United States or Ghana ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The principal powers of Europe, dreading the consequences of this great empire being added to the power of any one monarch, entered into a secret treaty, which was signed at the Hague in 1698, by which it was agreed that Spain itself should be ceded to the Electoral Prince of Bavaria, with Flanders and the Low countries; Naples, Sicily, Tuscany, and Guipuscoa were to fall to France; and the Duchy of Milan to the archduke, son of the Emperor of Germany.
Blecourt, on the other hand, ran home without asking other information, and at once despatched to the King a courier, who fell ill at Bayonne, and was replaced by one named by Harcourt, then at Bayonne getting ready for the occupation of Guipuscoa.
It has often been maintained that she would have gained more by permanently annexing to herself Guipuscoa, Naples and Sicily than by sending the Duke of Anjou or the Duke of Berry to reign at the Escurial. On this point, however, if on any point, respect is due to the opinion of William.
It is situated on the confines, and may be called the capital of a tract of land called the country of the Maragatos, which occupies about three square leagues, and has for its north-western boundary a mountain called Telleno, the loftiest of a chain of hills which have their origin near the mouth of the river Minho, and are connected with the immense range which constitutes the frontier of the Asturias and Guipuscoa.
Guipuscoa, though a small, was doubtless a valuable province, and was in a military point of view highly important. But Guipuscoa was not in the Netherlands. Guipuscoa would not make Lewis a more formidable neighbour to England or to the United Provinces.
Don Carlos, with a large army, had been at the gates; plunder and massacre had been expected; so that people were too much occupied in forming plans to secure their lives and property, to give much attention to reading of any description. The enemy, however, had now retired to his strongholds in Alava and Guipuscoa.
But in the Netherlands England and Holland were determined to allow him nothing. What he really obtained in Italy was little more than a splendid provision for a cadet of his house. Guipuscoa was then in truth the price in consideration of which France consented that the Electoral Prince of Bavaria should be King of Spain and the Indies.
They had their fears that Lewis might be playing false. They had their fears also that, possessed of Sicily, he would be master of the trade of the Levant; and that, possessed of Guipuscoa, he would be able at any moment to push an army into the heart of Castile.
The contracting powers agreed, that in case the king of Spain should die without issue, the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, with the places depending on the Spanish monarchy, and situated on the coast of Tuscany or the adjacent islands; the marquisate of Final, the province of Guipuscoa, all places on the French side of the Pyrenees, or the other mountains of Navarre, Alva, or Biscay, on the other side of the province of Guipuscoa, with all the ships, vessels, and stores, should devolve upon the dauphin in consideration of his right to the crown of Spain, which, with all its other dependencies, should descend to the electoral prince of Bavaria, under the guardianship of his father; that the duchy of Milan should he settled on the emperor's second son, the archduke Charles; that this treaty should be communicated to the emperor and the elector of Bavaria, by the king of England and the states-general; that if either should refuse to agree to this partition, his proportion should remain in sequestration until the dispute should be accommodated; that in case the electoral prince of Bavaria should die before his father, then the elector and his other heirs should succeed him in those dominions; and should the archduke reject the duchy of Milan, they agreed that it should be sequestered and governed by the prince of Vaudemont.
Blecourt, on the other hand, ran home without asking other information, and at once despatched to the King a courier, who fell ill at Bayonne, and was replaced by one named by Harcourt, then at Bayonne getting ready for the occupation of Guipuscoa.
Word Of The Day