Louis XIV keeps his cool

In 1702 Louis XIV had a priceless opportunity to secure the whole Spanish inheritence for the Bourbons, with the British and Dutch so war-weary that they were initially unwilling to back the Habsburgs.

In OTL he threw it all away by, sending French troops into the Spanish Netherlands to evict the Dutch from their fortresses there, refusing to rule out an eventual union of France and Spain and, most of all, by publically recognising the Jacobite contender for the throne of England when James VII & II died.

If he'd instead attempted to conciliate the maritime powers he would only have had to fight the Habsburgs, who wouldn't have lasted long against France, Spain, Bavaria and the Hungarian rebels.
 
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