henceforth judges should hold office, not at the king's pleasure, but during good behavior, and that the royal pardon should not bar an impeachment.

The Spanish Succession. — The Tory party was committed to a peace policy, and it showed no willingness to support the king in renewing the struggle against France, and yet that now seemed necessary if William's work was not to be all undone. In 1700 Charles II of Spain died. Louis XIV had long been intriguing to secure the Spanish inheritance for one of his family. To arrest this danger, Green, William had endeavored to arrange a division of the Span- PP. 701-704 ish possessions among the claimants to the throne, and had concluded two partition treaties with Louis to this intent. By Charles's will, however, Philip of Anjou, grandson of the French king, was declared heir to the whole of the Spanish territories. In defiance of all pledges Louis accepted the inheritance for his grandson. Again France seemed to menace the freedom of Europe, but in face of the Tory opposition William was powerless to interfere.

Just at this moment the French king took a step which united all England against him. In 1701 James II died, Death of and Louis at once acknowledged as king of England the James II, young prince, James Edward, commonly known as the Pre- 1701. tender. A storm of indignation swept over England. Wil- Bright, III, liam used the opportunity to dissolve Parliament, and the 873, 874. elections resulted in a Whig majority. An act was passed requiring all holders of office in Church and State to take an oath abjuring the house of Stuart. War was now certain. In the moment of his triumph William died.

Anne (1702-1714).- Anne Stuart was a good-hearted and rather commonplace woman, passionately loyal to the Church of England and hostile to Dissenters and Papists alike. A revival of the Tory party followed Anne's succession. Her sympathies were with the Tories, and the new ministry, under Lord Godolphin, was drawn almost entirely from the Tory party. During the first part of the reign Green, Marlborough was the real ruler of England, so complete was PP. 705-709

Marl

borough.

Bright, III, 874-877.

Green,

pp. 709-712, 717.

Bright, III, 877-903.

the ascendency which he and his wife had acquired over
the queen.
Circumstances rather than principle deter-
mined Marlborough's politics, and for the time being he
became a Tory.

The War of the Spanish Succession. In the spring of 1702 the war so ardently desired by William III began. France and Spain were pitted against England, Holland, Austria, and the Empire. The coalition was guided by the unrivalled military genius of Marlborough. The war was carried on at sea, as well as on land. There was fighting in all the disputed territory, in Spain, in Italy, in Germany, and in the Spanish Netherlands. The struggle even crossed the Atlantic and involved the French and English colonies of the New World.

During the first two years of war Marlborough was occupied in securing the Dutch against attack by way of the Rhine or the Spanish Netherlands, while in Italy, Prince Eugene, commander of the Austrians, strove to hold back the French. The most important fighting in 1704 was on the Upper Danube. Marlborough and Eugene had joined forces, and together they succeeded in inflicting an overwhelming defeat upon the French at Blenheim. The same year Gibraltar was surprised and captured by an English Ramillies, force. In 1706, Marlborough won the victory of Ramillies, 1706. leaving the French scarcely a foothold in the Spanish Source-Book, Netherlands. At the same time, through the efforts of PP. 339-341. Prince Eugene, they were swept from Italy. During the

Blenheim, 1704.

next two years, with many alternations of success and failure, the allies slowly gained ground. France was almost exhausted. The defeat of Oudenarde and the fall of Lille (1708) forced Louis to sue for peace. He offered to yield every point for which the war had been fought. He agreed to withdraw aid from his grandson, to acknowledge Anne, to expel the Pretender from French territory. But when, in opposition to Marlborough's advice, the allies insisted that Louis should join with them in driving Philip from Spain, the great king drew back. "If I must wage

war," he said, "I would rather wage it against my enemies

than against my children."

Marlborough and the Whigs. - Marlborough's chief in- Green, terest in English politics was to secure support in carrying PP. 715, 716 on the war. At first he had relied upon the Tories, but he was gradually forced to act with the Whigs. The extreme Bright, III, Tories disliked the war and were determined that England 908-915. should restrict her part in it to defensive operations. Moreover, their attempts to maintain the exclusive supremacy of the English Church weakened the government by alienating the Dissenters. In 1703 and 1704 the ministry was remodelled so as to include moderate men of both parties. Among the new Tory ministers was St. John, perhaps the ablest and most unscrupulous politician of the time. The popularity of the war and the divisions among the Tories secured a majority for the Whig party in the elections of 1705, and the election of 1708 strengthened their position. Every change in the ministry was in their interest, and finally, in 1708, an exclusively Whig cabinet under Marlborough and Godolphin was established.

It was with great difficulty that the queen was brought to the point of accepting the Whig ministers. She was no longer under Marlborough's influence and she hated the Whigs as the foes of the Church and of the royal prerogaEvery change in the ministry which tended to increase their ascendency met with her bitter opposition. The Whig ministry of 1708 was therefore a cabinet resting upon a majority in Parliament and imposing its will upon the crown.

Fall of the Whigs. The triumph of the Whigs was of brief duration. After the failure of the peace negotiations Green, of 1709 war was renewed. At Malplaquet (1709) the PP. 717,718 allied forces under Marlborough and Eugene succeeded in again defeating the French, though with tremendous loss of life. But England was growing weary of the war. The rejection of the French terms of peace was unjustly attributed to Marlborough's desire to continue a contest which

Impeachment of Sacheverell, 1710.

Bright, III, 924-928. Green,

pp. 714, 715.

Act of
Security.

gave him power and importance. Since the fate of the Whigs was closely bound up with the war, they began to lose ground. Their ruin was completed by the unwise measures of the ministry against Dr. Sacheverell, who, in a sermon at St. Paul's, upheld the doctrine of non-resistance and attacked toleration and the Dissenters. The Whigs desired an opportunity for formally stating their views on the Revolution principles of resistance and toleration, and Sacheverell was solemnly impeached before the House of Lords (1710). The matter was taken up by the whole country. There was a tremendous outburst of enthusiasm for the Church and the principle of legitimacy. The House of Lords declared Sacheverell guilty, but dared do no more than to prohibit him from preaching for three years and to order his sermons to be burnt.

The result of the trial was regarded as a Tory triumph. Sure of the support of the country, the queen now ventured to act in accordance with her feelings. The Whigs were dismissed from office and a purely Tory ministry under Harley and St. John was formed. The election of 1710 resulted in a strong majority for the Tories, and during the remainder of Anne's reign their ascendency was unshaken.

The Union of England and Scotland. The renewal of the union of Scotland and England as established under the Commonwealth was strongly favored by the government after the Revolution. There were great difficulties in the way, traditional hostility, religious division, commercial jealousy, the national pride of the Scotch. Scotland was held back through fear that the stronger nation would fail to respect her religious and political rights. England was unwilling to grant commercial equality to the poorer kingdom. The discussion of the terms of union aroused great bitterIn 1703 the Scottish Parliament passed the Act of Security, which provided that the successor to the crown of Scotland at the queen's death should not be the same person as the successor to the Crown of England unless full security was given for freedom of religion and trade. The

ness.

The Tories and the Peace of Utrecht

373

English Parliament retorted by increasing the commercial restrictions against Scotland.

The advantages of union to both nations were, however, so great that the Whig ministers finally succeeded in carrying

through an Act of Union (1707). The terms were wise and Act of Union,

liberal. The title of the United Kingdom was to be Great Britain. There was to be one Parliament, and Scotland received full representation in both Houses. Free trade and commercial equality were established. Security was provided for the national Church and the national law of the Scotch. To both countries the union proved an unmixed benefit.

The new Tory Bright, III,

The Tories and the Peace of Utrecht. ministry was bent on bringing the French war to a close. 915-921. It spared no effort to throw discredit upon the upholders of the opposite policy, and in this it had now the support of Jonathan Swift, the greatest political writer of the time. In the Commons the ministerial majority was sure, but in the House of Lords, the Whigs, led by Marlborough, were strong enough to secure a condemnation of the peace policy. To overcome their opposition Harley, Earl of Oxford, induced the queen to create twelve new Tory peers, and thus bring the upper House into harmony with. the Commons. This measure was of great constitutional importance, since it indicated that hereafter when the two Houses disagreed it would be the House of Lords that must give way. The Tory victory over the Lords was followed by an attack upon Marlborough. He was removed from his command and declared guilty of peculation by the House of Commons.

Since their accession to office in 1710, the Tory ministers had been carrying on negotiations with Louis. Finally in