The

The Hello and welcome to a history of Europe Key Battles podcast.

This is the Nine Years War of 1688 to 97, part two of two.

In last week's episode, I described the years preceding the Nine Years' War, which will be covered today,

and which is also known to historians as the War of the League of Augsburg.

Louis' aggressive expansionist policies, lack of diplomatic tact and deliberate undermining of Emperor Leopold ended up alienating practically

the whole of Western Europe and caused lasting damage to France's international position.

One demonstration of Louis's failure to cultivate diplomatic relations was his long damaging quarrel with the papacy.

The French ambassador refused to cooperate with the Vatican campaign to root out criminals

exploiting diplomatic immunity, and relations soured even more with Louis' annexation of the

papal enclave of Avignon.

The folly of Louis XIVAN's conflict of the papacy became apparent in June 1688, when the Archbishop of Cologne died. Not only had the new Archbishop's appointment to be confirmed by the Pope,

but also in a disputed election, the Pope had the final say.

The succession was important because not only was the Archbishop of Cologne,

an elector of the Imperial Crown,

but the town and its dependencies held a key strategic location on France's German frontier.

Louis's favoured candidate was the Bishop of Strasbourg, William von Furstenberg,

but the imperialists put forward instead the 17-year-old Joseph Clomont, the brother of the Elector of Bavaria.

An inconclusive election followed, so the case went to Innocent 11, who decided in favour

of the Bavarian Prince. Another source of tension was the Palatinate, whose elector Charles

II, died in 1685. His sister,

Charlotte Elizabeth, who was married to Louis XIV's brother, the Duke of Orleans, had acclaim

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