Louis XIV and Europe

322 Pages·1976·33.511 MB·English

by  Ragnhild Hatton (eds.)

LOUIS XIV AND EUROPE
Also by Ragnhild Hatton
EUROPE IN THE AGE OF LOUIS XIV
LOUIS XIV AND HIS WORLD
WILLIAM ID AND LOUIS XIV: ESSAYS BY AND FOR MARK A.
THOMSON, 1680-1720 (co-editor with ]. S. Bromley)
STUDIES IN DIPLOMATIC HISTORY: ESSAYS IN MEMORY
OF DAVID BAYNE HORN (co-editor with M.S. Anderson)
LOUIS XIV
AND EUROPE
Edited by
RAGNHILD HATTON
ISBN 978-0-333-19384-6 ISBN 978-1-349-15659-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-15659-7
Editorial matter and selection© Ragnhild Hatton 1976
Chapters 1-11 inclusive© The Macmillan Press Ltd 1976
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1976 978-0-333-13660-7
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1976 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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Associated companies in New York
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SBN 333 13660 8 (hardcover)
SBN 333 19384 9 (paperback)
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Contents
Preface
Vl1
Notes on Contributors 1X
Maps xii
PART I GENERAL PROBLEMS
1 Louis XIV's Methods in Foreign Policy Victor-L.
Tapie 3
2 Louis XIV and his Fellow Monarchs Ragnhild
Hatton 16
3 Louis XIV and the Gerrnanies Georges Livet 60
4 Louis XIV and the Jacobites Claude Nordmann 82
PART II CASE-STUDIES
5 Louis XIV and the Electorate of Trier 1652-1676
Rene Pillorget 115
6 An Attempted Rapprochement between France and
the Emperor : the Secret Treaty for the Partition of
the Spanish Succession of 19 January 1668 Jean
Berenger 133
7 Louis XIV and the Dutch War Paul Sonnino 153
8 Louis XIV and the Outbreak of the Nine Years
War Geoffrey Symcox 179
9 Attempts to Build a 'Third Party' in North Ger-
many, 1690-1694 ]anine Fayard 213
10 The End of an Era: Louis XIV and Victor Amadeus
II Ralph D. Hande n 241
vi Contents
11 Colbert de Torey, an Emergent Bureaucracy, and
the Formulation of French Foreign Policy, 1698-
1715 fohn C. Rule 261
Glossary 289
Chronology 291
List of Persons 303
Preface
These essays are intended to put students in touch with im
portant research in, or trends of thought on, the foreign policy
and problems of Louis XIV's reign. Some of them will be
familiar to academic teachers since they are either translations
andjor amended versions of articles and contributions which
have appeared in print; others have been commissioned for the
volume.
The book is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to
general views of various kinds. It opens with TapiC's analysis
of Louis XIV's methods in foreign policy and with the editor's
examination of Louis in a contemporary European perspective.
Next follows Livet's discussion of Louis' relationship to the Ger
manies (the Holy Roman Empire as well as the Austrian Habs
burg dominions), and Nordmann's resume of Louis XIV's policy
towards the J acobites. In the second part, given up to specific
case-studies, a chronological arrangement has been adopted.
Pillorget's research into the relationship of the archbishop-electors
of Trier to France, both before and after Louis XIV took over
the government, is vital to an understanding of the eastern
frontier problem. Berenger's detailed study of the secret partition
treaty of 1668 between the emperor Leopold and Louis XIV
illuminates a significant stage in Austria's relations with Spain
and France. Sonnino's interpretation of Louis' military memoirs
for the Dutch War rests on minute detective work; and he
clearly proves his point that Louis - though possibly less con
sciously than Sonnino assumes - tailored the finished memoirs
to fit that picture of himself which he wished to bequeath to
posterity. Symcox's examination of the outbreak of the Nine
Years War explores new ground and is vital to our grasp of the
situation in 1688-9. Janine Fayard's contribution is focused on
North Germany and is especially important because she puts
into perspective the sums spent on pensions and presents to
further a given foreign-policy objective by a comparison with
viii Preface
incoming sums in the same period. Handen examines a significant
decision in Louis' foreign policy : the abandonment of France's
traditional Italian objectives in the 1690s. Finally, Rule's analysis
of the Torey period, 1698-1715, throws light both on the relation
ship between Louis XIV and Torey and on the developing
bureaucratisation of the French foreign office.
The editor wishes to thank the contributors for their help and
co-operation in making their work available for publication.
The translations have been made by Dr Geoffrey Symcox of
the University of California at Los Angeles and Dr Derek McKay
of the London School of Economics, in collaboration with the
editor. Hamish Scott of the University of Birmingham kindly
helped with the proof-reading.
The editor is grateful to the Ohio State University Press for
permission to reprint (with minor changes) her own contribution
which originally appeared in Louis XIV and the Craft of King
ship, edited by John C. Rule; for permission to reprint other
articles she must thank the XVIIe Siecle, the Revue d'Histoire
Diplomatique, and the Revue des Travaux de l'A cademie des
Sciences Morales et Politiques.
The editor has appended a glossary of French and German
terms which may be unfamiliar, a list of persons mentioned where
they are not sufficiently explained in the text or in the notes, and
a chronology of significant dates for the foreign policy of the
reign.
Notes on Contributors
}EAN BERENGER, Docteur es Lettres, Professor at the University of
Rennes II. Author of 'Charles Colbert, Marquis de Croissy', in R.
a
Mousnier (ed.), Le Conseil du roi de Louis XII la Revolution
( 1970); Les Gravamina. Remonstrances des Dietes de H ongrie de
a
1655 1681 (1973); Finances et absolutisme autrichien dans la
seconde moitie du XVII6 siecle (1975).
}ANINE FAYARD, Maitre-Assistant in Modern History at the Univer
sity of Dijon, former member of Ecole des Hautes Etudes His
paniques. Author of 'La tentative de reforme du Conseil de Castile
sous la regne de Philippe V (1713-1715)', Melanges de la Casa de
Velasques, vol. II (1966).
RALPH D. HANDEN, Assistant Professor at the University of Cali
fornia (Riverside), has written a Ph.D. thesis at Ohio State University
on France's relationship with Savoy during the Nine Years War. He
is now working on the history of science, a subject for which both
his earlier science degree and his undergraduate and postgraduate
history degrees fit him well.
RAGNHILD HATTON, Professor of International History, University
of London (L.S.E.). Author of War and Peace 1680-1720 (1969),
Europe in the Age of Louis XIV (1969), Louis XIV and his World
(1972); co-editor of and contributor to William III and Louis XIV.
Essays by and for Mark A. Thomson (with J. S. Bromley, 1968) and
of Studies in Diplomatic History. Essays in Memory of David Bayne
Horn (with M.S. Anderson, 1970).
GEORGES LIVET, Docteur es Lettres, Professor of Modern History at
the University of Strasbourg. Vice-President of the Comite Fran~_;ais
des Sciences Historiques. Editor of three volumes in the Recueil
des Instructions aux Ambassadeurs et Ministres de France, XXVII,
Etats Allemands: vol. I, Electorat de Mayence (1962), vol. II, Elec
torat de Cologne (1963), vol. m, Electorat de Treves (1966). Author
of several books on Alsace, on the Wars of Religion and the Thirty
Years War; and of a chapter in the New Cambridge Modern History,
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