Marshal de Luxembourg
In July 1695, the city of Namur, occupied for three years by the French, was besieged by an allied
army led by William III. Louis XIV ordered the surprise destruction of a Flemish city to divert the
attention of these troops. This led to the bombardment of Brussels, in which more than 4,000
buildings were destroyed, including the entire city centre. The strategy failed, as Namur fell three
weeks later, but harmed Louis XIV's reputation: a century later, Napoleon deemed the
bombardment "as barbarous as it was useless".[85]
Peace was broached by Sweden in 1690. By 1692, both sides evidently wanted peace, and secret
bilateral talks began, but to no avail.[86] Louis tried to break up the alliance against him by dealingwith individual opponents but did not achieve his aim until 1696 when the Savoyards agreed to the
Treaty of Turin and switched sides. Thereafter, members of the League of Augsburg rushed to the
peace table, and negotiations for a general peace began in earnest, culminating in the Peace of
Ryswick of 1697.[87]
The Peace of Ryswick ended the War of the League of Augsburg and disbanded the Grand Alliance. By manipulating their
rivalries and suspicions, Louis divided his enemies and broke their power.
The treaty yielded many benefits for France. Louis secured permanent French sovereignty over all of Alsace, including
Strasbourg, and established the Rhine as the Franco-German border (as it is to this day). Pondichéry and Acadia were returned to
France, and Louis's de facto possession of Saint-Domingue was recognised as lawful. However, he returned Catalonia and most of
the Reunions.
French military superiority might have allowed him to press for more advantageous terms. Thus, his generosity to Spain with
regard to Catalonia has been read as a concession to foster pro-French sentiment and may ultimately have induced King Charles II
to name Louis's grandson Philip, Duke of Anjou, heir to the Spanish throne.[88] In exchange for financial compensation, France
renounced its interests in the Electorate of Cologne and the Palatinate. Lorraine, which had been occupied by the French since
1670, was returned to its rightful Duke Leopold, albeit with a right of way to the French military. William and Mary were
recognised as joint sovereigns of the British Isles, and Louis withdrew support for James II. The Dutch were given the right to
garrison forts in the Spanish Netherlands that acted as a protective barrier against possible French aggression. Though in some
respects the Treaty of Ryswick may appear a diplomatic defeat for Louis since he failed to place client rulers in control of the
Palatinate or the Electorate of Cologne, he did fulfil many of the aims laid down in his 1688 ultimatum.[89] In any case, peace in1697 was desirable to Louis, since France was exhausted from the costs of the war.
By the time of the Peace of Ryswick, the Spanish succession had been a source of concern to European leaders for well over forty
years. King Charles II ruled a vast empire comprising Spain, Naples, Sicily, Milan, the Spanish Netherlands, and numerous
Spanish colonies. He produced no children, however, and consequently had no direct heirs.
The principal claimants to the throne of Spain belonged to the ruling families of France and Austria. The French claim derived
from Louis XIV's mother Anne of Austria (the older sister of Philip IV of Spain) and his wife Maria Theresa (Philip IV's eldest
daughter). Based on the laws of primogeniture, France had the better claim as it originated from the eldest daughters in two
generations. However, their renunciation of succession rights complicated matters. In the case of Maria Theresa, nonetheless, the
renunciation was considered null and void owing to Spain's breach of her marriage contract with Louis. In contrast, no
renunciations tainted the claims of Emperor Leopold I's son Charles, Archduke of Austria, who was a grandson of Philip III's