The substance of these provisions was:-' That every one who wore the crown should be in communion with the Church of England: That the nation should not, without consent of Parliament, engage in a war to defend any territory not belonging to the English crown: That the sovereign should not, without consent of Parliament, go out of the British Islands: That no foreigner should be permitted to sit in the Privy Council, or in either House of Parliament, or to receive any grant from the crown: That no placeholder or pensioner should be a member of the Commons: That the judges should hold office for life or for good conduct at a fixed rate of salary, and should be removable only by both Houses of Parliament. Thus was the favourable conjuncture afforded by the changes of the Revolution taken advantage of by wise statesmen to fix firmly the key-stone of the Constitution.

William owed his throne, as England owed her bloodless Revolution, to the temper and firmness of the Whigs. It was natural, then, that much of the king's confidence should be given to the leaders of the popular party. Through the whole reign a keen and bitter strife raged. William found pleasure only in his gigantic schemes of war; his close and frigid nature estranged many of those around his throne. The virulence of the political struggle may be viewed most clearly in the persecution to which John, Lord Somers, was subjected by the Opposition. His speech on the bishops' trial has already been mentioned. It was only one of a hundred great forensic triumphs, by means of which he won his way up the ladder of legal promotion, till he sat at last on the woolsack. As one of the movers in the Revolution, he had attracted William's confidence, which he never lost. But a time came when William, for reasons of state, found it necessary to deprive Somers of the Great Seal. The Tories, resolved to hurl him from his eminence, got up an impeachment against him for having affixed the Great Seal of England to blank negotiations for the parti

tion of the Spanish monarchy.* He and Portland were accused of having advised William in the formation of the Two Treaties of Partition (1698-1699), and of having thus made themselves official accomplices in the affair. The motion for impeachment was carried in the Commons, but was set aside. by the Lords. The Commons, in anger, then impeached also the Marquis of Halifax and the Earl of Orford (Admiral Russell); but when the Lords met in Westminster Hall to hear the impeachment, no accusers appeared, and the case collapsed.

After the treaty of Ryswick, the Parliament showed its jealousy of William, not only by reducing the army to seven thousand men, but even more clearly by sending out of the kingdom his Dutch Guards and the corps of Huguenots. To a soldier bent on the accomplishment of a darling scheme this was a severe blow. Nevertheless he nursed the hope of again taking the field, and through all his political troubles he clung to his favourite work of moulding the destinies of Western Europe. The Partition treaties secretly made with Louis for the breaking up of the vast possessions of Spain, whose king was then sick unto death, were part of this scheme. Louis, however, had been tricking the English king all the while; and when Charles of Spain died (Nov. 1, 1700), leaving his dominions to Philip of Anjou, the Grand Monarch flung the Partition parchments to the wind, and in his own superb way abolished the mountain barrier. "My child," said he to his grandson Anjou, "there are no longer any Pyrenees."

Now came William's time. He smelled the battle afar off, rejoicing with the keenest emotions of his proud soul. The Grand Alliance with Austria, Prussia, and Holland, and directed against France, was signed at the Hague, and Europe resounded with the din of gathering armies. Exiled James died at this crisis (Sept. 16, 1701), leaving to his son a shadowy crown, never fated to be real again. Louis, by acknowledging the * Spanish monarchy. See next chapter.

Pretender under the title of James the Third, stung the English spirit into fierce anger. A very skilful use was made of this circumstance in a fine speech, the work of Somers, with which William opened the session of the last Parliament he

saw. An earnest exhortation to unanimity in the face 1701 of so great insult and peril runs like a thread of gold through every part of this noble oration. William, however, was never more to take the field. His quick eye, skilful to catch the salient points or hidden powers in every man he met, had long ago detected Marlborough's military genius; and to Marlborough he left the accomplishment of the great work which had occupied the busiest and happiest hours of his life.

Falling from his horse on Saturday, February 21st, as he was riding to Hampton Court, he broke his right collar-bone. The fall seems also to have injured his lungs, which had long been decaying. The inflammation ensuing from this internal injury, by which a lung was ruptured, probably caused his death, which took place at Kensington on the 8th of 1702 March 1702. He was then aged fifty-two. A little ring, containing Mary's hair, was taken from beside the chilled heart, its black ribbon telling a pathetic tale of love that was stronger than death.

CHAPTER II.

THE GRAND ALLIANCE

Churchill's rise-The Spanish crown-War begins-Fortress work-March to the Danube-Blenheim-Gibraltar-Peterborough in Spain-Montjuich-Ramilies and Barcelona-Almanza-Oudenarde-MalplaquetSurrender of Bouchain-Fall of Marlborough-Treaty of Utrecht.

N spite of the Jacobite hopes that she would resign in

In spite of her brother, the Princess Anne became Queen

of England on the death of her cousin William. The second daughter of fugitive James, and the wife of George, Prince of Denmark, she had now reached the age of thirty-eight. She was a sluggish woman, and was completely under the influence of the Marlboroughs-Earl and Countess. Her one fixed idea was that the security of her throne rested on the Tories, whom she loved and trusted accordingly. William had already recommended Marlborough as the only general in the kingdom competent to carry out his views as to the conduct of the impending war; and Anne's own attachment to "Mr. and Mrs. Freeman"- -so she familiarly styled the pair, to whom she was plain "Mrs. Morley "-seconded William's wish that John Churchill should be the captain of the war.

Churchill came of a Cavalier family. His father was Sir Winston Churchill, a decayed baronet of Ashe in Devonshire, and there the future soldier was born (June 24, 1650). He went to court as a page, because his ugly sister had somehow attracted the fancy of the Duke of York (James the Second);

but that introduction would have availed little, unless his personal qualities had been what they were. His handsome face, his glib and sugared tongue, his ready sword, his undeniable military genius, which displayed itself at Tangier and in the Low Countries, won for him rapid promotion and a great name. Marshal Turenne, of whose school he was the aptest pupil, saw in the young English officer material for a great commander. Marrying the proud and wilful Sarah Jennings, whose beauty was notable in an age of beauties, he became closely attached to the York household, in which Sarah had already been the companion and bosom-friend of the Princess Anne. On the accession of James, the soldier was created Lord Churchill of Sandridge. He opposed Monmouth, since he saw that Monmouth's was a hopeless cause: he deserted to William when he saw that the House of Stuart was falling. For this defection he received the earldom of Marlborough; and, although William never liked the man, he was soldier enough to value so great a master in the art of war. Hence his dying charge to Anne. Calling himself a Tory, Marlborough was associated with cunning but unstable Godolphin, who now bore the Lord High Treasurer's staff. The Earl of Nottingham was Secretary of State.

The cloud of war which was about to break in desolation over Western Europe is known in history as the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis of France, as we have seen, claimed the throne of Spain for his grandson, Philip of Anjou,* with the title of Philip the Fifth. The House of Hapsburg put in a rival claim in the person of the Archduke Charles. The league against France embraced England, Holland, Savoy, Austria, Prussia, and Portugal; while the French king was backed by Spain and Bavaria.

The formal declaration of war took place on the 15th of May 1702, at London, Vienna, and the Hague. Marlborough, made

* See Genealogical Table, page 529.