2F - France and Europe: the rise of French power at the expense of the Habsburgs
Learn how military victories, alliances and negotiated settlements changed France's position in Europe between 1643 and 1661, and why Westphalia did not end the war with Spain.
The Habsburg challenge
France's rise during the Regency began within a rivalry it had inherited, not with a peaceful Europe waiting for Louis XIV to act. The Habsburg dynasty ruled both Spain and the Austrian lands. Spain also ruled territories in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands, north of France. The Austrian Habsburgs normally held the imperial title in the Holy Roman Empire, a large collection of territories in central Europe. France's ministers feared being constrained by Habsburg influence along several approaches to the kingdom.
Shared Catholic religion did not prevent this rivalry. Richelieu had supported enemies of the Habsburgs before France entered open war against Spain in 1635. After Richelieu's death, Mazarin continued the policy. France's partners included Protestant powers such as Sweden. The monarchy's purpose was to improve French security and influence rather than simply win a contest between Catholicism and Protestantism.
Aggrandisement
The enlargement of a ruler's territory, status or power. Territorial gains are one form of aggrandisement, but diplomatic influence and prestige also matter.
Habsburg power was substantial but divided between rulers with different commitments. Spain had to fight France while dealing with the Dutch struggle for independence and revolts in Portugal and Catalonia. The emperor faced resistance within the Empire and Swedish military pressure. France benefited when opponents could not concentrate their resources against it. This does not mean French success was inevitable: France also faced severe financial pressure and civil war.
Victory and Westphalia in 1648
Military success improved the terms France could seek in negotiations, but battlefield victories and political settlements were different achievements. At Rocroi in May 1643 the French army under the duke of Enghien, later known as the Great Condé, defeated a Spanish army. The victory enhanced French confidence and weakened the reputation of Spanish military invincibility. Spain nevertheless continued the war for another sixteen years: one defeated army did not destroy a great power's resources.
French and allied pressure continued during the Thirty Years War. Condé's victory at Lens in 1648 reinforced France's position shortly before the Westphalian settlements. The treaties made at Münster and Osnabrück in 1648 ended the main war in the Empire. They recognised France's sovereignty over the bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun, already occupied since the sixteenth century, and transferred important Habsburg rights and possessions in Alsace to France. Breisach and access associated with Rhine positions also strengthened its strategic position.
Do not describe this as the immediate incorporation of every part of Alsace into a uniform French province. Imperial cities and other authorities retained rights, and the wording left overlapping claims. Strasbourg remained outside French control until 1681. Territorial sovereignty in the seventeenth century could consist of several layers of jurisdiction rather than a clear modern border. The French-imperial treaty, in an English transcription.
The settlement also preserved the political weight of the Empire's princes, reducing the emperor's ability to impose a unified Habsburg policy. This benefited France indirectly: influence among German rulers could be useful even without annexing their lands. France and Sweden emerged as major participants in the settlement, able to intervene diplomatically in the imperial balance.
Westphalia increased France's legal rights and strategic reach. It ended the main imperial war, but it did not end the separate Franco-Spanish struggle.
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