English Parliament met, and denounced any treaty which
promised France the dominion of the Mediterranean. Holland began to
arm, and the Emperor of Austria pushed his troops into northern Italy,
where a campaign followed, greatly to the disadvantage of Louis.

In September of the same year, 1701, the two sea powers and the
Emperor of Austria signed a secret treaty, which laid down the chief
lines of the coming war, with the exception of that waged in the
Spanish peninsula itself. By it the allies undertook to conquer the
Spanish Netherlands in order to place a barrier between France and the
United Provinces; to conquer Milan as a security for the emperor's
other provinces; and to conquer Naples and Sicily for the same
security, and also for the security of the navigation and commerce of
the subjects of his Britannic Majesty and of the United Provinces. The
sea powers should have the right to conquer, for the utility of the
said navigation and commerce, the countries and towns of the Spanish
Indies; and all that they should be able to take there should be for
them and remain theirs. The war begun, none of the allies could treat
without the others, nor without having taken just measures--first, to
prevent the kingdoms of France and Spain from ever being united under
the same king; second, to prevent the French from ever making
themselves masters of the Spanish Indies, or from sending ships
thither to engage, directly or indirectly, in commerce; third, to
secure to the subjects of his Britannic Majesty and of the United
Provinces the commercial privileges which they enjoyed in all the
Spanish States under the late king.

It will be noticed that in these conditions there is no suggestion of
any intention to resist the accession of the Bourbon king, who was
called to the throne by the Spanish government and at first
acknowledged by England and Holland; but, on the other hand, the
Emperor of Austria does not withdraw the Austrian claim, which centred
in his own person. The voice of the sea powers was paramount in the
coalition, as the terms of the treaty safeguarding their commercial
interests show, though, as they were about to use German armies for
the land war, German claims also had to be considered. As a French
historian points out:--

"This was really a new treaty of partition.... William III., who
had conducted all, had taken care not to exhaust England and
Holland, in order to restore the Spanish monarch