War of Spanish Succession: The Grand Alliance

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The Grand Alliance

Those who opposed Louis XIV organized a coalition that came to be called the Grand Alliance. The Alliance consisted primarily of England, the United Provinces (the Netherlands), Austria, and Prussia. While these nations fought together against Louis and Phillip V of Spain, they did so for different reasons. William of Orange brought England into the conflict to restrain Louis XIV and protect the United Provinces. Austria was fighting to remove Phillip from the Spanish throne and replace him with Charles or, failing that, to secure its fair share of the Spanish empire. Prussia fought because Frederick I saw an opportunity to increase his power by loaning his army to the Holy Roman Emperor in return for the title “King of Prussia.”

Military leadership of the Alliance fell to John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough, from England and Prince Eugene of Savoy, an Austrian soldier of fortune. Marlborough was the Captain-General of English forces in the Netherlands and held the military forces of the allies together from 1701 to 1711. He made brilliant use of advanced English weaponry and tactics to decisively defeat the French armies at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), and Malpaquet (1709). Eventually removed from his post when the Tory government came to power in England, Marlborough provided England with the military upper hand that allowed them to negotiate the Treaty of Utrecht.

The Grand Alliance was opposed by France, Spain, and Bavaria. France supported Phillip V because he was a Bourbon and Louis XIV saw it as a golden opportunity to expand his power. Bavaria, which was a predominately Protestant region in the Holy Roman Empire, supported Phillip because they were looking to escape the rule of the Catholic Hapsburgs. Spain, who felt that Philip was the legitimate ruler of their country, supported their new king, although not without a group of dissenters causing domestic problems.

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Need to Know

The War of Spanish Succession was more correctly a war for European dominance. Defend or refute this statement by discussing the newly emerging political idea of “balance of power.”

In the lead up to the War of Spanish Succession, England, France and Austria expressed far greater concern for the balance of power in Europe than for the Spanish throne itself. Since the war was mainly fought outside of Spain, primarily by non-Spanish powers, and the conclusion of the war established a new balance of power across the continent that largely excluded Spain, the war must have been about a greater issue. Clearly, the war was more accurately a struggle for European dominance than it was a battle for Spanish royal succession.