The War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714) Read online

  A confidential clause in the treaty of partition allowed for the emperor to accept the provisions it contained no more than two months after the terms were agreed. Leopold did not take the opportunity to do so, and this clumsiness gave Louis XIV the chance, in the meantime, to accept the provisions of any new will in favour of his own son or grandson, without seeming to break his word over the treaty. Despite this legal nicety, Louis XIV in the meanwhile was certainly engaged in something of a double game, and his ambassador in Madrid, the Marquis de Blécourt, was exerting what influence he could, including the payment of large sums of money, to promote French interests, and in particular that of the king’s second grandson, the seventeen-year-old Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, as an eligible successor to Carlos II. In this endeavour he was assisted by the not-unrealistic belief that the best, perhaps the only, way to maintain the Spanish Empire undivided was by means of harnessing French interest in doing so. The pro-Austrian faction in the court, encouraged by the king’s wife who was the sister-in-law of Emperor Leopold, failed to prosper in part because of the overbearing manner of the imperial emissaries in their dealings with the proud Spanish nobles. The French king, however, was doubtful of the likelihood of success for his endeavours:

  The King of Spain has always opposed the legitimate rights of my son. The mastery of the Queen over his mind and the attachment that she has for the Emperor’s interests have been such that it is not surprising that I demand assurances before listening to any proposition [that d’Anjou would be named heir to the throne] so contrary to the conduct of the King of Spain throughout his life.5

  In fact, the Council of State in Madrid had met in June 1700 and voted in favour of the French aspirant to the throne; Carlos II did not attend the council, so that the vote should be seen as impartial. The following month the Pope declared himself to be in favour of Anjou, as being the choice most likely to ensure the continuance of peace in western Europe, but stressed that the opinion of the Council of State had already indicated the best way forward.

  As the ailing Carlos II sank towards his deathbed, the Archbishop of Toledo, prominent in the pro-French faction at the Spanish court, took charge of the king’s sick chamber and had the German-born queen barred from entering. A new will, naming the Duc d’Anjou as successor with an undivided empire was drawn up, and completed on 7 October 1700, and the detailed provisions in the fifty-nine articles contained in the document were promptly conveyed in confidence to Louis XIV. The renunciations made by his mother, Anne of Austria, and his own Spanish wife, Maria-Theresa, were annulled and the succession was fixed on d’Anjou, or his younger brother.

  Recognising as a result of several consultations with Minsters of State and of Justice that the reason why Doña Ana and Doña Maria Teresa, Queens of Spain, my aunt and sister, renounced succession to those kingdoms was to avoid the prejudice of uniting them to the Crown of France, and recognising that, this fundamental motive no longer existing, the right of succession in accordance with the laws if those kingdoms, and that today this condition is fulfilled by the second son of the French Dauphin, therefore, in obedience to these laws, I declare my successor to be (should God take me without leaving heirs) the Duke of Anjou, second son of that Dauphin; and as such, I call him to the succession in all my Kingdoms and dominions, without exception of any part of them.6

  The Duc de Berry, Louis XIV’s younger grandson, was named next in line of succession, and only then was Archduke Charles of Austria, second son of the emperor, mentioned as, in effect, the third and least favoured choice. In the unlikely event that all three of the young princes should refuse, then the throne was to be offered to the Duke of Savoy. In the meantime, a regency was to be established to govern Spain until the new king, whoever that might be, should arrive in Madrid. The difference between the non-partitioning provisions contained in the new will, and the terms of the newly-agreed treaty between France and the Maritime Powers, although not ratified in Vienna, were obvious with the potential for renewed conflict on a wide scale if great care was not taken by all concerned.

  Aware of the offer contained in the will, Louis XIV awaited the arrival of the expected and fateful news with feelings of some unease. ‘I see that from all sides one confirms that which you wrote to me about the disposition that he [Carlos II] made by his testament in favour of one of my grandsons.’ The king wrote to his ambassador in Madrid:

  Nothing makes it more evident than the secrecy that they keep on this subject with the Emperor’s ministers’ and at the same time by the fact that some of those who witnessed the signature of the testament have assured you of this disposition. But since I cannot change the resolutions that I have taken on the simple news that you give me, it will be necessary to await the declaration. There is even much chance that if the health of the King should improve, one would make him change the dispositions that he has made.7

  Three weeks later, after rallying and seeming to recover his health a little, so much so that the Austrian ambassador, Von Harrach, felt rather fancifully that there might yet be hopes of an heir, Carlos II died in the early afternoon of All Saints Day, 1 November 1700. He had been ineffective and a semi-invalid for many years but was lamented by his people to whom he was, despite the manifest mental and physical difficulties of his short life and the economic distress of the times, a benevolent and well-liked monarch. The death of the king, and choice of successor on the throne, was duly declared to the assembled notables with a knife metaphorically being twisted in the side of the Austrian ambassador:

  At length the folding doors being thrown open the duke of Abrantes appeared, and a general silence ensued to hear the nomination. Near the door stood the two ministers of France and Austria, Blécourt and Harrach. Blécourt advanced with the confidence of a man who expected a declaration in his favour; but the Spaniard, casting on him a look of indifference, advanced to Harrach and embraced him with a fervour which announced the most joyful tidings. Maliciously prolonging his compliment, and repeating his embrace, he said ‘Sir, it is with the greatest pleasure – Sir it is with the greatest satisfaction for my whole life – I take my leave of the most illustrious House of Austria!’8

  The news of Carlos’ death, in a coded message, reached the French court at Fontainebleau on the morning of 8 November, and two further letters were shortly afterwards received by Louis XIV from the Junto, the council of ministers, in Madrid with additional details of the offer of the throne to his grandson:

  We do by this express send your Majesty a copy of the will and Codicil, which the deceased King our Master, whom God absolve, has left behind him, that you may perfectly know all the Circumstances that are therein contained. We make use of this occasion (as we have done on all others) to acquaint your Majesty, that the Nobility and Commonality desire their new King with inconceivable uneasiness and impatience … We congratulate your Majesty upon this Occasion of having your second Grandson named and proclaimed King of Spain.9

  The pressure to accept the will was acute but the king was faced with a particular difficulty that could no longer be avoided, with potential risks that were clear to all. After receiving assurance that the will was acceptable in Spain, Louis XIV consulted his council, in particular, his son the Grand Dauphin, Minister for Foreign Affairs Torcy, Chancellor Pontchartrain, and the Duc d’Beauvilliers, the governor to the royal children. Opinion on the best course of action was divided, with Beauvilliers recommending rejection of the offer, while Torcy pointed to the danger to French interests if the throne was instead taken by Archduke Charles, with a re-emergence of Habsburg encirclement of France, and a loss of influence in Italy. The Dauphin, usually indolent and indecisive, was untypically robust in asserting his right to the throne by virtue of his mother, Maria-Theresa, having been Carlos II’s half-sister, but he willingly assigned that right to his young son. The waspishly observant courtier and memoirist at court, Louis de Rouvoir, Duc de St Simon, wrote that:

  To the great surprise of the King and his ministers, when it was h
is turn to speak he expressed himself with force in favour of accepting the will. He took the liberty of asking for his inheritance, that the monarchy of Spain belonged to the Queen his mother, and consequently to him; that he surrendered it willingly to his second son for the tranquillity of Europe, but that to no other would he yield an inch.10

  Louis XIV, aware of the dilemma they all faced but with an offer that could hardly be turned away, kept his own counsel for the moment and said little, but a few days later he almost teasingly asked the Princess of Conti what she thought of the offer, and she replied straightaway that d’Anjou should go to Spain. ‘Whatever I do’ the king replied gravely ‘I will be blamed by many people.’11 That the French king would agree to the acceptance by his grandson of the proffered throne was almost a foregone conclusion, although he was clearly in an acute dilemma. ‘If the King refused to accept the will, the same Deed transferred the entire succession to the Archduke Charles. The same courier that had been despatched into France would proceed to Vienna.’12

  Louis XIV wrote to Madrid on 12 November indicating acceptance of the will, before any public announcement was made, and concerned at the Europe-wide reaction that would certainly greet his grandson having the throne in Madrid, and the dangers of what the alternative would be, he wrote from Fontainebleau to his ambassador to the United Provinces, the Comte de Briord, on 14 November:

  The Spanish ambassador has asked for an audience, which I gave him on the morning of the 11th. He handed me a letter signed by the Queen of Spain and by the members of the Council appointed by the late King, his master, with the details of the prince’s will in favour of my grandsons; in the event of them not accepting it the heir is the Archduke [Charles], and after him the Duke of Savoy [Victor-Amadeus II].13

  After assuring the comte that he had given the whole matter the most grave consideration, and rehearsing the difficulties of whatever course he adopted, Louis XIV went on regarding ways to assuage the concern of other states:

  I have decided to accept the will, after I had received the Spanish ambassador in audience. I told him that I would send the Duc d’Anjou to Spain without delay. On the next day I had given him a letter which I wrote to the Council of Regency, and I only pointed out to him that it was necessary to keep the matter secret for some days in order to give me time to advise the King of England [William III] and the Pensionary [of Holland].

  Now the king got to the point, that to refuse the will would be to hand the crown and undivided empire to the Austrian archduke, and his tone sharpened as if in exasperation:

  The English ambassador has been told on my behalf practically the same as I am writing to you … He has been told that it would have been dangerous to deliberate at any length on the reply to be made to the Spanish ambassador, and that it might easily have happened that the latter would have received instructions to send an express to Vienna, as soon as I refused the will, to offer the whole inheritance to the Archduke. You will say the same to the Pensionary. You are to make him see too that as the Emperor was not committed there was no security of the Treaty [of Partition]; indeed we should not find ourselves in this predicament if the King of England and the States-General had put pressure on the Emperor to ratify instead of raising secretly in him hopes that he would not be forced to do so.

  A similar note was sent to the Comte de Tallard in London. Conciliation was to be sought if at all possible, and assurances given, but the French ambassadors were to be on the watch for trouble:

  It is not advisable to reproach them in any way. It is sufficient to speak to the Pensionary as I indicate in this letter … Be more on the alert than ever in order to be promptly informed of the decisions taken by the States-General, and of the orders given by them for the raising of troops and the fitting-out of ships.

  Everything was then set for a scene of high historical drama at Versailles. After Louis XIV’s customary levee on 16 November, the Spanish ambassador, Castel del Rey, was brought into the king’s cabinet or private chambers, and invited to kneel and kiss the hand of his new young king, Philip V. This he did, and made a lengthy and tearfully emotional speech in Spanish, which d’Anjou could not understand as he did not yet speak the language, and so his grandfather on this occasion answered for him. St Simon wrote of the dramatic scene:

  At last, on Tuesday the sixteenth on November, the King publicly declared himself … The King, contrary to all custom, opened the two folding doors of his cabinet and commanded everybody to enter, it was a very full Court that day. The King, majestically turning his eyes towards the numerous company, and showing them M. Le Duc d’Anjou said ‘Gentlemen, behold the King of Spain. His birth called him to that crown; the late King also called him to it by his will; the whole nation wished for him, and has asked me for him; it is the will of heaven; I have obeyed with pleasure.’ Then, turning towards his grandson, he said ‘Be a good Spaniard, that is your first duty, but remember that you are a Frenchman born and preserve the union between the two nations. That is the way to make them happy and to preserve the peace of Europe.’ The King afterwards went to Mass, during which at his right hand was the new King of Spain, who, during the rest of his stay in France was publicly treated in every respect as a sovereign.14

  On entering the royal chapel Louis XIV offered his hassock, the kneeling cushion usually only made available to him, to his grandson, but the young man blushingly refused to take it. In consequence both men, king and king to be, heard Mass kneeling on the carpet.

  A sign of the trouble that this was bound to cause came when the Austrian imperial ambassador entered not knowing what had taken place, and as St Simon added ‘was confounded when he heard the news’. The recent discomforting of von Harrach in Madrid was clearly mirrored at Versailles. The King’s courteous formal reply to the Junto was to the point, and significantly altered the course of European history. After the considerable flowery preamble expected in diplomatic letters at the time, the note ran ‘We accept in favour of our Grandson, the Duc d’Anjou, the will of the deceased Catholic King; our only Son, the Dauphin accepts it also, quitting, without any reluctancy, the just rights of the deceased Queen his Mother, and our dear Spouse.’15

  Resentment and annoyance was certain to be felt in Vienna, but concern was inevitable also in London and The Hague, although it was far from clear what, if anything, could effectively be done. The will was valid, as was the right of the young French prince to the throne by virtue of his grandmother’s relationship to the recently deceased king. As far as could be told, the Spanish were content with the arrangement, while the provisions of the Partition Treaty had not been ratified by Vienna or guaranteed by the Maritime Powers, and so this could not be held up as a true reason for dispute. Suspicions of Louis XIV’s motives were lively, but Parliament in London would almost certainly not vote funds for a new war, even if there had been a sound argument to embark on such a dramatic course, and that, it seemed, was that. On 22 December 1700, the French ambassador in London, Tallard, could write to Versailles that both William III and the States-General in The Hague would acknowledge Philip V as King of Spain. and it seemed that the storm could be weathered, and if the Austrian emperor was inclined to argue the point on behalf of his younger son, he would in all likelihood have to do so alone.

  The new king, meanwhile, had begun to make his way to Madrid, accompanied by an enormous retinue and fortified by a gift from his grandfather of twenty-one bags each containing 1,000 Louis d’Or. The French king, however, took care that his grandson did not cross the border into Spain until the two months’ grace allowed by the confidential clause in the Treaty of Partition for the emperor to sign, had expired. Leopold would do no such thing, and was openly preparing for war, so Louis XIV could comfort himself that he had kept on the right side of legality, as he saw it. ‘The Emperor had confirmed the King in the opinion that had has done the right thing, for he [Leopold] refused to sign the Treaty.’16 Louis XIV always liked to have legal cover for whatever he attempted, and it seemed that
this could be accomplished.