FRA 
of William ; and though the activity and vigilance of 
that monarch furprifed the French camp at Steenkirk, 
yet the battle was reftored by the abilities of Luxemburg 
and the kindred valour of the princes of the blood ; and 
the king of England, after the mod daring efforts, was in¬ 
dignantly compelled to give the fignal of retreat. The 
next year he (fill experienced a more decifive defeat; at 
Landen the army of the confederates was broken with the 
lofs of eight thoufand men; Huy and Charlerov were 
alfo the prey of the viflors; while Louis repaired by his 
induftry his late difafters at fea, and once more difputed 
the fovereignty of that element. 
Though France now appeared the objedt of envy to all 
the neighbouring dates, her difirefs each day increafed 
with the number of her victories; her provinces were 
depopulated to recruit her fleets and armies ; the ravages 
of war were followed up by thofe of famine ; and amidft 
all his glories the victorious monarch was heard frequently 
to figh for peace. The king of England had inverted 
Namur ; and, though that city was obftinately defended 
by the marefchal Boufflers, it was obliged to capitulate 
in the fight of the French army commanded by Villeroi, 
who could only gratify his refentment by the bombard¬ 
ment of Brulfels. 
Each belligerent party at length fighed for peace ; the 
empire and Spain were weary of a war which had been 
attended only with misfortunes; the parliament of Eng¬ 
land had long murmured at the heavy and increafing ex¬ 
pence ; and Holland, though more devoted to the incli¬ 
nations of king William, regretted her trade intercepted, 
and her moft fruitful provinces laid warte. Louis him- 
felf was overwhelmed with the miferies of his fubjedts; 
the rip'our of the feafon had combined with the rage of 
the enemy, and the kingdom, lately fo fertile, prefented 
to the eye a dreary and barren warte. Under thefe cir- 
cumftances, the mediation of Charles XL king of Sweden, 
was accepted ; and the cartle of Ryfwick, near the Hague, 
was fixed upon as the fcene of negociation. The king of 
France rertored to the Spaniards all thofe places that he 
had taken from them, and the conquerts that he had made 
in Flanders during the laft war, as Luxemburg, Mons, 
Athe, and Courtrai. He acknowledged William III. as 
lawful king of England, whom he had hitherto treated 
as an ufurper. To the empire he relinquifhed Fribourg, 
Brifac, Kheil, and Piiilipfbourg ; and even fubmitted to 
deftroy the fortifications of Straiburg on the Rhine ; Fort 
Louis, and Traerbach, works on which the great Vauban 
had exhaufted his art, and the king his treafure, Lorraine, 
Treves, and the Palatinate, were refigned to their re- 
fpedtive princes ; and France, after a long and bloody 
war, in which her vidtories can only be numbered by her 
•fucceflive campaigns, confented to the peace of Ryfwick, 
in 1697, which could fcarcely have been expected from 
her at a time when none of her enemies could with con¬ 
fidence look her in the face. 
The peace of Ryfwick was fucceeded by new nego- 
ciations ; the pretenfions of the king of France to the 
Spanifh fucceflion were not veiled from the penetrating 
eye of William III. Louis, fenlible that the emperor 
urged the fame claims of confanguinity, though priority 
of°birth fortified the title of the houfe of Bourbon, and 
■conicions from late experience that his own ftrength was 
notable to contend with the united power of Europe, 
opened by his minifter a new projedt to the king of Eng¬ 
land. William entered into it with alacrity; and the 
celebrated treaty of partition was concluded in 1698, 
which divided the dominions of Spain during the life of 
her fovereign. To the young prince of Bavaria were 
afligned Spain and the Eaft-Indies; to the dauphin, fon 
of Louis XIV. Naples, Sicily, and the province of Gui- 
pufcoa ; and to the archduke Charles, fecond fon of the 
emperor Leopold, only the duchy of Milan. Even the 
feeble and languid foul of Charles of Spain was aroufed 
by this daring infult; he heard with indignation in what 
manner his monarchy had been diftributed j and to pre- 
Vol, VII. No. 464. 
N C E. 733 
ferve it entire he figned his will, and bequeathed the 
whole of his ample dominions to the prince of Bavaria. 
The hidden death of that prince in 1699, not only dif- 
concerted the defigns of Charles, but even thofe of Louis 
and William ; the two latter monarchs figned, however, 
a new treaty of partition, by which Spain and the Eaft 
Indies were transferred to the archduke Charles, and 
Milan to the duke of Lorrain. To this treaty the em¬ 
peror Leopold, who flattered himfelf with the hope of 
the whole fucceflion, refufed to accede. But it was only 
the dread of alarming the united fears of Europe, which 
had prevailed on Louis to fubferibe conditions fo inade¬ 
quate to bis infatiate ambition ; he (fill waited in anxious 
fufpence the death of Charles, and the bed of that expir¬ 
ing monarch was befieged by the intrigues and faff ions of 
the rival houfes of Auflria and Bourbon ; but the intrac¬ 
table haughtinefs of the former had difgurted the mi. 
nifters of Spain ; and they prevailed on their monarch to 
fign a new will, which blarted the hopes of Leopold, and 
preferved the Spanifh monarchy entire; expreifing his 
indignation at the late injurious conduit of I.ouis, Charles 
bequeathed his dominions to Philip duke of Anjou, 
grandfon to the king of France, and foon afterwards ex. 
pired. 
The treaty of partition was made to augment the power 
and dominions of France ; the will of Charles aggran¬ 
dized the houfe of Bourbon ; Louis preferred the eleva¬ 
tion of his family to the interefts of the ftate, and ac¬ 
cepted for his grandfon the royal fortune that was be¬ 
queathed him; at the fame time he endeavoured to juf- 
tify to his allies the infradlion of the partition treaty, bv 
obferving that he had only departed from the words, and 
rtill adhered to the fpirit of it, which was to preferve the 
tranquillity of Europe. But none felt their difappoint- 
ment more deeply than tire emperor Leopold, and Wil¬ 
liam king of England. The former beheld Spain, and 
her dependencies, for ever feparated from the houfe of 
Auftria ; yet his weaknefs confined him to ineffedhtal re- 
monrtrances ; the latter, though fecure of the affedlion of 
the united provinces, was regarded with jealoufy by the 
Englilh parliament ; and he found that people averfe to 
increafe their debt, and facrifice their trade, to gratify 
his enmity to Louis by a new war, in which they confi- 
dered themfelves but little intererted. 
Philip V. king of Spain, in the year 1700, was for¬ 
mally acknowledged by the king of England and the 
dates of Holland, he was fupported by the elector of 
Bavaria and the duke of Savoy; and from Gibraltar to 
Antwerp, and from the Danube to Naples, Louis beheld 
the power and influence of the houfe ot Bourbon ex¬ 
tended; be was elated with the boundlefs profpedt before 
him, and his prefumption precipitated him into two er¬ 
rors, the fource of all his future calamities. 
While Leopold (till hefitated whether to acknowledge 
or oppofe the elevation of Philip V. he was aroufed by a 
new proof of the infatiate difpofition of Louis. That 
monarch prevailed on the duke of Mantua to admit a 
garrifon into his capital, and all Italy trembled for her 
liberties ; the emperor immediately prepared to artert 
the freedom of Europe by the {'word ; his army was en- 
trurted to the command of prince Eugene, fon to the 
count of Soilions. This general, at the head of thirty 
thoufand men, entered Italy; forced the (hong port of 
Carpi; reduced marefchal Catinat to act upon tire defen- 
live ; and overwhelmed the country between the Adige 
and the Adda; Villeroi, the favourite of Louis, was 
fen't to afl'ume the command over Catinat, and difgurted 
by his arrogance tire duke of Savoy ; he compelled his 
reludtant colleagues to attack prince Eugene; in the 
rtrong port of Chiari, on the banks of the Oglio, his te¬ 
merity was chaftifed by a fevere and bloody defeat ; and 
five thoufand of the braveft troops of France peri Hied on 
the field of battle. 
While the flumes of war were thus kindled in Italy, 
James, the abdicated monarch of England, clofed at 
9 A Si, 
