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90 - Story of Old France by H. A. Guerber · Story of Old France

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  Speaker 1: Section eighty nine of the Story of Old France. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Marc Desanzo. The Story of
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  Speaker 1: Old France by H. A. Gerber, Section eighty nine. The
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  Speaker 1: Spanish Succession. The beginning of the New century. The eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: was marked by the outbreak of a new war known
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  Speaker 1: in history as the War of the Spanish Succession seventeen
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  Speaker 1: o one through seventeen thirteen. You must understand clearly how
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  Speaker 1: it came to be fought. You remember that at the
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  Speaker 1: death of the King of Spain, who was Maria Teresa's father,
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  Speaker 1: the King of France had claimed part of his inheritance
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  Speaker 1: in the Netherlands. Now the Queen's step brother also died,
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  Speaker 1: leaving no direct heir to the Spanish crown, but stating
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  Speaker 1: in his will that he wished Maria Teresa's second grandson, Philip,
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  Speaker 1: the Duke of Anjou, to succeed him. The French were
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  Speaker 1: delighted to have a Prince of France except this crown,
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  Speaker 1: provided it were arranged that France and Spain should never
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  Speaker 1: be united. But the other nations, fearing lest such a
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  Speaker 1: promise should be disregarded and one monarch become in time
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  Speaker 1: so dangerously strong as to threaten the peace of Europe,
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  Speaker 1: opposed the Spanish King's will with all their might. After
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  Speaker 1: due consideration, Louis the fourteenth bade his young grandson accept
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  Speaker 1: the crown offered to him, and announced this decision by
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  Speaker 1: presenting him to the French court. Thus, gentlemen, here is
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  Speaker 1: the King of Spain. Then he pronounced a famous speech,
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  Speaker 1: and which he told the youth to rule wisely and
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  Speaker 1: be true to Spain, yet never forget the ties of birth,
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  Speaker 1: which bound him to France, from which even the Pyrenees
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  Speaker 1: could not divide him. This speech gave rise to the
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  Speaker 1: oft quoted grandiloquent saying there are no more Pyrenees, or
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  Speaker 1: the Pyrenees have disappeared. By accepting the Spanish King's will,
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  Speaker 1: many people claimed that Louis the fourteenth had violated his
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  Speaker 1: wife's renunciation, but others asserted that, as her dower had
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  Speaker 1: never been paid in full, there was nothing binding about
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  Speaker 1: this promise. Europe in general, however, rose up in arms
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  Speaker 1: against France and Spain. William the third again headed the League,
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  Speaker 1: and its armies were ably led by the two great generals,
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  Speaker 1: Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The latter, it is said,
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  Speaker 1: had once offered his services to Louis the fourteenth, only
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  Speaker 1: to be scorned on account of his small stature, a
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  Speaker 1: mistake that was to cost France. Dear Vir, a famous
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  Speaker 1: French general, won the Battle of Hawksteat while one of
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  Speaker 1: his countrymen one another. Then luck turned and the Allies
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  Speaker 1: gained victories in three battles, Blenheim seventeen o four, Rameilie
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  Speaker 1: and Torente seventeen o six. After the second of these engagements,
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  Speaker 1: Louis the fourteenth comforted his defeated general Villroois by exclaiming,
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  Speaker 1: mister Marshall, at our age, fortune no longer favors us,
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  Speaker 1: alluding of course, to the popular saying fortune favors the young.
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  Speaker 1: The news of these defeats caused great dismay in France,
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  Speaker 1: but confident that they would triumph in the end, the
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  Speaker 1: French went on singing a mocking song about Marlborough, which
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  Speaker 1: is still familiar in French nurseries to day, Malbrouk Saint
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  Speaker 1: vaugh tongue then a victory in Spain seventeen o seven
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  Speaker 1: again raised French spirits, only to be followed the succeeding
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  Speaker 1: year by a crushing defeat at Udnarde in the Netherlands.
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  Speaker 1: This was followed by a winter of such unusual severity
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  Speaker 1: that the army suffered untold hardships, and Louis the fourteenth
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  Speaker 1: had to beg for peace, but when the ally refused
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  Speaker 1: to grant it unless he helped drive his own grandson
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  Speaker 1: out of Spain, he bravely answered, since I must fight,
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  Speaker 1: I had rather fight my enemies than my children. The
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  Speaker 1: war was therefore renewed, and the French lost the Battle
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  Speaker 1: of Malpliquet seventeen o nine, But the next year louis grandson,
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  Speaker 1: Philip the fifth of Spain, won a triumph Villaviciosa, and
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  Speaker 1: soon afterwards England withdrew from the struggle, leaving France with
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  Speaker 1: one foe less. The year seventeen twelve saw vir victor
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  Speaker 1: at Dna, and in seventeen thirteen the Treaty of Utrecht
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  Speaker 1: put an end to the War of the Spanish Succession.
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  Speaker 1: By this treaty, Philip the fifth was left in possession
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  Speaker 1: of all of Spain except Gibraltar and of Spain's colonies
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  Speaker 1: in America. The other lands which had once belonged to
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  Speaker 1: the Spanish crown, the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Naples, Sardinia, Sicily
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  Speaker 1: and Minorca now went to various countries, and Louis the
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  Speaker 1: fourteenth ceded to England, the Hudson Bay region, Newfoundland and Acadia.
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  Speaker 1: The three great treaties signed during the reign of Louis
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  Speaker 1: the fourteenth nimvigen, reisvich and Utrecht, were unsatisfactory to the
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  Speaker 1: German imperialists, who, punning on these Dutch names, said that
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  Speaker 1: it had all been a case of take away, tear
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  Speaker 1: away and wrongdoing nimveg, reisvege and unricht. You will not
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  Speaker 1: be surprised, after what you have heard about him to
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  Speaker 1: learn that two favorite sayings of Louis the fourteenth were
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  Speaker 1: self aggrandizement is the noblest occupation of kings, and kings give.
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  Speaker 1: By spending the many wars of his reign, added to
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  Speaker 1: his building extravagances, had been steadily running the country deeper
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  Speaker 1: and deeper into debt, besides making the taxes heavier and heavier.
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  Speaker 1: It was computed that The French nation, then numbering about
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  Speaker 1: nineteen men million souls, had a public debt of about
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  Speaker 1: three hundred million dollars. Both king and government were poor.
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  Speaker 1: The nobles, who had long lived beyond their means, were
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  Speaker 1: no better off. The middle class suffered from the ruin
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  Speaker 1: of commerce, and the overtaxed peasants, lacking the means to
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  Speaker 1: cultivate the land, allowed great stretches to run to waste.
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  Speaker 1: End of Section eighty nine.