He was instructed to procure the succession of the crown for one of the dauphin's sons, or at least to hinder it from devolving upon the emperor's children.

With a view to give weight to his negotiations, the French king ordered an army of sixty thousand men to advance towards the frontiers of Catalonia and Navarre, while a great number of ships and galleys cruised along the coast, and entered the harbours of Spain.

Harcourt immediately began to form his party; he represented that Philip IV.

had no power to dispose of his crown against the laws of nature and the constitution of the realm; that, by the order of succession, the crown ought to descend to the children of his daughter in preference to more distant relations; that if the Spaniards would declare in favour of the dauphin's second son, the duke of Anjou, they might train him up in the manners and customs of their country.

When he found them averse to this proposal, he assured them that his master would approve of the electoral prince of Bavaria rather than consent to the succession's devolving upon a son of the emperor.