He was given to understand that the management of foreign affairs had been left to the care of cardinal Corduba at Madrid, and that the king's health would not permit him to attend to business.

The purport of the memorial was, an offer of French forces to assist in raising the siege of Ceuta in Barbary, which the Moors had lately undertaken; but this offer was civilly declined.
Harcourt, not yet discouraged, redoubled his efforts at Madrid, and found means to engage cardinal Portocarrcro in the interests of his master.

In the meantime Louis concluded an alliance with Sweden, under the pretext of preserving and securing the common peace by such means as should be adjudged most proper and convenient.

During these transactions king William was not wanting in his endeavours to terminate the war in Hungary, which had raged fifteen years without intermission.

About the middle of August, lord Paget and Mr.Colliers, ambassadors from England and Holland, arrived in the Turkish camp near Belgrade, and a conference being opened under their mediation, the peace of Carlowitz was signed on the twenty-sixth day of January By this treaty, the emperor remained in possession of all his conquests; Caminieck was restored to the Poles; all the Morea, with several fortresses in Dalmatia, were ceded to the Venetians; and the czar of Muscovy retained Azoph during a truce of two years: so that the Turks by this pacification lost great part of their European dominions.