The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen ended the War of Devolution between France and Spain. It was signed on 2 May 1668 in Aachen (French : Aix-la-Chapelle). Spain acceded on 7 May 1669.
The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle or Aachen ended the War of Devolution between France and Spain. It was signed on 2 May 1668 in Aachen (French : Aix-la-Chapelle). Spain acceded on 7 May 1669.
The treaty was mediated and guaranteed by the Triple Alliance of the Dutch Republic, England and Sweden at the First Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle. By the terms of the treaty, Louis XIV returned three cities, Cambrai (Kamerijk), Aire (Ariën aan de Leie), and Saint-Omer (Sint-Omaars) to Spain. [1] He also returned the province of Franche-Comté. [1] On the other hand, he kept Armentières (Armentiers), Bergues (Sint-Winoksbergen), Charleroi, Courtrai (Kortrijk), Douai (Dowaai), Furnes (Veurne), Lille (Rijsel), Oudenarde (Oudenaarde, Audenarde), and Tournai (Doornik). [1] Lille, Armentières, Bergues and Douai were considered essential to reinforce France's vulnerable northern border and remain French to this day, while the retention of Tournai, Oudenarde, Courtrai, Veurne, Binche, Charleroi and Ath were deemed necessary to facilitate future offensives in the Spanish Netherlands and the Dutch Republic.
The treaty left to France all its conquests in Flanders in 1667. This was a vague provision; after the Peace of Nijmegen (1679), Louis XIV took advantage of it to occupy a number of villages and towns he adjudged to be dependencies of the cities and territories acquired in 1668. [2]
Douai is a city in the Nord département in northern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department. Located on the river Scarpe some 40 kilometres from Lille and 25 km (16 mi) from Arras, Douai is home to one of the region's most impressive belfries.
Tournai or Tournay is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Province of Hainaut, Belgium. It lies 89 km (55 mi) by road southwest of the centre of Brussels on the river Scheldt, and is part of Eurometropolis Lille–Kortrijk–Tournai, In 2022, the municipality of Tournai had an estimated population of 68,518 people.
There were three Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle. Although "Aix-la-Chapelle", the French name of the German city of Aachen, is an exonym now rarely used in English, the name Treaty of Aachen is rarely used.
In the 1667 to 1668 War of Devolution, France occupied large parts of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté, both then provinces of the Holy Roman Empire under the sovereignty of the King of Spain. The name derives from an obscure law known as the Jus Devolutionis, used by Louis XIV of France to claim that these territories had "devolved" to him by right of marriage to Maria Theresa of Spain.
The Triple Alliance was signed by the Kingdom of England, the Swedish Empire and the Dutch Republic in May 1668. It was created in response to the occupation of the Spanish Netherlands and Franche-Comté by France. Although Spain and Emperor Leopold were not signatories, they were closely involved in the negotiations.
The Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, held in the autumn of 1818, was a high-level diplomatic meeting of France and the four allied powers Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia, which had defeated it in 1814. The purpose was to decide the withdrawal of the army of occupation from France and renegotiate the reparations it owed. It produced an amicable settlement, whereby France refinanced its reparations debt; the Allies in a few weeks withdrew all of their troops.
The Congress of Aachen was assembled on 24 April 1748 in the Imperial Free City of Aachen, in the west of the Holy Roman Empire, to conclude the struggle known as the War of Austrian Succession. Between 30 April and 21 May the preliminaries were agreed to between Great Britain, France, the Dutch Republic, and Maria Theresa, queen of Bohemia and Hungary. The king of Sardinia, Ferdinand VI of Spain, the duke of Modena, and the Republic of Genoa successively gave their adhesion. The definitive treaty was signed on the 18th of October, Sardinia alone refusing to accede, because the Treaty of Worms was not guaranteed.
The War of the Reunions (1683–84) was a conflict between France, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, with limited involvement by Genoa. It can be seen as a continuation of the War of Devolution (1667–1668) and the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678), which were driven by Louis XIV's determination to establish defensible boundaries along France's northern and eastern borders.
French Flanders is a part of the historical County of Flanders, where Flemish—a Low Franconian dialect cluster of Dutch—was traditionally spoken. The region lies in the modern-day northern French region of Hauts-de-France, and roughly corresponds to the arrondissements of Lille, Douai and Dunkirk on the northern border with Belgium. Together, with French Hainaut and Cambrésis, it makes up the French Department of Nord.
Bergues is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
The Battle of Saint-Denis was the last major action of the Franco-Dutch War (1672-78). It took place on 14 August 1678, four days after Louis XIV of France had agreed the Treaty of Nijmegen with the Dutch Republic, but before he finalised terms with Spain. The battle was initiated by the Dutch and Spanish forces to prevent the French capturing the Spanish-held town of Mons, then on the border between France and the Spanish Netherlands. The result was disputed, as both sides claimed victory.
The siege of Lille took place during the War of Devolution. Louis XIV's forces besieged Lille from 10 August to 28 August 1667. It was the only major engagement of the war. Lille was the first major victory for Vauban’s siege techniques. Louis XIV, arguing that the Spanish dowry of his wife Maria Theresa of Spain had not been paid, began to expand French borders to the north and east, invading the Spanish Netherlands. This began a conflict with Spain that became the War of Devolution. After taking Charleroi, Tournai and Douai, French troops laid siege to Lille, at that time part of the county of Flanders under Spanish rule. Siege techniques applied by the French military engineer Vauban were instrumental in their capture.
The barrier towns were present-day Belgian towns, heavily fortified by the Dutch, on the Austrian Netherlands's border with France, and as such were particularly important in the wars between the Dutch Republic and Ancien Régime France. The Barrier Treaty made it possible for Austria to have its possessions in the Netherlands defended, whilst the Dutch Republic would not have to fight a war on its own territory.
The French Royal Army was the principal land force of the Kingdom of France. It served the Bourbon dynasty from the reign of Louis XIV in the mid-17th century to that of Charles X in the 19th, with an interlude from 1792 to 1814 and another during the Hundred Days in 1815. It was permanently dissolved following the July Revolution in 1830. The French Royal Army became a model for the new regimental system that was to be imitated throughout Europe from the mid-17th century onward. It was regarded as Europe's greatest military force and the most powerful armies in the world for much of its existence.
The Free Imperial City of Aachen, also known in English by its French name of Aix-la-Chapelle and today known simply as Aachen, was a Free Imperial City and spa of the Holy Roman Empire west of Cologne and southeast of the Low Countries, in the Lower Rhenish–Westphalian Circle. The pilgrimages, the Coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor, flourishing industries and the privileges conferred by various emperors made it one of the most prosperous market towns of the Holy Roman Empire.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Aachen, Germany.
Fort Knokke or Fort de Cnocke or Fort de la Knocque or Fort de Knocke was an important fortification that defended western Flanders from the 1580s until it was demolished in the 1780s. During its 200 year history, the place was held by the Spanish Empire, Kingdom of France, Habsburg Austria and the Dutch Republic. The existing defenses were improved in 1678 by the famous military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban. The fort was attacked by the Grand Alliance in 1695 during the Nine Years' War but the French garrison successfully held out. It was captured from the French by a ruse in 1712 during the War of the Spanish Succession. Control of the fort and other strong places in the Austrian Netherlands was a key feature of the so-called Barrier Treaty in 1713. The French captured the fort after a two-month siege in 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. Emperor Joseph II had the citadel demolished in 1781. The site is on the Yser River about 8 kilometres (5 mi) southwest of Diksmuide, Belgium.
Charles de Montsaulnin, Comte de Montal (1619–1696) was a 17th-century French military officer and noble who was a close friend of Le Grand Condé, and fought in many of the wars of Louis XIV of France.
Netherlands–Spain relations are the bilateral relations between the Netherlands and Spain. The relations between both countries are defined mainly by their membership in the European Union and by being allies in the NATO.
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