In the main, then, the story of the latter half of the seventeenth century is the story of the shifting of the great power in the world from Spain to France. The story of the early years of the eighteenth century is in the main the story of the opposition of the other nations to the carrying out of the provisions of the will of the King of Spain by which he bequeathed all that was Spain's to the grandson of the French king. Had those provisions been faithfully executed they would have thrown so great power and wealth into the hands of the ruler of France that no other nation could have lived at ease under so vast a menace. Already France had submitted to some check in agreeing to the provisions of the Peace of Ryswick. But she was arrogant and aggressive still. {109} CHAPTER VII THE HUMBLING OF FRANCE We may probably say that no other man has made so great a difference to the history of the world, by his last will and testament, as did the King of Spain by that will which left all his monarchy to the grandson of him who already was so great as to be called the Grand Monarque. He willed away his vast territories, as it had been a five-acre field, and his subjects, of many nationalities, as they had been the sheep or cattle thereon. And the Grand Monarque, by accepting the gift on behalf of his infant grandson, united his enemies so that they forgot their own mutual quarrels and formed a great alliance against him. But he was very strong. He had a huge army, he had great wealth, and he had the advantage of being at the centre of the theatre of conflict, while his foes were on the circumference. The most formidable in the alliance against him were the English and the Dutch. William III., husband of Mary, daughter of James II., was on the English throne. As Protestants and Stuarts, Mary and her sister Anne, who succeeded in 1702, in some degree conciliated both parties in England. William III., besides being married to England's queen, was himself of the English Royal line, being a grandson of Charles I. An Act of Settlement, as it was called, {110} had been passed by the English Parliament which should exclude, after Anne's death, a son born to James II. by a second marriage. This son, a Catholic, thus excluded, received welcome at the French Court and became the centre of Jacobite intrigues for the Crown of England. It was his recognition as King of England by Louis XIV. which determined William III. to support with all his forces what came to be known as the Grand Alliance against France. William, however, died suddenly as the result of an accident before the war really began.