218 Louis XV the royal treasury When Philip IV of Spain died, territory in the Spanish Netherlands was ceded to Charles II of Spain and not to Louis XIV’s wife, Marie-Thérèse, who was Charles’s half sister Louis XIV went to war in 1667 under a claim for the territory in the Spanish Netherlands Once again, Spain and France were at war The Dutch feared that Louis XIV could easily lay claim to Holland, because it too had once been ruled by Spain In 1668, the Dutch formed the defensive Triple Alliance with England and Sweden against Louis XIV But Charles II of England signed a separate peace with Louis XIV in 1670 guaranteeing Charles a secret subsidy, which freed him from dependence on the money annually voted him by the British parliament In 1672, Louis XIV and Charles smashed into the Dutch United Provinces in one of the most devastating invasions in European history Although Charles left the war in 1674, Louis XIV continued until 1678 He gained more territory in Spanish Netherlands and the strategic border region of the Franche-Comte but was still not satisfied with his territorial enlargement edict of nantes revoked A decade of peace followed, in which Louis continued to assert his royal power both in France and in its colonies In 1685, Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had granted religious toleration to the Huguenots; this caused thousands of them to flee Consequently, the Huguenots and their children became some of France’s most bitter enemies during the wars of the 18th century Since Jansenist (a sect of the Roman Catholic Church) ideas bore some resemblance to Calvinism, Louis waged war against the Jansenists, even closing their spiritual center, the Abbey of Port-Royal In 1688, the diplomatic balance of power in Europe suddenly shifted against Louis XIV His ally, Charles II of England, had died in 1685 to be succeeded by his Catholic brother, James II James’s religious stance brought on the Glorious Revolution of 1688 James was forced to flee, to be supplanted by his Protestant daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, the stadtholder of the Dutch Netherlands, who had come to power as a result of Louis’s Dutch War William in the same year brought England into the League of Augsburg with the Dutch Netherlands, then known as the United Provinces, the Holy Roman Empire, and other European powers With England now part of the coalition to frustrate Louis XIV’s European ambitions, the War of the Grand Alliance broke out in 1688; it would continue until 1697 A major series of battles was fought in Europe, but Louis XIV neglected to support James II fully when James II attempted to regain his English throne in 1688 A victory by James could have removed William from the throne, thus taking the most relentless adversary out of the coalition However, the death of Charles II of Spain led Louis XIV to pursue seeing his grandson become King Philip V of Spain Louis succeeded, only to wreck his diplomatic triumph by decreeing in 1701 that the future rights of Philip and his line were to go to the French Crown The prospect of a French-Spanish union was something the other powers in Europe could never accept, and the War of the Spanish Succession broke out The war devastated both Europe and the European colonies until 1713 Two years later, in September 1715, Louis XIV died Although he had lived to see his ultimate diplomatic triumph, his Bourbon grandson Philip on the throne of Spain, the cost of his wars had inflicted such a toll that the royal treasury never really could recover before the French Revolution swept the monarchy away entirely in 1789 See also absolutism, European; Calvin, John; Fronde, the; justification by faith Further reading: Ashley, Maurice Louis XIV and the Greatness of France New York: Free Press, 1965; Bernier, Olivier Louis XIV: A Royal Life New York: Doubleday, 1987; Durant, Will and Ariel Story of Civilization, Vol VIII: Age of Louis XIV New York: Simon and Schuster, 1963; Havens, George Age of Ideas: From Reaction to Revolution in Eighteenth Century France New York: Free Press, 1969; Wolf, John B Louis XIV New York: W W Norton, 1968 John Murphy Louis XV (1710–1774) king of France When Louis XIV died in 1715, his great-grandson and heir Louis XV was five years old The child king’s regent was Philippe II, duc d’Orléans, related to the royal Bourbon dynasty Philippe II, in the period of French history often called “the Regency,” became known for a sensational lifestyle The duke, famous for his sensual appetite, resigned his regency in 1723 largely because of the adverse publicity brought about by his lifestyle that was in effect funded by the French people He died later that year Philippe II’s downfall was followed by that of the financial network set up in France by the Scottish economist John Law Philippe II had employed Law to help the French economy, which had suffered severely from the almost incessant wars of Louis XIV Law’s note-issuing