The Russian and Swedish Empires 279tions.” The Treaty of the Pyrenees (1659), ending essentially a quarter of a
century of hostilities with Spain, established the lasting frontier between
the two states and confirmed France’s status as the preeminent European
power.
France again went to war against Spain in 1667. Louis wanted to annex
Spain’s French-speaking Franche-Comte to the east and the Spanish
Netherlands (Belgium) to the north. When French armies invaded the Span
ish Netherlands, England, fearful that Flanders and its Channel ports would
fall to France, joined the Dutch Republic, Sweden, and Spain to turn back
Louis XIV’s armies. By the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) in 1668,
France annexed Lille and part of Flanders. Four years later, Louis XIV
invaded the Dutch Republic after assuring English neutrality by making
secret payments to King Charles II. The Dutch fended off the French by
opening up the dikes to create a barrier of water (see Chapter 6). After sev
eral more years of indecisive fighting and negotiations, France absorbed
Franche-Comte and tiny parcels of the Southern Netherlands. Still the king
of France was not satisfied. He conquered Alsace and Lorraine beyond his
eastern frontier. Despite the opposition of a wary alliance of Habsburg Aus
tria, Spain, Sweden, and Saxony, Louis XIV ordered the invasion of the
Palatinate, intending to secure the Rhine River. This initiated the War of the
League of Augsburg (1688-1697). England and the Dutch Republic (an
alliance solidified by the fact that William III of Orange now was king of En
gland) and a number of other German states joined the coalition against
France.
After hesitating, in 1692 Louis made a foolish attempt to invade England.
Dutch and English ships drove the French fleet onto rocks off the coast of
Normandy; the two sea powers then enforced an economic blockade of
France. Louis XIV retaliated by turning French privateers loose on his ene
mies’ ships. French defeats as well as rising opposition in the Dutch Repub
lic and England to the cost of the war forced both sides to negotiate. The
Treaty of Ryswick of 1697 confirmed French gains in Alsace, but also made
clear that the other European powers would ally again if necessary to keep
France from further territorial acquisitions in the Southern Netherlands and
the German states in order to preserve the balance of power.
The question of the succession to the throne of Spain soon presented
Louis XIV with the greatest temptation of all. The Habsburg King Charles II
of Spain had no direct heir. Louis opposed the candidacy of the Habsburg
archduke Charles of Austria (son of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I), hop
ing to end the virtual encirclement of France by Habsburg powers. Then
Louis XIV, whose wife was the daughter of the late Philip IV of Spain, put
forth his own claim to the throne.
When Charles II died in 1700, he left a will expressing his desire that his
diminished empire remain intact, and that Louis XIV’s grandson Philip of
Anjou succeed him, but renounce any claim to the throne of France. How
ever, on ascending the Spanish throne, Philip V (ruled 1700-1746) made