"When
"to no avail I requested that Spain recognize the just pretensions of
the Queen [to the Southern Netherlands] . . . I took up arms to
validate the rights of that princess . . . In my successful campaign
neither the English nor the Emperor opposed my cause . . . I found in
my way only my god, faithful, and longtime friends, the Dutch, who
rather than being interested in my fortune . . . wished to impose their
law upon me and oblige me to make peace, even dared to threaten me in
case I should refuse to accept their mediation . . ." Thus did Louis
describe the intrusion of the United Netherlands in his affairs." (Wolf
213). Before Louis undertook this war he worked hard to neutralize
Germany as best he could so that they would be kept out of the picture.
"Preparation for the war was far more than simply diplomatic. After the
War of Devolution, the army, which had expanded to a paper strength of
134,000 during the war, returned to a peacetime force of about 70,000,
but Louis added 20,000 new men in 1670 and continued to flesh out the
army in 1671 so that it reached a strength of 120,000 in February 1672;
and before he declared war, Louis issued orders to expand the army by a
further 26,000."(Lynn 111).
Soon after war was declared Louis
brought troops into Dutch territory and "In the summer of 1672 the
Dutch stopped the French invasion of their republic by flooding their
polders, and Louis XIV eschewed a settlement when he rejected Dutch
offers at impromptu negotiations held in his camp near Doesburg in
Gelderland." (Ekberg 394). Soon the start of 1673 came and for this
"[...] Louis divided his forces into three main field armies. He led
the first along the Meuse with his brother Philippe as generalissimo.
It numbered 40,000 troops [...] The Great Conde led the second army
around Utrecht to observe the Dutch and maintain the pressure on them.
Turenne commanded a third army to cover the upper Rhine and the
Moselle" (Lynn 119). "By June the French were strongly massed on the
lower Rhine. Louis XIV crossed the river at Tollhuys on the twelfth.
The Dutch defenders were too few, the French put fifteen thousand men
across to guard the opposite bank, and the king stepped along a bridge
of small boats without trouble or danger." (Buranelli 92-93).
Louis
had been campaigning for four months now until he soon noticed that he
had to size down his scope of operations to protect the concrete and
immediate interests of France "Thus, during the last week of September
1673 Louis XIV's plans for martial glory were confronted by a harsh
reality" (Ekberg 395). Spain is now full immersed in the war "and
supported by an extensive alliance, the occupation of the still defiant
united Provinces became an unnecessary diversion of men and resources
away from the real field of battle, the Spanish Netherlands."(Lynn
122). As the army got bigger Louis needed a bigger army but the problem
persisted that "[..] he could not also afford a large navy, so he
demobilized a number of naval units [...] because one was obliged to do
so much on the land, it was decided to disarm at sea." (Lynn 123). "In
the autumn of 1673 Louis suffered his first set-back.
"When
"to no avail I requested that Spain recognize the just pretensions of
the Queen [to the Southern Netherlands] . . . I took up arms to
validate the rights of that princess . . . In my successful campaign
neither the English nor the Emperor opposed my cause . . . I found in
my way only my god, faithful, and longtime friends, the Dutch, who
rather than being interested in my fortune . . . wished to impose their
law upon me and oblige me to make peace, even dared to threaten me in
case I should refuse to accept their mediation . . ." Thus did Louis
describe the intrusion of the United Netherlands in his affairs." (Wolf
213). Before Louis undertook this war he worked hard to neutralize
Germany as best he could so that they would be kept out of the picture.
"Preparation for the war was far more than simply diplomatic. After the
War of Devolution, the army, which had expanded to a paper strength of
134,000 during the war, returned to a peacetime force of about 70,000,
but Louis added 20,000 new men in 1670 and continued to flesh out the
army in 1671 so that it reached a strength of 120,000 in February 1672;
and before he declared war, Louis issued orders to expand the army by a
further 26,000."(Lynn 111).