CHAPTER XXIV THE PRE-REVOLUTION ERA After the death of Louis xiv. European affairs assumed a new aspect. With a young child on the French throne and 1. The the nearest prince of the blood on the Spanish Situation. throne, there was clearly danger of a disputed succession in spite of the most formal renunciations on the part of the Spanish king. Hence the regent, whose claims stood first under International treaties, had all his interest engaged in maintaining those treaties; as had also the Hanoverian king on the British throne, and the Whigs who had put him there. Hence for some years to come the French and British governments remained in close alliance, and in antagonism to the Bourbon monarchy in Spain, which had obvious reasons for wishing the treaty settle- ments to be set aside. The King of Spain married an ambitious and energetic wife when his first wife died, and by her supreme influence the Spanish affairs were placed under the control of an energetic and ambitious minister, Alberoni. Alberoni wished to restore the power of Spain, and to recover the Italian kingdoms which were now in the possession of the emperor Charles vi. With astonishing vigour he bent his mind to restoring the Spanish navy, and to intriguing for a great combination against the now united powers of England and France, which should bring about a Stuart restoration and a revision of the Utrecht treaties. His schemes were wrecked partly by the death of Charles xn. of Sweden and partly because, in an engagement brought on without any formal 324
