be married, but in a year
from this time, in September, 1666, her nuptials were celebrated with
great splendor at Madrid. The ambitious French monarch, taking advantage
of the minority of the King of Spain, and of the feeble regency, and in
defiance of the solemn renunciation made at his marriage, resolved to
annex the Spanish provinces of the Low Countries to France, and invaded
the kingdom, leading himself an army of thirty thousand men. The Spanish
court immediately appealed to Leopold for assistance. But Leopold was so
embarrassed by troubles in Hungary, and by discontents in the empire
that he could render no efficient aid. England, however, and other
powers of Europe, jealous of the aggrandizement of Louis XIV. combined,
and compelled him to abandon a large portion of the Netherlands, though
he still retained several fortresses. The ambition of Louis XIV. was
inflamed, not checked by this reverse, and all Europe was involved again
in bloody wars. The aggressions of France, and the devastations of
Tarenne in the Palatinate, roused Germany to listen to the appeals of
Leopold, and the empire declared war against France. Months of
desolating war rolled on, decisive of no results, except universal
misery. The fierce conflict continued with unintermitted fury until
1679, when the haughty monarch of France, who was as sagacious in
diplomacy as he was able in war, by bribes and threats succeeded in
detaching one after another from the coalition against him, until
Leopold, deserted by nearly all his allies, was also compelled to accede
to peace.

France, under Louis XIV., was now the dominant power in Europe. Every
court seemed to be agitated by the intrigues of this haughty sovereign,
and one becomes weary of describing the incessant fluctuations of the
warfare. The arrogance of Louis, his unblushing perfidy and his
insulting assumptions of superiority over all other powers, exasperated
the emperor to the highest pitch. But the French monarch, by secret
missions and abounding bribes, kept Hungary in continued commotion, and
excited such jealousy in the different States of the empire, that
Leopold was compelled to submit in silent indignation to wrongs almost
too grievous for human nature to bear.

At length Leopold succeeded in organizing another coalition to resist
the aggressions of Louis XIV. The Prince of Orange, the King of Sweden
and the Elector of Brandenburg were the principal parties united with
the emperor in