17 October 1707
From the Letters of Madame de Maintenon and the Princesse des Ursins
On this day, the Princesse des Ursins writes from Madrid to Mme de Maintenon at Fontainebleau. Among other matters, she has news of the Duc d’Orléans’ military exploits in Valencia as part of the current campaign of the ongoing War of the Spanish Succession:
“M le duc d’Orléans, Madame, begins to be fortunate: he has just taken the city of Lérida, and hopes to do as much for the castle. There are only a few men killed or wounded. He writes to the King of Spain that he does not expect that any help will arrive for the enemy. His Royal Highness writes that after taking the castle he will attempt to take Tortosa, and that then he will be very glad to come and pay his court to Their Catholic Majesties in Madrid. One will be no less glad, for all sorts of reasons, that he should make such a glorious return. There is every appearance that the Archduke, pressed by M de Noailles and abandoned by his allies, will find himself forced to abandon Catalonia. If that happened, Madame, why should one not send some troops, having no need of them in Spain, to Naples, where they are very unhappy under German domination. It seems to me that that kingdom is not to be neglected, a thing that is supposedly not very difficult. With Sicily belonging to us, we would have what is needed for an honourable peace of long duration.”
Commentary:
The Princess des Ursins, the French widow of a Roman prince (des Ursins = Orsini), is the chief lady-in-waiting of the Queen of Spain. She is also Louis XIV’s agent. Since she has the Queen’s ear and the Queen has the King’s, she is the power behind the throne. As Mme de Maintenon similarly has the Sun King’s ear, the correspondence between these 2 ladies is the most important back channel between the French and Spanish courts.
Alas, Mme des Ursins’ hopes for an early end to the war are premature. It will drag on for years yet, not least because the Archduke, namely the Archduke Charles of Austria, or Charles III to his supporters in Spain, is firmly entrenched in Catalonia. He will remain in control of it until nearly the end.
Pictured: Charles of Austria (1685-1740), Archduke of Austria by birth, King of Spain in pretence, later Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VI, in his youth.
For those just joining us, it should be explained that in 1707 we are only at the half-way point of the War of the Spanish Succession. It began in 1702 (officially, that is; some fighting had already taken place in Italy by the end of 1701) and will drag on until 1713. When Charles II of Spain died heirless in late 1700, he willed his crown to Louis XIV’s second-eldest grandson, then Duc d’Anjou; the will stated that if Anjou refused the crown, it should be offered to the Archduke Charles, the second son of the Emperor Leopold. Why should the Spanish crown be offered to these second sons? To prevent the Spanish crown from uniting with the French or Austrian ones. The Duc d’Anjou, or rather Louis XIV on his behalf, accepted the offer and Anjou became Philip V. A year later, the Austrians decided to press the claim of their candidate and the war got underway.
The late Charles II, the last of the Habsburgs of Spain, was also King of Naples and Sicily, not to mention Duke of Milan, Duke of Brabant, Count of Flanders, etc. In other words, the stakes are bigger than the already considerable prize of Spain and its colonial empire, hence Mme des Ursins’ desire to send troops to Naples, which the Austrians are in control of at this date.
As for the Duc d’Orléans, he is Louis XIV’s nephew. His mother is our letter writer, Madame, née Princess Palatine, now Dowager Duchess of Orléans. He is acquitting himself well in Spain.
The translation from the French is my own. Words in italics or bold italics are in the glossary. If you have questions that I have not addressed in the commentary or in the glossary, please ask in the comments.
I like your neat exposition of the (seemingly endless…) War of the Spanish Succession. It is fascinating in its convolutions.