one time belonged to Spain, but
the northern part, or Holland, had succeeded in establishing its
independence, and was protected on the southern frontier by a line of
fortified towns.

Not long afterwards, the King of Spain died and bequeathed the crown
to Philip of Anjou. When Philip left Paris for Madrid, Louis XIV
exultingly exclaimed, "The Pyrenees no longer exist." That was simply
his short way of saying, Now France and Spain are made one, and
FRANCE is that one.[2]

[2] When Philip of Anjou went to Spain, Louis XIV, by letters patent,
conditionally reserved the succession to the Spanish throne to France,
thus virtually uniting the two countries, so that the Pyrenees
Mountains would no longer have any political meaning as a boundary
between the two countries.

Louis at once put French garrisons in the border towns of the Spanish
Netherlands, and he thus had a force ready at any moment to march
across the frontier into Holland. Finally, on the death of the royal
refugee, James II (S9491), which occurred shortly before King
William's death, Louis XIV publicly acknowledged the exiled monarch's
son, James Edward, the so-called "Old Pretender" (SS490, 491), as
rightful sovereign of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

This effectually roused the English people; they were prepared for
hostilities when William's sudden death occurred (S504). Immediately
after Anne came to the throne (1702) war with France was declared, and
since it had grown out of Louis's designs on the crown of Spain, it
was called the "War of the Spanish Succession."

The contest was begun by England, mainly to prevent the French King
from carrying out his threat of placing the so-called "Pretender," son
of the late James II, on the English throne and so overturning the
Bill of Rights (S497) and the Act of Settlement (S497), and thereby
restoring the country to the Roman Catholic Stuarts. Later, the war
came to have two other important objects. The first of these was to
defend Holland, now a most valuable ally; the second was to protect
the colonies of Virginia and New England against the power of France,
which threatened, through its own American colonies and through the
extensive Spanish possessions it expected to acquire, to get control
of the whole of the New World.[1]

[1] At this time England had twelve American colonies extending from
New England to South Carolina, inclusive, with part of Newfoundland.
France and Spain claimed all the