The Emperor of Austria particularly objected to these Mediterranean positions going away from his family, and refused to come into any of the partition treaties.

Before any arrangement was perfected, the actual king of Spain died, but before his death was induced by his ministers to sign a will, bequeathing all his States to the grandson of Louis XIV., then Duke of Anjou, known afterward as Philip V.of Spain.

By this step it was hoped to preserve the whole, by enlisting in its defence the nearest and one of the most powerful States in Europe,--nearest, if are excepted the powers ruling the sea, which are always near any country whose ports are open to their ships.
Louis XIV.

accepted the bequest, and in so doing felt bound in honor to resist all attempts at partition.

The union of the two kingdoms under one family promised important advantages to France, henceforth delivered from that old enemy in the rear, which had balked so many of her efforts to extend her frontiers eastward.