The cost both of the continental and Spanish wars was also largely defrayed by England's subsidies; and while that on the continent could bring her no further gain, it was seen that the sympathies of the Spanish people could not be overborne in favor of Carlos III.

without paying more than the game was worth.

Secret negotiations between England and France soon began, and received an additional impulse by the unexpected death of the Emperor of Germany, the brother of the Austrian claimant of the Spanish throne.

There being no other male heir, Carlos became at once emperor of Austria, and was soon after elected emperor of Germany.

England had no more wish to see two crowns on an Austrian head than on that of a Bourbon.
The demands made by England, as conditions of peace in 1711, showed her to have become a sea power in the purest sense of the word, not only in fact, but also in her own consciousness.