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TheTriple Alliance was adefence pact signed on 4 January 1717 inThe Hague between theDutch Republic,France andGreat Britain, againstBourbon Spain in an attempt to maintain the agreements of the 1713–15Peace of Utrecht. The three states were concerned about Spain becoming asuperpower in Europe. As a result,militarisation took place and caused great havoc to civilians. That enraged Spain and other states and led tobrinkmanship. The alliance became theQuadruple Alliance the next year, after the accession ofHoly Roman EmperorCharles VI.
TheWar of the Spanish Succession had ended with a compromise:Philip V of Bourbon was recognised as king of Spain, but he and his descendants had to renounce all claims to the French throne, while the French kingLouis XIV and his descendants had to renounce all claims to the Spanish throne.[1] Philip V also had to cede Sicily to Savoy, and theSpanish Netherlands, Milan, Sardinia and Naples to Austria.[1] Philip resented these conditions, and sought to recapture the lost territories to strengthen Spain in the post-war period without starting a new great war. Meanwhile, he supported theCellamare conspiracy to seize theFrench regency (exerted byPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans over infant kingLouis XV) for himself.
After the deaths of Louis XIV andQueen Anne, relations between France and Great Britain improved. The new British kingGeorge I and the new French regent Philippe of Orléans were cousins, and both regimes faced threats. Orléans was concerned that his domestic enemies, particularlyLouis 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 furtherJacobite risings.
According toLouis 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 secretaryGuillaume Dubois, the future Cardinal, together withJames Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, the English Secretary of State, who is generally regarded as the principal author of the alliance.[2]
TheAnglo-French Alliance (1716–1731) was concluded on 9 or 10 October 1716. It took several months to be ratified. Then, on 4 January 1717, the Dutch Republic concluded a defence pact with Britain and France in The Hague, in effect enlarging the bilateral alliance to a trilateral one.
On 4 January 1717,Guillaume Dubois and Pierre Antoine de Châteauneuf sent byPhilip II of Orléans (regent of France during the minority of KingLouis XV),William Cadogan representingGeorge I of Great Britain and the delegates of theStates General of the Netherlands, reunited in the city ofThe Hague, signed the agreement, which included as main points the following:[3]
In 1718, with the adhesion of theHoly Roman Empire through the signing of the Treaty of London, it became theQuadruple Alliance.[4]
Saint-Simon, who loathed Dubois, argued that theBourbon Kingdoms of France and Spain should be perpetual allies, but that took no account of present realities. TheSpanish conquest of Sardinia (22 August – 30 October 1717) and the Cellamare conspiracy fully justified Orléans's concerns about Spanish intentions, and the successful conclusion to theWar of Quadruple Alliance vindicated the decision to ally with Great Britain and the Dutch Republic.[citation needed]
