In Charles II's will, if the legacy was accepted, William saw the ruin of a life-long policy.

Louis, though he was doubly pledged against acknowledging the will, having renounced all pretensions to the throne of Spain for himself and his heirs in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, and consented in two successive treaties of partition to a different plan of succession, did not long hesitate; the news that he had saluted his grandson as King of Spain followed close upon the news of Charles's death.

The balance of the great Catholic Powers which William had established by years of anxious diplomacy and costly war, was toppled over by a stroke of the pen.

With Spain and Italy virtually added to his dominions, the French King would now be supreme upon the Continent.

Louis soon showed that this was his view of what had happened, by saying that the Pyrenees had ceased to exist.