The Treaty of Utrecht

The Treaty of Utrecht, agreed in the spring of 1713, brought an end
to the tired War of the Spanish Succession which had raged through
much of the western world for the previous 11 years. The
antagonists in this wide conflict - France and the French party in
Spain on the one hand, and the Grand Alliance formed by Great
Britain, Holland and Imperial Austria on the other - had fought
each other to exhaustion. Only with a Treaty such as this, for all
its imperfections, could peace of a kind be achieved. This talk
considers the war and causes for war, the main events and
personalities, the covert and overt negotiations for peace, and the
Treaty terms themselves. It also looks at the associated agreements
reached at Rastadt and Baden. The talk then reviews whether Utrecht
was, overall, a 'good thing' or not in re-establishing a balance of
power in Europe for the 18th century. James Falkner is an
ex-regular Army officer, and the author of six books on the 1st
Duke of Marlborough and the War of the Spanish Succession. He
contributes articles to publications such as British Army Review
and Military History (USA). He travels frequently to the
battlefields of Western Europe as an expert guide and he lectures
to learned societies.