netherlands, which was so contrary to the benefits of maritime powers, and Louis XIV also did not consider it beneficial for himself to cede all Spanish possessions in Italy to Austria.

In Vienna, they really wanted to acquire something, not to give the entire Spanish monarchy to the Bourbons, and at the same time they could not come to any decision, waiting, out of habit, for favorable circumstances. Secondly, the behavior of Austria depended on the character of Emperor Leopold, a man of no talent, slow by nature, suspicious and heavily dependent on his confessor; slowness was best expressed in his speech, fragmentary, incoherent; the most important cases for weeks and months lay on the emperor's table without a decision, and in the present case, the Jesuits, who did not like the alliance of Austria with heretics - the British and Dutch, still had an influence on the emperor's determination; the Jesuits, on the contrary, were anxious to bring together the Catholic powers of Austria, France and Spain, so that with their united forces they could restore the Stuarts in England.

At the court of Vienna, however, there was a party that demanded decisive action, demanded war: that was the party of the heir to the throne, Archduke Joseph, and Prince Eugene of Savoy; but the old advisers of the emperor acted against her, fearing that with the outbreak of war all importance would pass from them to the militant party of Joseph. In such hesitation and waiting, the court of Vienna was disturbed by the news that Charles II had died, that the new king, Philip V, was received with triumph in Madrid, that he was recognized with the same joy in Italy, that French troops had already entered this country and occupied Lombardy, that the conferences at The Hague might end in a deal between France and the maritime powers, with Austria getting nothing. Moved in Vienna. In May 1701, the Austrian envoy in London suggested to King Wilhelm that the emperor would be pleased if Naples, Sicily, Milan, and the Southern Netherlands were ceded to him. The last requirement fully coincided with the interests of the maritime powers, who needed to have the possession of a strong power between France and Holland. In August, the maritime powers made the court of Vienna the last sentence, which consisted of the following: a defensive and offensive alliance against France; if Louis XIV denies Austria land rewards and maritime powers - certain guarantees of their security and benefits, then the allies will use their best efforts to seize Milan, Naples, Sicily, the Tuscan seaside places and the Catholic Netherlands for the emperor; for themselves England and Holland provide the conquest of the transatlantic Spanish colonies. On this basis, the following month, the European Union was concluded between the emperor, England and Holland: Austria put up 90,000 troops, Holland - 102,000, England - 40,000; Holland - 60 ships, England - 100.

At the very time when the great alliance was being consolidated in The Hague, Louis XIV, by his orders, seemed to want to hasten the war; he dealt the English two hard blows: the first was inflicted on their material interests by banning the importation of English goods into France; another blow was inflicted on their national feeling by the proclamation, after the death of James II of his son, his king of England under the name of James III, while not long before that parliamentary act, the Protestant inheritance was approved: after the death of the widowed and childless King William III, his sister-in-law, the youngest daughter of James, entered the throne. II Anna, wife of Prince George of Denmark, after her the throne passed to the Elector of Hanover, the granddaughter of James I Stuart from his daughter Elizabeth, the wife of Elector Frederick of the Palatinate (the ephemeral King of Bohemia).

As a result of these insults from France, William III received from his subjects many addresses with expressions of devotion; the country loudly demanded the immediate declaration of war on France and the dissolution of the non-militant parliament. In the new elections, the Tory candidates managed to hold on only because they shouted louder than their rivals, the Whigs, against Louis XIV, louder demanded war. In January, 1702, the king opened the new parliament with a speech in which he reminded the lords and commons that at the present moment the eyes of all Europe were upon them; the world awaits their decision; it is a question of the greatest blessings of the people - freedom and religion; the precious moment had come for the maintenance of English honor and English influence in the affairs of Europe.

This was the last speech of William of Orange. He had not enjoyed good health for a long time; in England they were accustomed to seeing him suffering, surrounded by doctors; but they are also accustomed to seeing that, at the request of circumstances, he prevailed and quickly set to work. At the time described, he was hurt by a fall from his horse, and this apparently slight injury brought Wilhelm closer to the grave. The king told those closest to him that he felt his strength diminishing daily, that he could no longer be counted on, that he was leaving life without regret, although at present it offers him more consolation than ever before. On March 19 Wilhelm died. His sister-in-law Anna was proclaimed queen.

Modern historians glorify William III as the man who finally affirmed the freedom of England in political and religious terms and at the same time worked hard to liberate Europe from French hegemony, linking the interests of England with the interests of the continent. But contemporaries in England looked at things differently. Against their will, forced by necessity, they decided on the revolutionary movement of 1688 and looked with displeased eyes at its consequences, when they were supposed to put on their throne a foreigner who did not belong to the dominant Episcopal Church. They looked at the Dutch stadtholder with suspicion, they were afraid of his lust for power, they were also afraid that he would involve the country in continental wars, would spend English money for the benefits of his Holland; hence - the distrust of the parliament to the king, the opposition to his intentions on the part of both parties - both Tories and Whigs, stinginess in giving subsidies for the war. Wilhelm, constantly irritated by this mistrust and obstacles to his plans, could not treat his subjects kindly, and he did not differ from nature in kindness: hidden, silent, indispensable, constantly surrounded only by his Dutch favorites, thinking with them about the most important English affairs, Wilhelm could not be popular in England. All the more willingly did the majority of the people see Queen Anna on the throne.

The new queen was not distinguished by prominent virtues: her upbringing was neglected in her youth, and in her mature years she did nothing to make up for this shortcoming; spiritual lethargy expressed itself in indecision and inability to work hard; as soon as the question left the series of daily occurrences, she already became embarrassed. But the more she needed someone else's advice, the less independent she was, the more she wanted to seem like that, for she considered independence necessary in her royal position, and woe to the imprudent who would too obviously want to impose his opinion on the queen. Warmly devoted to the Anglican Church, Anna treated both papism and the Protestant heresy with the same disgust, which is why she seemed to our Peter the Great "the true daughter of Orthodox Church", in his own words. Anna's shortcomings could not be sharply expressed before her accession to the throne: her good qualities were visible, her impeccable married life; but, of course, her most precious quality was precisely what Wilhelm lacked: she was an Englishwoman and distinguished by her adherence to the Anglican Church.

As for the political parties, Anna's accession to the throne was greeted with joyful hopes by the Tories, and by mistrust by the Whigs. The Whigs suspected Anna of being attached to her father and brother; the Whigs acted hostilely against Anna under William and were responsible for a strong quarrel between them; the Whigs raised the question: should not the throne, after the death of Wilhelm, go directly to the Hanoverian line? The more zealously stood for Anna the Tories. Since the belief was rooted that the son of James II, who was proclaimed king on the continent under the name of James III, was a dummy, the strict adherents of the correct succession to the throne considered Anna the rightful heir to the throne immediately after the death of James II, and looked at William only as a temporary ruler. Anna's attachment to the Anglican Church made her an idol for all adherents of the latter, offended that King William did not belong to their number, was a heretic in their eyes. Both universities, Oxford and Cambridge, always distinguished by their zeal for the Anglican Church, greeted Anna with fiery addresses; Oxford theologians proclaimed that now, only with the accession to the throne of Anna, the Church is secured from the invasion of heresy, now a new, happy era has come for England.

In addition to the Whigs and Tories, there was a Jacobite party in England, which saw the legitimate king in the young James III, and this party was not hostile to Anna, because James III was still very young and could not immediately come to England to regain his father's crown, and the leaders of his party thought it most prudent to wait; the troubled health of the thirty-seven-year-old queen did not promise a long reign, moreover, they knew that Anna could not stand her Hanoverian relatives, and even more so they could count on her affection for her brother. But the more hopeful the Jacobites were, the more fearful were the adherents of the revolution of 1688; they were especially afraid of the influence of the Earl of Rochester, the queen's maternal uncle, son of the famous Lord Clarendon: Rochester was a well-known Jacobite, and they were afraid that he would raise up people of his own kind, who would change foreign policy, tear England away from the great alliance and bring them closer to France.

John Churchill, Earl of Marlborough

But the fear was in vain: the new queen immediately let the Dutch government know that she would steadily hold on foreign policy his predecessor; the same was announced in Vienna and to other friendly powers. The party, conscious of the need to take an active part in the war against France, was, for reasons known to us, just as strong in Anna's early days as in last days Wilhelm; and although interference in continental affairs, war for local interests, spending money on a war that did not promise immediate benefits, could never be popular on the island, and the peace party had to prevail at the first opportunity and break out of the war, yet such a favorable circumstance now it wasn't. As for the queen, the representative of the war party, Lord John Churchill, earl of Marlborough, had the strongest influence on her at the time described.

The Earl of Marlborough himself had a strong influence on the queen, but his wife, who had a close friendship with Anne, when both were not yet married, enjoyed even stronger influence. The friends had opposite characters, because the Countess of Marlborough (née Sarah Jennings) was distinguished by extraordinary energy, expressed in all her movements, in her eyes, in strong and quick speech, she was witty and often angry. It is not surprising that the princess, lazy in mind, became strongly attached to a woman who relieved her of the obligation to think and speak and so pleasantly entertained her with her mobility and her speech. Anna Stewart married the insignificant George of Denmark, and Sarah Jennings married the most prominent of the Duke of York's courtiers, Colonel John Churchill. It was hard to find a handsomer man than John Churchill. He did not receive a school education, he had to acquire the necessary information himself; but a clear mind, an extraordinary memory and the ability to use the treatment of the most remarkable persons, with whom he constantly met in his position, helped him in the matter of self-education: extreme accuracy and endurance in every business pushed him early out of the crowd and showed in him a future famous figure; but at this advancement from the crowd, the dexterous ambitious man knew how not to push anyone, did not prick his eyes with his superiority, lived in great friendship with the powerful of the earth. But cold, prudent, cautious and dexterous with all others, Churchill completely lost his temper with his wife, whose influence he submitted constantly and to the detriment of his fame.

Churchill began his military activities in the Dutch wars of the seventies under the eyes of French generals. James II raised him to the rank of lord, and in 1685 Lord Churchill did the king an important service by subduing Monmouth's rebellion; but when Jacob began to act against the Anglican Church, then Churchill, a zealous adherent of this Church, lagged behind him, and his defection to the side of William of Orange led to a quick and bloodless outcome of the revolution. Churchill was elevated to the earls of Marlborough for this, but soon did not get along with William, especially when his wife was insulted by Queen Mary, and a rift between the royal court and Princess Anne followed. The dissatisfied Marlborough entered into relations with his old benefactor, James II, and even gave details of the British enterprise against Brest. However, later he again became close to William and was privy to all the plans of the king regarding foreign policy. Wilhelm entrusted him with the command of the auxiliary English army in the Netherlands and the final consolidation of the continental alliances; the king saw in him a man who united the warmest heart with the coldest head.

It is easy to understand that Marlborough lost nothing with the death of William and the accession to the throne of Anna, who looked at him as the most devoted person to herself. Lord Marlborough immediately received the highest order (Garter) and command over all English troops, and his wife - the place of the first lady of state. Marlborough, in fact, did not belong to any party, and yet both parties had reason and advantage to consider him theirs: the Tories counted on his attachment to the Anglican Church, on his connections, on the persecution that he endured during the reign of the Whigs under William, and hoped to have him on our side in all matters domestic policy; the Whigs, for their part, saw that Lady Marlborough was in close touch with all the heads of their party, that the notorious Whig, Lord Spencer, was Marlborough's son-in-law; finally, the Whigs were in favor of the war, why their interest merged with the interests of the commander-in-chief of all English troops, and the Whigs told him that, although they did not hope to occupy government posts in the present reign, they would nevertheless contribute to everything that would be done for the good of the nation .

The first thing Marlborough did was to go to Holland to seal the alliance between the two maritime powers, which had weakened by the death of the king and the stadtholder. The presence in Holland of the most influential person in the English government was also necessary because Louis XIV tried to tear Holland away from the great alliance with promises to clear Belgium and make other concessions, as a result of which some deputies in the United States began to lean towards peace with France. Marlborough solemnly, in the presence of foreign ambassadors, announced that the queen would faithfully fulfill the treaty of alliance, as a result of which the States finally rejected the offer of France. Meanwhile, in England, Rochester, taking advantage of the absence of Marlborough, was in a hurry to give the final triumph of the Tory party and managed to form a ministry from its members; we saw Marlborough's attitude towards the Tories, and he hastened to assure the States that a change in the English ministry would have no effect on the course of foreign affairs. But Lady Marlborough took a strong part in the fight against the Queen's uncle, becoming a Whig. Here, for the first time, friends clashed: Queen Anne noticed a sharp difference between the respectful language of all the others who addressed her on this matter, and the unceremonious, demanding language that Lady Sarah used to speak to her from an old habit: from then on, cooling began between friends.

But be that as it may, the society was dominated by the same conviction that a war with France was necessary in order to protect English interests, As in recent times reign of William, and therefore changes in the ministry could not stop things. The national view was expressed in the council of state, convened for the final decision on the question of war; voices were heard: “Why such an expensive and heavy intervention in continental unrest? Let the English fleet be in good order; as the first fleet in Europe, let him guard the coasts and patronize trade. Let the continental states torment each other in a bloody struggle; the commerce and wealth of central England will be all the more increased. Since England does not need continental conquests, she should help her allies only with money, and if it is absolutely necessary to fight, then she should limit herself to naval war; in order to fulfill allied obligations with Holland, it is necessary to enter the war in the sense of only a helping power, but by no means independently. All these opinions, as expressions of the basic national view, were very important for the future, for they were to prevail at the first opportunity; but now this convenience was not available to them, with the conviction of the majority of the need to check the terrible power of France, and war was declared.

Beginning of the War of the Spanish Succession

At the beginning of this war, precisely in the summer of 1702, the political and military preponderance was not at all on the side of the allies, despite the loud name of the European Union. The northern powers refused to participate in the war against France; in the eastern regions of the Austrian monarchy, an uprising was about to break out; in Germany, Bavaria and Cologne were on the side of France, covered by Belgium, the Rhine line, neutral Switzerland and having the forces of Spain, Portugal, Italy. The allies were supposed to put up 232,000 troops, but in reality they could have a much smaller number, so that the forces of Louis XIV and his allies outnumbered them by 30,000. The income of France (187,552,200 livres) was equal to the sum of the income of the emperor, England and Holland; in addition, in his orders, Louis was not constrained by any parliament, any provincial officials, any individual nationalities; finally, the possessions of the continental allies were open, while France was protected by strong fortresses.

Indeed, the first two years of the war (1702 and 1703) could not promise a favorable outcome for the European Union, despite the fact that there were clear signs of decrepitude on the part of France - a consequence of the materially and morally unproductive system of Louis XIV. An ally of France, the Elector of Bavaria Max Emmanuel took the important imperial city of Ulm; in Italy, the commander of the emperor, Prince Eugene of Savoy, could not cope with the French, who were under the command of Vendome, had to lift the siege of Mantua. Austria, due to shortcomings in internal administration, could not wage war with sufficient energy. “It is incomprehensible,” wrote the Dutch envoy, “how in such a vast state, consisting of so many fruitful provinces, they cannot find means to prevent state bankruptcy.” Incomes fluctuated, because individual areas gave either more or less; sometimes certain regions were given the right not to pay anything for a year or more. The annual income extended to 14 million guilders: of this amount, no more than four million came to the treasury; the public debt extended to 22 million guilders. The prolonged Turkish war greatly contributed to the financial disorder. The government did not dare to impose extraordinary taxes for fear of driving the peasants, who were already in a miserable situation, to despair, and therefore preferred to borrow money with payment from 20 to 100 percent. But such a financial disorder did not deter the emperor Leopold from great expenses when it came to court pleasures or when his religious feelings were touched.

The treasury was eaten up by a huge number of officials who received a salary, and during campaigns the salary was delivered to the troops either very late or not delivered at all, so that the generals at the end of the campaign, and sometimes even in the middle of the campaign, were forced to leave the armies and go to Vienna in order to expedite the deportation of money . Constant hatred reigned between the generals and officials of the court military council (gofkriegsrat); especially all the generals looked upon the President of the Hofkriegsrat as their mortal enemy; the eldest son of the emperor, the Roman king Joseph, pointed to the managers of the military and financial affairs in Vienna, as the perpetrators of all evil. The Imperial Generalissimo learned about political negotiations and military events only from a Viennese newspaper. Production in the army was not at all according to ability, and foreign ambassadors at the Vienna court were most of all amazed at the cynical frankness with which each officer spoke of the incapacity and lack of conscience of his comrades and generals.

At the Viennese court there was also a reformation party: it consisted of Prince Eugene, Prince Salm, Counts Kaunitz and Bratislava, led by the Roman King Joseph; but all her aspirations were shattered by the emperor's irresistible distrust of new people and new thoughts. The Dutch envoy responded that it would rather be possible to drink the sea than to act with success against the crowd of Jesuits, women and Leopold's ministers. This disorder of the government machine in Austria was joined by unrest in Hungary and Transylvania, where the peasants, burdened with taxes, rose up, and these uprisings could intensify, because the eastern part of the state, as a result of the war in the west, was naked from the army. At first, the Hungarian unrest had no political character, but things changed when the rebels entered into relations with Franz Rakoczy, who lived in exile in Poland. Prudent people demanded that the Hungarian disturbances be stopped as soon as possible, either by mercy or severity; but the emperor preferred half measures - and the fire flared up, and at the same time, the predicament of Austria in the European war reached the highest degree: the army did not receive recruits, the soldiers were hungry and cold. This situation was to lead to changes in Vienna: the presidents of the military and financial councils lost their seats, finances were entrusted to Count Staremberg, military administration entrusted to Prince Eugene.

Thus, in the first period of the war, Austria, due to the state of its administration, could not energetically contribute to the successes of the allies. The maritime powers, England and Holland, also could not wage war successfully in the Spanish Netherlands. Here the two campaigns of 1702 and 1703 ended unsatisfactorily. Marlborough, who commanded the allied troops, was in despair and rightly laid the blame for the failure on the Republic of the United States, which interfered with his merchant's frugality regarding people and money; in addition, the parties that fought in the united provinces, Orange and Republican, tore apart the army, the generals quarreled and refused each other obedience. The commander was embarrassed by the so-called "marching deputies", who were with him with a control value: they were in charge of food for the troops, appointed commandants to conquered places, had a voice in military councils with the right to stop their decisions, and these deputies were not at all military people. Finally, in Holland, distrust of a foreign commander was expressed; pamphlets appeared in the press against Marlborough and his bold plans. Meanwhile, in England, as a result of the unsatisfactoriness of the two campaigns, people who were against the continental war were raising their heads.

Portrait of Philip V of Spain, 1701

Great successes for England and Holland could be expected from maritime enterprises against Spain. We have seen the reasons why Spain fell into a dead sleep towards the end of the 17th century. The events that followed at the beginning of the 18th century should have awakened her: indeed, the people were excited when they heard that the hated heretics, the English and the Dutch, planned to divide the Spanish possessions, and therefore the accession to the throne of Philip V with a guarantee of indivisibility found strong sympathy in Spain. Unfortunately, the new king was not able to take advantage of this sympathy. The Spanish infanta, whom Mazarin married Louis XIV, seemed to bring the Bourbon dynasty a sad dowry: the offspring that came from this marriage showed the features of that decrepitude that distinguished the last Habsburgs in Spain. Such a decrepit young man appeared on the Spanish throne and Philip V, for whom the crown was a burden and any serious occupation was a punishment; he accepted his grandfather's clever, eloquent instructions and letters with indifferent submissiveness, placing on others the duty to answer them and conduct all correspondence, even the most secret. Philip did the same in all other matters.

It was clear that a king with such a character needed a first minister, and Philip V found himself a first minister in a sixty-five-year old woman, who, in contrast to the young king, was distinguished by youthful vivacity and masculine willpower: she was Maria Anna, by her second marriage, the Italian Duchess of Braciano-Orsini , daughter of the French Duke of Noirmoutier. In Italy, she retained contact with her former fatherland and was in Rome an agent of Louis XIV, she was very busy with the transition of the Spanish inheritance to the Bourbon dynasty at the marriage between Philip V and the daughter of the Duke of Savoy, and when the bride went to Spain, she went with her and Princess Orsini as the future Chief Chamberlain. Many people wanted to master the will of the young king and queen; but Orsini overcame all rivals and brought Philip V and his wife into complete dependence on herself. From the party at the Madrid court, Orsini chose the most useful for the country - the National Reformation Party - and became its head.

Louis XIV wanted to govern Spain as a vassal kingdom through the Orsini; but Orsini did not want to be an instrument in the hands of the French king, and let her be guided by the motives of her own lust for power, only her behavior, the desire that the influence of a foreign sovereign should not be noticeable in the actions of the Spanish king, coincided with the good and dignity of the country and contributed to the establishment of the Bourbon dynasty on the Spanish throne. But it is clear that with such a desire to make himself and the government in general popular, Orsini had to clash with French ambassadors who wanted to dominate Madrid.

Under such and such conditions, Spain had to participate in the war that Western Europe was waging because of her. In 1702, the intention of the British to capture Cadiz failed, but they managed to capture the Spanish fleet, which was coming from the American colonies with precious metals. Spain should have expected the most dangerous struggle from the fact that Portugal joined the European Union, and in Vienna they decided to send Archduke Charles, the second son of Emperor Leopold, to the Iberian Peninsula as a pretender to the Spanish throne; it was hoped that in Spain there were many adherents of the Habsburg dynasty, many discontented people who wanted change in general, and that under these conditions Philip V could easily be replaced by Charles III. This Karl was the favorite son of Emperor Leopold, because he was like his father, while the eldest, Joseph, due to the dissimilarity of character and aspirations, stood at a distance from his father and even in opposition. Well-intentioned, conscientious, but sluggish, undeveloped, eighteen-year-old Charles had to go on a distant enterprise - to conquer the Spanish throne, surrounded by parties, among which only some cardinal or court lady gray-haired in intrigues could break through. After long preparations and obstacles, it was not until March 1704 that the Anglo-Dutch fleet brought to the mouth of the Tahoe "the Catholic king, not by God's grace, but by heretical grace," as was said in the Jacobin pamphlets in England.

When going ashore, Charles receives the news that his bride, the Portuguese princess, has died of smallpox, and her father, Don Pedro, has fallen into deep melancholy. In Portugal, there was nothing ready for war, the army did not receive a salary, did not know how to use weapons, did not want to fight; all the horses that were worth anything were recently exported either to Spain or to France; the people did not want war and looked with hatred at the heretical foreign regiments. Be that as it may, Portugal was firmly tied into an alliance by a trade agreement with England, according to which Portuguese wines were to be sold in Britain, where they were charged a third less duty against French wines, for which Portugal undertook not to let any woolen goods pass to itself, except for English.

In addition to Portugal, the union acquired another member - the Duke of Savoy-Piedmont. Holding in their hands the keys to Italy and France and being between the possessions of two powerful dynasties, Bourbon and Habsburg, the dukes of Savoy-Piedmont have long had to strain all their attention in order to maintain independence in the struggle of the strongest neighbors and to strengthen themselves at every opportunity, taking advantage of this struggle. ; therefore, they were distinguished by thrift, for they always had to keep a significant army, they were also distinguished by the most unceremonious policy: being in alliance with one of the warring parties, they always conducted secret negotiations with the one against which they were supposed to fight. During the full power of Louis XIV, Piedmont had a bad time: it was almost a vassal land of France. But when the love of power of Louis began to cause coalitions, when William of Orange became the king of England and Austria, which was heavy on the rise, began to move, the position of Piedmont was eased: Louis XIV began to curry favor with his Duke Victor Amedee II and, in order to tie the latter to himself, he married two of his grandsons to his two daughters. Victor Amedeus, as the father-in-law of Philip V of Spain, naturally had to be in alliance with him and with his grandfather; moreover, during the opening war for the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV handed over to the matchmaker the main command over the united Franco-Spanish-Piedmontese troops. But this was only an empty title: the French commanders, knowing Piedmontese politics, looked at the orders of Victor Amedeus with extreme suspicion and did not at all consider themselves obliged to obey him; the French envoy in Turin also referred to him. The arrogant treatment of his son-in-law, the king of Spain, at a decent meeting with him should have further increased the irritation of Victor Amedeus. The Duke's complaints to Louis remained without consequences in practice: the king heard cries from everywhere about the treachery of his matchmaker, about the need to get rid of an unfaithful ally without ceremony.

Already in May 1702, the Dutch envoy informed from Vienna that the imperial ministers had established relations with the Duke of Savoy and at the same time Victor Amedey made an inquiry in London whether the British government would help him in obtaining Milan. Negotiations dragged on for a whole year: Victor Amedey kept bargaining, bargained for more land for himself and brought despair to the allies, who called on the vengeance of heaven and the contempt of mankind on the shameless, suspicious and greedy Savoyard, and Victor Amedey kept asking for land, when suddenly, finally, in September 1703 of the year he was disturbed in his trade by the news that the French were convinced of his treason. Vendôme captured many of the Piedmontese generals, disarmed some of the cavalry regiments, and demanded the surrender of two fortresses as a guarantee of the duke's loyalty. Then Victor Amedey directly declared himself against France and went over to the Great Alliance, taking what was given, that is, the Milan and Mantua regions, with prospects for large rewards in the event of a successful end to the war.

Battle of Blenheim

A decisive success on the side of the alliance was revealed in 1704, when Marlborough decided to join with Prince Eugene in Bavaria. The result of this connection was on August 13 the brilliant victory of the Allies over the Franco-Bavarian army, which was under the command of the Elector of Bavaria and the French generals Talliar and Marsin: this victory has a double name: in the village of Blenheim or Blindheim, where the British won, and in the town of Gochstedt, where they won Germans; the Allies paid for the victory with 4,500 killed and 7,500 wounded. The French and Bavarians out of 60,000 troops barely saved 20,000, Marshal Talliard and up to 11,000 troops were taken prisoner. Here the character of the French was sharply revealed: provocative in the offensive, they are unrestrained, they soon lose their spirit when they fail and allow themselves to be taken prisoner by entire regiments. As a result, the Blindheim defeat had terrible consequences for the French: despite heavy losses, they could still hold out in Bavaria, and Elector Max suggested this; but the French with their General Marsin completely lost their spirits; flight seemed to them the only means of salvation, and the fugitives stopped only on the left bank of the Rhine; thus, in consequence of one defeat, the French cleared Germany, one defeat crushed the glory of the French army, which they are accustomed to consider invincible; this surrender in large crowds on the battlefield made a particularly strong impression, and as much as the French sank in spirit, so did their enemies rise.

The winners wanted to erect a monument in honor of the Blindheim victory and write on it: “May Louis XIV finally know that no one before death should be called happy or great.” But Louis at least bore his misfortune with dignity; in all his correspondence, the most secret, he knew how to maintain clarity and firmness of spirit, nowhere did he stoop to useless complaints, having in mind one thing - how to get things right as soon as possible. He expressed only regret for Marshal Tagliar, sympathy for his grief and the loss of his son, who fell in a disastrous battle; even more the king showed regret for his unfortunate ally, the Elector of Bavaria, he wrote to Marsin: “The present position of the Elector of Bavaria worries me more than my own fate; if he could conclude an agreement with the emperor, providing for his family from captivity and the country from devastation, then this would not upset me at all; assure him that my feelings for him will not change from this and I will never make peace without taking care to return to him all his possessions. Elector Max paid Louis the same coin: when Marlborough persuaded Prince Eugene to offer him the return of all his possessions and annually a significant amount of money if he turned his weapons against France, the elector did not agree.

The campaign, which consisted of such a brilliant victory, cost Marlborough dearly: his health suffered greatly from terrible stress. “I am sure,” he wrote to friends, “that when we meet, you will find me ten years older.” The news of the Blindheim victory was received with enthusiasm in England, both in the palace and in the crowds; in the midst of this rapture, the responses of the hostile party were also heard. Before the victory, people who were opposed to the continental war loudly denounced Marlborough's movement into Germany, shouted that Marlborough had exceeded his power, abandoned Holland without protection and endangered the English army in a remote and dangerous enterprise. The victory did not silence the detractors: “We won - no doubt, but this victory is bloody and useless: it will exhaust England, and France will not cause harm; many people have been taken from the French and beaten, but for the French king it is like taking a bucket of water from the river. Marlborough replied to this last comparison: "If these gentlemen allow us to take one or two more such buckets of water, then the river will flow calmly and will not threaten the neighbors with a flood."

Particularly hostile to Marlborough was that part of the Tory party that bore the name Jacobites, that is, adherents of the pretender, James III Stuart. It is understandable that these Jacobites must have looked unfavorably at a victory that humiliated France, for only with the help of France could they hope for the return of their king, James III. Annoyed at the glory of the Blindheim winner, the Tories tried to oppose him to Admiral Rook, whose exploits in Spain were more than doubtful; one thing could be put in his favor - this is assistance in the capture of Gibraltar. The capture was facilitated by the fact that the Spanish garrison consisted of less than 100 people. The English did not take Gibraltar from Philip V in favor of Charles III: they took it for themselves and kept for themselves this key to the Mediterranean forever.

Relations with the English parties could only make Marlborough work harder for the continuation, and the successful continuation of the war. The weakest point of the alliance was Italy, where Victor Amedeus could not resist the best French general, the Duke of Vendôme, where Turin was ready to surrender. It was impossible to detach to Italy part of the army, which was under the command of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, without harm to military operations in Germany; new troops could not be demanded from the emperor, because the Austrian troops were busy against the Hungarian rebels. Marlborough looked everywhere to get troops, and settled on Brandenburg, which Elector Frederick took the title of King of Prussia. Marlborough himself went to Berlin: here they were very flattered by the courtesies of the famous Blindheim winner and gave him 8,000 troops for English money.

Camizary

In Hungary, things were going well for the emperor: the rebels who first threatened Vienna were severely defeated, but Rákóczi still held out. Marlborough really wanted to stop this war, harmful to the union, and he insisted that the emperor give his Hungarian subjects complete religious freedom; but the emperor, under the influence of the Jesuits, did not want to agree to this; the Jesuits saw that they had a right to fear an alliance with heretics. But Louis XIV, who fanned the Hungarian uprising, saw a similar phenomenon in his own possessions, where the Protestant population revolted in the Seven Mountains. As a result of persecution, religious enthusiasm reached its highest level here: prophets appeared, children prophesied; the government intensified the persecution, but the persecuted took advantage of the war, the withdrawal of garrisons from the cities of Languedoc and rebelled, started a guerrilla war; the leaders of the detachments were the prophets (voyants); the most important place was given to the one who was distinguished by a greater degree of inspiration; one of the main leaders was the seventeen-year-old boy Cavalier, the most important leader was a young man of 27 years old, Roland, who combined with wild courage something romantic that struck the imagination. Roland soon had 3,000 troops, who called themselves children of God, and the Catholics called them camisars (shirtmen) by the white shirts they put on at night to recognize each other. (This is how they usually explain it, but it is known that sectarians, distinguished by such a mood of spirit, like to use white shirts in their meetings.) The caves in the mountains served them as fortresses and arsenals; they destroyed all the churches and priestly houses in the Seven Mountains, killed or drove out the priests, took possession of the castles and cities, exterminated the detachments of troops sent against them, collected taxes and tithes.

The Languedoc officials gathered and decided to convene the police. When they learned about these events in Paris, Chamillard and Maintenon agreed to first hide them from the king; but it was impossible to hide it for long when the insurrection spread, when the governor-general of Languedoc, the Count of Broglie, was defeated by the camizars. The king sent Marshal Montrevel against the rebels with 10,000 troops; Montrevel defeated Roland and wanted first to put out the rebellion by meek means; but when the camizars shot down those of their own who accepted the amnesty, then Montrevel began to rage. The Catholic peasants also armed themselves against the Kamizars under the command of some hermit. This holy militia, as the pope expressed it, began to rob so much against friends and foes that Montrevel had to pacify her; the kamisar did not subside; Miracles worked between them: one prophet, to maintain his faith, ascended a blazing fire and descended from it unharmed. But 1704 was an unfortunate year for the Camisars: Cavalier was forced to enter into an agreement with the government and left France; Rolan was defeated and killed; after the Battle of Blindheim, an extensive Camizar conspiracy failed; their remaining leaders were burned, hanged, and the uprising subsided, especially since the government, occupied terrible war external, looked through the fingers at the Protestant religious gatherings.

War of the Spanish Succession 1705–1709

The war with the Camisars ended very conveniently in 1704, because by the next year Louis XIV had to think about a defensive war! The first days of 1705 in London there was a celebration on the occasion of the arrival of Marlborough with trophies and noble captives. The House of Commons presented an address to the Queen with a request to perpetuate the glory of the great services rendered by the Duke of Marlborough. The duke received the royal estate of Woodstock, where they built a castle and named it Blenheim. The emperor gave Marlborough the title of prince and also an estate in Swabia. Only Oxford University, which belonged to the Tory party, insulted Marlborough by placing him, in their solemn speeches and poems, on an equal footing with Admiral Rook.

As early as 1704, Marlborough agreed with Prince Eugene about the campaign of 1705, agreed to attack France from the Moselle, where it was less fortified; in early spring, both armies were to begin operations by the siege of Saarlouis, and they were supposed to enter into relations with the Duke of Lorraine, who was only involuntarily for France. Louis XIV also did not waste time, preparing and in the spring of 1705 he could write: “The enemy does not have as many infantry as I have in the Flanders, Moselle and Rhine armies, although in cavalry he is almost equal to me.” But the main advantage of Louis XIV was that he could dispose of his relatively numerous troops as he pleased, while Marlborough in the spring of 1705 spent time in The Hague persuading the Dutch government to agree to his plan. When he finally forced this agreement and appeared with an army on the Moselle, he found before him a large, adequately equipped French army led by a good general-marshal Villars, while he himself did not have a famous comrade of the Blindheim battle: the emperor transferred Prince Eugene to Italy to improve local affairs, and instead of Eugene Marlborough had to deal with Margrave Louis of Baden, who did not move, saying either illness or insufficient supply of his troops.

The news of the death of Emperor Leopold (May 5 NS) gave the English commander hope that under his energetic successor, Joseph I, things would go faster. As we have seen, Joseph promised to be an energetic sovereign when he was heir, when he was the head of a militant party, the head of the opposition to his father's ministry, his father's system. And indeed, at first in Vienna there was something like an energetic action; but soon afterwards everything went on as before, as a result of which neither Marlborough on the Moselle, nor Eugene in Italy could do anything during the whole of 1705; only in Spain were the allies happier: Barcelona surrendered to Archduke Charles; in Catalonia, Valence, Arragon, he was recognized as king. In 1706, things were also going well in Spain for the allies: Philip V had to leave Madrid. On the other hand, things did not go well for the French in the north from the side of the Netherlands: here in the month of May Marlborough struck the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Villeroy at Romilly, near Louvain, as a result of which the French were driven out of Belgium; finally, they were forced out of Italy; and although at the end of the year things in Spain took a favorable turn for France, thanks to a popular uprising in favor of Philip V out of hatred for the heretics who supported Charles III, yet this success could not compensate for the losses in Italy and Belgium, and Louis XIV began to think how to end the unfortunate war at the expense of the people who so zealously defended the throne of his grandson: he proposed the division of the Spanish possessions, gave Spain and America to Charles III, Belgium to Holland, keeping only Italian possessions for Philip V. But the Allies rejected the offer.

The campaign of 1707 began with a brilliant victory of the Franco-Spanish troops over the allied (English, Dutch and Portuguese), won under Almanz by the Duke of Berwick (the natural son of James II Stuart). On the German side, the French also launched a successful offensive and penetrated as far as the Danube; but on the other hand, the Austrian troops captured Naples, and on the other hand penetrated into Provence, although they were soon to leave it. France held on after Hochstedt and Romilly, held on thanks to a strong government, but this government was exhausting the last resources of the country. Since 1700, the number of officials has almost doubled due to the increased creation of new posts for sale; they poured the coin, raised its price, but this only brought profit to foreigners; the issue of unpaid banknotes undermined credit, and meanwhile the expenses, which in 1701 reached 146 million, in 1707 reached 258. meanwhile, counterfeit coins were made in the castles of a nobleman, and life at the court was still luxurious.

The famous Vauban published a book in 1707 in which he proposed a plan for the necessary financial transformations. The book was found outrageous, the fifty years of service of a man whose name was known to everyone educated person in Europe, was forgotten, and Vauban's book was pilloried; six weeks after this book execution, the author died at the age of 74. But the chief controller Chamillar, seeing no way to conduct business at enormous military costs, resigned his post. In trouble, his nephew Colbert Desmarets, who had been out of favor for twenty years, was called in to take his place. Entrusting Demara with a new position, the king said to him: "I will be grateful to you if you can find some means, and I will not be surprised if things go from day to day worse and worse." Desmarets, by desperate means, obtained money for the continuation of the war, he doubled the duties on the transport of goods by land and by rivers, which dealt a decisive blow to trade.

The money thus obtained was spent on an unfortunate campaign: in the north, Marlborough again joined with Eugene, and between the two generals, full agreement still prevailed, while between the French generals, put up against them, the grandson of the king, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke Vendôme - complete disagreement prevailed. The consequence was that the French were defeated on the Scheldt at Oudenard and lost main city French Flanders, Lille, fortified by Vauban, This was joined by a physical disaster: at the beginning of 1709, terrible colds set in throughout Europe, not excluding the South; the sea froze off the coast of France, almost all fruit trees died, the strongest tree trunks and stones cracked; courts, theaters, offices were closed, business and pleasures stopped; whole families of the poor froze in their huts. The cold stopped in the month of March; but they knew that the seeds were frozen, there would be no harvest, and the price of bread had risen. In the villages, people died of hunger calmly; in the cities they rioted and in the markets they hung out abusive antics against the government. Mortality doubled against ordinary years, the loss of livestock was not rewarded even at fifty.

In March 1709, Louis XIV renewed the peace proposal: he agreed that Philip V should receive only Naples and Sicily. But the allies demanded the entire Spanish monarchy for Charles III, did not agree to return Lille and, with regard to Germany, demanded a return to Peace of Westphalia. Louis XIV convened his council, but the advisers answered the question of the means of salvation with tears; Louis agreed to the demands of the Allies, asked for one Naples for his grandson, and with these proposals Foreign Minister Torcy himself secretly went to Holland. He bowed to Gainsius, Prince Eugene, Marlborough, offered the latter four million - and all in vain: the allies demanded that the grandson of Louis XIV leave Spain in two months, and if he does not do this before the expiration of the indicated period, then the French king and the allies will jointly take measures to performance of your contract; French merchant ships should not be shown in Spanish overseas possessions, etc. Louis rejected these conditions and sent a circular to the governors, which said: "I am sure that my people will oppose the world on terms that are equally contrary to the justice and honor of the name of the French." Here Louis for the first time turned to the people and met in this ruined and hungry people the most lively sympathy, which made it possible to support the honor of the French name.

Particularly offensive in their senselessness were the demands of the allies that he, Louis, who made such sacrifices for peace, should continue the war to expel his grandson from Spain, and the war was necessary because Philip felt strong in Spain thanks to the location of the majority of the people and, of course, , under the dictation of an energetic wife and an energetic governess, he wrote to his grandfather: “God placed the Spanish crown on me, and I will keep it until one drop of blood remains in my veins.” Therefore, Louis had the right to say: “It is better for me to wage war With with their enemies than with their children."

But to save France, it was necessary to continue its ruin. There were enough people in the army, because the peasant and the city dweller, fleeing from hunger, went to the soldiers, but apart from the people there was nothing else in the army - neither bread nor weapons. A French soldier sold a gun so as not to die of hunger; and the allies had everything in abundance; thus the hungry had to fight against the well-fed, the well-fed advanced, the hungry defended themselves, and defended well, because Marlborough and Eugene bought the victory at Malplaque with the loss of more than 20,000 people. But nevertheless, the allies won, and Louis decided to ask for peace again, agreed to everything, so long as they would not force him to fight again, and fight with his grandson. In response, the allies demanded that Louis undertake to expel his grandson from Spain alone.

The struggle of the English Tories for peace

The war continued. In 1710 Marlborough and Eugene again made several acquisitions in French Flanders. Louis XIV demanded a tenth of the income from all those belonging to the taxable and non-taxable estates; but due to the exhaustion of the country and bad faith in payment, the treasury received no more than 24 million. Funds for the campaign of 1711 were prepared; but the year began with peace negotiations, and the proposal for peace did not come from France this time. In January, Abbé Gauthier, secret correspondent for the French Foreign Office in London, came to Versailles to Torcy with the words: “Do you want peace? I have brought you the means to conclude it independently of the Dutch.” “To ask the French minister if he wants peace is like asking a patient with a long and dangerous illness if he wants to be cured,” replied Torcy. Gauthier was instructed by the British Ministry to propose to the French government that it begin negotiations. England will force Holland to finish them.

We have seen that the national policy of England was not to interfere in the affairs of the continent, so long as the commercial interests of England were not affected. These commercial interests were affected before the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, when the union of Spain with France threatened to deprive England of the opportunity to trade in the vast and rich possessions of the Spanish. Here the peace party, i.e., the party that adhered to the national policy, had to fall silent, and the war began. But this party, having fallen silent for a while, rose at the first opportunity and was sure that it would meet with strong sympathy among the people, as soon as its fears about its own interests dissipated, for the people were disgusted with spending money on a war waged for the interests of others, increasing the army and the strengthening of his significance, the strengthening of the significance of the victorious commander, who aroused an unpleasant memory of the Cromwells and the Monks. The war dragged on for a long time, a lot of money was spent on it, the goal was achieved: France, which was still terrible, was brought to the last extreme, brought to such exhaustion, after which it would not be able to recover for a long time and again begin to threaten English commercial interests; the old ambitious king, who haunted Europe, has no more means, and his days are numbered; the family connection of the Spanish kings with the French is not dangerous after the death of Louis XIV, and it is not worth spending so much money and people in order to impose Charles III instead of Philip V on the Spaniards, if only Gibraltar and trade benefits in America remain with England; it is even stranger to wage war for the interests of Holland, that dangerous rival in commercial and industrial relations, to spend English blood and English money in order to secure the Dutch frontier from France. Thus, the successes of the allied forces and the apparent exhaustion of France strengthened the party of peace in England, the party of the Tories. This party grew stronger because its aspirations and views coincided with the national aspirations and views; some people who understood what was going on could come forward, carrying out national aspirations and views, and could make peace.

These people, who joined their names with the end of the War of the Spanish Succession, were Harley and St. John. Robert Harley in 1701 is orator or president of the House of Commons, and in 1704, thanks to his friendship with Marlborough, becomes Minister of Foreign Affairs. The new minister belonged to the moderate Tories and was distinguished by the art of maneuvering between parties and influential persons. Marlborough and his friend, the Minister of Finance (Lord Treasurer) Godolphin, themselves not attached by strong convictions to any party, thought that Harley would be their obedient servant; but Harley, not attached to anyone or anything morally, pursued his goals, and the exactingness of Marlborough and Godolphin, in which Harley saw an encroachment on his independence, only irritated him and made him more eager to get rid of the despotism of his patron friends. The queen began to noticeably cool towards the Duchess of Marlborough, and she turned out to have another favorite, Abigail Guille, or, by her husband, Meshem, a relative of the Duchess of Marlborough, who attached her to the court. Harley became close to Mesh, which, of course, greatly irritated Marlborough and Godolphin, made them express their jealousy and exactingness, made them suspect Harley of influencing such unpleasant decisions of the queen, in which he did not participate. Harley swore that he would remain true to his constant principle of uniting moderate Tories with moderate Whigs, so that neither party would prevail decisively; the queen held to the same principle and therefore loved Harley, loved him also because he was a zealous adherent of the Anglican Church. And Marlborough and Godolphin were not at all against the principle put forward by Harley, if Harley were in everything their obedient instrument. But, suspecting him of treason, they united with the Whigs to overthrow him; Harley had to leave the ministry and, naturally, went over to the side of the Tories.

Together with Harley, Henry St. John, who ran the War Department, was to retire. Like Harley, St. John considered the party only a means to play an important role in the government of the country. An aristocrat by birth, he was distinguished by his beauty, brilliant abilities and the most wild life; he had an extraordinary memory, amazing quickness of thought and an equally amazing ease in oral and written presentation of thoughts; these abilities made it possible for him, when occupying an important position, during serious work, to devote a lot of time to women, games, wine and conversations with all the literary celebrities of the time. At the very beginning of the century of twenty-something years, St. John was a member of the House of Commons, and since most of the talents were on the side of the Whigs, he took the side of the Tories and immediately attracted attention as a first-class orator. In order to display his talent in all its splendor, he deliberately raised the most difficult questions that other speakers avoided. St. John thundered against the continental war, against the useless costs of it. But Marlborough realized that these thunders did not come from ardent convictions, and offered the Thunderer the management of the military department. Saint John, having received such an important and difficult, especially then, place, did not change his way of life, but surprised everyone by the moderation of his speeches; he was the most zealous follower of Godolphin and a passionate admirer of Marlborough. But then, together with Harley, he went over to the side of Lady Mesham and then had to leave his place, which passed to the later famous Robert Walpole.

The triumph of the Whigs could not be long. The queen, against her will, parted from Harley, was offended by the concession that she was supposed to make to the Whigs, Godolphin and Marlborough; to these personal relations was added a higher interest: there were cries, and mainly from Oxford University, about the danger that the Whigs threatened the Anglican Church, and Anna, according to her convictions, was very sensitive to these cries. The strongest antics against the principles of the revolution, which were held by the Whigs, were distinguished by the preacher Sechverel, who denied the legitimacy of resistance to any kind of tyranny. He armed himself against the dissidents, against tolerance towards Calvinism, a tolerance that threatens the English Church with a terrible danger, and did not refrain from allusions to faces, especially to Godolphin. The Whigs sounded the alarm, and Sechverel was put on trial by order of the House of Commons; the Tories considered it their duty to intercede for the preacher; the House of Lords found him guilty by a narrow majority; but when it came to determining the punishment, it was only necessary to forbid him to preach for three years and publicly burn his last two sermons. Such a light punishment was a defeat for the Whigs who started the business, and a triumph for the Tories, and this triumph was increased by the sympathy that was expressed for Sechverel: women flocked in droves to the churches where he ministered (for he was forbidden only to preach), he was invited to baptize children, illuminations were made in his honor, fireworks were burned; when he went to Vallis, solemn meetings were made for him in the cities (1710).

The Queen, led by Lady Mesh, who in her turn was led by Harley, showed clearly that she did not want any more Whigs between her ministers; thus, she dismissed first the most zealous Whig, Sunderland, the Foreign Secretary, married to a daughter of Marlborough; the tories were delighted and said to Anna: "Your Majesty is now a real queen." The Whigs patiently endured this defeat, which, of course, gave spirit to their opponents, and the queen took a decisive step - fired Godolphin; Harley was reintroduced into the Cabinet and made Lord High Treasurer, St. John was given the Foreign Office. Parliament was dissolved, and in the new elections to it, the Tories took the upper hand.

The new parliament, which opened in November 1710, rejected a proposal to present an address of thanks to Marlborough for the last campaign; of the ministers, St. John was not averse to an alliance with the "great man," as Marlborough was called, on the condition that the duke lag behind the Whigs and restrain the fury of his wife; but Harley did not want this union. In December, Marlborough arrived in London, was met with warm greetings from the people, was received kindly, but coldly by the Queen. Anna said to him: “I wish that you continue to serve me, and I vouch for the behavior of all my ministers regarding you; I must ask you not to allow any thank-you addresses to you in Parliament this year, because my ministers will oppose it.” The duke answered: "I am glad to serve your Majesty, if recent events do not deprive me of the opportunity to do so." Anna was not against the duke, but against the duchess and demanded that the latter give up all her court positions, and the duchess wanted to keep them at all costs.

In early 1711, Marlborough gave the Queen a letter from his wife, written in the most humble tone, but Anne, after reading the letter, said: "I cannot change my mind." The Blenheim victor began on his knees to beg the queen to be merciful, but Anna was inexorable. The duke himself remained in the service after that and went to the army on solid ground, but the ministry was fussing about a means of no longer needing the service of Marlborough: this means was the conclusion of peace, and Gauthier went to Paris. Soon, a new circumstance was to cool England even more towards the Great Union: in April 1711, Emperor Joseph I died, leaving no male children, so that all his possessions passed to his brother, Charles, King of Spain - the violation of the political balance of Europe is stronger than the occupation of the Spanish throne by the prince of the Bourbon house. Harley, elevated to the Duke of Oxford, and St. John continued peace negotiations with Louis XIV: they sent their friend Prior to France for this, who was supposed to announce that England would not insist on taking Spain away from the Bourbon house, and in September the French commissioner Menage signed preliminary articles in London, after which the case was reported to the Dutch government. The states were very dissatisfied, but they had to agree to conduct peace negotiations for their part, for which the city of Utrecht was chosen. Austria was even more dissatisfied; there were dissatisfied people in England, as a result of which, as usual, a cruel war began with pamphlets in prose and verse.

The question of the world was connected with another question, that of the Protestant inheritance; the Whigs were afraid that peace would lead to rapprochement with France, give the queen and her ministers the opportunity to act against the Protestant Hanoverian heir in favor of James III Stuart. In December 1711, Parliament met, and heated debates began. The Whigs proclaimed that peace could not be safe and honorable for Great Britain and Europe if Spain, with its transatlantic possessions, remained with the Bourbon dynasty; Marlborough claimed the same. But a terrible remedy was found against Marlborough: he was convicted of huge bribes received from a contractor for the army, and on this basis the queen dismissed him from all his posts, and in order to consolidate the majority in the upper house, Anna took advantage of the right of the English kings and appointed 12 new lords. Thus began the year 1712.

The Spanish King Charles III, who now owns the Austrian lands and was elected emperor under the name of Charles VI, sent Prince Eugene to London to help the Whigs, but he arrived too late and, having lived in vain for two months in London, returned to solid ground to prepare for a future campaign. which was to be done alone, without Marlborough. Meanwhile, in January, conferences at Utrecht opened: they were conducted in the language of defeated France, although it was announced that this should not lead to any consequences, since the emperor's representatives should speak only Latin; but it was difficult for a dead language to contend with a living one in such burning questions. In France, the hope was revived that the terrible disasters were drawing to a close: peace could no longer be concluded on such shameful conditions as had been offered before. A change took place within France, which also reassured about the future: the Dauphin, who was distinguished by a completely colorless character, died; his eldest son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, a pupil of Fenelon, a young man of strict morals, religious, energetic and gifted, was proclaimed heir to the throne; his wife, Mary Adelaide of Savoy, delighted the French with her liveliness and charming treatment of everyone. But in the midst of these delights and hopes, Mary Adelaide suddenly fell ill with smallpox and died at the age of twenty-six; a few days later the Dauphin followed her, having been infected by his wife; two of their little sons fell ill with the same disease, and the older one died. These terrible blows that befell the royal French house slowed down the peace negotiations, because the opportunity arose for Philip V of Spain to take the French throne, and England began to demand guarantees that this would never happen. Philip V renounced the French crown forever. England demanded that the abdication of Philip be sealed by the state officials of France; but Louis XIV could not hear about state ranks and answered: "The meaning that foreigners attribute to ranks is unknown in France." He promised only to accept Philip's abdication, ordered it to be made public and included in the minutes of parliaments.

Utrecht and Rastadt peace treaties

Meanwhile, hostilities opened in May, and the French gained the upper hand, because the English troops had separated from the German and Dutch. Saint John, now bearing the title of Viscount Bolingbroke, came to France to speed up the peace negotiations. But not earlier than April 1713, peace was concluded between France, on the one hand, England, Holland, Portugal, Savoy and Prussia (separately from Germany) - on the other: France ceded to England in America the lands of Hudson Bay, the island of Newfoundland, the peninsula of Acadia and the right to trade blacks in the Spanish colonies (assiento); in Europe, she suffered significant losses in Flanders and had to tear down the fortifications of Dunkirchen. France returned Savoy and Nice to Victor Amedee. Austria continued the war in 1713, but the successful actions of Marshal Villars, the last of the skilful generals of Louis XIV (for Vendome died shortly before), showed her the impossibility of waging war alone even with exhausted France. The Emperor authorized Prince Eugene to begin negotiations with Villard in Rastadt. Charles VI renounced the Spanish throne in favor of Philip V; but Spain was still divided: Austria received the Spanish Netherlands, which they considered necessary to secure Holland from France, also received Spanish possessions in Italy, except for the island of Sicily, which was received by Victor Amedeus of Savoy, who consequently assumed the title of King of Sicily; Electors of Bavaria and Cologne received back their possessions.

Borders of the main European states according to the Utrecht and Rastadt peace treaties

Results of the War of the Spanish Succession

So ended famous war for the Spanish Succession, that is, the war of the Great European Union against France, which was striving for predominance. The power of Louis XIV was broken, as the power of Charles V and Ferdinand II had been broken before. But the crushing of the power of the two said Habsburgs resulted in the strengthening of France, while after the war of the Spanish Succession we do not see in Western Europe a single state that would be stronger than all others and could be a danger to her freedom. France was humiliated and terribly exhausted, the Bourbon dynasty remained in Spain, and there was no shortage of people who, praising Louis XIV as a great king, pointed out that, be that as it may, he knew how to achieve his goal, to plant and keep his grandson on Spanish throne. But we see that, firstly, Louis was not at all to blame for this success, and, secondly, France did not gain anything from this. Austria, apparently, received a rich booty, but this booty, which increased the national diversity of the Habsburg monarchy, of course, did not add any strength to it, and the brilliance of the victories of a foreign commander, Eugene of Savoy, gave only instant glory, because after the death of Eugene, the Austrian troops turned to the old habit of "being beaten," in the words of Suvorov.

Thanks to Marlborough, England advanced even more; but the power of this power was one-sided; due to its insular position, it could not and did not want to take an active part in the affairs of the continent, could not play the role of France in relation to it. At the conclusion of the Peace of Utrecht, the first example of the division of the state in the name of the political balance of Europe was given: the project of Wilhelm III was carried out - Spain was divided. As for the unexpected end of the war, we have already seen that it cannot be attributed either to Queen Anne's break with Marlborough, or to the intrigues of Oxford and Bolingbroke. The war ended because there were no more reasons to wage it: France was no longer a danger, it made no sense to wage war in order to bring Spain by force not only under the rule of one dynasty, but also one sovereign with Austria.

Spain
Bavaria
Catalans Commanders Duke of Marlborough
Evgeny Savoysky
Margrave of Baden
Earl of Galway Marshal Villars
Duke of Berwick
Duke Vendome
Duke of Villeroy
Maximilian II Side forces 220,000 450,000

War of the Spanish Succession(-) - a major European conflict that began in 1701 after the death of the last Spanish king from the Habsburg dynasty, Charles II. Charles bequeathed all his possessions to Philip, Duke of Anjou - the grandson of the French king Louis XIV - who later became Philip V of Spain. The war began with an attempt by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I to defend his dynasty's right to Spanish possessions. When Louis XIV began to expand his territories more aggressively, some European powers (mainly England and the Dutch Republic) took the side of the Holy Roman Empire in order to prevent the strengthening of France. Other states joined the alliance against France and Spain in an attempt to gain new territories or defend existing ones. The war took place not only in Europe, but also in North America, where the local conflict was called Queen Anne's War by the English colonists.

The war lasted more than a decade, and it showed the talents of such famous commanders as the Duke de Villars and the Duke of Berwick (France), the Duke of Marlborough (England) and Prince Eugene of Savoy (Austria). The war ended with the signing of the Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt (1714) agreements. As a result, Philip V remained king of Spain, but lost the right to inherit the French throne, which broke the dynastic union of the crowns of France and Spain. The Austrians received most of the Spanish possessions in Italy and the Netherlands. As a result, French hegemony over continental Europe ended, and the idea of ​​a balance of power, reflected in the Utrecht agreement, became part of the international order.

Prerequisites

Venice declared its neutrality, despite the pressure of the powers, but could not prevent foreign armies from violating its sovereignty. Pope Innocent XII initially supported Austria, but after some concessions from Louis XIV, France.

First battles (1701-1703)

The main theaters of war in Europe were the Netherlands, southern Germany, northern Italy and Spain proper. At sea, the main events took place in the Mediterranean basin.

For ruined and impoverished Spain, the outbreak of war was a real disaster. The state treasury was empty. The government had neither ships nor an army; in 1702, with difficulty, they managed to gather two thousand soldiers for an expedition to Italy. In dilapidated fortresses, there were extremely insignificant garrisons, which in 1704 became the reason for the loss of Gibraltar. Soldiers who had no money, no weapons, no clothes, scattered without any remorse, and France had to use its fleets and armies to guard the vast Spanish possessions.

Hostilities began in the spring of 1701. Victor Amadeus II, at the head of the Piedmontese troops, moved to Milan, entered it without difficulty, Mantua also surrendered to him. The French tried not to let the Austrian troops into Italy at all, but Eugene of Savoy nevertheless led the army through the Alpine passes and in June went to the rear of the French at Verona. In July 1701, he defeated the French at Carpi, captured Mirandola and Modena. On September 1, the Spaniards attacked him in the town of Chiari, but after a short battle they retreated.

In the spring of 1702, England sent a squadron to Portugal and forced King Pedro II to terminate the treaty with France. On October 22, 1702, 30 English and 20 Dutch ships under the command of Admiral George Rook broke the log barriers, broke into Vigo Bay and landed 4,000 troops here. landing. A significant part of the armada, which brought silver from the Spanish possessions in America, was sunk, part of the silver was captured, part sank along with the ships.

The next year, Marlborough captured Bonn and forced the Elector of Cologne to flee, but he failed to take Antwerp, and the French operated successfully in Germany. The combined Franco-Bavarian army under the command of Villard and Maximilian of Bavaria defeated the imperial armies of the Margrave of Baden and Herman Stirum, but the timidity of the Bavarian Elector did not allow an attack on Vienna, which led to the resignation of Villar. French victories in southern Germany continued under Villars' replacement, Camille de Tallard. The French command made serious plans, including the capture of the Austrian capital by the combined forces of France and Bavaria as early as next year.

In May 1703, a nationwide uprising broke out in Hungary, in June it was led by the nobleman Ferenc Rakoczy II, a descendant of the Transylvanian princes; by the end of the year, the uprising covered the entire territory of the Kingdom of Hungary and diverted large Austrian forces to the east. But in May 1703, Portugal went over to the side of the anti-French coalition, and in September, Savoy. At the same time, England, having previously watched Philip's attempts to hold on to the Spanish throne, now decided that her commercial interests would be safer under the reign of Archduke Charles.

From Blindheim to Malplake (1704-1709)

In mid-March 1704, Archduke Charles arrived in Lisbon on 30 Allied ships with the Anglo-Austrian army, but the British offensive from Portugal to Spain was unsuccessful. In 1704, the French planned to use the army of Villeroy in the Netherlands to hold off the advance of Marlborough while the Franco-Bavarian army of Tallard, Maximilian Emmanuel and Ferdinand de Marsin would advance on Vienna. In May 1704, the Hungarian rebels (Kurucs) threatened Vienna from the east, Emperor Leopold was about to move to Prague, but the Hungarians still retreated without receiving French support.

Marlborough, ignoring the desire of the Dutch to leave troops in the Netherlands, led the combined English and Dutch troops south to Germany, and at the same time Eugene of Savoy with the Austrian army moved from Italy to the north. The purpose of these maneuvers was to eliminate the threat to Vienna from the Franco-Bavarian army. Having united, the troops of Marlborough and Eugene of Savoy entered the battle of Blindheim (August 13) with the French army of Tallard. The Allies won a victory that cost France another ally - Bavaria withdrew from the war; only the captured French lost 15 thousand people, including Marshal Tallard, France had not known such defeats since the time of Richelieu, at Versailles they were very surprised that "God took the side of heretics and usurpers." In August, England achieved an important success: with the help of the Dutch troops, the English landing of George Rook took the fortress of Gibraltar in just two days of fighting. On August 24, at Malaga, the Prince of Toulouse, the natural son of Louis XIV, attacked the British fleet, having received an order to recapture Gibraltar at all costs. However, the battle ended in a draw, both sides did not lose a single ship; it was more important to Rooke to keep the fleet in defense of Gibraltar than to win the battle, and thus the battle of Malaga ended in favor of the British. After this battle, the French fleet completely abandoned major operations, in fact ceding the ocean to the enemy and only defending itself in the Mediterranean.

After the battle of Blindheim, Marlborough and Eugene again separated and returned to their fronts. In 1705, the situation on them practically did not change: Marlborough and Villeroy maneuvered in the Netherlands, and Eugene and Vandom - in Italy.

The British fleet appeared off the coast of Catalonia and attacked Barcelona on September 14, 1705; On October 9, the Earl of Peterborough took possession of the city, most of the Catalans, out of hatred for Madrid, went over to his side and recognized Charles of Habsburg as king. Part of Aragon, almost all of Valencia, Murcia and the Balearic Islands openly took the side of the pretender; in the west, the Allies laid siege to Badajoz.

In February 1706 Peterborough entered Valencia; Philip V moved on Barcelona, ​​but its siege ended in a heavy defeat. On May 23, 1706, Marlborough defeated Villeroy's forces at the Battle of Ramilli in May and captured Antwerp and Dunkirk, driving the French out of most of the Spanish Netherlands. Prince Eugene was also successful; On September 7, after Vendôme left for the Netherlands to support the split army operating there, Eugene, together with the Duke of Savoy Victor Amadeus, inflicted heavy losses on the French troops of the Duke of Orleans and Marsin at the Battle of Turin, which made it possible to expel them from all of northern Italy by the end of the year.

After the French were forced out of Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, Spain became the center of military activity. In 1706, the Portuguese General Marquis Minas launched an offensive against Spain from Portugal: in April he took Alcantara, then Salamanca, and entered Madrid in June. But Karl Habsburg did not have time to enter the capital; Philip V moved his residence to Burgos and announced that he would "rather shed his blood to the last drop than abdicate". The Castilians were outraged that the eastern provinces and the heretical English wanted to impose their king on them. In Spain, a popular movement began everywhere, the nobility took up arms, food supplies and cash contributions began to flow from all sides to the French camp. The Spaniards revolted west of Madrid and cut Charles off from Portugal. In October 1706, the allies, seeing no support from anywhere, left Madrid, and Philip of Bourbon, with the help of the Duke of Berwick (the illegitimate son of the English King James II), returned to the capital. The allies retreated to Valencia, and until 1711 Barcelona became the residence of Karl Habsburg.

The Earl of Galway made a new attempt to take Madrid in the spring of 1707, advancing from Valencia, but Berwick inflicted a crushing defeat on him at the Battle of Almansa on April 25, 10 thousand Englishmen were captured, Valencia opened the gates to the winners, Aragon soon submitted to them - all of Spain, except for Catalonia, again passed to Philip. After that, the war in Spain turned into a series of small clashes that did not change the overall picture.

In 1707, the War of the Spanish Succession briefly overlapped with the Great Northern War, which took place in Northern Europe. The Swedish army of Charles XII arrived in Saxony, where they forced the elector Augustus II to renounce the Polish throne. The French and the anti-French coalition sent their diplomats to Charles's camp. Louis XIV sought to set Charles up for war with Emperor Joseph I, who supported Augustus. However, Charles, who considered himself the defender of Protestant Europe, strongly disliked Louis for persecuting the Huguenots and was not interested in leading western war. He concluded an agreement with the Austrians and went to Russia.

The Duke of Marlborough devised a new plan, which called for a simultaneous advance deep into France from Flanders and from Piedmont to Provence to force Louis XIV to make peace. In June 1707, 40,000 the Austrian army crossed the Alps, invaded Provence and besieged Toulon for several months, but the city was well fortified, the siege was unsuccessful. But in the summer of 1707, the imperial army passed through the Papal States to Naples and captured the entire Kingdom of Naples. Marlborough continued to operate in the Netherlands, where he captured French and Spanish fortresses one after another.

In 1708, Marlborough's army clashed with the French, who were serious problems with commanders: the Duke of Burgundy (grandson of Louis XIV) and the Duke of Vendome were often not found common language and made poor decisions. The indecision of the Duke of Burgundy led to the fact that the troops of Marlborough and Eugene again united, which allowed the Allied army to crush the French at the Battle of Oudenarde on May 11, 1708, and then capture Bruges, Ghent, Lille. Meanwhile, the English fleet forced Sicily and Sardinia to recognize the authority of the Habsburgs; On September 5, 1708, the British took the fortress of Port Mahon on the island of Menorca, where the French garrison had been holding all this time. From that moment on, England became the strongest power in the Mediterranean. The Austrians almost simultaneously inflicted severe defeat to the Hungarian rebels in the battle of Trencin; since the new Emperor Joseph I easily pardoned the rebels and tolerated the Protestants, the Hungarians began to go over to the side of the Habsburgs en masse.

The disastrous setbacks at Oudenarde and Lille brought France to the brink of defeat and forced Louis XIV to agree to peace negotiations; he sent his foreign minister, the Marquis de Torcy, to meet Allied commanders in The Hague. Louis agreed to give Spain and all its territories to the allies, with the exception of Naples, expel the Old Pretender from France and recognize Anna as Queen of England. Moreover, he was ready to finance the expulsion of Philip V from Spain. However, the allies put forward even more humiliating conditions for France: they demanded to cede French possessions in the West Indies and South America, and also insisted that Louis XIV send an army to remove his own grandson from the throne. Louis rejected all conditions and decided to fight to the end. He turned to the French people for help, his army was replenished with thousands of new recruits.

In 1709, the Allies attempted three offensives into France, two of which were minor ones that served as a distraction. A more serious offensive was organized by Marlborough and Eugene, who were advancing towards Paris. They faced the forces of the Duke of Villars at the Battle of Malplac (September 11, 1709), the bloodiest battle of the war. Although the allies defeated the French, they lost thirty thousand killed and wounded, and their opponents only fourteen thousand. Mons was in the hands of the united army, but she was no longer able to develop success. The battle became the turning point of the war, because despite the victory, the allies, due to huge losses, did not have the strength to continue the offensive. Nevertheless, the general situation of the Franco-Spanish coalition seemed hopeless: Louis XIV was forced to withdraw French troops from Spain, and Philip V was left with only a weak Spanish army against the combined forces of the coalition.

Last stages (1710-1714)

The siege of Barcelona was the last major military clash of the war.

In 1710, the Allies began their last campaign in Spain, the army of Charles of Habsburg under the command of James Stanhope marched from Barcelona to Madrid. On July 10, the British attacked at Almenara and, after a fierce battle, defeated the Spaniards; only the coming night saved the army of Philip V from complete annihilation. On August 20, the Battle of Zaragoza took place between 25 thousand Spaniards and 23 thousand allies (Austrians, British, Dutch, Portuguese). On the right flank, the Portuguese retreated, but the center and left flank held out and defeated the enemy. Philip's defeat seemed final; he fled to Madrid, and a few days later moved his residence to Valladolid.

Karl Habsburg occupied Madrid for the second time, but most of the nobility went to Valladolid to follow the "legitimate" Philip V, and the people almost openly showed hostility. The position of Charles was very precarious, his army was suffering from hunger; Louis XIV advised his grandson to renounce the throne, but Philip did not agree, and soon Charles retreated from Madrid, as he could not gather food for his army there. Came from France new army; Pursuing the retreating, on December 9, 1710, under Brihueg, Vandom forced the English detachment to capitulate, which ran out of ammunition, General Stanhope was also captured. Almost all of Spain came under the rule of Philip V, Charles retained only Barcelona and Tortosa with part of Catalonia. The alliance began to weaken and disintegrate. The Duke of Marlborough lost his political influence in London after falling out of favor with his wife and Queen Anne. Moreover, the Whigs who supported the war were replaced by Tories, supporters of peace. Marlborough, the only capable English commander, was recalled to Britain in 1711 and replaced by the Duke of Ormonde.

After the sudden death of his older brother Joseph (April 17, 1711), Archduke Charles, still in Barcelona, ​​was proclaimed Holy Roman Emperor under the name of Charles VI. This meant that in the event of the victory of the Austrians, the Catholic empire of Charles V would be revived, which did not suit either the British or the Dutch at all. The British began secret unilateral negotiations with the Marquis de Torcy. The Duke of Ormonde withdrew the British forces from the allied army, and the French under Villard were able to recover many of the lost territories in 1712.

On July 24, 1712, Marshal Villars even defeated the allies at the Battle of Denen, Eugene of Savoy could not save the situation. After that, the Allies abandoned plans for an attack on Paris, and Eugene began to withdraw troops from the Spanish Netherlands. On September 11, 1712, the French fleet, which had not been active for a long time, attacked Rio de Janeiro, took a large contribution from the city and returned safely to Europe.

Peace negotiations took place in 1713 and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht, by which Great Britain and Holland withdrew from the war with France. Barcelona, ​​which back in 1705 announced its support for the Archduke Charles in his struggle for the Spanish throne, surrendered to the Bourbon army on September 11, 1714 after a long siege. Many leaders of the Catalan separatists were repressed, ancient liberties - fueros - were burned by the hand of the executioner. The day of the capitulation of Barcelona is today celebrated as the National Day of Catalonia. After this defeat, the Allies finally lost their positions in Spain. Hostilities between France and Austria continued until the end of the year, until the signing of the Rastatt and Baden agreements. The War of the Spanish Succession was over, although Spain was technically at war with Austria until 1720.

Result

Partition of Spanish possessions under the Treaty of Utrecht.

Under the Treaty of Utrecht, Philip was recognized as King Philip V of Spain, but he renounced the right to inherit the French throne, thereby breaking the union of the royal families of France and Spain. Philip retained her overseas possessions for Spain, but the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, Presidi and Sardinia went to Austria; Austria also received Mantua after the suppression there in the city of the pro-French Gonzaga-Nevers dynasty;

In the photo: Battle of Denen (1712). Painting by Jean Alo

Causes of the War of the Spanish Succession

The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) is the largest European conflict that began in 1701 after the death of the childless king of Spain, Charles II of Habsburg, whose power extended to the Old and New Worlds.

Before his death, he bequeathed his crown to his great-nephew, Philip of Anjou, who was the grandson of .

Strengthened in this way, France did not suit many other European rulers, who also had views of the Spanish inheritance. Philip of Anjou would later become Philip V of Spain.

Sasha Mitrahovich 26.11.2017 08:24

The Spanish inheritance was claimed by European monarchs who had offspring from marriage alliances with Spanish princesses: the main contender was the French king Louis XIV of Bourbon, who hoped to get the Spanish crown to his grandson Philip of Anjou (the future king Philip V of Spain), then came the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I Habsburg, who proposed his son Archduke Charles as a candidate for the Spanish throne, and the third contender was the young Bavarian prince Joseph Ferdinand, grandson of Emperor Leopold.

England and Holland, seeking to use the beginning of the decline of Spain in their own interests and to prevent the strengthening of the Holy Roman Empire and France, insisted on the division of Spanish possessions. At first it was supposed to resolve the controversial issue amicably, through negotiations. However, the contradictions were too great, diplomacy reached a dead end.

Sasha Mitrahovich 26.11.2017 08:25

The war, which went down in history under the name - the War of the Spanish Succession, began in the summer of 1701 with the invasion of imperial troops under the command of Prince Eugene of Savoy in the Duchy of Milan.

On September 7, 1701, England, Holland and the Holy Roman Empire made an alliance against the Frenchman Louis XIV; many other countries later joined this union. On the side of France, a modest coalition of not the most powerful Spain and several German electors acted.

The war was fought simultaneously in the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Spain, and also on the seas, and became especially tense after the death of Leopold I. Most of the major clashes ended in victory for the opponents of Louis XIV. And only at the final stage of France was successful.

Sasha Mitrahovich 26.11.2017 08:27

The War of the Spanish Succession ended with the signing of peace treaties 1713-1714.

As a result of the war, the huge Spanish Empire was divided, it finally lost the status of a great power, and the result of the war was a significant weakening of France, which dominated Europe in the second half of the 17th century. Philip V of Bourbon was left with Spain with its colonies, but with the condition that his heirs refuse to claim the French crown.

The Austrian Habsburgs acquired Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and Italy. England, as always, achieved the most significant successes: she acquired lands that were important for strengthening her maritime and colonial power.

Sasha Mitrahovich 26.11.2017 08:28