The (world) War of the League of Augsburg begins: Louis XIV, of France, crosses the Rhine River into the “Holy Roman Empire” to pressure Emperor Leopold I into accepting France’s territorial expansion. Louis sees this as an easier target than striking north at the Netherlands, where Prince William of Orange (a Calvinist. r. 1689 – 1702), Stadtholder of the Netherlands, has been amassing a large, composite army from across Protestant Europe to move against his father-in-law, James II (a Catholic, r. 1685–1688). This pits Catholic France against the Protestant alliance of the Dutch Republic and the Holy Roman Empire, along with the Catholic Kingdom of Spain and the Catholic Duchy of Savoy.
Postscript: A few months later, the Protestant realms of England, Scotland, the Netherlands, along with Catholic Austria and Spain joined the alliance against France.
[updated 10/19/2024]
The “Holy Roman Empire,” so called, was neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. —— JL
Subsequent Events:
References:
Winston Churchill, A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, four volumes. (London: Cassell, 1956-58), 3:21, 406.
Nine Years’ War – Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_Years’_War
Current U.s. National Debt:
