for eighteen months, ready to sails! Their number accumulated daily. At length the whole combined fleet was ordered to conduct, as far as might be requisite, four hundred merchantmen, consisting of English, Dutch, and Hamburghers, bound for the different ports of the Mediterranean, and generally known by the name of the Smyrna-Fleet. They accordingly put to sea, and proceeded fifty leagues beyond Ushant; where they left Sir George Rooke, with a squadron of twenty-three sail, to convoy the traders to the Straits. Meanwhile the French fleet, under Tourville, had taken station in the bay of Lagos, and lay in that place till Rooke and the multitude of rich vessels under his conduct appeared. Deceived by false intelligence concerning the strength of the enemy, the English admiral prepared to engage; but, suddenly perceiving his mistake, he stood away with an easy sail, ordering the merchantmen to disperse and shift for themselves. The French came up with the sternmost ships, and took three Dutch men of war. About fourscore merchantmen were taken or destroyed in the different ports of Spain, into which they had run, in order to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. The object of the voyage was totally defeated; and the loss, in ships and cargo, amounted to twelve hundred thousand pounds. But Lewis XIV. amid all his victories, had the mortification to see his subjects languishing in misery and want. France was afflicted with a dreadful famine, partly occasioned by unfavourable seasons, partly by the war, which had not left hands sufficient to cultivate the ground; and notwithstanding all the provident attention of her ministry in bringing supplies of corn from abroad, in regulating the price and furnishing the markets, many of the peasants perished of hunger, and the whole kingdom was reduced to poverty and distress 30. 29. Burchet's Naval Hist. Burnet. Ralph. 28. Burnet, book v. VOL. IV. I i William, William, apprised of this distress, and still thirsting for revenge, rejected all advances toward peace, and hastened his military preparations. He was accordingly enA. D. 1694. abled to appear early in Flanders at the head of a great and finely-appointed army; but the superior genius of Luxembourg, with an army much inferior, prevented him from gaining any considerable advantage. The retaking of Huy was the only conquest he made during the campaign. On the Upper Rhine, in Hungary, in Piedmont, no event of any consequence happened31. On the side of Spain, the war was carried on with more vigour. The mareschal de Noailles, having forced the passage of the river Ter, in Catalonia, defeated the Spanish army entrenched on the farther bank. Gironne and Ostalric fell successively into his hands; and he would have made himself master of Barcelona, had not admiral Russell, with the combined fleet, arrived in the neighbouring seas, and obliged the French fleet to take shelter in Toulon3. While Tourville and d'Estrees were blocked up in that harbour, the French sea ports upon the channel were bombarded, though with no great effect33. The glory and greatness of Lewis XIV. were now not only at their height, but verging toward a decline. His resources were exhausted; his minister Louvois, who knew so well how to employ them, was dead; and Luxembourg, the last of those great generals who had made France the terror of Europe, died before the opening of next campaign. Lewis determined, therefore, to act merely on the defensive in Flanders, where the allies had assembled an amazing force. After some hesitation, he placed mareschal de Villeroy at the head of a principal army, and entrust A. D. 1695. ed the second to Boufflers. Namur on the right, and Dunkirk on the left, comprehended between them the 31. Daniel. Burnet. Ralph. Duke of Berwick. Noailles, tom. i. 32. Mem. de 33. Burnet. Ralph. Burchet. Voltaire. extent of country to be defended by the French. Tournay on the Scheldt, and Ypres, near the Lys, formed part of the line. Boufflers was ordered to assemble his army near Mons, to cover Namur; and Villeroy posted himself between the Scheldt and the Lys, to protect Tournay, Ypres, and Dunkirk 34. King William, who took the field in the beginning of May, found himself at the head of an army much superior to that of France. In order to amuse the enemy, and conceal his real design upon Namur, he made some artful movements, which distracted the attention of Villeroy, and rendered him uncertain where the storm would first fall. At length having completed his preparations, and formed his army into three bodies, he ordered the elector of Bavaria, with one division, to invest Namur. He himself, at the head of the main body, was encamped behind the Mehaign, and in a condition to pass that river, and sustain the siege, if necessary; while the prince of Vaudemont, with an army of observation, lay between the Lys and the Mandel, to cover those places in Flanders which were most exposed35. Namur, into which mareschal Boufflers had thrown himself with seven regiments of dragoons, in order to reinforce the garrison, made a vigorous defence; but it was at last obliged to surrender; and the citadel, which Villeroy attempted in vain to relieve, was also taken36. Lewis XIV. in order to wipe off this disgrace, and to retaliate on the confederates for the attacks made by the English on the coast of France, commanded Villeroy to bombard Brussels; and the prince of Vaudemont had the mortification to see great part of that city laid in ruins, without being able either to prevent or avenge the wanton destruction37. The military reputation of William, which had suffered greatly during the three foregoing campaigns, was much 34. Mem. de Feuquieres. 36. Id. Ibid. 35. Kane's Campaigns. Mem. de Feuquieres. 37. Duke of Berwick's Mem. vol. i. raised raised by the retaking of Namur. But the allies had little success in other quarters. No event of any importance happened on the side of Italy, on the Upper Rhine, or in Catalonia. On the side of Hungary, where peace had been expected by the confederates, the accession of Mustapha II. to the Ottoman throne, gave a new turn to affairs. Possessed of more vigour than his predecessor, Achmet II. Mustapha resolved to command his troops in person. He accordingly took the field; passed the Danube; stormed. Lippa; seized Itul; and falling suddenly on a body of Imperialists, under Veterani, he killed that officer, dispersed his forces, and closed, with success, a campaign which promised nothing but misfortune to the Turks38. A. D. 1696.. The next campaign produced no signal event any where. France was exhausted by her great exertions; and, the king of Spain and the emperor excepted, all parties seemed heartily tired of the war. Lewis XIV. by his intrigues, had detached the duke of Savoy from the confederacy: he tampered with the other powers: and the congress for a general peace, under the mediation of Charles XI. of Sweden, was at last opened, at the castle of Ryswick, between Delft and the Hague. The taking of Barcelona, by the duke of Vendome, induced the king of Spain to listen to the proposals of France; and the emperor, after reproaching his allies with deserting him, found it necessary to accede to the treaty. A. D. 1697. The concessions made by Lewis XIV. were very considerable; but the pretensions of the house of Bourbon to the Spanish succession were left in full force. Though the renunciation of all claim to that succession, conformable to the Pyrenean treaty, had been one great object of the war, no mention was made of it in the articles of peace. It was stipulated, that the French monarch should acknowledge William to be lawful sovereign of Great-Britain and Ireland, 38. Barre. Heiss. and and make no farther attempt to disturb him in the possession of his kingdoms 39; that the Duchy of Luxembourg, the county of Chiney, Charleroy, Mons, Aeth, Courtray, and all places united to France by the chambers of Metz and Brisac, as well as those taken in Catalonia, during the war, should be restored to Spain; that Friburg, Brisgaw, and Philipsburg, ́ should be given up to the emperor; and that the duchies of Lorrain and Bar should be rendered back to their native prince49. Scarce had the emperor acceded to the treaty of Ryswick, which re-established tranquility in the north and west of Europe, when he received intelligence of the total defeat of the Turks, by his arms, at Zenta, a small village on the western bank of the Theysse, in the kingdom of Hungary. The celebrated prince Eugene of Savoy had succeeded the elector of Saxony in the command of the Imperialists; and to his consummate abilities they were indebted for their ex traordinary success. Mustapha II. commanded his army in person. The battle was of short duration, but uncommonly bloody. About twenty thousand Turks were left dead on the field, and ten thousand were drowned in the river, in endeavouring to avoid the fury of the sword. The magnificent pavilion of the sultan, the stores, ammunition, provisions, and all the artillery and baggage of the enemy, fell 39. Lewis, we are told, discovered much reluctance in submitting to this article; and, that he might not seem altogether to desert the dethroned monarch, proposed that his son should succeed to the crown of England, after the death of William; that William, with little hesitation, agreed to the request; that he even solemnly engaged to procure the repeal of the act of settlement, and to obtain another act, declaring the pretended prince of Wales his successor; but James, it is added, rejected the offer-protesting, that should he himself be capable of consenting to such a disgraceful proposal in favour of his son, he might justly be reproached with departing from his avowed principles, and with ruining monarchy, by rendering elective an hereditary crown! Depot des Affairs Etrangers a Versailles. James II. 1697. Macpherson, Hist. Brit. vol. ii. 40. Dumont, Corp. Diplom. tom. viii. into |