ouis XIV at the end of the seventeenth. The
second French attempt was made by Napoleon at the beginning of the
nineteenth. The German attempt was made at the beginning of the
twentieth. Though alike in the ambitions of their makers, these
attempts were most unlike in the way the wars were carried on; for,
while the Spaniards and Germans were monsters of cruelty, the French
were foemen worthy of the noblest steel.

Secondly, as we shall see in Chapter XVI, the middle of this long
French War was marked by the marvellous growth of the British Empire
under the elder Pitt; a man whose like the world had never seen before
and may not see again; orator, statesman, founder of empire, champion
of freedom, and one of the very few civilians who have ever wielded the
united force of fleets and armies without weakening it by meddling with
the things that warriors alone can do.

Louis XIV liked to be called the Sun King (_Roi Soleil_) and Great
Monarch (_Grand Monarque_). His own France was easily the first Great
Power in Europe. She was rich and populous. The French army was the
most famous in the world. French became the language of diplomacy.
Whenever two nations speaking different languages wrote to each other
about affairs of state or made treaties they did so in French, as they
do still. But all this was not enough for Louis. He wanted to be a
conqueror in Europe and beyond the seas. His people did not need
oversea trade and empire in the same way as the Dutch and British, did
not desire it half so much, and were not nearly so well fitted for it
when they had it. France was a kingdom of the land. But, no matter,
Louis must make conquests wherever he could.

Hoping to get England under his thumb he befriended James II, the last
Stuart king, whom the English drove out in 1688. James, less bad but
less clever than his vile brother Charles, had a party called
Jacobites, who wanted French help to set him on the throne again, but
no French interference afterwards. Most of Great Britain favoured the
new king, William III; most of Ireland the old one, James. This
greatly endangered British sea-power; for the French fleet had been
growing very strong, and an enemy fleet based on Ireland would threaten
every harbour in Great Britain from Bristol to the Clyde. More than
this, a strong enough fleet could close the Channel between the south
of Ireland and the north of France. There would then be no way out of
Great Brita