ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how William III put his anti-French policy into practice. It discusses how William III tried to commit Charles II and his brother James II to an anti-French course. In 1688 the Prince succeeded in involving England in the struggle against France after the flight of James II, who had alienated the English population. During the War of the English Succession the rhetoric of universal monarchy reached its apogee. The chapter shows that he changed his ideas about Louis XIV for a short period after the conclusion of the Treaty of Ryswick that ended the War of the English Succession. It examines the question of responsibility for launching the War of the Spanish Succession. The chapter states that William III never used the words 'balance of power'; for the term did not exist in his time, nor was the Stadholder-King an ideologist or a theorist able to make up such a phrase.
