CHAPTER VI.
THE REGENCY IN FRANCE .-- ALBERONI IN SPAIN .-- POLICIES OF WALPOLE AND FLEURI .-- WAR OF THE POLISH SUCCESSION .-- ENGLISH CONTRABAND TRADE IN SPANISH AMERICA .-- GREAT BRITAIN DECLARES WAR AGAINST SPAIN .-- 1715-1739.
The Peace of Utrecht was soon followed by the deaths of the rulers of the two countries which had played the foremost part in the War of the Spanish Succession.

Queen Anne died August 1, 1714; Louis XIV.

on the 1st of September, 1715.
The successor to the English throne, the German George I., though undoubtedly the choice of the English people, was far from being their favorite, and was rather endured as a necessary evil, giving them a Protestant instead of a Roman Catholic king.

Along with the coldness and dislike of his own partisans, he found a very considerable body of disaffected men, who wished to see the son of James II.

on the throne.
There was therefore a lack of solidity, more apparent than real, but still real, in his position.