ABSTRACT
In 1661 Louis XIV of France began his personal rule at the death of his first minister, Cardinal Mazarin. The French King was to make all the running in European politics for the next half century: his army was the largest and best and his diplomatic service the most sophisticated. The weakness of the Emperor, the decline of Spain, and Dutch attempts to withdraw from continental commitments allowed Bourbon France to advance to a position almost of hege mony. Louis was above all determined to decide the future of the Spanish monarchy and the German Empire, and he soon embarked on enlarging Mazarin’s territorial conquests and network of client states, especially the League of the Rhine.2 This presented the Ger man princes with a choice between the seemingly irresistible French and the far weaker Emperor, who was also having to deal with grow ing, and eventually persistent, rebellion in Hungary and the threat of further advance by the Turks in the Balkans.
