as in direct negotiation and co-operation
with Lewis that he aimed at bringing about a peaceful settlement of the
question which threatened Europe with war. At this moment the claimants
of the Spanish succession were three: the French Dauphin, a son of the
Spanish king's elder sister; the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, a grandson
of his younger sister; and the Emperor, who was a son of Charles's aunt.
In strict law--if there had been any law really applicable to the
matter--the claim of the last was the strongest of the three; for the
claim of the Dauphin was barred by an express renunciation of all right
to the succession at his mother's marriage with Lewis XIV., a
renunciation which had been ratified at the Treaty of the Pyrenees; and
a similar renunciation barred the claim of the Bavarian candidate. The
claim of the Emperor was more remote in blood, but it was barred by no
renunciation at all. William however was as resolute in the interests of
Europe to repulse the claim of the Emperor as to repulse that of Lewis;
and it was the consciousness that the Austrian succession was inevitable
if the war continued and Spain remained a member of the Grand Alliance,
in arms against France and leagued with the Emperor, which made him
suddenly conclude the Peace of Ryswick.

[Sidenote: The first Partition Treaty.]

Had England and Holland shared William's temper he would have insisted
on the succession of the Electoral Prince to the whole Spanish
dominions. But both were weary of war, and of the financial distress
which war had brought with it. In England the peace of Ryswick was at
once followed by the reduction of the army at the demand of the House of
Commons to ten thousand men; and a clamour had already begun for the
disbanding even of these. It was necessary therefore to bribe the two
rival claimants to a waiver of their claims; and Lewis after some
hesitation yielded to the counsels of his Ministers, and consented to
waive his son's claims for such a bribe. The secret treaty between the
three powers, which was concluded in the summer of 1698, thus became
necessarily a Partition Treaty. The succession of the Electoral Prince
of Bavaria was recognized on condition of the cession by Spain of its
Italian possessions to his two rivals. The Milanese was to pass to the
Emperor; the Two Sicilies, with the border province of Guipuzcoa, to
France. But the arrangement was hardly concluded when the death of the
Bavarian prince in Feb