There was one man in the world whom the foreign policy of France and the domestic policy of England, though they did not yet completely coincide, affected from different sides with equal force.

William Henry, Prince of Orange, was considered by Louis XIV to be his principal antagonist. Not as though he could with his own forces only have measured himself against the King in any way. What great enterprise could the captain-general of a commonwealth, which in anxiety for its freedom watched every independent step that he took with jealousy, undertake and carry out? But the effect which a man can produce on the world often depends, not so much on the power which he possesses, as on the attitude which he assumes and is able to maintain towards those forces which contend with one another for the control of the general life of which they form a part. Prince William rose to the position of representative and acting champion of the idea of the balance of power, which is necessary to the existence of the states of Europe. Around him the resistance which Louis XIV still encountered grouped itself. The persecutions of the Reformed Church in France secured him lively sympathy in the Protestant, as did the autocratic demeanour of the King of France towards the Roman See even in the Catholic world; every violent act of that prince turned to the advantage of his rival.