Happy Confinement, that hath made us Free,
Rich, and Quiet.
_George Savile, Marquis of Halifax_, 1633-95.
PART III
THE FRENCH WAR
CHAPTER XIII
THE FIRST WAR AGAINST LOUIS XIV
(1689-1697)
In Chapter VI we saw how French and English once fought a Hundred Years
War to decide the French possession of all the land of France, and how
the French, having the greater army, won. Now, in these next seven
chapters we shall learn how they fought another Hundred Years War to
decide the command of the sea, and how the English, grown into a
British Empire and having the greater navy, won in their turn. Both
victories proved to be for the best. France and England both gained by
the first war; because the natural way for France to grow was all over
the land that is France now, while the natural way for England to grow
was not on the continent of Europe but in the British Isles. The
British Empire gained more than the French by the second war; but as
France could never have held an oversea Empire without a supreme navy,
and as she could never have a supreme navy while she had two land
frontiers to defend with great armies, she really lost nothing she then
could have kept.
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