Triple Alliance (1717)

The Triple Alliance was a treaty between the Dutch Republic, France and Great Britain, against Spain in an attempt to maintain the agreement of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. The three states were concerned about Spain becoming a superpower in Europe. As a result, militarisation took place and caused great havoc to civilians. That enraged Spain and other states and led to brinkmanship. The alliance became the Quadruple Alliance the next year, after the accession of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.

Background

After the deaths of Louis XIV and Queen Anne, relations between France and Great Britain improved. George I and the new French regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, were cousins, and both regimes faced threats. Orléans was concerned that his domestic enemies, particularly Louis Auguste de Bourbon, Duc de Maine, would combine with Spain to overthrow him, and George I wished to persuade the French to withhold support for any further Jacobite risings. According to Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon, who opposed the alliance, the British Ambassador to Paris, John Dalrymple, 2nd Earl of Stair, argued that the short-term advantage to both regimes of an alliance outweighed their traditional differences. Orléans agreed, as did his secretary Guillaume Dubois, the future Cardinal, together with James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, the English Secretary of State, is generally regarded as the principal author of the alliance.

Saint-Simon, who loathed Dubois, argued that the Bourbon Kingdoms of France and Spain should be perpetual allies, but that took no account of present realities. The Cellamare Conspiracy fully justified Orléans's concerns of Spanish intentions, and the successful conclusion to the War of Quadruple Alliance vindicated the decision to ally with Great Britain and the Dutch Republic.

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See also

References
  • Earl Russell (1826). History of the principal states of Europe from the peace of Utrecht, Volume 2. John Murray. p. 102.
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