La Hogue was not a glorious victory, like Trafalgar, because the odds
were nine to four in favour of the Dutch and British. But it was one
of the great decisive battles of the world, because, from that time on,
the British Isles, though often threatened, were never again in really
serious danger of invasion.
CHAPTER XIV
THE SECOND WAR AGAINST LOUIS XIV
(1702-1713)
King Charles II of Spain, having no children, made a will leaving his
throne to Philip V, a grandson of Louis XIV, whose wife was sister to
Charles. Louis declared that "the Pyrenees had ceased to exist"; by
which boast he meant that he would govern the Spanish Empire through
his grandson, turn the Mediterranean into "a French lake," and work his
will against British sea-power, both mercantile and naval.
The war that followed was mostly fought on land; and the great British
hero of it was the famous Duke of Marlborough, who was a soldier, not a
sailor. But the facts that England, as usual, could not be invaded,
and that her armies, also as usual, fought victoriously on the
continent of Europe, prove how well British sea-power worked: closing
the sea to enemies, opening it for friends, moving armies to the best
bases on the coast, and keeping them supplied with all they needed at
the front--men, munitions, clothing, food, and everything else.
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