The War of the Spanish Succession and the beginning of the decline of French influence. War of the Spanish Succession. History of the war. Consequences

Part four, epic finale.

The first years of the war did not bring the French, and Louis, anything except humiliation and beatings, defeats and failures, despite the favorable conditions, in the form of still ongoing be indignant Hungarians and Swedish child prodigy, King Charles XII, who, however, not only did not help the most Christian the French king, but on the contrary, he got stuck in Poland, fooling the Catholics and absolutely not wanting to get drawn into the war with the Austrians. Abroad will not help us, Louis said and prepared to defend himself.

War in Spain.
The Battle of Almansa in the spring of 1707 decided its fate: Spain would be free for the Bourbons! The battle, in which the Anglo-Portuguese-Austrian troops were commanded by a natural Frenchman, and the Franco-Spanish by an Englishman, ended in a crushing victory Bourbons, which determined the final victory of the French party. This sad event occurred thanks to the bastard John Snow, James Fitzjames, Duke of Berwick, son of the deposed James II and nephew of the great Marlborough. This duke put such a twist on history, because if this victory (defeat) had not happened, the Spaniards would have sat and drank Bavarian Austrian. Grief and trouble.

The bastard avenged the right hand of the king-papa

In 1708 and 1709, the French and Spanish advanced, and the Allies and other The Spaniards defended themselves. And then, suddenly, they switched to decisive offensive 1710, in which, despite everything described above, the Spanish army was literally destroyed in several battles, so that the granddaughters of the Sun King were left without an army at all. In the same year, Madrid was taken again and now it certainly seemed that the Spaniards were drinking Austrian wine, but, alas, history cannot be changed: the Spaniards staged something like the burning of Moscow in 1812. Madrid was empty and uncomfortable, and the army of the Austrian Spanish king simply had nothing to eat. At this time, the French and Spanish king gathered new forces, with which he returned Madrid, abandoned by his starving allies. Pursuing them, the Gauls surrounded a large English detachment and captured them. Now for sure Madrid is ours.
In the next two years, the French and Spaniards finished off those Spaniards who did not consider themselves at all like the Catalans. But these were already convulsions.

Waltz.
Meanwhile, the French had their own Eugene of Savoy, Duke of Villars, who performed all sorts of feats, maneuvering against the imperials on the Rhine, without strategic consequences, alas, but it was necessary to somehow survive until the end of the war?
In Italy, after the pogrom of the French in 1706, fighting took place only in the Alps, between the French and the Savoyards. True, in 1707 Eugene of Savoy and his Austrians, together with the English fleet, tried to take Toulon under siege, but did not succeed and the war in this area finally turned into serving number. Although the Italians, of course, later made up heroic deeds - don’t believe them, they’re all lies.

Villar, who became a people's artist marshal

The main events took place in Belgium and Northern France. And here the Gauls suffered terribly again - in 1708, under Oudenard, where the armies of Marlborough and Savoy defeated the army of the Duke of Vendôme and another grandson, Louis, also a Duke, Burgundy. After this defeat, the Sun King even asked for peace, but the allies stood their ground on the Spanish issue and nothing came of it. The king had to throw out the knee: the absolute champion of absolutism, a man whose bucket-loading was revered by dukes and counts as happiness, a man-state, almost no longer even a man, and so, this Sun... turned to the people. Brothers and sisters, I appeal to you, my friends.- so or almost, he said, or rather he wrote. In this message, Louis, abundantly watering everything with crocodile tears, told how he had always strived for peace and how the insidious allies were trying to destroy France. In those patriarchal times in France, this was a new thing, and the king was even a little pitied. One way or another, the war continued.

In September 1709, the main battle of the entire war and the biggest massacre of the 18th century took place - the Battle of Malplaquet, where ninety thousand of Villars' Frenchmen fired from the trenches one hundred and twenty thousand allies of Eugene and John, Savoy and Marlborough respectively. Having lost fifteen thousand against thirty, the French retreated, and the triumphant Villars sent a telegram message to Paris in which he took upon himself a social obligation to endure such defeats in the future. Such a Pyrrhic victory was uncharacteristic of the Anglo-German armies, which had previously always inflicted much greater losses on the French.

English lobsters in battle

In England they began to whisper that it was time to end the war, especially since all the tasks had been completed and the Tories had replaced the Whigs, and Marlborough’s wife Sarah (she hid it, but of course yes!), who for years had been spinning Queen Anne as she pleased, did not find a better time to quarrel with her, fluff and dust than now. As soon as the two quarrelsome women had a fight, one good duke immediately felt bad, who fought honestly and stole a little, but in general did everything for the glory of England and the crown. From that moment on, Marlborough's influence began to steadily decline, and the government's desire to end the war began to grow.

Sarah Churchill-Marlborough, hurt friend and loving wife

In 1710-11 everyone was limited to maneuvers and sieges of French fortresses, which were invariably forced to surrender. The British participated less and less in the war, officially informing the French that they were only present, insofar as. There were two reasons for this: firstly, the British were already first achieved almost everything they wanted and could, and secondly, in 1711 the Holy Roman Emperor died, and his successor was the same Austrian pretender to the throne of Spain, who put on the imperial crown under the guise of Charles VI. While you are racking your brains about how to put it all together, I will explain - the British did not at all want to revive the former Habsburg Empire, from Gibraltar to Buda. They were still ready to tolerate Bourbon or Habsburg in Madrid, but they one and the same Bourbon and Habsburg in Madrid and Paris/Vienna - never. This is not what the grandfathers fought for at Agincourt, as they say. The following year, secret Anglo-French negotiations began.

It turned out that the war needed to be waged only by Austria, the Empire and the Dutch, who were afraid of the French to death. In the campaign of 1712 they tried to do the impossible: take Paris and destroy the absolutist vermin in their lair and end the war with a final victory. The difficulty was that Paris was reliably covered by the Maginot Line of the fortresses of Vauban, an outstanding, and okay, let him be a brilliant French military engineer, a whole milestone in this matter. Not a person - a block. I’m already tired of writing, and you’re tired of reading, but in this case, the bastard king, the sun king, put him in disgrace because Vauban wrote a little book in his free time, where he clearly pointed out the poverty of the inhabitants of the kingdom, 95% of the cattle and the poor in the country. The effective king was offended and dismissed the marshal. Vauban left, but the fortresses remained.

Prisoner of conscience of political economy, disgraced Vauban

Eugene of Savoy led his Germans and Dutch to Paris, but got stuck in the sieges of Vauban's fortresses. The old enemy Duke Villars seized the moment and suddenly attacked the Allied communications, destroying one of the camps and defeating the Dutch in Denensk operation 1712. The war ended with this battle.

On the water and under the water.
After the glorious sinking of the Franco-Spanish fleet in 1701-06. The naval war for the Allies came down to the fight against French raiders and bad weather, and the latter brought much more danger to the navy. So Admiral Chauvel lost four battleships during a storm, i.e. more than in any of the battles with the fleets of the French and Spanish.
But the Gauls somehow managed to make an unsuccessful attempt to land troops in Scotland, during which their squadron was able to escape from the British with the loss of only (in large letters) one ship.

In the colonies.
Everything was very boring. In North America, English policemen (i.e. militias) fired at the same French militia cops without much success on both sides. Then regular English units arrived, which, although they did not take Quebec or Canada, did conquer Newfoundland and something else (Nova Scotia, for example). In addition, a lot of Indians were exterminated, fighting for everyone at once (but more for the French and Spaniards). The important thing is that the French were defeated again and, in addition to the above, they also lost Hudson Bay, an island in the Caribbean, sovereignty over the Iroquois... Just losses, in short.
True, the French organized pin pricks and small expeditions, especially against the Portuguese allies of the British, but that was all not that. No scope, just raids.

Peace of 1714.
In Utrecht and Rastadt the results of this long war were summed up. Louis XIV outplayed everyone, leaving his last name on the Madrid throne. This was, so to speak, a version for powdered and gallant people in Paris. In reality, everything was a little different. Firstly, shish him, and not the unification of the Spanish and French thrones, only separate nutrition for individual monarchies, and secondly, Austria tore all the sweet European pieces from Spain (Spanish Netherlands and others Italy, both northern and southern), thirdly, enlightened England received the right to a monopoly trade in slaves in the Spanish colonies and generally speaking(Menorca and Gibraltar, for example).
And most importantly, she became the undisputed ruler of the sea and the queen, strangling the Dutch in a fraternal embrace. Prussia, which became a kingdom, and Savoy, and other allies received something, only Sun received nothing but moral satisfaction from madridnasha. Of course, at the same time, France was ruined, exhausted, weakened and lost almost everything that his dad had achieved with Richelieu and Mazarin, but for the sake of glory - it’s not a pity. The light went out a year later, having managed, reluctantly, to recognize Great Britain for the Elector of Hanover, which undoubtedly humiliated the star.
In the new Europe, Austro-French dualism developed, with England hovering above it, reliably protected by invulnerable fleets.

The bad, stupid king cosplays as Caesar

Oscar Jaeger.
The World History. In 4 volumes.
T. 3. New history. In 7 books.
St. Petersburg: Special literature, 1997-1999.

Book VII

Chapter I

War of the Spanish Succession and Peace of Utrecht

War of the Spanish Succession

Death of Charles II of Spain, 1700. Question of succession to the throne.

On November 1, 1700, the moment finally arrived, which the European sovereigns who had claims to the Spanish throne had awaited with trepidation. Charles II died only thirty-nine years old and left no offspring. He succeeded his father, Philip IV, to the throne in 1665. Naturally weak in health, he could not live long, and even his marriage to a German princess was childless. And so the question of succession to the throne began to seriously worry many. Philip IV had two sisters: Anna, married to Louis XIII of France, and Maria Anna, wife of Emperor Ferdinand III. From a marriage with Louis XIII, Louis XIV was born, and from a marriage with Ferdinand - Leopold I. Of Philip's two daughters, the eldest, Maria Theresa, was for Louis XIV, and Margaret Theresa was for Leopold I. The wife of the French king, Maria Theresa, refused their rights to the paternal throne, but the whole world, including the Spaniards, knew that Louis XIV did not for a minute attach the slightest importance to this act of his wife, moreover, her refusal was not approved by the Spanish Cortes.

The accession of Spain to one or another power was supposed to give the latter such a significant advantage over others that the tension in which all of Europe was at the time of the death of Charles II of Spain is quite understandable. William III of England, also, due to his good relations with Louis XIV (after the Treaty of Ryswick), wished to take part in the division of a large inheritance that could fall to his share. His ambassador and favorite, William Bentinck, Duke of Partland, managed to bring this matter to a successful outcome: And in October 1698, an agreement was concluded in The Hague on the participation in the Spanish heritage of three states: France, the States General and England. According to this treaty, the distant heir to the Spanish throne, the son of the daughter born from the marriage of Leopold I and Margaret Theresa of Spain, Prince Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, was to receive Spain, India and the Netherlands. Archduke Charles, the second son of the emperor - Milan, and France - Naples, Sicily and several places in the Pyrenees. Charles II himself was encouraged to sign a will in favor of the young prince, but fate decided otherwise: in 1699, Joseph Ferdinand, then still a child, died of smallpox. Then Louis once again extended the hand of reconciliation to his allies and in 1700 concluded a new treaty with England and the Netherlands: Spain and the Netherlands were to go to the second Archduke, Milan to the Duke of Lorraine, who, on the other hand, had to renounce his possessions in favor of France , Naples and Sicily - to the Dauphin of France. They jointly demanded Austria's participation, but neither Austria nor Spain itself wanted to know anything about this division. No matter how much the power of the Spaniards had fallen recently, it was a shame not only for them, but also for the neighboring lands that this state was disposed of so unceremoniously, as if it were completely powerless and devoid of any significance. However, the Spaniards themselves could not help but realize that they no longer had the strength to fight their numerous enemies and therefore, involuntarily, they came to the only, comparatively tolerable, way out of their predicament: to recognize France’s right to the Spanish throne. Charles II himself, as a weak and sickly man, naturally had to prefer the French to the Austrian pressure, as he was most dear to him and desired by the unity of spiritual agreement between both peoples: both the French and the Spaniards were Catholics. At the request of the sick man himself, Pope Innocent XIII approved with his own signature the rights of the French royal house to the Spanish throne, but so that the size of the possessions remained unchanged. Thus, a month later, the closest heir of the late Charles II, the second son of the Dauphin, the Duke of Anjou, turned out to be the king of Spain.

Will of Charles II

The Spaniards were very pleased with this resolution of a threatening issue for them, and Louis XIV did not consider it necessary to indulge in long thought, therefore, when on November 10, 1700, a Spanish courier arrived in Paris with an official document from his government, on the 12th the king himself congratulated his grandson, who became king of Spain. On January 23, 1701, the newly elected King Philip V was already on the border of his new possessions, and in April he solemnly entered Madrid.

France and the Emperor. War

The general opinion was that the French and Spaniards would not get along, and yet the latter very peacefully submitted to the demands of the former. So, for example, in the Spanish Netherlands the fortresses were calmly occupied by the French garrison, and the Stadtholder, Elector Max Emmanuel of Bavaria, for his part, even joined the French, but now with the rank of “Reichsprinz” (imperial prince), his brother followed his example, Joseph Clement of Cologne, who was at enmity with the emperor and hoped for help from the French to strengthen his power. The Dukes of Wolfenbüttel, the Duke of Savoy and Mantua also took the side of France. For his part, the emperor gathered his friends around him. He was joined by: in Upper Germany all the small sovereigns and imperial cities, in Northern Germany - the House of Hanover and the new Elector Georg Ludwig. But the most important thing was that the most influential of all German sovereigns, the Elector of Brandenburg, also took the side of the emperor, especially since the news of the death of Charles II came to Vienna on November 16, i.e. on the very day when a condition was signed to rename Prussia a kingdom. But the most important question was what the sea powers would do: England and the Netherlands.

Sea powers

At first, they both recognized France’s right to the Spanish throne, as well as Philip V as the king of Spain, but Holland could not help but fear for its interests when such powerful powers as France and Spain merged together. King William was also not particularly pleased with this turn of affairs: he believed that Louis, so to speak, had violated his condition with him. But in his state, opinions were divided: parliament had already disagreed with him more than once, and even took advantage of the death of Gloucester, the only son of Princess Anne still alive, in order to further weaken the importance of the king. The House of Hanover was called to the throne, that is, the descendants of the first “church princess” Sophia - the daughter of the former king of Bohemia and Elizabeth Stuart, and an indispensable condition was that the English king belong to the Anglican faith, so that he would never leave his possessions without the permission of parliament, so that all his government affairs were subject to discussion by the privy council, so that only parliament itself had the right to depose judges. But the lust for power and too much boldness of the parliamentary authorities had already aroused the people against themselves, and not at all peaceful rumors began to arise among the people. Many of the free landowners of Kent County even jointly submitted a kind of petition in this spirit. This was only an isolated case, but Wilhelm III and his closest assistant Heinzius had long understood the sad state of affairs resulting from general dissatisfaction with the actions of parliament and representatives of the upper privileged classes.

End of the reign of William III

On September 17, 1701, James II died in the Saint-Germain suburb of Paris, last years he enjoyed the hospitality of the King of France there and devoted himself exclusively to concerns about the salvation of the soul in the circle of the “Trappists” - a strict society of monks, which was founded in 1662. Even during the life of James II, Louis XIV expressed his intention to make his son king of England and, as soon as this monk-king closed his eyes forever, James III was proclaimed king of England, Scotland and Ireland. It is interesting to note that in their haste, no one thought how terrible the expression should now sound in the general title: “... and the king of the French,” - one of the obligatory titles of English kings. William III, deeply indignant, dissolved the old parliament and convened a new one, the sixth of his reign. In September 1701, a coalition (alliance, agreement) took place in The Hague between England, Holland and Emperor Leopold I against France, and in April Wilhelm already wanted to become the head of the army in the Netherlands, but death prevented him. He fell from his horse while hunting, which is why he died on March 8, 1702. As usual, this extremely valiant man and sovereign received due appreciation in history only much later. Like all people who take to heart everything good and honest, everything high and beautiful, William III behaved extremely independently and, following his duty and the voice of his conscience, cared little about how they would look at it. Such a life undermined his health, but he, already sick, died an accidental death. According to the acts of 1689, he was succeeded by the second daughter from the first marriage of James II - Anna (1702-1714).

War. Queen Anne, 1702

The War of the Spanish Succession lasted for twelve whole years, and all of Southern and Western Europe took part in it. France had the advantage that its troops were more united and had to experience less movement than the military forces of other powers. Its army is estimated at approximately 200,000 people, with a population of 15,000,000. During this war, the scenes of action were either Italian, German, or Dutch possessions. To better understand the course of military operations, let us consider them in each country in turn.

Campaign 1702

The French military operations in Italy were unsuccessful. This time, the Austrians had such a brave and experienced commander, with whom no one could compare at that time. It was Prince Eugene of Savoy, who had a particularly strong influence on the victory of Christians over the Turks. Eugene's mother, the niece of the famous Cardinal Mazarin, and the cardinal himself intended him to become a clergyman, but from childhood Eugene did not show the slightest inclination towards this. King Louis XIV himself refused young man in permission to go into military service, for which, on the contrary, he had a strong desire. Then Eugene left France and attracted everyone's attention with his exploits near Vienna, during the invasion of the Turks in 1683. The war with the Turks was, so to speak, a school for him, and in between he served in Italy (1688), where in 1691 he was made commandant of Turin, and in 1693 he was promoted to field marshal general. During his victorious advances against the Turkish hordes, Duke Charles of Lorraine introduced him to the emperor as the most incomparable commander of that century. The dexterity and originality of his military techniques were especially remarkable in the Italian campaign. Instead of walking, like the French, along travel roads, Eugene of Savoy led his troops, with the help of mountain residents, along an unpaved path and took the French army by surprise, which, under the command of Marshal Catinat, was defeated in the Verona plain and lost important position under Carpi.

Catina retreated in order to retain at least Milan, but at this time the king, dissatisfied with him, transferred command of the troops to Villeroy, who, by the highest order, gave battle to the Prince of Savoy. The troops converged at Chiari, east of Adda, and the French marshal, completely defeated, was himself captured, which, however, was not particularly beneficial for the victors, since he was replaced by the Duke of Vendôme, a very capable and enterprising. The Battle of Luzzar ended somewhat uncertainly, but the French managed to retain Mantua and Milan, and several small possessions, such as Modena and Mirandula, joined the Austrians.

Italy. Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the war began in 1702. William was replaced here by the Duke of Marlborough, a man with brilliant military talent, but not particularly devoted to William III; under Queen Anne, he became the head of the Whig party and enjoyed its complete trust. The queen was in the closest friendship with his wife, Lady Marlborough.

It was not difficult to pacify the North German princes - supporters of France, and then some important points in the Dutch possessions, such as: Venlo, Roermond, Luttich, were in the power of the allies. The combined forces of the latter (i.e. England, the Netherlands and Brandenburg) amounted to a total of 60,000 people.

Germany, 1703

Only in 1703 did particularly vigorous military action begin in Germany. Here the French had a powerful ally in the person of Elector Maximilian Emmanuel of Bavaria, who, along with exorbitant ambition, also possessed remarkable military abilities. In May 1703, the French army, led by Villars, united with the Elector's troops, and both leaders agreed among themselves to take possession of the Tyrol and, thus, unite with the French troops in Italy.

In addition, the Elector still had in mind to retain these lands for himself, and the French would have nothing against this. At the head of a 12,000-strong army, Maximilian of Bavaria marched up the Inn, to Kufstein, Rattenberg and Inspruck. Complaints against the government were heard everywhere, and the Elector, without hesitation, promised everyone that life would be better for them under his care. However, this was not to the heart of the masses: the elector and his troops were greeted with hostile cries and stones were thrown at them from fortifications and city walls. The Duke of Vendôme was denied access to South Tyrol; The elector also could not unite with him and retained only Kufstein in Tyrol. The war was thus transferred to the soil of Bavaria. Strong troops under the leadership of Margrave Ludwig of Baden were approaching from Swabia, but Max Emmanuel still did not want to conduct peace negotiations, to which his brothers, the other sovereigns and allies, persuaded him.

Having defeated the Austrian general Styrum at Hegstedt on the Danube, the Elector took Augsburg, and the Margrave retreated again. Just as the Tyrolean population hindered his successes in this country, so the emperor himself was hindered in his plans by the uprising in Hungary, led by a certain Rakoczy. But even in France, the masses made their presence felt, and even at the very time when Louis XIV was confident that the strength of his autocratic power was firmly established forever. The small part of the Protestants who still remained in the Languedoc-Cevennes mountains incited the entire local population against the nobles and Catholics, who mercilessly repaid the latter for the cruelties that the Protestants had to endure from them. Only in 1703, with the help of the army, was it possible to suppress the raging passions of the oppressed and their supporters.

Battle of Göchstedt, 1704

In addition, in 1703, another very important event took place: the King of Portugal joined the coalition in May, and the Duke of Savoy in October, and in November, Emperor Leopold I solemnly proclaimed his second son, Archduke Charles, King of Spain in Vienna, in the same year 1703.

The next year passed especially well for the allies, despite the fact that its beginning was marked by an unpleasant and dangerous event for them: in January 1704, the energetic and undaunted Elector of Bavaria took Passau and, with the help of French money, supported the Hungarian uprising, which they came to the aid of in the spring French armed detachments of 8,000 infantry and 2,500 cavalry, led by Marzen. The Elector could indeed have high hopes, since at this point the imperial defensive forces could not match him. However, he was not destined to triumph. The imperial troops, which were under the control of two field marshals, were mainly led by one of them - Eugene of Savoy, and he succeeded in such a smart and cunning trick that the advantage was on the side of the Austrians. The Duke of Marlborough, who led the troops in the Netherlands, managed to deceive the French with Villars at the head, then he headed to Maastricht, Cologne, Koblenz, as if referring to the siege of one of the cities under the Moselle - for example, Trier, but from there he turned east, to Neckar, Mainz, Heilbronn, and finally, in June 1704, he successfully united at Geislingen with the emperor’s troops, commanded by the Margrave of Baden. The first military action in which they acted with united forces took place at the fortifications erected by the Elector of Bavaria on Schellenberg, near Donauwörth, who counted on them as a reliable stronghold during an enemy attack. But his calculations did not come true: the city was taken and Louis XIV hastened to send his German ally 26,000 troops from his Upper Rhine army, under the command of Marshal Tallard. Having safely crossed the Black Forest, Tallard united with the Elector at Augsburg. But Eugene of Savoy had already managed to join his army to the army of Marlborough at Donauwörth. Without hesitation, they continued their offensive operations together, which resulted in a brilliant victory at Lutzingen, Hegstedt and Blenheim on August 13, 1704. This battle is known as the Goegstedt or Blenheim battle, since these areas were equally close to the battlefield. The united Austro-British troops numbered 50,000 people, the same number were Bavarian-French, but a good 15,000 of them were captured, and up to 20,000 people were killed and wounded. Among the prisoners of war was Marshal Tallar, who was unable to bear the responsibility assigned to him. The cities of Augsburg, Regensburg and Passau also fell under the authority of the emperor, and the elector had to completely leave his lands, and which the Austrian government began to dispose of. Together with the French, the elector moved to the left bank of the Rhine, and then to the Netherlands. France lost Landau; she now had to seriously fear for her own borders. Both Austrian commanders, as well as the Duke of Lorraine, were in favor of an attack on France itself. On their side was the emperor himself, the successor of his august father, Leopold I, Joseph I, who granted the winner of Blenheim, Duke of Marlborough, the high and rarely granted rank of “imperial prince” (“Reichsfurst”).

Emperor Joseph I, 1705

However, things did not come to such a decisive attack on France. The French managed not only to strengthen their border possessions, but also to pacify the Protestant rebellion in the Cevennes. In addition, the Duke of Baden, who enjoyed considerable authority in Germany, was against this plan, and the Duke of Marlborough, who was entrusted with attacking Villars, located in a fortified camp at Sierk (Mosel), did not take up this matter and returned to the Netherlands. And the emperor himself did not particularly defend his previous plan, since in his domains he had many worries about the Hungarian uprising, as well as with the Bavarian troubles: his authorities did not get along well with the population of Bavaria.

Ramilly and Turin, 1706

As unsuccessful as 1705 was for the Allies, their affairs were so successful in 1706.

In the Netherlands, Marlborough, returning from the Moselle, pushed back the French, and in May 1706 Villeroy crossed the Dyle and north of Namur, at Ramilly, gave battle to the Duke of Marlborough on the 23rd, who himself sought it. The enemy forces were equal: there were approximately 60,000 people on both sides, but Villeroy chose his position poorly and was therefore defeated. He had to lose about a third of his troops, he was forced to retreat beyond the Lys, while the main cities, like Mecheln, Brussels, Ghent and Bruges, were taken by the allies. Charles III was universally declared king of Spain and ruler of the Netherlands. In Italy, too, everything went as successfully as possible, although at first French troops prevailed there, taking several fortified points one after another from Eugene of Savoy (from 1703, an ally of the emperor). They even besieged Turin, and throughout 1705 the Prince of Savoy could not have success in the fight against them. But in the summer of 1706, reinforcements arrived from Germany - the Palatinate and Saxony - and Brandenburg troops led by Prince Leopold of Dessau and, thus, with his last 13,000 people, the Duke of Savoy still defended Turin. The failures of the best of the commanders of Louis XIV, Duke of Vendôme, forced this sovereign to recall him to the northern troops, and in his place to appoint to Italy the prince of the blood, the Duke of Orleans, to whose aid, in addition, a commander of a not particularly decisive character was sent as an adviser - Marshal Marzen . Without resisting the advance of the Austrian army, they waited for it in the fortifications of Turin.

On September 7, 1706, under a hail of bullets, Prussian troops attacked twice without flinching, and on the third they broke into the fortress, forcing the French to retreat. The right wing and the center of the fortification were soon in the power of the allies, but when the Austrian cavalry appeared inside the fortress, the French retreat turned into a disorderly flight. The winners took 7,000 people prisoner, including the wounded Marshal Marzen. This brilliant victory over the powerful French power yielded great results. The Duke of Savoy was restored to his possessions, Charles III was declared and recognized as Duke of Milan, and the French troops were to leave Italy and clear all positions they had occupied, following their complete general capitulation, which ensured their unmolested return to their homeland in March 1707. In July of the same year, a significant army led by Count Daun took possession of Naples for Charles III, who was forced to recognize his power over himself.

War in Spain

The Archduke himself had been personally on Spanish territory since March 1704. Here the advantage was on the side of the Anglo-Dutch fleet against the French-Spanish one. In May 1702, the allies captured the “silver” Spanish fleet, which returned from Mexico to the harbor of Vigo in Galicia; however, this victory did not bring any special benefits to the Austrians, since the cargo belonged mainly to German and Dutch traders. The Portuguese king, without hesitation, joined the allies, and in March 1704, 12,000 English and Dutch landed on the Portuguese coast, and then the Spanish anti-king, Carlos III, appeared in Lisbon. In August of the same year, the British succeeded in a very clever and profitable trick: their sailors climbed onto the ledges of the Cape of Gibraltar, where it was most convenient to climb them, and frightened the peaceful coastal residents, who, in horror, did not defend themselves and only read prayers. All efforts of the Portuguese to regain possession of this important point were in vain. In the same 1704, Lord Peterborough took Barcelona, which did not cost him much effort, since Philip V played too much of himself as a Castilian, and this offended the popular feeling of the Catalans, who, along with Aragon and Valence, recognized Carlos III as their king. In the summer of 1706, the allies moved from Portugal and Aragon to the capital of Spain, Madrid. Philip was forced to leave it, and in June the Portuguese entered it, plunging the people into unimaginable horror. Only the Castilians remained faithful to Philip and with their help, with Marshal Berwick (the illegitimate son of James II) at their head, King Philip V again entered Madrid, to the great joy of the population, who already saw in his very name the guarantee of the prosperity of their fatherland. The English, more far-sighted commanders, did not hide their fears that the Allied claims were unlikely to be completely successful. Charles III could stay in Barcelona, but only that: his Spanish affairs did not go further than this, and meanwhile, the heart of the Spanish people belonged entirely to Philip.

Military actions of 1707

The great hopes that were pinned on all sides for the next year, 1707, however, were not justified. The English fleet and German-Piedmontese troops under the leadership of Eugene of Savoy besieged Toulon from sea and land, attaching special importance to this important point, from the conquest of which the British expected very important consequences. However, it turned out that France was invulnerable from this side: neighboring provinces were preparing to repel the invasion and the British were forced to retreat. But the French, in turn, failed to invade Germany. They thought of taking advantage of the moment when Margrave Ludwig of Baden died, and this led to a very characteristic discussion about who would be better appointed to his high post as commander-in-chief of the imperial army: a Catholic or a Protestant? This issue was resolved in favor of the oldest Margrave in years - Bayreuth. However, he was unable to fight such a brave and dexterous opponent as Marshal Villar; he was even forced out behind the so-called “Stalhofer Lines” (fortifications), erected by Margrave Ludwig near Rastadt, and yet the French left with nothing, since their plan to unite with the King of Sweden for joint actions failed.

Table 9. Wars of European Succession in the 18th century.
Dates	Events
War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714)
Occasion:	– death of the last childless Habsburg Charles II for the Spanish throne
Pretenders to the throne:	– France, – Sacred The Roman Empire, – Prussia.
Move:	Charles II bequeathed the crown to Philip Duke of Anjou, grandson of the French king Louis XIV. In 1700 Philip V became the Spanish king , and in 1701 - heir to the French throne. England, Holland, the Holy Roman Empire, Prussia and others were afraid of the creation of the Franco-Spanish empire and began to fight against Louis XIV. The entire territory of Europe from the Vistula to the Atlantic Ocean turned into an arena of military battles.
1713 – Utrecht and Restatt peace treaties:	– Philip V was recognized by the Spanish king, but renounced his rights to the French throne. – Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI received Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and Italy (Kingdom of Naples, part of Tuscany and the Duchy of Milan). – Prussia recognized as a kingdom. – England received a number of Spanish possessions in North America, control over the Spanish Gibraltar and the French port of Mahon in the Mediterranean Sea.
War of the Polish Succession (1733-1738)
Occasion:	election of King of Poland after the death of Augustus II
Participants:	– 1st side – Russia (under Anna Ivanovna), Austria and Saxony, – 2nd side – France, Spain, Sardinia and Bavaria.
2 candidates for the throne:	– Stanislav Leszczynski, nominated by France, whose election would significantly weaken Russia’s influence in Poland and Eastern Europe as a whole. – Augustus, Saxon elector, supported by Russia and Austria.
Move:	Russia sent its troops into Eastern Poland (Russian-Polish War (1733-1735). On September 12, 1733, the Sejm in Warsaw elected Leszczynski king. During the outbreak of the war, the Russian army successfully advanced deep into Poland. In July 1734, Gdansk fell . S. Leszczynski fled. Most of the Polish magnates went over to the side of Augustus III. Russia, leaving part of the troops in Poland, moved to the aid of Austria, which was defeated by France. In 1735, hostilities ceased
1738 – Treaty of Vienna:	– France recognized Augustus III (protégé of Russia and Austria) . – S. Leshchinsky received the royal title, Lorraine and the County of Bar for life (after his death, these lands went to France). – Austria abandoned the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and Sardinia acquired part of the Duchy of Milan.
	The war strengthened Russia's position in Europe.
War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748)
Cause:	an attempt to divide the possessions of the House of Austrian Habsburgs.
Participants:	– 1st coalition – Franco-Prussian-Bavarian-Spanish. – 2nd coalition – Austro-Anglo-Dutch since 1746 Russian.
Move:	Emperor Charles VI recognized all the Habsburg hereditary lands as indivisible, and the eldest daughter Maria Theresa as the heir to the throne in the event of his having no sons. After the death of Charles VI in 1740, the rights of the heiress were challenged by the sovereigns of Bavaria, Saxony and Spain.
1745 – Treaty of Dresden 1748 – Treaty of Aachen:	– The Habsburgs retained most of their possessions, with the exception of Silesia and part of the Italian lands. – Prussia received Silesia. – Spain and Sardinia acquired part of the Italian lands.
	This war did not resolve the Anglo-French dispute.

Table 10. Russian-Turkish wars 2/2 XVIII century.
Dates	Events
Russian-Turkish War (1768-1774)
Causes:	1. Contradictions between Russia on the one hand and Austria (especially) and France on the other, dissatisfied with Russia’s strengthening in the Balkans and Poland. 2. The desire of the Ottoman Empire to regain its former power through victory over Russia.
Move: July 1770 – Battle of Chesme, August 1770 – Battle of Kaluga,	In September 1768, incited by Austria and France, Turkey declared war on Russia. Defeats of the Ottoman Empire: – July 1770 – Battle of Chesme. Russian squadron under the command of admirals G.A. Spiridova and S. K. Greig, rounding Europe, in the Mediterranean Sea under Chesmoy brilliantly defeated the Turkish fleet. The entire fleet, with the exception of one ship, was burned. – August 1770 – battle of Kaluga. Russian troops under the command P.A. Rumyantseva in the battle of Kagule defeated the Ottomans, despite their significant numerical superiority. In 1770-1774. The crisis of the Ottoman Empire intensified. The Russian army successfully fought in the Black Sea region and the Caucasus. In the summer of 1770, Russian troops in Moldavia under the command of Field Marshal P.A. Rumyantseva Having defeated the enemy on the banks of Larga and Cahul, they reached the Lower Danube. In 1772, Turkey agreed to peace negotiations, but the issue of Crimea caused disagreement: – Ottoman Empire refused to grant him independence. – Russia insisted on the independence of Crimea. Hostilities resumed. Russian troops occupied Crimea. Also under the command A.V. Suvorov Russian troops won major victories in battles: – 1773 – under Turtukaem, Girsov, – 1774 – under Kozludzhej.
1774 – Peace of Kyuchuk-Kainardzhiy (Bulgarian village)	– Russia acquired lands between the Bug and the Dnieper, including the sea coast, fortresses in the Crimea, the right to free navigation through the straits, and maintain the Black Sea Fleet. – The Crimean Khanate was declared independent.
Crimea and Transcaucasia
1783 – manifesto on the annexation of Crimea to Russia	Manifesto Catherine II “On the acceptance of the Crimean Peninsula, Taman Island and the entire Kuban side under the Russian State”. Russian troops did not allow the Turks to regain Crimea and occupied it.
1783 – Treaty of Georgievsk	The Georgian king Irakli II (1762-1798) recognized in 1783 Russian protectorate over Eastern Georgia and concluded Treaty of Georgievsk, fighting Turkish rule. Russian troops entered Georgia.
Russian-Turkish War (1787-1791)
Cause:	Turkey's dissatisfaction with Russia's strengthening in the Black Sea, Crimea and Transcaucasia.
Foreign policy situation:	– Since 1780, Russia has been drawing closer to Austria due to common views regarding Turkey and Poland. – In the 1780s. An alliance between England, Prussia and Holland took shape, aimed at undermining Russia’s position in the Baltic. – The Union provoked Sweden, and after the start Russian-Turkish war began in 1787 Russian-Swedish war(1788-1790), which weakened the forces of Russia. Treaty of Verel 1790 was concluded on the terms of maintaining pre-war borders.
Move: 1788 – capture of Ochakov. 1789 – victory at Focsani. 1789 – victory on r. Rymnik 1790 – capture Ishmael	In 1787, Türkiye presented an ultimatum with a number of unacceptable demands. Russia rejected him. The only ally was Austria, which provided Russia with very little assistance. Victories of Russian weapons under the leadership A.V. Suvorov: – 1787 – defeat of the Turks during their siege Kinburna,– 1788 – capture of a powerful fortress Ochakov.– 1789 – victory at Focsani over an enemy superior in numbers. – 1789 – victory on the river. Rymnik over a superior enemy , for which A.S. Suvorov received the title of Count of Rymnik. – 1790 – capture of an impregnable fortress Ishmael. Russian troops crossed the Danube and were ready to march on Constantinople.
1791 – Treaty of Jassy	confirming the terms of the Kyuchuk-Kainardzhi peace, and also recognizing the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Crimea, the territory between the Southern Bug and the Dniester, was recognized as Russian possession and a protectorate was established over Georgia

11. American War of Independence (1775-83). American Revolution
Dates	Events
The situation in the states of North America	– 13 states, more than 2.5 million people. - All the most important matters in individual colonies and small districts were decided in assemblies of all adult citizens, and in the main cities of the states - in assemblies of elected representatives from the districts. – The colonies were ruled by governors appointed by the English king. – It was possible to trade only with England and at English prices.
Causes:	- Imperial selfish policy of England: - imposition of large land ownership, - restriction of freedom of enterprise, - forced deployment of English troops, - introduction of “stamp duty” - a new tax that levied trade transactions, documents, newspapers, and advertisements, - arbitrariness of governors and royal officials. - the desire of the colonies for independence and independence.
Situation before the war:	– 1770 – armed clash in Boston between local population and British troops, during which the soldiers killed several people. – 1771 – in North Carolina, British troops opened fire on civilians. – 1774 – creation of the first partisan detachments of fighters for the independence of the colonies.
Move: 07/04/1776 - Declaration of Independence, creation of the USA 1777 - Battle of Saratoga 1777 – American-French Treaty of Amity, Trade, and Defense Alliance	– On April 19, 1775, the first battle took place between government troops and American partisans. – May 1775 – II Continental Congress in Philadelphia, representing all the rebel colonies, decided to break off relations with England and create an American army. George Washington was appointed commander in chief. – July 4, 1776 – Congress adopted Declaration of Independence, by which the rebel colonies declared themselves free and independent states, united in USA. The author of the Declaration of Independence is Thomas Jefferson. Declaration: – was the first document that substantiated the rights and principles of democratic government, – declared people's right to freedom, but retained slavery, - stated that political power comes from the people and is called upon to protect the interests of all citizens. – 1777 – took place Battle of Saratoga, when American troops surrounded and forced to surrender a 6,000-strong British detachment that left Montreal heading south. This victory became the reason for the conclusion treaty of alliance between the United States and France, which decided the outcome of the war. – 1777 – the American-French agreement was signed Treaty of Friendship, Trade, and Defense Alliance, the first official recognition of the new state. The French fleet unblocked the eastern ports of the United States, and regular units and volunteers from almost all European countries appeared in the American troops. – 1779 – a similar agreement was signed between USA and Spain, and in 1780 - Holland. – 1781 – victory of American-Franco-Prussian forces over British forces at Yorktown. This predetermined the outcome of the war.
September 3, 1783 – Treaty of Versailles (Paris)	peace treaties were signed between the warring states at Versailles: – England recognized the United States as an independent sovereign state. – France regained some possessions in the West Indies and West Africa. – Florida returned to Spain, oh. Menorca in the Mediterranean Sea. - England received Ceylon from Holland. The American Revolutionary War is over.
1787 – US Constitution.	According to the US Constitution: – The USA is a federal state, a republic in which the highest legislative power belongs to the Congress, and the highest executive power belongs to the president. – Each state is an independent state, possessing within its territory full legislative, judicial and executive powers and governed by its own elected representatives. – The principle of separation of powers was observed. The complete independence of judges was expressed in their irremovability and the right not to apply laws that contradict the Constitution. - Proclamation of complete religious tolerance.
1789 – first Congress and first President of the United States	the first congress was elected and 1st President USA – George Washington
1791 – "Bill of rights"	Congress passed ten amendments to the Constitution, "Bill of rights", who proclaimed freedom of speech, assembly, press, personal integrity, etc. The Bill of Rights introduced the foundations of bourgeois democracy in the young republic, but did not abolish slavery.
Results of the American Revolution:	1. Liberation of Americans from the power of the king and the English aristocracy. 2. Establishment of the republic. 3. Creation of favorable conditions for individual entrepreneurship.
Features of the American Revolution -	creation of a new state, in contrast to other revolutions, when reactionary regimes were destroyed, but a single territory and a single unitary state were preserved.
International relationships	– according to modern data, the Americans were able to win only with the help of the Europeans, who subsidized them approximately $2.5 billion (in terms of the value of money today), the United States itself spent $1 billion on the fight. – Catherine II rejected England’s request for help and in 1780 accepted "Declaration of Armed Neutrality"(the right of neutral courts to defend themselves from attack by belligerents), which was actually directed against England and supported the US struggle for independence.

12. The Great French Revolution (1789-94)
Dates	Events
causes:	Late 1780s – systemic crisis of society: – Socio-political crisis– the absence of 99% of the French (the so-called 3rd estate(bourgeoisie, peasantry, workers, artisans, poor) political rights. 1% of the population are the privileged clergy and nobility. – Economic crisis due to: – the crop failure of 1788, – the extravagance of Louis XVI (1774-92).
Move: Start: 9.06.1789 – creation of the Constituent Assembly	– Louis XVI convened the Estates General, which had not gathered for 175 years, hoping to calm public opinion and get money for the treasury. A conflict arose between the third estate and the first two over the order of meetings and voting. – 06/17/1789 the assembly of the 3rd estate proclaimed itself the National Assembly, and 9.06 – Constituent Assembly, which the king did not recognize. “The Parisians spontaneously rose up to fight, and royal troops gathered in Versailles and Paris. By July 14, 1789, the rebels controlled most of the capital.
Stages of the revolution: Stage I – 14.07.1789 – 10.08.1792 July 14, 1789 is the day of the storming of the Bastille. 08/26/1789 – Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen	– 07/14/1789 rebels released the prisoners Bastille. This is the beginning Great French Revolution.– In 2 weeks, the old order was eliminated in France. – First events: – Royal power was replaced by a revolutionary bourgeois administration. – The National Guard began to form. – 08/26/1789 The Constituent Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen . Were sacred and inalienable: - human and civil rights, - personal freedom, - freedom of speech, - freedom of conscience, - security, - resistance to oppression, - property rights. – Church property was nationalized. – The country is administratively divided into 83 departments. – The following were eliminated: - class division, titles and privileges of the nobility and clergy, - feudal duties, - the guild system. – Freedom of enterprise was proclaimed. – At the first stage, power was seized big bourgeoisie and liberal nobility, who advocated a constitutional monarchy. Leaders: M. Lafayette, A. Barnave, A. Lamet . – In 09.1791, Louis XVI signed the constitution developed by the Constituent Assembly, after which the country established a constitutional monarchy, The Constituent Assembly dispersed, and the Legislative Assembly resumed its work. – European powers reacted negatively to the revolution: recalled their ambassadors. Russian Empress Catherine II expelled the French attorney from Russia. The Spanish government began military maneuvers along the Pyrenees. Austria and Prussia entered into an alliance to protect the monarchy in France and the security of all European powers. France, fearing intervention, declared war on them, which started poorly for the French troops. The slogan appeared: “The Fatherland is in danger.”
Stage II – 08/10/1792 – 06/2/1793 11.08.1792 –virtually the liquidation of the monarchy 21.09.1792 –France became a republic 21.01.1793 – execution of Louis XVI	– 08/10/1792 there was a popular uprising, which was led by the Paris Commune (a body of city self-government, and in 1793-1794 - a body of revolutionary power). Its leaders: P.G. Chaumette, J.R. Ebert et al. Actions of the Commune: - closed many monarchist newspapers, - arrested former ministers, - property qualifications were abolished; - granting voting rights to men over 21 years of age. – 08/11/1792 The Legislative Assembly removed the king from power and convened a new supreme body of power - the National Convention (assembly). An Extraordinary Tribunal was created for the king's supporters. – 09/20/1792 – French troops defeated the enemy in the Battle of Valmy and the Convention opened in Paris - a new, revolutionary Assembly. – At the second stage of the revolution, the political leadership passed to Girondins, representing predominantly republican commercial, industrial and agricultural bourgeoisie. Their leaders were J.P. Brisso, P.V. Vergneau, J.A. Condorcet. In the Convention, the Girondins were the majority and the right wing. The Girondins wanted to complete the revolution and opposed the execution of the king. They were opposed Jacobins, expressing interests revolutionary democratic bourgeoisie in alliance with the peasantry and plebeians and made up the left wing. Their leaders are M. Robespierre, J.J. Danton, J.P. Marat. The Jacobins insisted on deepening the revolution. – 09/21/1792 France was declared a Republic(First Republic) and the monarchy was abolished. The motto of the Republic is "Liberty, equality and fraternity." Another decree proclaimed inviolability of property. – 01/21/1793 Louis XVI was executed, in October 1793, Queen Marie Antoinette was executed. – The execution of the king brought England and Spain into the anti-French coalition. – Failures on the external front, the deepening economic crisis, rising taxes - all this has shaken the position of the Girondins. Unrest intensified in the country, pogroms and murders began, and between May 31 and June 2, 1793, popular uprising.
III highest stage – 06/2/1793 – 06/27/28/1794 06.1793 – Jacobin Constitution 07/27/1794 – coup, overthrow of Robespierre	– Power passed into the hands of radical layers of the bourgeoisie, based on the bulk of the urban population and the peasantry. – A Jacobin dictatorship took shape in the country.. – The main activities of the Jacobins:- Centralization of power: - The Convention remained the highest legislative body. Subordinated to him Committee of Public Safety(government) headed by M. Robespierre. - The Committee of Public Safety of the Convention was strengthened to combat counter-revolution, the revolutionary tribunals became more active - 06.1793 - adoption by the Convention of the new most democratic French constitution, which proclaimed: - France - a single and indivisible Republic, - the supremacy of the people, - equality of people in rights, - broad democratic freedoms, - the introduction of suffrage for men over 21 years of age, the abolition of property qualifications in elections to government bodies, - condemnation of wars of conquest. The introduction of the Constitution was delayed due to the state of emergency in the country. - Reorganization and strengthening of the army. - 10. 1793 – introduction of the revolutionary calendar (1st day – 09/22/1792). – summer 1793 – murder of Marat Charlotte Corday. - by the beginning of 1794, the Jacobins defeated the troops of Prussia, Austria, etc. - from the autumn of 1793 disagreements among the Jacobins intensified: - Danton demanded a weakening of the revolutionary dictatorship, a return to constitutional order, and a rejection of the policy of terror. He was executed. - The bourgeoisie, dissatisfied with the dictatorship, in alliance with a significant mass of peasants, became a counter-revolutionary force. Lafayette, Barnave, Lamet and the Girondins went over to their side. - The lower classes demanded deepening of reforms. - A conspiracy against Robespierre and his supporters has matured in the Convention. – July 27 (9 Thermidor) 1794 – J. Fouche, J.L. Tallien, P. Barras carried out a coup, Robespierre was arrested and the revolutionary government was overthrown. – July 28 (10 Thermidor) 1794 – Robespierre, Saint-Just, Couthon and other associates were guilloted. Thermidorians released their supporters from prison and imprisoned Robespierre's supporters. The Paris Commune was abolished. The revolution is over.
1795– new Constitution	– 1795 – adopted new constitution, according to which power passed to the Directory and two councils - the Council of Five Hundred and the Council of Elders. – 9.11.1799 The Council of Elders appointed a brigadier general Napoleon Bonaparte(1769-1821) commander of the army. – November 10, 1799 was the Directory regime was eliminated, a new state order has been established Consulate (1799-1804)
Main results of the Great French Revolution:	1. The ownership hierarchy has been simplified. 2. A significant part of the noble lands was sold to peasants in small plots (parcels) in installments over 10 years. 3. The class structure of society was eliminated, equal social opportunities and rights were introduced; and general taxes proportional to income or property. The budget was declared open. 4. Representative elected bodies were created: the National Constituent Assembly (1789-1791), the Legislative Assembly (1791-1792), the Convention (1792-1794), which contributed to the development of parliamentary democracy. 5. A new government structure was created - a parliamentary republic.
Russia's attitude to the revolution	– Negative attitude Catherine II (1762-96) to the revolution, severance of relations, participation in the anti-French revolution. In 1795, Russia, England and Austria entered into an anti-French coalition. In Russia, preparations began for an expeditionary force for action against revolutionary France. It was not possible to send it due to the death of Empress Catherine II. – Paul I (1796-1801) first withdrew from the First Anti-French Coalition, declaring that Russia was already exhausted by wars, and then(being Master of the Spiritual Knightly Order of Malta) after Napoleon's capture of Malta, returned to it and fought with France: - 1798 - Russian fleet under the command of F.F. Ushakova took the fortress of Corfu in the Mediterranean from the French; - 1799 – Italian campaign of A.S. Suvorov - the liberation of Italy (due to contradictions with his ally Austria, Suvorov had to make an Alpine (Swiss) campaign). – In 1800, due to betrayal by Austria and a similar situation with England, due to the English capture of Fr. of Malta (Master of the Order of Malta) Paul I withdrew from the anti-French coalition, made an alliance with France and began to prepare a campaign against India. The campaign was not completed due to the assassination of Paul I in 1801.

Table 13. Anti-French coalitions (1703-1815).
№	Dates	Participating countries	Actions
	1791-97	England, Russia, Austria	– 1793 – adoption of the Anglo-Russian convention on mutual assistance in the fight against France: closing its ports to French ships and preventing France from trading with neutral countries. Catherine II sent Russian warships to England to blockade the French coast. – 1795 – creation of the Anglo-Russian-Austrian coalition against France. – The death of Catherine II, the withdrawal of Paul I from the coalition (he stated that the country was exhausted by previous wars), the victory of France in the Italian War (1796-97) led the alliance to collapse. – In 1797, Napoleon captured Malta. After this, Paul I (being the master of the spiritual knightly Order of Malta) returned to the coalition and fought with France.
	1798-1802	England, Austria, Russia, Türkiye and the Kingdom of Naples	– Paul I fought at sea (in alliance with the Ottoman fleet) and on land (together with Austria): - 1798 – Black Sea squadron F.F. Ushakova, together with the Turkish fleet, captured the Ionian Islands and stormed the fortress of Corfu in the Mediterranean Sea. - 1799 – troops of A.S. Suvorov defeated the French at the Adda River and liberated Naples and Rome. - 1799 – Swiss (Alpine) campaign by A.S. Suvorov, committed to save the corps of Rimsky-Korsakov, left by Austria without food, maps and without the necessary help. Help was late. – In 1800, due to betrayal by Austria and a similar situation with England, due to the English capture of Fr. The Master of the Order of Malta, Paul I, left the coalition, and it disintegrated. England alone continued military operations against France, but in 1803 it was also forced to conclude a truce.
		Russia, England, Austria, Sweden and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies	The main military forces of the coalition were Russian-Austrian troops. But Napoleon managed to inflict a heavy defeat on Austria at Ulm (1805) and Russia and Austria at Austerlitz in the “Battle of the 3 Emperors” (1805). The coalition collapsed after the defeat of the allied forces. Austria signed a peace treaty with France, suffering heavy losses. The Holy Roman Empire of the German nation ceased to exist.
	1806-07	England, Russia, Prussia, Saxony and Sweden	- France captured Prussia. After the Peace of Tilsit in 1807, Russia under Alexander I was forced to join the blockade of its trading partner Great Britain. – The coalition ceased to exist.
		England, Russia and Austria, Spain	unsuccessfully tried to free Austria from French conquest.
	1812-14	Russia, Austria and Prussia, England, Sweden, Spain,	expelled Napoleon, signed the Treaty of Paris, depriving France of all Napoleon's conquests
		England, Russia, Austria and Prussia	a response to Napoleon's attempt to re-seize power in France in March 1815. His troops were defeated at the Battle of Waterloo

Scheme 8. Russian Empire in the first half of the 18th century.

30 Emperor– title ruler Russia since 1721.

31 Governing Senate(1711) – higher administrative, judicial and supervisory establishment of Russia headed by the Prosecutor General (“imperial eye”). The Senate received reports from governors and collegiums and sent out auditors.

32 Preobrazhensky order – political intelligence agency.

42 Secret Chancery– central body of political court and investigation on particularly important matters.

33 Synod – church governing body(1721), replaced the patriarchate. The Synod consisted of representatives of the clergy, the chief fiscal for spiritual affairs and the chief prosecutor, appointed by the emperor.

34 Collegiums – central bodies of sectoral management, created instead of orders. There were: Military, Administrative, Foreign Affairs, Justice Collegium, Chamber Collegium (state revenue department), Revezion Collegium, State Office (public expenditure department), Kamertz Collegium (trade), Berg and Manufacturer Collegium (industry). The boards consisted of 11 people: the president (most often Russian), vice-president (most often a foreigner), 4 advisers, and assessors, plus one adviser or assessor from foreigners.

35 Chief Magistrate – central governing body(1720 as a collegium) in charge of everything urban class in Russia.

36 City magistrates- city government bodies. Functions:

▪ city economy,

▪ fees and duties residents.

39 Voters – wealthy citizens (upper and middle strata), who elected their representatives to the city magistrate. The lower strata of the townspeople had the right to elect only elders, who reported their needs to the magistrate.

37 Governors – representatives of the emperor in the provinces(in 8 and then in 11 administrative-territorial units of the country). IN lust:

▪ administrative,

▪ judicial,

▪ commanders-in-chief of provincial troops.

38 Collegiums of Landrat – meeting of representatives of nobles of a certain province, acting under governors.

40 Voivodes – representatives of the central government inprovinces- territories into which the provinces were divided.

41 Voivodes – representatives of the central governmentin districts (counties)– territories into which provinces were divided.

Table 15. The era of palace coups in Russia 1725-62.
Monarch	Activities of the monarch
Catherine I (1725-1727), wife of Peter I	- protege of the new nobility. – actually controlled by Peter I’s associate A.D. Menshikov. – Created in 1726 Supreme Privy Council- the highest state body subordinate to the Senate (b. government Now high) and collegium.
Peter II (1727-1730), grandson of Peter I, son of Tsarevich Alekchey	– 12 years old – In fact, it was ruled by the old aristocratic families of the Golitsyns and Dolgorukys. – A.D. Menshikov was arrested and exiled to Siberia. – After 1730 and the death of Peter II, the direct legacy of the Romanovs through the male line was interrupted.
Anna Ioanovna (1730-1740), niece of Peter I, daughter of Ivan V	– She signed those prepared by the aristocracy condition, limiting the monarchy in favor of the Supreme Privy Council. However, having learned that the ordinary nobility had a negative attitude towards the idea of limiting the monarchy, it strained its standards, i.e. abandoned her obligations. – Abolished the Supreme Privy Council and subjected its opponents to repression. – Created Cabinet of Ministers, who actually ruled the country. She equated the signatures of three cabinet ministers with the imperial one. – 12.1736 – issued a manifesto allowing a nobleman who had several sons to leave one of them to manage the estate. – Limits service life to 25 years. – Canceled the decree on single inheritance. She allowed the estate to be divided between her sons. The period of her reign is considered the “Bironovschina” - the period when the empress’s favorite, the Courland German Ernest Johann Biron, acquired great political weight; foreigners occupied high positions and plundered the treasury.
John Antonovich of Brunswick (Ivan VI) (1740-1741), son of Anna Leopoldovna, great-nephew of Anna Ioannovna, great-grandson of Ivan V	- ascended the throne at 2 months of age. – Under him, the regents were E. Biron and his mother Anna Leopoldovna (actually Minich, then Osterman). He was overthrown by Elizaveta Petrovna, after which he spent up to 23 years in prison in solitary confinement and was killed by guards when trying to free him.
Elizaveta Petrovna (1741-1761), daughter of Peter I	- ascended the throne with the support of the Preobrazhensky Regiment. “Political stability came under her. – Abolished the Cabinet of Ministers and organized Conference at the highest court; returned the Senate to its previous status. –– strengthened the position of the nobles with the help of exclusive assignment of lands and peasants to them (1746), granting landowners the right to exile peasants to Siberia instead of recruits (1760), and organizing the Noble Land Bank. – Started land surveying(1752) - the requirement to document the boundaries of estates for the purpose of streamlining land relations. – Spent in 1744-1747. census of taxable population, secured factory peasants as permanent (possession) workers (1755), etc.
Peter III (1761-1762), nephew of Elizabeth Petrovna, grandson of Peter I, son of Anna Petrovna	- hated Russia and idolized the Prussian king Frederick II, which turned the entire nobility against him. – 1762 – issued the Manifesto on noble liberty, prepared under Elizabeth Petrovna, which allowed dismissal from the army, departure abroad and return. If previously service and training were a tax (coercion), now they are without coercion. – 1762 – secularized church lands. He turned the nobility against himself, including through his behavior in the 7-year war.
Catherine II (1762-96), wife of Peter III	- Committed a coup d'état.

Scheme 9. Russian Empire

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 saw the desire of the most powerful state in Western Europe, France, to strengthen itself even more at the expense of its weak neighbors and gain hegemony. With the common life of peoples, to which Europe has already become accustomed, the weak begin to form alliances against the strong in order to restrain him conquest 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 its weak neighbors, namely Italy, as a result of which alliances were also formed against it; Even the huge state of Charles V was formed against it, engulfing France from different sides. But neither external obstacles nor internal unrest prevented the growth and strengthening of France, strong in its roundness and unity, 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, the leader of a different kind, a representative of a different power than old Charles V. As the Dutch stadtholder and the English king together, William concentrated in himself the representation of maritime trading powers, which were not able to fight large continental states with large armies, but they had another powerful means, the nerve wars are money. This remedy has long appeared in Europe as a result of its industrial and commercial development and has become under the power of the sword; a sea power could not field its own large army, but could hire an army and buy an alliance.

Thus, due to the common life of the European peoples, in their activities, in their struggle, a division of occupations is noticeable: some field an army, others pay money, give subsidies - this is, in its way, a combination of labor and capital. Maritime merchant powers are not keen on wars, especially long ones: such wars are expensive; sea powers fight only out of necessity or when trade benefits require it; for them, continental wars are pointless, because they do not seek conquest on the continent of Europe; the goal of their war is trade gain or a rich colony overseas. But now it was necessary for England and Holland to intervene in the continental war. Direct violence, offensive movement, seizure of someone else's property without any pretext were uncommon in the new, Christian Europe, and Louis XIV sought various pretexts to expand his possessions and established the Chambers of Union. But even without violence, conquest and legal tensions, it was possible for European states to strengthen themselves, to annex entire other states, precisely through marriages, inheritances, wills: we know that in this way the Scandinavian states were united at one time, Poland united with Lithuania, and The Habsburgs were especially famous for their ability to arrange profitable marriages and through them to form a vast state through wills and inheritances.

Now we, taught by historical experience and under the influence of the principle of nationality, affirm the fragility of such connections, point out the short duration of the Kalmar Union, the bad consequences of the Jagiellian marriage for Poland, the fragility of the motley monarchy of the Habsburgs; but they did not look that way before, and even now they do not completely refuse to attribute importance to the family ties between the owning houses: the terrible, exterminating war that we recently witnessed began due to the fact that one of the Hohenzollern princes was called to the Spanish throne. When the happy heir of all his relatives, Charles V, formed a vast state from the Austrian, Spanish and Burgundian possessions, no one took up arms against him for this, he was even chosen as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, because his strength was seen as a bulwark against French power; but now, when the most powerful of the French kings, Louis XIV, turned his attention to the Spanish inheritance, Europe could not remain calm, because there was no equivalent power against the power of the Bourbons. Holland could not be at peace with the thought that between it and the terrible France there would no longer be a possession belonging to a separate independent state; that France, which recently almost destroyed it, will now become 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 come to terms with the idea that Spain would pass from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons, that Austria would cease to be happy with marriages (et tu, felix Austria, nube) and that happiness would pass to France. Austria, Holland and England were supposed to prevent Louis XIV from receiving the Spanish inheritance, and William III was the stadtholder in Holland and king in England.

The fatal Spanish inheritance was supposed to lead to a terrible, general war; but they didn’t want war: the sea powers didn’t want it because of their always-on policy, naturally and necessarily peaceful, because of their natural aversion to spending a penny of labor on a war that would not bring direct trade benefits, immediate profits; The emperor did not want her, according to the custom of non-military Austria, due to lack of funds, due to the bad hope of help from Germany, due to the unfinished, albeit happy, war with Turkey. Louis XIV did not want war either: we saw what a sad state France was in 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 but impress the king, no matter how great his pride was, no matter how strong the habit of contemptuously treating opinions that were not similar to his opinions and desires, considering these opinions to be fantasies ; moreover, the last war, which did not end the way Louis would have liked, showed him that it is not very easy to fight coalitions. Everything is thus

The Spanish inheritance was opened due to the fact that King Charles II, sickly, undeveloped mentally and physically, ended his miserable existence childless, and with him the Habsburg dynasty in Spain ended. The contenders for the throne were: Louis XIV, son of a Spanish princess and married to a Spanish princess, with whom he had issue; Emperor Leopold I, representative of the Habsburg dynasty, son of a Spanish princess; In his first marriage he had a Spanish princess, the sister of the Queen of France, the daughter of Philip IV, Margaret, to whom her father transferred the inheritance of the Spanish throne in case of the suppression of the male line, while her elder sister, when she married Louis XIV, renounced this inheritance. But Margaret 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 contender and, on the basis of the will of Philip IV, had more than any other right 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 renounce 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 to have a king separate from France in the person of one of the grandsons of Louis XIV; to secure Holland, Spain must renounce its Netherlands, which will pass into the possession of the Elector of Bavaria, and Holland will retain the right to have its garrisons in Belgian fortresses, as it has hitherto; maritime powers will receive berths for their ships in the Mediterranean; Dunkirchen will be returned to England to secure its shores from the French landing.

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

Western historians, who speak so much against the partition of Poland, usually either remain silent about the partition of Spain, or try to show that it was not actually 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 there was a strong connection between Spain and the Southern Netherlands and, in addition to the national one, proves that they did not separate from Spain when the Northern Netherlands separated from it; there is no doubt that there was much more connection between Spain and its possessions in Italy and the Netherlands 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 emperor Spanish possessions in Italy, because a direct increase in the state area was considered much more profitable than placing a relative, albeit a very close one, on the Spanish throne, therefore, Austria received more benefits than France. Louis agreed to cede Spain, the Catholic Netherlands and 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 actually followed in the fall of 1698.

When they learned 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 worries about the fatal inheritance began again. Louis XIV sought to round up France with Lorraine and Savoy, so that the dukes of these lands would receive compensation with Spanish possessions in Italy. At the end of 1699, a second agreement took place: Spain and the Catholic Netherlands were to go to the second son of Emperor Leopold, and France received all Spanish possessions in Italy. However, the emperor constantly avoided entering into these agreements.

But in Madrid they still did not want the division of the monarchy. Of the two candidates now, the grandson of Louis XIV and the son of Emperor Leopold, it was necessary to choose the one who showed more hope that he would keep Spain undivided; the French envoy Harcourt was able to convince the Madrid court that such a candidate was the grandson of Louis XIV, 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, followed by Archduke Charles of Austria; if all these princes refuse the inheritance or die childless, then Spain passes to the House of Savoy; In no case should Spain be united under one sovereign with either France or Austria).

Calculation forced Louis XIV to accept this will: although the direct increase of France by certain parts of the Spanish monarchy was more profitable for him, however, having rejected the will of Charles II, in order to carry out the division 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 hope for the strong support of the Spanish people, who rejected the offensive idea of partition; there was little hope for the support of the sea powers, because the vast majority in Holland and especially in England disagreed with William III, considering the elevation to the Spanish throne of one of the grandsons of Louis XIV less dangerous for Europe than the strengthening of France in Italy; all parties in England considered it a wild and incredible thing for England to help France get Italy.

In November 1700, England learned of the will of Charles II. Wilhelm expected that France would at least observe decency and begin negotiations on this matter in connection with last year’s treaty. But France remained deeply silent, and Wilhelm, in great irritation, wrote to a man who completely shared his views, the Dutch rat-pensionary Heinsius, complaining about French shamelessness, that Louis had deceived him; he also complained about the stupidity and blindness of the English, who were very pleased that France preferred a will to a partition treaty. Indeed, in England, where most of all they had in mind trade benefits and most of all spared money for the continental war, loud complaints were heard about the treaty on the division of Spain about the foreign policy of the king, about the terrible losses that Italian and Levantine trade should suffer as a result of the approval French rule in the Two Sicilies. Several times already the Tories had raised a storm in Parliament against the king's ill-intentioned 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 would go entirely 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 mercy from heaven, sent down to deliver him, the king, from the difficulties in which the division 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 a lot of worries 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 in the least by placing Philip on the Spanish throne; some praised the wisdom of Charles II, others the moderation of Louis XIV. The Whigs did not dare say anything against this. And indeed, it was difficult to say anything other than that it was too early to praise the moderation of Louis XIV, that the placement of Philip on the Spanish throne did not actually strengthen the power of France; but France was already powerful, and the king had not yet figured out the means to increase his possessions, and now, in the event 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 warlike Stadtholder party in the Netherlands looked at the matter, in whose brow stood Wilhelm’s personal friend, the Dutch Ratpensionary Anton Heinsius; but the majority of the deputies of the United Provinces looked at 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 for a separate treaty: they could not help but realize that this treaty was a mistake on William’s part; Heinsius knew what aversion the Spaniards had to the idea of dividing their state, and therefore wanted the undivided transfer of Spanish possessions only not 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 Habsburg and put up 70,000 troops to support the emperor, who was 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. Whig ministers struggled with a hostile majority in the lower house and with their Tory comrades who had recently been called into the cabinet. Thus, there was discord in the government. The Tory trend was strengthening in the country. The Tories won the new parliamentary elections because they promised to maintain peace. But Louis XIV was in a hurry to justify the policies of William III and the Whigs. Charles II of Spain died on November 1, 1700; his heir, Philip of Anjou, going to Spain, handed over the management of Belgian affairs to his grandfather, Louis XIV, French troops immediately crossed the Belgian borders and captured Dutch garrisons in the fortresses, and in his justification, Louis announced that he did so to prevent what was 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 patriots to arm themselves to protect the Dutch borders, Protestant interests, and the balance of Europe. London merchants were alarmed not by the danger threatening Protestant interests and the balance of Europe, they were alarmed by rumors that Louis XIV intended to ban the import of English and Dutch goods into the Spanish colonies. In this case, the war was already a lesser evil for the peace-loving British. Out of horror, all trade transactions in London stopped for some time. The Tories, in turn, had to calm 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 guarantees of their future security from Louis XIV, but did not want to start business without the consent and assistance of England; since serious clashes with France may arise from these negotiations, it is advisable for the States to know to what extent 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 conclude alliances, insisting on maintaining peace.

European Union against Louis XIV

That same month, negotiations began in The Hague. In the first conference, the commissioners of the sea powers demanded the cleansing of Belgium from French troops and, conversely, the right for Holland and England to maintain their garrisons in famous Belgian fortresses; in addition, they demanded for the British and Dutch the same trading privileges in Spain that the French enjoyed. The representative of Louis XIV, Count d'Avo, rejected these demands and began to work on how to quarrel between the English and the Dutch, and began to convince 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 union. But the Dutch were not deceived: feeling the danger, they stood firmly and unanimously. The Dutch government informed the English about d'Avaux's suggestions, and announced that it would stick firmly to England. “But,” said the States’ letter, “danger is approaching. The Netherlands is surrounded by French troops and fortifications; Now the matter is no longer about recognition of previous treaties, but about their immediate implementation, and therefore we are waiting for British help.”

In the House of Lords, where the Whigs predominated, the States' letter was responded to with an ardent 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 declared, the hated Whigs would again be in control. But there was nothing to be done: the people spoke out loudly in favor of the war, because fears for trade benefits grew more and more intense: news came that societies had been formed in France to seize Spanish trade, and a company had been formed to transport blacks to America. The entire trading class of England cried out about the need for war, curses against deputies appeared in the press, they were accused of forgetting their duties and of treason. The Tories saw that if they continued to oppose the war with France, the parliament would be dissolved and the Whigs would certainly gain the upper hand at new elections. Thus, the lower house was forced to announce that it was ready to fulfill previous agreements, was ready to provide assistance 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 completely pass from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons, and 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. According to the Treaty of Karlowitz, Austria acquired Slavonia, Croatia, Transylvania, and almost all of Hungary; but, in addition to 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, the brilliantly profitable peace, was a sensitive blow for France, because the Porte was its constant ally against Austria, and the Peace of Karlowitz was concluded with the strong assistance of the sea powers, despite France’s efforts to support the war. Everything therefore promised that Austria, having freed its hands in the East, encouraged by brilliant successes here, would immediately turn its arms to the West and take an active part in the struggle for the Spanish inheritance. But Austria accepted this participation very slowly. Her behavior depended, firstly, on her constant slowness in politics, her aversion to decisive measures, and her habit of waiting for favorable circumstances to do everything for her without much strain on her part.

The Austrian ministers, quick to draw up plans and slow when it was necessary to carry them out, were afraid to take up the Spanish question, which contained truly great difficulties. It seemed to them much more profitable to annex 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 the 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 the sea 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 little talent, slow by nature, suspicious and highly dependent on his confessor; slowness was best expressed in his speech, fragmentary, incoherent; the most important matters lay on the emperor’s table for weeks and months without a decision, and in the present case the emperor’s determination was also influenced by the Jesuits, who really did not like the alliance of Austria with the heretics - the British and the Dutch; the Jesuits, on the contrary, worked to bring together the Catholic powers of Austria, France and Spain, so that with their combined forces they could restore the Stuarts in England.

At the Viennese court, however, there was a party that demanded decisive action, that demanded war: it was the party of the heir to the throne, Archduke Joseph, and Prince Eugene of Savoy; but the emperor’s old advisers acted against her, fearing that with the outbreak of war all importance would pass from them to Joseph’s warlike party. In such hesitation and waiting, the Viennese court 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 in The Hague could end in a deal between France and the sea powers, and Austria would get nothing. Things were moving in Vienna. In May 1701, the Austrian envoy in London proposed to King William that the emperor would be pleased if Naples, Sicily, Milan and the Southern Netherlands were ceded to him. The latter requirement completely coincided with the interests of the maritime powers, who needed the possession of a strong power between France and Holland. In August, the naval powers made a final proposal to the Viennese court, which consisted of the following: a defensive and offensive alliance against France; if Louis XIV denies Austria a land reward and the maritime powers certain guarantees of their safety and benefits, then the allies will use every effort to take possession of Milan, Naples, Sicily, Tuscan coastal areas and the Catholic Netherlands for the emperor; England and Holland provide for themselves the conquest of the transatlantic Spanish colonies. On this basis, the next month the European Union was concluded between the emperor, England and Holland: Austria fielded 90,000 troops, Holland - 102,000, England - 40,000; Holland - 60 ships, England - 100.

At the very time when the great alliance was being sealed in The Hague, Louis XIV, with his orders, seemed to want to speed up the war; he dealt the British two sensitive blows: the first was dealt to their material interests by prohibiting the import of English goods into France; Another blow was dealt to their national feeling by the proclamation, after the death of James II, of his son as King of England under the name of James III, while shortly before that act of parliament 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, the 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 the Elector Frederick of the Palatinate (the ephemeral king of Bohemia).

As a consequence of these insults from France, William III received from his subjects many addresses of devotion; the country loudly demanded an immediate declaration of war on France and the dissolution of the non-belligerent parliament. During the new elections, the Tory candidates managed to hold out only because they shouted louder against Louis XIV than their rivals, the Whigs, and demanded war louder. In January 1702, the king opened the new parliament with a speech in which he reminded the lords and commons that at the moment the eyes of all Europe were turned to them; the world awaits their decision; we are talking about the greatest public goods - freedom and religion; a precious moment had arrived for the maintenance of English honor and English influence in the affairs of Europe.

This was William of Orange's last speech. He had not enjoyed good health for a long time; in England they were used to seeing him suffering, surrounded by doctors; but we were also accustomed to seeing that, as circumstances required, he did his best and quickly got down to business. At the time described, he hurt himself by falling from a horse, and this apparently slight bruise brought William closer to the grave. The king told those close 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 offered 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 established 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 did not look at things that way. Against their will, forced by necessity, they decided on the revolutionary movement of 1688 and looked with dissatisfied eyes at its consequences, when they had to place 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 and would spend English money for the benefit of his Holland; hence the parliament’s distrust of the king, the opposition to his intentions on the part of both parties - both the Tories and the Whigs, and the stinginess in providing subsidies for the war. Wilhelm, constantly irritated by this distrust and obstacles to his plans, could not treat his subjects kindly, and was not distinguished by kindness by nature: hidden, silent, indiscreet, constantly surrounded only by his Dutch favorites, with them he thought about the most important English affairs, Wilhelm could not possibly be popular in England. The more willingly the popular majority saw Queen Anne on the throne.

The new queen was not distinguished by any visible merits: her upbringing was neglected in her youth, and in her mature years she did nothing to make up for this deficiency; spiritual lethargy expressed itself in indecision and inability to work hard; As soon as the question emerged from the series of daily phenomena, she already became confused. But the more she needed someone else’s advice, the less independent she was, the more she wanted to appear so, because she considered independence necessary in her royal position, and woe to the unwary who would too clearly want to impose his opinion on the queen. Ardently committed to the Anglican Church, Anna treated both papism and the Protestant heresy with equal disgust, which is why she seemed to our Peter the Great “the true daughter of the 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 the one that William lacked: she was English and distinguished by her commitment to the Anglican Church.

As for political parties, Anne's accession to the throne was greeted by the Tories with joyful hopes, and by the Whigs with distrust. The Whigs suspected Anna of being attached to her father and brother; the Whigs acted hostilely against Anne under William and were the culprits of a strong quarrel between them; The Whigs raised the question: Shouldn't the throne, after William's death, go directly to the Hanoverian line? The Tories stood all the more zealously for Anna. Since the conviction was rooted that the son of James II, proclaimed king on the continent under the name of James III, was a fake, the strict zealots of the correct succession to the throne considered Anna the legitimate heir to the throne immediately after the death of James II, and looked at William only as a temporary ruler. Anne's attachment to the Anglican Church made her an idol for all adherents of the latter, offended by the fact that King William was not one of them, and 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 Anne, the Church was secured from the invasion of heresy, now a new, happy era had 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 disturbed health of the thirty-seven-year-old queen did not promise a long reign, and 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 the adherents of the Revolution of 1688 were; They were especially afraid of the influence of the Earl of Rochester, the queen’s maternal uncle, the son of the famous Lord Clarendon: Rochester was a famous Jacobite, and they were afraid that he would raise people like himself to the top, 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 strictly adhere to the foreign policy of her predecessor; the same was announced in Vienna 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, as strong in the first days of Anne as in the last days of William; 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 should have prevailed at the first favorable opportunity and unleashed a war, however, such a favorable circumstance now it hasn't happened yet. 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 even more powerful was his wife, who had a close friendship with Anna when both were not yet married. The friends had opposite characters, because the Countess of Marlborough (nee Sarah Jennings) was distinguished by extreme energy, expressed in all her movements, in her gaze, in strong and fast speech, she was witty and often evil. It is not surprising that the princess, who was lazy in mind, became strongly attached to the woman, who relieved her of the duty of thinking and speaking 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 difficult to find a more handsome man than John Churchill. He did not receive a school education and had to acquire the necessary information himself; but a clear mind, extraordinary memory and the ability to deal with the most remarkable people, whom he constantly met due to his position, helped him in the matter of self-education: extreme accuracy and perseverance in every matter early pushed him out of the crowd and showed him as a future famous figure; but while moving out of the crowd, the clever, ambitious man knew how not to push anyone, did not prick his eyes with his superiority, and lived in great friendship with the mighty of the earth. But cold, calculating, cautious and clever with everyone else, Churchill completely lost control of his wife, to whose influence he constantly submitted and to the detriment of his glory.

Churchill began his military activities in the Dutch wars of the seventies under the eyes of French commanders. James II raised him to the rank of lord, and in 1685 Lord Churchill performed an important service for the king by taming the Monmouth rebellion; but when Jacob began to act against the Anglican Church, Churchill, a zealous supporter of this Church, lagged behind him, and his transition to the side of William of Orange determined the quick and bloodless outcome of the revolution. Churchill was elevated to Earl of Marlborough for this, but soon did not get along with William, especially when his wife was insulted by Queen Mary, and a rift ensued between the royal court and Princess Anne. The dissatisfied Marlborough entered into relations with his old benefactor, James II, and even reported details about the English enterprise against Brest. However, later he again became close to William and was privy to all the king’s plans regarding foreign policy. William entrusted him with command of the auxiliary English army in the Netherlands and the final consolidation of 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 did not lose anything with the death of William and the accession to the throne of Anne, who looked at him as the most devoted person to herself. Lord Marlborough immediately received the highest order (of the Garter) and command of all English troops, and his wife was given the position of first lady of state. Marlborough, in fact, did not belong to any party, and yet both parties had reason and benefit to consider him one of their own: the Tories counted on his attachment to the Anglican Church, on his connections, on the persecution that he suffered during the reign of the Whigs under William, and hoped to have him on their side on all questions of domestic policy; the Whigs, for their part, saw that Lady Marlborough was in close contact 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 the English troops, and the Whigs told him that, although they did not hope to occupy government seats in the present reign, they would nevertheless contribute to everything that would be done for the good of the nation .

Marlborough's first order of business was to go to Holland to cement the alliance between the two sea powers, which had necessarily weakened after the death of the king and 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 union with promises to cleanse Belgium and make other concessions, as a result of which some deputies in the United States began to lean toward peace with France. Marlborough solemnly, in the presence of foreign ambassadors, announced that the Queen would religiously fulfill the treaty of alliance, as a result of which the States finally rejected the French proposal. Meanwhile, in England, Rochester, taking advantage of Marlborough's absence, hurried to give the final triumph to 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 the change in the English ministry would not have any influence on the course of foreign affairs. But Lady Marlborough took a strong part in the fight against the queen's uncle, who became a Whig. Here the friends collided for the first time: 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 in which Lady Sarah, out of old habit, spoke to her: from then on, a cooling began between the friends.

But be that as it may, the same conviction in the need for war with France to protect English interests prevailed in society, as in the latter part of William’s reign, and therefore changes in the ministry could not stop things. The national view was expressed in the State Council convened to finalize the question of war; voices were heard: “Why such an expensive and difficult intervention in continental unrest? Let the English fleet be in good condition; as the first fleet in Europe, let it guard the shores and protect trade. Let the continental states torment each other in a bloody struggle; the trade and wealth of central England will all the more increase. Since England does not need continental conquests, she should help her allies only with money, and if she absolutely must fight, she should limit herself to a 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 not independently.” All these opinions, as expressions of the fundamental national view, were very important for the future, for they were bound to prevail at the first opportunity; but now this convenience was not available to them when the majority was convinced of the need to contain 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 advantage was not at all on the side of the allies, despite the great 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 ready to break out; in Germany, Bavaria and Cologne were on the side of France, covered by Belgium, the Rhine Line, neutral Switzerland and possessing the forces of Spain, Portugal, and Italy. The Allies were supposed to field 232,000 troops, but in reality they could have had much less, so that the forces of Louis XIV and his allies were superior by 30,000 people. 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 ranks, or any individual nationalities; finally, the possessions of the continental allies were opened, 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 on the part of France there were clear signs of decrepitude - a consequence of the materially and morally unproductive system of Louis XIV. An ally of France, Elector of Bavaria Max Emmanuel took the important imperial city of Ulm; in Italy, the emperor's commander, Prince Eugene of Savoy, could not cope with the French, who were under the command of Vendôme, and had to lift the siege of Mantua. Austria, due to shortcomings in internal governance, 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.” Income fluctuated because certain areas provided more or less; sometimes individual regions received 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 national debt extended to 22 million guilders. The long Turkish war contributed greatly to the financial breakdown. The government did not dare to impose emergency taxes for fear of driving the peasants, who were already in a miserable situation, to despair, and therefore preferred to borrow money with payments ranging from 20 to 100 percent. But such financial distress did not prevent Emperor Leopold from incurring large expenses when it came to court pleasures or when his religious feelings were affected.

The treasury was eaten up by a huge number of officials who received their salaries, and during campaigns, salaries were delivered to the troops either very late or not at all, so that the commanders at the end of the campaign, and sometimes even in the middle of the campaign, were forced to leave the army and go to Vienna in order to speed up the sending of money . Constant hatred reigned between the commanders and officials of the court military council (Gofkriegsrat); especially all the generals looked at the president of the Khofkriegsrat as their mortal enemy; The emperor's eldest son, the Roman King Joseph, pointed to the managers of military and financial affairs in Vienna as the perpetrators of all evil. The Imperial Generalissimo learned about political negotiations and military events only from the Viennese newspaper. Production in the army was not at all based on ability, and the foreign ambassadors at the Viennese court were most amazed at the cynical frankness with which each officer spoke about the inability and dishonesty of his comrades and generals.

There was also a reformation party at the Viennese court: it consisted of Prince Eugene, Prince Salm, the counts of Kaunitz and Bratislava, and was led by the Roman King Joseph; but all her aspirations were dashed by the emperor’s irresistible distrust of new people and new thoughts. The Dutch envoy responded that he would rather drink the sea than act successfully against the crowd of Jesuits, women and Leopold's ministers. This disorder of the government machine in Austria was also accompanied by unrest in Hungary and Transylvania, where peasants burdened with taxes rose up, and these uprisings could intensify, because the eastern part of the state was exposed to troops as a result of the war in the west. At first, the Hungarian unrest was not of a political nature, but things changed when the rebels came into contact with Franz Rakoczy, who lived in exile in Poland. Prudent people demanded that the Hungarian unrest 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 its highest point: the army did not receive recruits, the soldiers were hungry and cold. This situation was supposed to lead to changes in Vienna: the presidents of the military and financial councils lost their places, finances were entrusted to Count Staremberg, and military administration was entrusted to Prince Eugene.

Thus, in the first period of the war, Austria, due to the state of its management, could not energetically contribute to the successes of the Allies. The naval powers, England and Holland, also could not wage a successful war in the Spanish Netherlands. Here the two campaigns of 1702 and 1703 ended unsatisfactorily. Marlborough, who commanded the allied forces, was in despair and rightly blamed the failure on the Republic of the United States, which hindered him with merchant frugality regarding people and money; In addition, the parties fighting in the united provinces, the Orange and the Republican, tore the army apart, the generals quarreled and refused to obey each other. The commander was embarrassed by the so-called “camping deputies” who were with him with a control role: they were in charge of food supplies for the troops, appointed commandants to the conquered places, had a voice in military councils with the right to stop their decisions, and these deputies were not military people at all. Finally, in Holland there was expressed distrust of the foreign commander; Pamphlets against Marlborough and his bold plans appeared in the press. Meanwhile, in England, as a result of the unsatisfactory nature of the two campaigns, people who were against the continental war raised 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 asleep towards the end of the 17th century. The events that followed at the beginning of the 18th century were supposed to awaken her: indeed, the people were agitated when they heard that the hated heretics, the English and the Dutch, were planning to divide the Spanish possessions, and therefore the accession to the throne of Philip V with the 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 a sad dowry to the Bourbon dynasty: the offspring resulting from this marriage revealed features of the decrepitude that distinguished the last Habsburgs in Spain. Philip V appeared on the Spanish throne as such a decrepit youth, for whom the crown was a burden and any serious activity was a punishment; He accepted his grandfather’s smart, eloquent instructions and letters with indifferent submission, entrusting others with the responsibility of answering them and conducting 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 old woman who, in contrast to the young king, was distinguished by youthful liveliness and masculine willpower: she was Maria Anna, by her second marriage the Italian Duchess of Bracciano-Orsini , daughter of the French Duke of Noirmoutier. In Italy, she maintained contact with her former fatherland and was an agent of Louis XIV in Rome, was very involved in the transfer of the Spanish inheritance to the Bourbon dynasty during 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 defeated 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 leader.

Louis XIV wanted, through Orsini, to rule Spain as a vassal kingdom; but Orsini did not want to be an instrument in the hands of the French king, and even if she was guided by the motives of her own lust for power, only her behavior and desires, so that the influence of a foreign sovereign would 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 face 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 it. In 1702, the British's intention 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 a most dangerous struggle when Portugal joined the European Union, and Vienna decided to send Archduke Charles, the second son of Emperor Leopold, to the Iberian Peninsula as a contender for the Spanish throne; They hoped that in Spain there were many adherents of the Habsburg dynasty, many dissatisfied people who wanted change in general, and that under these conditions Philip V could easily be replaced by Charles III. This Charles was the favorite son of Emperor Leopold, because he looked 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 set off on a distant enterprise - to conquer the Spanish throne, surrounded by parties, among which only some cardinal or court lady, grayed in intrigue, could make his way. After much preparation and obstacles, only in March 1704 the Anglo-Dutch fleet brought to the mouth of the Tagus “the Catholic king not by God, but by heretical mercy,” as stated in Jacobin pamphlets in England.

When going ashore, Charles receives news that his bride, the Portuguese princess, died of smallpox, and her father, Don Pedro, fell into deep melancholy. In Portugal, nothing was ready for war, the army did not receive pay, did not know how to wield weapons, did not want to fight; all the horses that were of any use were recently exported either to Spain or 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 than French wines, for which Portugal undertook not to allow any woolen goods to enter its territory, except 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, the Bourbon and Habsburg, the Dukes of Savoy and Piedmont had long been forced to strain all their attention to maintain independence in the struggle of their strongest neighbors and to strengthen themselves at every opportunity, taking advantage of this struggle ; Therefore, they were distinguished by their frugality, for they always had to maintain a significant army, and they were also distinguished by the most unceremonious policy: being in an alliance with one of the warring parties, they always conducted secret negotiations with the one against which they had to fight. During the full power of Louis XIV, Piedmont had a bad time: it was almost a vassal land of France. But when Louis’ lust for power began to provoke coalitions, when William of Orange became king of England and Austria, which was heavy on the rise, began to move, Piedmont’s position became easier: Louis XIV began to ingratiate himself with its Duke Victor Amedee II and, in order to tie the latter to himself, married two of his grandchildren to two his 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, with the outbreak of the War of the Spanish Succession, Louis XIV transferred the main command over the united Franco-Spanish-Piedmontese troops to the matchmaker. But this was just an empty title: the French commanders, knowing the Piedmontese policy, looked at the orders of Victor Amedee with extreme suspicion and did not at all consider themselves obliged to obey him; The French envoy in Turin also treated him the same way. The arrogant treatment of his son-in-law, the King of Spain, in a decent meeting with him should have further increased the irritation of Victor Amedee. 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 his 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 Amedee made a request in London whether the English government would help him in obtaining Milan. Negotiations dragged on for a whole year: Victor Amedey kept bargaining, kept bargaining for more land for himself and brought despair to the allies, who called for the vengeance of heaven and the contempt of humanity against the shameless, suspicious and greedy Savoyard, and Victor Amedey kept asking for more land, when suddenly, finally, in September 1703 years, he was disturbed in his trade by the news that the French were convinced of his treason. Vendôme captured many Piedmontese generals, disarmed some cavalry regiments and demanded the surrender of two fortresses as a guarantee for the duke's loyalty. Then Victor Amedee directly declared himself against France and moved 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

Decisive success on the side of the alliance was revealed in 1704, when Marlborough decided to unite with Prince Eugene in Bavaria. The consequence 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 Tagliard and Marcin: this victory bears a double name: for the village of Blenheim or Blindheim, where the British won, and for the town of Hochstedt, 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 Tagliard and up to 11,000 troops were captured. Here the character of the French was clearly revealed: fervent in the offensive, they are impatient, soon lose their spirit in case of failure and allow themselves to be captured by entire regiments. As a result, the Blindheim defeat had dire 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 Marcin completely lost their spirit; flight seemed to them the only means of salvation, and the fugitives stopped only on the left bank of the Rhine; Thus, as a result of one defeat, the French cleared Germany, one defeat crushed the glory of the French army, which they used to consider invincible; This surrender in large crowds on the battlefield made a particularly strong impression, and as much as the French fell in spirit, so did their enemies rise.

The winners wanted to erect a monument in honor of Blindheim’s victory and write on it: “May Louis XIV finally know that no one should be called happy or great before death.” 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, and never stooped to useless complaints, having one thing in mind - how to get things right as quickly as possible. He expressed only regret for Marshal Tagliard, sympathy for his grief and the loss of his son, who died in a disastrous battle; The king showed even more regret for his unfortunate ally, the Elector of Bavaria, he wrote to Marcin: “The present position of the Elector of Bavaria worries me more than my own fate; if he could conclude an agreement with the emperor that would protect 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 because of this and I will never make peace without taking care of returning all his possessions to him.” Elector Max paid Louis in the same coin: when Marlborough persuaded Prince Eugene to offer him the return of all his possessions and a significant amount of money annually if he turned his arms against France, the Elector did not agree.

The campaign, which concluded with such a brilliant victory, cost Marlborough dearly: his health suffered greatly from the terrible stress. “I am sure,” he wrote to his friends, “that when we meet, you will find me aged ten years.” The news of Blindheim's victory was received with delight in England both in the palace and in the crowds; In the midst of this delight, comments from the hostile party were also heard. Before the victory, people who were against the continental war loudly condemned Marlborough's movement into Germany, shouted that Marlborough had exceeded his power, abandoned Holland without protection and was exposing the English army to danger in a distant and dangerous enterprise. The victory did not silence the critics: “We won, no doubt, but this victory is bloody and useless: it will exhaust England, but will not harm France; A lot of people were taken from the French and beaten, but for the French king it’s the same as taking a bucket of water from the river.” Marlborough responded to this last comparison: “If these gentlemen allow us to take one or two more buckets of water like this, then the river will flow calmly and will not threaten our neighbors with flooding.”

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

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

Camisards

In Hungary, things were going well for the emperor: the rebels who had initially threatened Vienna suffered a severe defeat, but Rakoczi still held out. Marlborough really wanted to end 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 the 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 rebelled in the Ceven mountains. As a result of persecution, religious enthusiasm reached its highest degree here: prophets appeared, children prophesied; the government intensified the persecution, but those persecuted took advantage of the war, the withdrawal of garrisons from the cities of Languedoc, rebelled, and began a guerrilla war; the leaders of the troops were 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 a seventeen-year-old boy, Cavalier; the most important leader was a young man, 27 years old, Roland, who combined with wild courage something romantic that amazed the imagination. Roland soon had 3,000 troops who called themselves children of God, and Catholics called them camisards (shirt makers) because of the white shirts they wore at night to recognize each other. (This is how they usually explain it, but it is known that sectarians, distinguished by a similar mood of spirit, love 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, captured castles and cities, destroyed the troops sent against them, collected taxes and tithes.

Languedoc officials gathered and decided to convene the police. When Paris learned about these events, Chamillard and Maintenon first conspired to hide them from the king; but it was impossible to hide it for long when the uprising spread, when the Governor-General of Languedoc, Count Broglie, was defeated by the Camisards. The king sent Marshal Montrevel with 10,000 troops against the rebels; Montrevel defeated Roland and wanted to first put out the rebellion by gentle means; but when the Camisards shot those of their own who accepted the amnesty, Montrevel began to rage. The Catholic peasants also armed themselves against the Camisards under the command of a hermit. This holy militia, as the pope put it, began to commit robbery against friends and foes so much that Montrevel had to pacify it; the camisards did not subside; Miracles happened between them: one prophet, to maintain his faith, climbed onto a blazing fire and came down from it unharmed. But the year 1704 was unhappy for the Camisards: Cavalier was forced to enter into an agreement with the government and left France; Roland was defeated and killed; after the Battle of Blindheim, the vast conspiracy of the Camisards failed; their remaining leaders were burned, hanged, and the uprising died down, especially since the government, busy with a terrible external war, turned a blind eye to Protestant religious gatherings.

War of the Spanish Succession 1705–1709

The war with the Camisards ended very conveniently in 1704, because by the next year Louis XIV needed 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 its solemn speeches and poems completely on an equal footing with Admiral Rooke.

Marlborough, back in 1704, came to an agreement with Prince Eugene about the campaign of 1705, persuaded to attack France from the Moselle, where it was less fortified; In early spring, both armies were supposed to begin the siege of Saarlouis, and they were supposed to enter into relations with the Duke of Lorraine, who was only unwillingly for France. Louis XIV also did not waste time, prepared and in the spring of 1705 he could write: “The enemy does not have as much infantry as I have in the Flanders, Mosel and Rhine armies, although in cavalry he is almost equal to me.” But Louis XIV's main advantage was that he could dispose of his relatively numerous troops as he wished, while Marlborough spent his time in The Hague in the spring of 1705 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 in front of him a large, sufficiently equipped French army under the leadership of the good General Marshal Villars, while he himself did not have the famous comrade of the Battle of Blindheim: the emperor transferred Prince Eugene to Italy to improve affairs there, and instead of Eugene Marlborough had to deal with Margrave Louis of Baden, who did not move, making excuses either by illness or by insufficient supplies for his troops.

The news of the death of Emperor Leopold (May 5, New Year) 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 the heir, when he was the head of the militant party, the head of the opposition to his father’s ministry, his father’s system. And indeed, at first there was something similar to energetic action in Vienna; but soon afterwards everything went as before, as a result of which neither Marlborough on the Moselle nor Eugene in Italy could do anything during the entire year 1705; only in Spain were the allies happier: Barcelona surrendered to Archduke Charles; in Catalonia, Valence, Arragonia he was recognized as king. In 1706, things also went well in Spain for the allies: Philip V had to leave Madrid. On the other hand, things went poorly for the French in the north from the Netherlands: here in May Marlborough defeated the Elector of Bavaria and Marshal Villeroy at Romilly, near Leuvain, as a result of which the French were driven out of Belgium; finally they were driven out of Italy; and although at the end of the year affairs in Spain took a favorable turn for France, thanks to a popular uprising in favor of Philip V out of hatred of the heretics who supported Charles III, this success could not compensate for the losses in Italy and Belgium, and Louis XIV began to think how would end the unhappy war at the expense of the people who so diligently defended the throne of his grandson: he proposed the division of Spanish possessions, Spain and America ceded to Charles III, Belgium to Holland, holding only Italian possessions for Philip V. But the Allies rejected the proposal.

The campaign of 1707 began with a brilliant victory of the Franco-Spanish troops over the allies (English, Dutch and Portuguese), won at Almanza by the Duke of Berwick (the illegitimate son of James II Stuart). On the German side, the French also made a successful offensive movement and penetrated as far as the Danube; but the Austrian troops captured Naples, and on the other hand penetrated into Provence, although they were soon to leave it. France held out after Hochstedt and Romilly, held out thanks to a strong government, but this government was draining the country's last funds. Since 1700, the number of officials has almost doubled due to the intensive creation of new positions for sale; they overflowed the coin, raised its price, but this only brought benefit to foreigners; the issuance of unpaid notes undermined credit, and meanwhile expenses, which had reached 146 million in 1701, reached 258 million in 1707. They began to take duties on baptisms, marriages, and funerals: the poor began to baptize their children themselves without a priest, they began to get married in secret, and between Meanwhile, in the castles of noble nobles they made counterfeit coins and life at court continued to be luxurious.

The famous Vauban published a book in 1707 in which he proposed a plan for the necessary financial reforms. The book was found outrageous, the fifty-year service of a man whose name was known to every 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 Chamillard, not seeing any possibility of conducting business at enormous military costs, resigned from his position. In trouble, they called in his place his nephew Colbert Desmarais, who had been out of favor for twenty years. Entrusting Demarais with a new position, the king told him: “I will be grateful to you if you can find some remedy, and I will not be surprised if things get worse and worse day by day.” Desmarais used desperate means to obtain money to continue the war; he doubled duties on the transport of goods by land and along rivers, which dealt a decisive blow to trade.

The money thus obtained was spent on an unhappy campaign: in the north Marlborough again united with Eugene, and complete agreement still reigned between both commanders, while between the French commanders opposed to them - the king's grandson, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Duke Vendôme - complete disagreement reigned. The consequence was that the French were defeated on the Scheldt at Oudenaarde and lost main city French Flanders, Lille, fortified by Vauban. Added to this was a physical disaster: at the beginning of 1709, terrible cold occurred throughout Europe, not excluding the South; the sea froze off the coast of France, almost all the fruit trees died, the strongest tree trunks and stones cracked; courts, theaters, offices were locked, business and pleasure stopped; Poor people with their entire families froze to death in their huts. The cold stopped in March; but they knew that the seeds were frozen, there would be no harvest, and the price of bread had risen. In the villages they died of hunger quietly; in the cities there were riots and in the markets they posted obscenities against the government. The mortality rate has doubled compared to ordinary years, the loss of livestock has not been compensated even in fifty years.

In March 1709, Louis XIV renewed his peace proposal: he agreed that Philip V would receive only Naples and Sicily. But the allies demanded the entire Spanish monarchy for Charles III, did not agree to return Lille and, regarding Germany, demanded a return to the Peace of Westphalia. Louis XIV convened his council, but the advisers answered the question about means of salvation with tears; Louis agreed to the demands of the allies, asked for one Naples for his grandson, and with these proposals the Minister of Foreign Affairs Torcy himself secretly went to Holland. He bowed to Heinsius, 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 specified period, then the French king and the allies will jointly take measures for execution of your contract; French merchant ships should not appear in Spanish overseas possessions, etc. Louis rejected these conditions and sent a circular to the governors, which said: “I am sure that my people themselves will oppose peace on conditions that are equally contrary to justice and the honor of the French name.” Here Louis addressed the people for the first time and met in this ruined and hungry people the most lively sympathy, which made it possible to maintain the honor of the French name.

Particularly offensive in their senselessness were the demands of the allies that he, Louis, who had 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 disposition of the popular majority and, of course, , under the dictation of his energetic wife and energetic governess, he wrote to his grandfather: “God has 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 peasants and townspeople, fleeing hunger, became soldiers, but besides people, there was nothing else in the army - no bread, no weapons. A French soldier sold his 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 attacked, the hungry defended, and defended well, because Marlborough and Eugene bought the victory at Malplaquet with the loss of more than 20,000 people. But nevertheless, the allies won, and Louis decided to ask for peace again, agreeing to everything, as long as they did not force him to fight again, and to fight with his grandson. In response, the allies demanded that Louis take it upon himself to expel his grandson from Spain.

The English Tories' fight 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 classes; but due to the exhaustion of the country and dishonesty in payment, the treasury received no more than 24 million. Funds for the 1711 campaign were prepared; but the year began with peace negotiations, and this time the peace proposal did not come from France. In January, Abbé Gautier, secret correspondent for the French Foreign Office in London, came to Versailles to see Torcy with the words: “Do you want peace? I have brought you a means of concluding it independently of the Dutch." “Asking the French minister whether he wants peace is like asking a patient who has been sick for a long time and dangerous disease“Does he want to be cured,” answered Torsi. Gautier had instructions from the English 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 non-interference in the affairs of the continent unless the commercial interests of England were affected. These trading 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 Spanish possessions. Here the peaceful party, that is, the party that adhered to national politics, had to fall silent, and the war began. But this party, which fell silent for a while, rose up at the first opportunity and was confident that it would meet with strong sympathy among the people as soon as their fears regarding their interests dissipated, for the people were disgusted with spending money on a war waged for other people’s interests, increasing troops and an intensification of his significance, an intensification of the significance of a victorious commander, who aroused unpleasant memories 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: the hitherto terrible France 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 trade interests; The old ambitious king, who haunted Europe, has no more funds, 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 on the Spaniards instead of Philip V, if only Gibraltar and trade benefits in America remained with England; It is even stranger to wage a war for the benefits of Holland, this dangerous rival in trade and industrial relations, to spend English blood and English money in order to secure the Dutch border from France. Thus, the successes of the allied forces and the obvious exhaustion of France strengthened the peace party in England, the Tory party. This party grew stronger because its aspirations and views coincided with national aspirations and views; some people who understood what was going on could come forward, pursuing national aspirations and views, and could make peace.

These people who connected their names with the end of the War of the Spanish Succession were Harley and St. John. Robert Harley in 1701 is an orator or president of the House of Commons, and in 1704, thanks to his friendship with Marlborough, becomes Foreign Secretary. The new minister belonged to 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 humble servant; but Harley, not morally attached to anyone or anything, pursued his own goals, and the demands 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 had another favorite, Abigail Gill, or, by marriage, Mesham, 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, forced them to express their jealousy and demandingness, made them suspect Harley of influencing such decisions of the queen that were unpleasant for them, 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 should prevail decisively; the queen adhered to the same principle and therefore loved Harley, loved him because he was a zealous supporter of the Anglican Church. And Marlborough and Godolphin were not at all against the principle put forward by Harley, if Harley were their obedient instrument in everything. 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 Tory side.

Along with Harley, Henry St. John, who ran the War Ministry, was supposed to retire. Like Harley, St. John considered the party only a means to play an important role in governing the country. An aristocrat by birth, he was distinguished by his beauty, brilliant abilities and the most riotous life; he had an extraordinary memory, amazing quickness of thought and equally amazing ease in expressing thoughts verbally and in writing; 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 twenty-something year, St. John became a member of the House of Commons, and since most of the talent was 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 show off his talent in all its brilliance, he deliberately touched on the most difficult issues 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 control of the military department. St. John, having received such an important and difficult, especially then, place, did not change his way of life, but surprised everyone with the moderation of his speeches; he was the most ardent supporter 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 last long. The queen parted with Harley against her will and was offended by the concession she had to make to the Whigs, Godolphin and Marlborough; These personal relationships were also joined by a higher interest: cries were heard, mainly from Oxford University, about the danger that the Whigs threatened the Anglican Church, and Anna, due to her convictions, was very sensitive to these cries. The most powerful attacks against the principles of the revolution, which the Whigs adhered to, were distinguished by the preacher Sechverel, who denied the legality of resistance to any tyranny. He armed himself against dissidents, against tolerance regarding Calvinism, a tolerance that threatens the English Church with terrible danger, and did not refrain from making allusions to individuals, especially Godolphin. The Whigs sounded the alarm, and Sechverel was put on trial by decision 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 slight majority; but when it came to determining the punishment, it was only necessary to ban him from preaching for three years and publicly burn his last two sermons. Such a light punishment was a defeat for the Whigs who had started the affair, 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 served (for he was only forbidden to preach), he was invited to baptize children, illuminations were made in his honor, fireworks were burned; when he went to Wallis, they gave him ceremonial greetings in the cities along the way (1710).

The Queen, led by Lady Mesh, who in turn was led by Harley, showed clearly that she no longer wanted to have Whigs among her ministers; So, she first dismissed the most zealous Whig, Sunderland, who managed foreign affairs, married to Marlborough’s daughter; The Tories were delighted and told Anna: “Your Majesty is now a real queen.” The Whigs patiently endured this defeat, which, of course, gave courage to their opponents, and the queen took a decisive step - she fired Godolphin; Harley was again brought into the cabinet and made Lord Treasurer, St. John received control of foreign affairs. Parliament was dissolved, and in new elections the Tories took the lead.

The new Parliament, which opened in November 1710, rejected the proposal to offer 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 leave the Whigs and restrain the rage of his wife; but Harley did not want this union. In December, Marlborough arrived in London, was greeted with warm greetings from the people, and was received kindly but coldly by the queen. Anna said to him: “I wish you to continue to serve me, and I guarantee the behavior of all my ministers regarding you; I must ask you not to allow any addresses of thanks to you in parliament this year, because my ministers will oppose it.” The Duke replied: “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 retain them at all costs.

At the beginning of 1711, Marlborough presented the queen with a letter from his wife, written in the most humble tone, but Anna, having read the letter, said: “I cannot change my mind.” The Blenheim winner began to beg on his knees to beg the queen to appease, but Anna was inexorable. The Duke himself remained in the service after that and went to join the army on solid ground, but the ministry was trying to find a way to no longer need the service of Marlborough: this means was the conclusion of peace, and Gautier went to Paris. Soon a new circumstance was to cool England even more towards the Great Alliance: in April 1711, Emperor Joseph I died, leaving no male children, so that all his possessions passed to his brother, Charles, King of Spain - a more severe disruption of the political balance of Europe than the occupation of the Spanish throne by a prince of the house of Bourbon. Harley, who was elevated to the Duke of Oxford, and St. John continued peace negotiations with Louis XIV: they sent their friend Prior to France for this purpose, who was supposed to announce that England would not insist on taking Spain away from the House of Bourbon, and in September the French commissioner Menage signed the preliminary articles in London, after which the matter was reported to the Dutch government. The states were very dissatisfied, but 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 also dissatisfied people in England, as a result of which, as usual, a brutal war began with pamphlets in prose and poetry.

The question of peace was connected with another question - about the Protestant inheritance; The Whigs feared that peace would lead to a rapprochement with France and would 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 debate 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 thing. But a terrible remedy was found against Marlborough: he was exposed in huge bribes received from a contractor in the army, and on this basis the queen dismissed him from all the posts he held, and in order to strengthen her 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, now in possession of the Austrian lands and elected emperor under the name of Charles VI, sent Prince Eugene to London to help the Whigs, but he arrived too late and, after living in vain for two months in London, returned to solid ground to prepare for a future campaign , which had to be done alone, without Marlborough. Meanwhile, in January, conferences opened in Utrecht: they were conducted in the language of defeated France, although it was announced that this should not lead to any consequences, because the emperor’s representatives should speak only Latin; but it was difficult for a dead language to fight with a living one on such pressing issues. In France, hope was being revived that the terrible disasters were approaching an end: peace could no longer be concluded on such shameful terms as had been proposed before. A change took place inside France, which also reassured us about the future: the Dauphin, who had a completely colorless character, died; his eldest son Louis, Duke of Burgundy, a pupil of Fenelon, a young man of strict morality, religious, energetic and gifted, was proclaimed heir to the throne; His wife, Maria Adelaide of Savoy, delighted the French with her liveliness and charming treatment of everyone. But amid these delights and hopes, Maria Adelaide suddenly fell ill with smallpox and died at the age of twenty-six; A few days later the Dauphin, infected from his wife, followed her; Two of their little sons fell ill with the same disease, and the eldest 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 Philip's abdication be sealed by the government 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 protocols of parliament.

Treaties of Utrecht and Rastadt

Meanwhile, hostilities opened in May, and the French gained the upper hand because the British troops separated from the German and Dutch. St. John, now bearing the title of Viscount Bolingbroke, came to France to speed up peace negotiations. But not earlier than April 1713, peace was concluded between France, on the one hand, England, Holland, Portugal, Savoy and Prussia (separate from Germany) - on the other: France ceded to England in America the lands of Hudson Bay, the island of Newfoundland, the Acadia Peninsula and the right trade blacks in the Spanish colonies (assiento); in Europe, it 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 skilled generals of Louis XIV (for Vendome died shortly before), showed her the impossibility of fighting a war alone even with exhausted France. The Emperor authorized Prince Eugene to begin negotiations with Villars at Rastadt. Charles VI renounced the Spanish throne in favor of Philip V; but Spain was still divided: Austria received the Spanish Netherlands, which was considered necessary to secure Holland from France, and also received Spanish possessions in Italy, except for the island of Sicily, which was received by Victor Amedee of Savoy, who consequently took the title of King of Sicily; The electors of Bavaria and Cologne received their possessions back.

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

Results of the War of the Spanish Succession

Thus ended the famous War of the Spanish Succession, that is, the war of the Great European Union against France, which was striving for dominance. The power of Louis XIV was broken, just as the power of Charles V and Ferdinand II had been broken before. But the crushing of the power of both named Habsburgs resulted in the strengthening of France, while after the War of the Spanish Succession we do not see a single state in Western Europe that was stronger than all the others and could pose a danger to its 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 place and keep his grandson in prison. 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 it. Austria, apparently, received 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 splendor of the victories of the foreign commander, Eugene of Savoy, gave only instant glory, for after the death of Eugene, the Austrian troops turned to the old habit of “being beaten,” as Suvorov put it.

Thanks to Marlborough, England advanced even more; but the power of this power was one-sided; due to its island position, it could not and did not want to take an active part in the affairs of the continent; it 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 a state was set in the name of the political balance of Europe: the project of William 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 was no longer any reason to wage it: France no longer posed a danger, and there was no point in starting a war in order to force Spain under the rule of not only one dynasty, but also one sovereign with Austria.

The Great European War of 1701-1714, nicknamed the War of the Spanish Succession, can rightfully be considered one of the world wars. Almost all major states of Western, Central and Southern Europe took part in it. The fighting took place in Europe, North America and on all oceans.

Causes of the war

The war broke out due to the desire of the great powers to take over the colonial legacy of the decrepit Spanish Empire. The last king of the Spanish branch of the Habsburgs, Carlos II (1665-1700), was, due to the consanguineous marriage of his parents, very sickly and childless. The question of the “Spanish inheritance” arose during his lifetime. There are three contenders for this role.

The main one was the powerful French king Louis XIV of Bourbon - the famous “Sun King”, married to the sister of Carlos II on his father’s side, Maria Theresa. The cunning Louis did not intend to take the Spanish throne himself, but to place his grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, on it. Although, according to the terms of his marriage contract with Maria Theresa, their offspring had no rights to the Spanish throne, the French king found a loophole. The treaty provided for Spain to pay a large dowry, but for 40 years Spain was never able to pay it.

The second contender was the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs, namely Emperor Leopold I. He was married to the sister of Carlos II, who, at the same time, was his own niece. Like Louis XIV, he did not aim for the throne himself, but wanted to place his youngest son, Archduke Charles, there.

The third candidate was the cousin of the Bavarian Crown Prince Joseph Ferdinand. He was the cousin of Carlos II and he bequeathed the throne to him in advance. England and France agreed to support Joseph's candidacy in 1697. Not for altruistic reasons, of course: in this situation, the French would have received Southern Italy and Sicily, and England would have received a share in the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium). Spain itself and all its overseas colonies would be inherited by the Bavarian prince. This situation caused violent indignation in Austria, which found itself out of work. Tempers grew even more intense when Joseph Ferdinand died suddenly in early 1699. The dispute over the Spanish inheritance flared up again.

Warring parties

Carlos II yielded to the insistence of France and appointed the grandson of Louis XIV as his heir, but with the condition that if he inherited the French throne, then the Spanish king would have to be his younger brother. In November 1700, Carlos II died and Philip V of Bourbon ascended the Spanish throne. This was the signal for the formation of an anti-French coalition and the start of military action.

Yesterday's enemies - England and Holland, on the one hand, Austria, on the other - have become closer to each other. They also managed to win over Portugal and Savoy.

At first, the allies did not object to Philip's accession to the throne. However, they wanted the division of Spanish possessions and the maintenance of a “balance of power” - the latter term has since become widely used by politicians. England and Holland agreed to divide the Spanish Netherlands among themselves, and Austria was now destined for the south of Italy and Sicily.

A trace in European history

The War of the Spanish Succession became one of the elements that formed the civilization of Europe in modern times. At least until the middle of the twentieth century, the names of the famous commanders of this war - the French marshals Duke de Villars, the Duke of Berwick (an English emigrant) and the Austrian Prince Eugene of Savoy - meant a lot to the national consciousness in different European countries. And the name of the English Duke of Marlborough (whose descendant was Winston Churchill) was even included in a song that was still known a hundred years later throughout Europe and Russia (“Malbrooke was about to go on a campaign...”).

All European history textbooks include the two bloodiest battles of this war - at Blenheim (or the second Hochstedt, 1704) and at Malplaquet (1709). In the first of them, the troops of Eugene of Savoy and the Duke of Marlborough defeated the Franco-Bavarian army, as a result of which Bavaria concluded a separate peace.

On September 11, 1709, in the largest battle in Europe in the entire 18th century, the Anglo-Austro-Prussian-Dutch army under the command of the same generals attacked the French army of de Villars in northern France. Possessing a slight superiority in forces, the Allies pushed back the French, but at the same time suffered twice as many losses. The Battle of Malplaquet became a classic illustration of the expression "Pyrrhic victory".

In the War of the Spanish Succession, reliance on the “fifth column” in the enemy camp was widely used. France supported a contender for the English throne - the son of the exiled King James II. In turn, England, with its incitement, caused an uprising of the Camisards in the south of France - the Protestants who remained there after the emigration of most of them in 1685. Supporters of the Austrian pretender to the Spanish throne, with the support of the allies, broke away Aragon and Catalonia from Spain and held them in 1705-1714.

An important step towards England's world domination

Despite the skillful actions of the commanders, the forces of France in the fight against the powerful coalition began to weaken. At one time the Allies even threatened Paris. But disagreements between them and a number of French successes persuaded the opponents to negotiate peace. In 1713, peace was signed in Utrecht, and in 1714, the final peace in Rastatt and the Treaty of Baden ended the war.

The Allies managed to prevent the unification of France and Spain. Philip V retained the Spanish throne, but renounced the rights to the French crown for himself and his heirs. Great Britain received Gibraltar and the Spanish island of Minorca, Austria received Belgium and the Italian possessions of Spain. The French king recognized the Hanoverian dynasty on the English throne and refused to support Jacob's supporters (Jacobites).

But the most important results of the war were not territorial and dynastic - England managed to achieve a monopoly on the slave trade in the Spanish colonies. This trade enriched Great Britain enormously over the next hundred years. In addition, during the war, England imposed an agreement on Portugal, as a result of which the latter turned into a de facto English protectorate for more than two centuries. It was also during this war, in 1707, that England, Scotland and Ireland finally merged into the United Kingdom.

Thus, the main result of the War of the Spanish Succession was the beginning of British global hegemony. With this, the war opened a new historical era.

According to historians, the victims of the First World War of the 18th century were from 235 thousand to 400 thousand people in two parts of the world.