The states and empires of Europe are often held to be more independent of, and more distinct from, each other than they really are. They belong, however, to the general community of peoples of the West, which rests upon common bases, and has grown up from elements near akin to each other; from which community each one has risen to a separate existence, without, however, ever tearing itself away from the whole. Even insular England feels constantly the effect of tendencies general in Europe, and influences them in turn: it is clear, for instance, that the proceedings of James II, which aimed at a re-introduction of Catholicism, do but represent upon a definite stage the general struggle which had arisen between the two confessions.

Sixteen years earlier, on the occasion of the second war against Holland, similar projects entertained by Charles II had led to a great European crisis. The Republic of the Netherlands, which formed the principal bulwark of Protestantism in Western Europe, especially when the crown of England refused its support to the cause, was then very nearly destroyed by the co-operation of that crown with the predominant power of France. At the moment now in question the connexion of events was not so evident. But it was only in consequence of that war, and of the treaty to which it led, that the predominance of Louis XIV had fully established itself, and had at the same time assumed an exclusively Catholic character.