6 Jan 03

The Age of Kings winds down: The War of Spanish Succession, 1701-1713

Louis XIV claims the longest reign of any sovereign in Western Europe, befor e or since. He was King of France for sixty-two years, from 1653 to1715. Lik e most kings of the time, Louis was conceited and vane, but he was a skilled and durable monarch. So skilled, in fact, was Louis at psychologically outmaneuvering his opponents, that Latin (which had been the official language of European diplomacy since Roman times) was gradually replaced wit h French.

In no small measure due to the arrival of gunpowder, Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Europe's national armies were becoming "professional," unlike the loosely organized rabble of previous centuries. Armies could no longer "live off the land." They had to be expensively equipped, trained an d drilled, and, most importantly, continuously supplied. Suddenly, strategically located supply bases (called "magazines") and protected supply lines became critical to the success of any military operation. On the offensive side of the equation, cutting the enemy's supply lines and assaulting his fortified magazines became military imperatives. Accordingly , siege tactics underwent a great deal of refinement. French military genius, Sieur de Vauban, became renowned for his innovative siege tactics. Vauban's influence on both siege tactics and the design of fortifications spanned the centuries, right into modern times, and can be seen at Dien Bien Phu and eve n at Khe Sahn.

Delusions of grandeur and of catastrophe were common among sovereigns of the period. Kings looked upon warfare as a chess game. Through invasions, open battles, sieges, and peace conferences, they would casually dabble in military adventurism as a way of demonstrating their intellectual superiorit y or the fact that they personally were favored by God (mostly the latter). I n fact, when military fortunes went badly, kings were often convinced that God was punishing them personally for some latent character flaw. Organized religion was also a factor. England and Holland were mostly Protestant. France and Spain were Catholic. In the minds of kings, the issue of which was the "right" religion had to be settled by force. As a result, untold suffering was endured by religious minorities in all four countries, particularly in contested regions.

During Louis' reign, principle players in Europe included England, France, Holland, Spain, Austria, and Sweden. At the end of his reign, only France and England would remain, and their mutual animosity would spill over into the New World. Germany and Austria, despite the best efforts of the Habsburgs, would remain fragmented until the Nineteenth Century (Louis' recurring nightmare of a united Germany would have to wait another two hundred years). As their adeptness at allying with each other and with majo r players declined, the fortunes of Holland, Spain, and Sweden languished. None would ever occupy center stage again.

In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, when an elderly king was in poo r health, and the forthcoming vacant throne was hotly contested among various claimants, all insisting that they were the legitimate successor, armed conflict was likely before the matter was settled. Called "dynastic wars" o r "wars of succession," these conflicts garnered the interest of neighbors who often had a self-serving interest in the outcome. Further complicating the matter was the fact that all of Europe's royal families were interrelated. Every sitting king had uncles, brothers, and cousins in the courts of other nations. Most were married to princesses from other royal families. Political intrigue and posturing went with the territory.

Spain (by 1700 little more than the bankrupt shell of a once-great empire) under tottering King Carlos II was thus of great interest to France, England , and Austria. Carlos had no sons. The son of Louis XIV of France and Archduke Charles of Austria were both active contenders for the Spanish throne. The prospect of a Spanish/French alliance alarmed the English, but they were equally unenthusiastic about the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Hapsburg family reuniting. In his last will, Carlos, in an attempt to placate his neighbors, decided to name one of Louis' grandsons (the teenage Duke of Anjou), as the next king of Spain (the Duke of Anjou did, in fact, become the next Spanish king, King Philip V). Carlos reasoned that The Duke of Anjou, not being in line for the French throne anyway, would be an acceptable choice to all his neighbors. He was wrong! The English and Dutch were aghast. Austria, with their native son snubbed, declared war!

During what would be know to history as the "War Of Spanish Succession," Joh n Churchill (The Duke of Marlborough) and Prince Eugene of Savoy made a formidable team. After a string of impressive victories against Louis, they combined once more in their siege of the French fortified magazine at Malplaquet in late summer of 1709. Seeing this as an opportunity for a decisive, war-ending victory, Marlborough and Eugene held nothing back, and the English/Dutch alliance won the day, but at great cost. In fact, Wednesday, 11 Sept 1709 would go down in history as the bloodiest day of fighting in Europe since the invention of gunpowder. Ten thousand French casualties. Three times that many allied troops. Allied losses were so great that Marlborough's plans to subsequently march on to Paris had to be scrapped. The French commander, Villars, wrote to Louis, "If it pleases God to give your enemies another such 'victory,' they will be ruined." After receiving the news from Malplaquet, Louis said (in a typical display of personal vanity), "I am infinitely miserable."

After Malplaquet, Marlborough lost his nerve and avoided all contact with th e French. A change in the mood of fickle Queen Anne in England simultaneously landed him on the wrong side of the political fence. He was eventually relieved of command. In fact, following Malplaquet the English/Dutch alliance disintegrated, after which Holland slipped into permanent irrelevance. With George I replacing Queen Ann in 1714, Marlborough's stock was restored, and he was given command of the army once more, but he never dabbled in politics again.

The war officially ended with the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. In the American colonies, however, hostilities between French traders in Canada (along with their Indian allies in America) and English colonists, also in America, continued. Called "Queen Anne's War," Anglo/French and Anglo/Indian bitterness it created continued to smolder until it erupted anew during the French and Indian War forty years later.

Louis XIV died at the age of seventy-seven in 1715. France would see only two more kings, and the French Revolution would then sweep the last from the throne forever. When the revolution burnt itself out and Napoleon came to power, he never called himself a king.

On his deathbed, Louis gave this advice to great grandson (in line for the throne), "Try to remain at peace with your neighbors. I have loved war too much."

Lessons: Entertaining the thought that God is directly intervening in your life by bringing you good fortune or bad is delusional. Delusional thinking is flirting with mental illness and must always be quickly dismissed. This world operates on a cause-and-effect system, and orienting one's thinking logically in that direction is a prerequisite for any kind of success.

During his life, everyone will experience good fortune and bad. With God, i t is nothing personal! Persistence and the determination to fight through it all is the best personal philosophy. Even then, there are no guarantees!

As Abraham Lincoln put it: "If I were to attempt to acknowledge, much less respond to, every denouncement of me, this shop might as well be closed to all other business. I do the best I know how, the best I can. If I am incompetent, I deserve to be fired. Until then, I intend to keep going forward until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what has been said against me will be quickly forgotten and amount to nothing. If the end brings me out wrong, I will be profoundly rebuked throughout history, and te n angels swearing I was right will make no difference" /John

6 Jan 03

I just had a conversation with a friend on active duty who just returned from the Mideast. He is a competent gunman and one of my students.

My worst fears were confirmed. Gun handling skills and philosophy haven't improved one bit since I was in Vietnam thirty-five years ago! Soldiers and Marines are still afraid of carrying loaded guns, even in areas of active fighting. They doubt their own ability, and they think they need permission to have their guns is a state of readiness commensurate with the circumstances. They are afraid to make any gun-related decisions for themselves.

Commanders still think empty guns are safer than loaded ones. So, they want everyone to unload their rifles and pistols before coming into certain areas (what are they afraid of?). "Clearing barrels" are provided for this purpose. Not only does this pointless practice waste valuable time, it seems that there have been so many ADs during the procedure that personnel have now been threatened with prosecution if the ADs continue. The "solution" is to lynch people for not exercising the training they've never had!

Commanders obviously know that the small-arms training troopers have received is so poor and irrelevant that they can't be trusted with guns. It is the same reason Nation Guard Troopers patrolled airports with empty guns.

I had been told the situation had improved since Vietnam. In reality, it is worse. We don't have professional gunmen. We have scared kids who haven't been trained and scared commanders who are afraid of their own men.

/John