The Supremacy of France and the Wars of Louis XIV (Illustrated) by Thomas Henry Dyer

Author:Thomas Henry Dyer [Dyer, Thomas Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Didactic Press
Published: 2015-01-24T02:00:00+00:00

The War against Spain

Meanwhile the Spanish war had been going on, with disastrous consequences to the French. The Spaniards had good leaders in the Archduke Leopold William and Don John of Austria, to whom was now added the great Condé. They also received material assistance from the Emperor Ferdinand III. In spite of the Peace of Westphalia, Ferdinand sent thousands of men into Flanders under the flag of Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, who, since his quarrels with France, had become a sort of partizan chief. Don John, whose exploit in saving Naples from the French we have already related, and who subsequently recovered from them the Tuscan ports, had, in 1651, laid siege to Barcelona; which city, after a blockade of thirteen months, both by sea and land, at length surrendered (October 12th, 1652). Gerona, Palamos, Balaguer, and other places next fell; and all Catalonia was ultimately reunited to the Spanish Crown, from which it had been separated during a period of thirteen years. In the same year the Spaniards wrested back from the French Gravelines and Dunkirk. Their conquest of Dunkirk had been facilitated by the conduct of the English Government, which had offeredD'Estrades, the French commandant of Dunkirk, a large sum to put that place in their hands. D'Estrades honorably refused to accept the bribe, but referred the English agent to his own Court. Mazarin was inclined to cede Dunkirk to the English on condition of receiving 15,000 men and fifty vessels to act against the French rebels and the Spaniards; but Anne of Austria would not consent. In consequence of this refusal, the English fleet under Blake defeated a French fleet which was proceeding to the relief of Dunkirk (September 14th, 1652); and four days after D'Estrades was compelled to surrender to the Spaniards. Yet so fearful were the French Government of bringing upon them another enemy, that even this gross outrage failed to produce a war with England.

Nothing decisive was achieved in the campaigns between the French and Spaniards till, in the year 1657, Cromwell threw the weight of England into the scale. The most prominent figures on the scene during this struggle were Condé and Turenne, who, like two Homeric heroes, seemed to hold in their hands the fortune of war. Their skill was conspicuously displayed in 1654, when Turenne compelled the Spaniards to raise the siege of Arras; but was prevented by the manoeuvres of Condé from pursuing his advantage. It was in this school that the youthful Louis XIV served his apprenticeship in arms. The campaign of 1655 was almost wholly unimportant; but the reverses of the French in the following year, as well as the failure of some negotiations with Spain, which would not consent to abandon Condé, induced Mazarin to enter into a close alliance with the Protector Cromwell.

France had not been so forward as Spain in recognizing the new order of things in England. The French Court, connected with Charles I by his marriage with Henrietta, had viewed the

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