treaties were at last signed, on the 31st of March, 1713, by the plenipotentiaries of France, England, Portugal, the United Provinces, Prussia, and Savoy; the emperor and the king of Spain refusing to be included.

It was stipulated that Philip should renounce all title to the crown of France, and the dukes of Berri and Orleans to that of Spain; that in case of the failure of male issue of Philip, the duke of Savoy should succeed to the crown of Spain; that Naples, Milan, and the Spanish territories on the Tuscan coast should be ceded to the house of Austria, and that house secured in the possession of the Spanish Netherlands; that the Rhine should be the boundary between France and Germany, &c. &c. The acquisitions of England were chiefly in America: she was to retain Gibraltar and Minorca, to have the Asiento or contract for supplying the Spanish settlements with negroes for thirty years; and Louis acknowledged the settlement of the English throne. But the real gain was on the side of Louis, who obtained all that the war had been engaged in to prevent his acquiring. This treaty brought well-merited odium on the A. D. English ministry.

1714.

The following year the emperor made peace at Rastadt, on less favourable terms than were offered him at Utrecht. The king of Spain also acceded to the pacification, and Europe rested from war.

In this year died Louis XIV., the disturber of Europe for nearly half a century. His grandson and successor being a minor, the duke of Orleans was appointed regent.

North of Europe Peter the Great Charles XII.

The people of Denmark, to escape the tyranny of the nobles, solemnly surrendered their liberties to Frede1670. ric III., in 1661. His successor, Christian V., made war on Charles XI. of Sweden, whose father, Charles X., had been called to the throne, on the abdication of Christina, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus. Charles XII., a minor, 1697. succeeded his father, Charles XI.

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Alexei of Russia was followed by his son Theodore, who, dying early, appointed his half-brother Peter to 1682. succeed; but his sister Sophia, aided by the Strelitzes, attempted to secure the power for herself. Peter being but ten years of age, she made his imbecile brother Ivan Tsar, and associated Peter with him. At the age of seventeen Peter succeeded in subverting the power of Sophia, and obtained the full royal dignity and influence. He defeated the Turks at Azoph, which opened to him the 1696. Black Sea. He formed vast plans for the improvement of his empire, and he spent a year in Holland and England, making himself acquainted with the useful arts.

Eager to distinguish himself in war, he joined the 1701. kings of Poland and Denmark against the young king of Sweden. Charles, though a youth, showed himself a hero. He made an alliance with Holland and England, danded in Denmark, laid siege to Copenhagen, and forced the king to a peace. The Russians had, meantime, be

sieged Narva with 80,000 men. Charles hasted thither with 10,000, forced their intrenchments, killed 18,000, and took 30,000 prisoners. Next year he defeated the 1702. Poles and Saxons on the Duna, and overran Livonia, Courland, and Lithuania.

Augustus elector of Saxony was king of Poland: his new subjects were dissatisfied with him. Charles formed the design of dethroning him by their means. He defeated him at Clissau, between Warsaw and Cracow, and this last city surrendered. Augustus engaged him again at Pultausk, and was again defeated. He fled to Thorn. 1703. The throne was pronounced vacant by the diet, in which the intrigues of Charles prevailed, and Stanislaus Lec- 1704. zinzky was chosen king.

Peter, having retaken Narva, sent 60,000 men into Poland: a Saxon army entered it under general Schalemburg; but Charles soon drove the Russians out of the country, and his general Renschild defeated Schalemburg 1706. at Frauenstadt with great slaughter. The king of Sweden entered and overran Saxony, and forced Augustus to recognise Stanislaus. Having made the emperor com- 1707.

ply with his demands, Charles returned to Poland, with 40,000 men. He attempted, though it was winter, to march to Moscow; but the Tsar had destroyed the roads. Urged by Mazeppa, chief of the Cossacks, who A. D. offered to join him with 30,000 men, and supply him 1708. with provisions, he entered the Ukraine. Here he en

countered nothing but disappointment. Mazeppa's plans had been discovered; no supplies were provided: general Lewenhaupt, whom he had ordered to join him with 15,000 men from Livonia, arrived with his army reduced to 4000 men. Though urged by his ministers to retreat, or to winter in the Ukraine, he madly resolved to proceed. He laid siege to Pultowa, a strong town. His army was now reduced to less than 30,000 men; the Tzar, at the head of 70,000, approached to its relief. Charles, leaving 7000 to conduct the siege, ad1709. vanced to give him battle. (July 8.) The result of the conflict was, that Charles, with 300 men, sought a refuge with the Turks at Bender. The entire Swedish army were killed or taken. Augustus recovered Poland; and, but for the emperor and the maritime powers, Sweden would have been dismembered.

After an abode of nearly five years in Turkey, Charles returned to his own dominions, and conducted the war against the Danes and Saxons. He was at length killed 1718. before the fortress of Fredericshall, in Norway. His sister Ulrica was crowned queen.

Peter, justly styled the Great, having given his country a rank among European powers, introduced into her civilisation and the arts, and founded a capital in the north of his dominions, took the title of emperor. But he never was able to subdue the native ferocity of his own temper, and he put to death his son Alexis for no 1725. just cause. He left his crown to his wife, the famous Catherine I.

England.

The chief domestic events in Great Britain were the union with Scotland, accomplished in 1706, and the set

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tlement of the crown on Sophia, duchess dowager of 1701. Hanover, and her heirs, being protestants. This princess was daughter of Elizabeth, daughter of James I., who was married to the unfortunate elector palatine.

CHAP. VI.

PERIOD OF COMPARATIVE REPOSE.

England.

On the death of queen Anne, George elector of Ha- 1714. nover was, by virtue of the act of settlement, proclaimed king. The power of the state was now committed to the Whigs, and the late Tory ministers, who had been desirous of securing the succession of the son of James II., now called the Pretender, were impeached of high treason. Louis XIV. had refused to take any share in the projects of the Pretender, but, on his death, the regent of France secretly encouraged him. His partisans 1715. rose in arms in the Highlands of Scotland and the west of England. The English rebels were forced to surrender at Preston; and the battle of Sheriff-Muir, though not decisive, crushed the hopes of the northern rebels. The Pretender himself landed in Scotland, but, finding his affairs desperate, retired.

In this reign was passed the act for making parliaments septennial instead of triennial, which they had previously been. George II. succeeded his father,

The Quadruple Alliance.

1727.

Philip V. had, after the death of his first queen, mar- 1714. ried Elizabeth Farnese, presumptive heiress of Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany. She was a woman of spirit, and governed that weak monarch; she was herself directed by Alberoni, a native of Placentia. This bold statesman formed the project of recovering all the dominions ceded at the peace of Utrecht, especially those

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1718.

in Italy. He laboured to put the finances of Spain on the best footing; he intrigued in every court; he persuaded Philip that his renunciation of the crown of France was invalid, and that he had even a right to the regency of that kingdom. Alberoni encouraged the Scottish Jacobites, and inflamed the French malcontents, and a plot was formed for a rising in Poitou, and a seizure of the person of the regent.

The exorbitant ambition of the court of Spain determined the regent to enter into an alliance with England, Holland, and the emperor, to maintain the treaty of Utrecht. This was called the Quadruple Alliance. One of its articles was, that the duke of Savoy should exchange Sicily with the emperor for Sardinia, of which he was to take the title of king; and by another, Don Carlos, son of the young queen of Spain, was to succeed to Parma, Placentia, and Tuscany, on the death of the present possessors without issue.

This alliance made no change in the conduct of the court of Spain, who had already taken possession of Sardinia and a part of Sicily, and France and England declared war against her. An English fleet, under sir George Byng, entered the Mediterranean, defeated the Spanish fleet near Sicily, and that island and Sardinia were recovered. The duke of Berwick reduced St. Sebastian and Fontarabia, and Philip was obliged to dismiss Alberoni, and accede to the terms of the quadruple 1720. alliance.

1725.

A private treaty was afterwards concluded between the emperor and the king of Spain at Vienna. This treaty gave umbrage to England, France, and Holland; and to counteract it one was concluded at Hanover 1726. between them and Prussia, Denmark, and Sweden. The emperor and the king of Spain remained quiet; but the English fitted out three fleets, one of which, under admiral Hosier, was sent to the West Indies to block up the galleons at Porto Bello; but the attempt was a complete failure. The Spaniards, in return, laid siege to Gibraltar. By the mediation of France a treaty was