France under Louis XIV 689 and Nice and to reach the Rhine on the north. Before his death France at least gained Alsace and reached the Pyrenees, "which," as the treaty with Spain says (1659), "formerly divided the Gauls from Spain." Louis XIV first turned his attention to the conquest of the Louis xiv Spanish Netherlands, to which he laid claim through his wife, the Ih^spai^sfT elder sister of the Spanish king, Charles II (i 665-1 700). In Netherlands 1667 he surprised Europe by publishing a little treatise in which he set forth his claims not only to the Spanish Netherlands, but even to the whole Spanish monarchy. By confounding the king- dom of France with the old empire of the Franks he could main- tain that the people of the Netherlands were his subjects. Louis placed himself at the head of the army which he had The invasion re-formed and reorganized, and announced that he was to under- hnds,^667^ take a " journey," as if his invasion was only an expedition into another part of his undisputed realms. He easily took a num- ber of towns on the border of the Netherlands and then turned south and completely conquered Franche-Comte. This was an outlying province of Spain, isolated from her other lands, and a most tempting morsel for the hungry king of France.^ These conquests alarmed Europe, and especially Holland, which could not afford to have the barrier between it and France removed, for Louis XIV would be an uncomfortable neighbor. A Triple Alliance, composed of Holland, England, and Sweden, was accordingly organized to induce France to make peace with Spain. Louis contented himself for the moment with the dozen border towns that he had taken and which Spain ceded to him on condition that he would return Franche-Comte'. The success with which Holland had held her own against Louis xiv the navy of England and brought the proud king of France ^nrTri^il to a halt produced an elation on the part of that tiny country Alliance and which was very aggravating to Louis XIV. He was thoroughly selTwith"" vexed that he should have been blocked by so trifling an i^gianV^ °^ obstacle as Dutch intervention. He consequently conceived a 1 See above, pp. 573 and 649.
