sed to her grandson Philip. Louis XIV. immediately
acknowledged his title, when he was proclaimed king, and took quiet
possession of the throne of Spain on the 24th of November, 1700, as
Philip V.

It was by such fraud that the Bourbons of France attained the succession
to the Spanish crown; a fraud as palpable as was ever committed; for
Maria Theresa had renounced all her rights to the throne; this
renunciation had been confirmed by the will of her father Philip IV.,
sanctioned by the Cortes of Spain, and solemnly ratified by her husband,
Louis XIV. Such is "legitimacy--the divine right of kings." All the
great powers of Europe, excepting the emperor, promptly acknowledged the
title of Philip V.

Leopold, enraged beyond measure, dispatched envoys to rouse the empire,
and made the most formidable preparations for war. A force of eighty
thousand men was soon assembled. The war commenced in Italy. Leopold
sent down his German troops through the defiles of the Tyrol, and, in
the valley of the Adige, they encountered the combined armies of France,
Spain and Italy. Prince Eugene, who had already acquired great renown in
the wars against the Turks, though by birth a French noble, had long
been in the Austrian service, and led the Austrian troops. William, of
England, jealous of the encroachments of Louis XIV., and leading with
him the States of Holland, formed an alliance with Austria. This was
pretty equally dividing the military power of Europe, and a war of
course ensued, almost unparalleled in its sanguinary ferocity. The
English nation supported the monarch; the House of Lords, in an address
to the king, declared that "his majesty, his subjects and his allies,
could never be secure till the house of Austria should be restored to
its rights, and the invader of the Spanish monarchy brought to reason."
Forty thousand sailors and forty thousand land troops were promptly
voted for the war.

William died on the 16th of March, in consequence of a fall from his
horse, and was succeeded by Anne, daughter of James II. She was,
however, but nominally the sovereign. The infamously renowned Duke of
Marlborough became the real monarch, and with great skill and energy
prosecuted the eleven years' war which ensued, which is known in history
as the War of the Spanish Succession. For many months the conflict raged
with the usual fluctuations, the Austrian forces being commanded on the
Rhine by the Duke of Marlborough, and in Italy by P