he Spanish throne were very different. It is
this which will largely explain the various conduct of the allies during
the progress of the struggle; but all together sought the humiliation of
Louis, and joined on the common ground of the Spanish Succession.

The particular object, then, of the campaign of Blenheim (and of those
campaigns which immediately preceded and succeeded it) was the prevention
of the unison of the crowns of France and Spain in the hands of two
branches of the same family. Tested by this particular issue alone, the
campaign of Blenheim, and the whole series of campaigns to which it
belongs, failed. Louis XIV. maintained his grandson upon the throne of
Spain; and the issue of the long war could not impose upon him the
immediate political object of the allies.

But there was a much larger and more general object engaged, which was no
less than the defence of Austria--more properly the Empire--and of certain
minor States, against what had grown to be the overwhelming power of the
French monarchy.

From this standpoint the whole period of Louis XIV.'s reign--all the last
generation of the seventeenth century and the first decade and more of the
eighteenth--may be regarded as a struggle between the soldiers of Louis
XIV. (and their allies) upon the one hand, and Austria, with certain minor
powers concerned in the defence of their independence or integrity, upon
the other.

In this struggle Great Britain was neutral or benevolent in its sympathies
in so far as those sympathies were Stuart; but all that part of English
public life called _Whig_, all the group of English aristocrats who
desired the abasement of the Crown, perhaps the mass of the nation also,
was opposed, both in its interests and in its opinions, to the supremacy
of Louis XIV. upon the Continent.

William of Orange, who had been called to the English throne by the
Revolution of 1688, was the most determined opponent Louis had in Europe.
Apart from him, the general interests of the London merchants, and the
commercial interests of the nation as a whole, were in antagonism to the
claims of the Bourbon monarchy. We therefore find the forces of Great
Britain, in men, ships, guns, and money, arrayed against Louis throughout
the end of his reign, and especially during this last great war.

Now, from this general standpoint--by far the most important--the war of
the Spanish Succession is but part of the general struggle against Louis
XIV.;