No monarch ever went to war more wantonly and unnecessarily than Louis
XIV. Inflated with vanity and self-love, intoxicated with flattery, he
seemed to look upon military glory as the only thing wanting to his
fame and his happiness. But never did monarch receive a much stronger
rebuke from an overruling Providence! He was taught that the prosperity
of nations is not to be trifled with for the gratification of one man’s
pride; and the wars he undertook so rashly and wickedly proved to be
the sources of misery to which his arrogant self-sufficiency would have
led him to believe he could not be subjected.
In 1666, Louis XIV. lost his mother, Anne of Austria; Philip IV.,
her father, had died the preceding year. When Louis married Maria
Theresa, that princess had formally renounced all right of succession
to Spain or the Austrian dominions; but Louis, now heedless of this
renunciation, immediately laid claim to Flanders, to the exclusion of
Charles II., the minor son of Philip IV. The pretence he assigned was,
that the queen’s dowry not having been paid, her renunciation was null
and void, and he invoked a custom of Brabant, by which eldest daughters
inherited in preference to younger sons. He supported these claims by
a numerous army; won over the emperor Leopold, by giving him hopes he
might share the spoils of Charles II., and took the field at the head
of his household. Turenne commanded under him; Vauban, and his minister
Louvois, accompanied him. We have often, when contemplating this siege
of Tournai, wondered what Louis could really think of himself--what
he imagined his position actually was in the scale of humanity. He
proceeded to the infliction of war upon an unoffending people--of war,
the direst evil we know or can fancy,--with all the “pride, pomp,
and circumstance” of a barbarous Eastern despot. Darius, when he met
Alexander, was scarcely surrounded with so much splendour, and perhaps
not so many indulgent comforts, and, what is still more striking,
did not in the eyes of his people so completely violate all that the
civilized world deems moral or worthy of being an example. He was
accompanied by his queen and his then adored mistress, the fascinating
Montespan, with whom he lived in a state of double adultery. His court
was with him in all its splendour; he had his historian to record the
exploits of his generals and his armies, and his poets to sing his
praises and attribute every success to his divine presence. Here was
a beleaguered town, suffering all the horrors of a siege, with almost
the certainty of being taken; there was an army appearing to invade the
rights of another nation in mere wantonness, indulging in voluptuous
vice, and, in contrast with the town, passing its nights in festivity,
song, music, and dancing; vice and cruelty, pleasure and suffering,
throwing each other into the strongest relief.
Louis’ army consisted of thirty-five thousand men. It was on this
occasion that the minister Louvois introduced the improvement of
supporting armies by magazines. Whatever siege the king undertook, to
whichever side he directed his arms, supplies of all kinds were ready,
the lodgings of the troops were provided, and the marches regulated.
The king had only to present himself before the cities of Flanders
to subdue them: he entered Charleroi as he would have entered Paris;
Bergues-Saint-Veux, Ath, Furnes, Armentière, and Coutrai, opened their
gates at the approach of the French battalions. Tournai showed signs of
resistance. It was besieged in form, the artillery brought to bear upon
it, and two days after the trenches had been opened it capitulated. The
citadel was then closely pressed, and that likewise surrendered on the
morrow. The conqueror had both city and citadel fortified; and Mégrigni
made the latter, of which he was governor, one of the best places in
Europe.