Duke of Vendôme, after a severe battle at Brihuega, December 9, 1710. The Duke of Vendôme defeated Stahremberg at Villaviciosa, after a bloody battle of two days, December 11, 1710. These two great victories secured Philip V. on the throne of Spain, and the Archduke Charles of Austria was driven from that country.

A change of opinion with regard to the war had taken place in England, which resulted in the expulsion of the Whigs from office and the accession to power of the Tories, who opposed the war.

The English

people had by this time become weary of a struggle in which they bore the chief burdens and reaped few advantages. Queen Anne, a woman of feeble mind, had long been under the influence of the Duchess of Marlborough, who did not always use her power with discretion, but behaved toward the queen in a haughty and insolent man

ner.

A new favorite, Mrs. Masham, now supplanted the Duchess of Marlborough in the queen's favor, and was influenced by Secretary Harley and Mr. St. John to induce Her Majesty to make a complete change in the administration. This would not have been possible had the Whigs continued to enjoy the confidence of the English people, but many circumstances contributed to diminish their popularity.

The burden of taxation which the expenses of the war occasioned began to excite general dissatisfaction when frequent but useless victories ceased to excite joy, especially as the allies contrived that "England should fight for all and pay for all." The English people regarded the rejection of the French king's peace proposals, through the influence of the avaricious Duke of Marlborough and the vindictive Prince Eugene, as the triumph of private interest and private ambition over public policy. The Duke of Marlborough had incurred the hatred of the people by his avarice, having greatly enriched himself by his share in army contracts.

In the midst of the general discontent of the English nation with the rule of the

Whigs, the Tories raised the cry that the Church was in danger, because of the favor which the Whig party showed to the Dissenters, or Noncomformists. Instead of allowing this imputation to refute itself, the Whigs unwisely endeavored to silence the clamor by force. Dr. Henry Sacheverell preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor of London in St. Paul's Cathedral severely censuring the Dissenters and advocating the exploded doctrines of absolute passive obedience and non-resistance.

Though Sacheverell's sermon was a poor and contemptible production, the violence of party spirit caused it to be printed and forty thousand copies of it to be sold in one week. It would have probably been forgotten in another week had not Lord Godolphin, who was personally assailed in the House of Commons, persuaded his partisans to subject the preacher to a Parliamentary impeachment. The common sense of the English nation revolted from such an absurd proceeding. The generous feeling

of the nation was enlisted on the side of Dr. Sacheverell, and this sympathy was soon transferred to his cause. During his trial the populace manifested the most lively zeal in his behalf; and when he was convicted, the House of Lords, dreading popular tumults, passed a sentence so lenient that the Tories hailed it as a triumph for their party. The persecution of Sacheverell led to the expulsion of the Whig party from power. Aware of their unpopularity, Queen Anne dismissed all her Ministers except the Duke of Marlborough, and formed a Tory Cabinet in which Messrs. Harley and St. John were the leading members. Mr Harley was soon created Earl of Oxford, and Mr. St. John became Viscount Bolingbroke. Parliament was dissolved, and the elections returned a Parliament with an overwhelming Tory majority, A. D. 1711. The new Tory Ministry, however, for the time adhered to the war policy of their Whig predecessors; and the new Tory House of Commons voted adequate supplies for the prosecution of the

war.

Early in 1711 an event occurred which

changed the views and situation of all parties. This was the death of the Emperor Joseph I. of Germany, and the accession of his brother, the Archduke Charles, the competitor of Philip of Anjou, to the thrones of Austria and the German Empire, with the title of CHARLES VI. The union of the crowns of Spain and Germany, in the person of a prince of the House of Hapsburg, was as alarming to the other powers of Europe as the union of the crowns of Spain and France, under a prince of the House of Bourbon.

The Duke of Marlborough fought his last campaign in 1711, during which he stormed and carried the intrenched camp of Marshal Villars at Arleux and captured the strongly fortified town of Bouchain; but while he was winning these successes on the frontier of France and the Spanish Netherlands the malice of his Tory enemies in England was too strong for him; and, being charged with avarice and corruption in enriching himself in army contracts, he was condemned by a vote of the House of Commons and deprived of his command and all his civil offices, and was succeeded in his command by the Duke of Ormond, who had secret orders not to fight. The Duke of Marlborough at once left England, being then sixty-one years of age.

Such was the treatment accorded by his own countrymen to the general who, in an unbroken career of good fortune, took every fortress which he besieged and won every battle which he fought. He was one of the greatest statesmen, and unquestionably the ablest general, that England ever produced. He was remarkably handsome, and was gifted with a serenity which few things could ruffle. He possessed unshaken courage, an ardent and venturesome nature, which was held in check by a cool, clear judgment, which was never influenced by personal feelings. He had an extraordinary capacity for enduring fatigue, and he sometimes passed fifteen hours on horseback. His manners were perfect, and a striking trait of his character was his courtesy to every one.

The great duke was passionately fond of his wife, and his love for her was the only strong feeling of his otherwise purely intellectual nature. He was absolutely without feeling in everything else, hating no one, loving none, and regretting nothing. The passions which swayed others, whether noble or ignoble, were simply regarded by him as elements in an intellectual problem that required patience for its solution. He was insensible to the finer feelings of human nature; and, although he was a man of real greatness, he loved money simply for money's sake, and stained his great fame by his avarice and peculation.

In the disgrace of the Duke of Marlborough-whom political circumstances had gradually drawn from the Tory party until he had become the most influential leader of the Whig party-the chief supporter of the war policy lost his influence in public. affairs in England; and before the close of the campaign of 1711 the new Tory Ministry of England was secretly negotiating with France for peace, and a preliminary treaty was signed between England and France at London in October, 1711.

As early as January, 1712, conferences for peace were opened at Utrecht, in Holland, through the influence of England under her Tory Ministers, who, after many disgraceful intrigues, sacrificed the interests of their country to party purposes. Eighty plenipotentiaries of the allied powers met three envoys on the part of the King of France. Owing to the opposition of the Dutch and German imperial ambassadors, negotiations progressed very slowly.

The interests of France in the peace congress at Utrecht were materially improved by the brilliant successes of Marshal Villars, who, in the campaign of 1712, totally outgeneraled Prince Eugene, defeated and captured an allied force under the English Duke of Albemarle at Denain, July 24, 1712, and recovered Douay, Le Quesnoy and Bouchain in quick succession, thus wresting from the allies all their acquisitions in the North of France.

In the meantime Louis XIV. met with

many sad domestic afflictions. His only legitimate son, the Dauphin, died in April, 1711; leaving three sons-the Duke of Burgundy, King Philip V. of Spain, and the Duke of Berry. The young Duke of Burgundy succeeded his father as heir to the crown of France. His wife, Adelaide of Savoy, who was greatly beloved by Louis XIV. and his court, died of a malignant fever in February, 1712; and her husband died of the same disease six days later. Their eldest child, the youthful Duke of Brittany, then became heir to the French throne, but also died three weeks later. His brother, the little Duke of Anjou, the next heir to the French crown, was a weak and sickly child; and in case of his death King Philip V. of Spain would have become heir to the throne of France.

This threatened union of the crowns of France and Spain alarmed the allied powers, and the Tory Ministers of England were obliged to threaten that they would renew the war unless Philip V. of Spain renounced his claim to the French crown, A. D. 1712. France and Spain conceded this point, thus facilitating the conclusion of a definitive treaty of peace between France and England, to the great disgust of the Dutch and the German Emperor. Finally, April 11, 1713, the Peace of Utrecht was signed by the plenipotentiaries of France, England, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Prussia and Savoy.

By the Peace of Utrecht, England and the other allied powers recognized Philip V. as King of Spain on condition that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united; while Louis XIV. acknowledged Queen Anne as the rightful sovereign of England and the Elector George of Hanover as her rightful heir and successor. England received the fortress of Gibraltar and the island of Minorca from Spain, and Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and the Hudson's Bay Territory from France. The Dutch were allowed to garrison a line of frontier fortresses in the Spanish Netherlands, as a barrier against France. France recovered Lille and agreed to dismantle the fortifications of Dunkirk. Philip V. of Spain agreed

to cede Milan, Naples, the island of Sardinia and the Spanish Netherlands to the Austrian Hapsburgs; and he also ceded the island of Sicily to Duke Victor Amadeus II. of Savoy with the title of king. The Duke of Savoy recovered his lost territories, which were divided from the dominions of France by the water-shed of the Alps. The new Kingdom of Prussia was recognized; and Louis XIV. ceded to its king, as representative of the House of Orange, the principality of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland; while King Frederick I. of Prussia relinquished his claims to the principality of Orange.

The Emperor Charles VI. of Germany refused to accede to the treaty of Utrecht, so that hostilities continued between France and the German Empire. In the campaign which followed, the French under Marshal Villars achieved brilliant successes in the Palatinate, defeating the German imperial forces, and capturing Spires, Worms, Landau and Freiburg. These reverses of the imperial arms induced the Emperor Charles VI. to consent to peace, and a series of peace conferences were held by Marshal Villars and Prince Eugene. When the two great generals met in friendly conference for the first time on this occasion, Prince Eugene said to Marshal Villars: "We are not enemies. Your enemies are at Versailles, and mine are at Vienna.”

Accordingly the Peace of Rastadt was concluded between France and Austria, March 7, 1714. By this treaty the Austrian Hapsburgs received the Spanish Netherlands, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, and the island of Sardinia—all of which were thus separated from the dominion of the King of Spain; while the Emperor Charles VI. recognized Philip V. as King of Spain. By this treaty the Emperor also allowed the exiled Electors of Bavaria and Cologne to return to their dominions; and Louis XIV. recognized the new Kingdom of Prussia by acknowledging the royal title of FREDERICK WILLIAM I., who became King of Prussia upon the death of his father Frederick I., in 1713. The Peace of Baden, between France and the German