DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.47347#0054
38
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
anew to continue the war, refused to ratify the formal act
which his envoys had already concluded in his name with
those of the other great powers.
It was not till 1712 that the negotiations were resumed,
first in London and afterwards at Utrecht, for the purpose
of deciding definitively the question of the Spanish succes-
sion. At this time, the 3d of July, 1712, Philip V., having
assembled his ministers at Madrid, declared to them that,
forced till then to keep silence on many points relating to
the war, he conceived that the moment was arrived for
acknowledging that the most advantageous basis of nego-
tiations for peace, and for the maintenance of the integrity
of the monarchy, was his renunciation of all the rights that
he could have to the crown of France. He added, that his
father had warmly recommended to him to give the prefer-
ence to the eventual chance of the French crown, but that
nothing could shake the unalterable gratitude with which
he was filled towards his beloved Spaniards \
A few days after this new basis of the general peace had
been made known, on the Sth of July, 1712, Philip V.
issued a decree, which was promulgated throughout the
whole extent of the monarchy; he therein declared, that
the fear of seeing the crown of France and that of Spain
united on the same head had been the principal cause of
the war; that, to prevent this union, it had been decided at
Utrecht that he, Philip V., and all his descendants, should
renounce, once for all, either the crown of France or the
crown of Spain; so that, if he retained the crown of Spain,
none of his descendants should ever be capable of wearing
the crown of France, and that no French prince should
ever possess the throne of Spain. “ I have never hesitated
a moment,” continued the king; “ my resolution has always
Dumont, Corps diplomatique, t. viii. part. i. p. 304.
HISTORICAL ESSAY ON
anew to continue the war, refused to ratify the formal act
which his envoys had already concluded in his name with
those of the other great powers.
It was not till 1712 that the negotiations were resumed,
first in London and afterwards at Utrecht, for the purpose
of deciding definitively the question of the Spanish succes-
sion. At this time, the 3d of July, 1712, Philip V., having
assembled his ministers at Madrid, declared to them that,
forced till then to keep silence on many points relating to
the war, he conceived that the moment was arrived for
acknowledging that the most advantageous basis of nego-
tiations for peace, and for the maintenance of the integrity
of the monarchy, was his renunciation of all the rights that
he could have to the crown of France. He added, that his
father had warmly recommended to him to give the prefer-
ence to the eventual chance of the French crown, but that
nothing could shake the unalterable gratitude with which
he was filled towards his beloved Spaniards \
A few days after this new basis of the general peace had
been made known, on the Sth of July, 1712, Philip V.
issued a decree, which was promulgated throughout the
whole extent of the monarchy; he therein declared, that
the fear of seeing the crown of France and that of Spain
united on the same head had been the principal cause of
the war; that, to prevent this union, it had been decided at
Utrecht that he, Philip V., and all his descendants, should
renounce, once for all, either the crown of France or the
crown of Spain; so that, if he retained the crown of Spain,
none of his descendants should ever be capable of wearing
the crown of France, and that no French prince should
ever possess the throne of Spain. “ I have never hesitated
a moment,” continued the king; “ my resolution has always
Dumont, Corps diplomatique, t. viii. part. i. p. 304.