Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 09.djvu/176

SUCCESSION WABS 142 SUCCESSION WARS the heir originally designated in King Charles's will, but he died in the be- ginning of 1699. Both Louis XIV. and his wife had nine years before solemnly renounced the crown of Spain for them- selves and their heirs; nevertheless, af- ter Joseph of Bavp.ria died the agent of Louis XIV. induced Charles of Spain to nominate Philip of Anjou as his suc- cessor. Three months after the Spanish monarch's death the French prince en- tered Madrid, and was crowned as Philip v.; and his accession was at first recognized by all of the European powers except the emperor. Louis, however, soon provoked the United Netherlands and England, and they joined Austria for the purpose of amied opposition to France. Hostilities were begun by Prince Eu- gene in Italy in 1701; and in the fol- lowing year "the conflict raged not only in Italy' but also in the Netherlands and in Swabia. At first the allies were vic- torious all along the line: Marlborough took the fortresses on the Meuse and overran the electorate of Cologne; and the Landgrave of Baden had the good fortune to drive back the most redoubt- able of the French commanders, Villars, who had crossed the Rhine from Alsace. But the aspect of things was altered in 1703 by Villars, who in conjunction with the Elector of Bavaria, penetrated as far as Tyrol and captured Passau, while the imperialists in Italy were more than held in check by Vendome. But in the campaign of 1704 Marlborough and Eu- gene, acting in concert, inflicted a crush- ing defeat on their opponents at Blen- heim and drove them back to France. "Two years later the forces of Louis were compelled to withdraw from the Neth- erlands owing to Marlborough's great victory of Ramillies and his capture of the principal Flemish towns. At the same time Eugene and his relative the Duke of Savoy routed the French near Turin and swept them out of North Italy. Meanwhile the war had extended to the Iberian peninsula. The King of Portugal declared for the allies, and Archduke Charles made himself master of Catalonia, and even for a time held possession of Madrid. The English cap- tured Gibraltar in 1704; but they and the Portuguese sustained a severe de- feat from the Duke of Berwick (com- manding the French forces) at Alman- za in 1707. In this latter year Louis, feeling the severity of the strain, opened negotiations for a settlement. But the allies, having the upper hand, thought to humble him yet more, and the war went on. An attempt of Vendome and the Duke of Burgundy to reconquer the Spanish Netherlands in 1708 was frustrated by Marlborough and Eugene, who routed them at Oudenarde; and in the next year they defeated at Malplaquet the hitherto invincible Villars. Yet just when the fortunes of Louis seemed to be at their worst, circumstances inter- vened in his favor. In England the WTiigs were supplanted by the Tories, who voted for peace; and in Austria the Emperor Leopold died and was succeeded by the Archduke Charles. Accordingly the war languished, and, Philip V. hav- ing pledged himself that the crowns of Spain and France should not be united, all the allies, except the emperor, signed the treaty of Utrecht on April 11, 1713. The emperor, too, was brought to terms after Villars had overrun the Palatinate and Baden, and he signed peace at Ras- tatt (March 7, 1714), whereby he ac- knowledged Philip as king of Spain, and became himself the ruler of the Spanish Netherlands, Naples, Milan, and Sar- dinia. (2) War of the Austrian Succession. — "The Emperor Charles VI. died in 1740, leaving his hereditary dominions — Bohemia, Hungary, and the arch- duchy of Austria — to his daughter Maria Theresa. She was at once beset by enemies eager to profit from the pre- sumed weakness of a feminine ruler. The Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria, who had refused his signature to the Pragmatic Sanction (q. v.), demanded the imperial crown as the descendant of the Emperor Ferdinand I., and he was backed up by France and Spain. Au- gustus of Saxony and Poland advanced his claim as being the husband of the eldest daughter of the Emperor Joseph I. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized the opportunity to wrest Silesia, which he greatly coveted, from the crown of Austria. The Bavarians and French (under Belleisle) invaded Bohemia, and crowned the elector king of that coun- try at Prague on Dec. 19, 1741. About two months later he assumed the im- perial crown at Frankfort-on-Main ; yet on the very next day his own capital (Munich) was occupied by the Austrian general Khevenhiiller, who, assisted by the high-spirited Hungarians, bad ad- vanced up the Danube, and now speedily overran Bavaria. A few months later the empress-queen bought off her most dangerous antagonist, Frederick, by giv- ing up to him Silesia. At this time too, Augustus of Saxony, who had at first made common cause with the French and the Bavarians, withdrew from the con- test and made peace with Maria The- resa. In the end of 17'42 the Austrians were forced out of Bavaria and the French evacuated Bohemia. The Eng-