ABSTRACT
The situation after Ryswick was that no arrangement existed for the disposal of the inheritance among the heir-claimants except the Partition treaty of 1668, rendered obsolete by subsequent events, Louis’s further acquisitions and the Emperor’s new-found military strength. Critics of Louis would hold that he meant the partition treaties to be a blind and that he relied all along on obtaining the whole inheritance by will. On 9 November Louis heard that he had left by will the entire inheritance to his younger grandson Philip of Anjou. Louis was sensitive about any issue in which his personal honour was engaged, meticulous about treaties, strong for the legitimate principle, and respectful towards a sovereign’s right to dispose of his own. Louis’s letters to his grandson, besides conveying in moral precept and practical advice his own conception of how a monarch should conduct himself, offer clues as to his idea of the future relationship between Spain and France.
