War of the Grand Alliance (Humble Old Ironsides)

The War of the Grand Alliance began in September of 1688 when the Kingdom of France under Louis XIV ordered his soldiers to cross into the Rhineland of the Holy Roman Empire. The invasion of the Holy Roman Empire required the Empire to call upon the Grand Alliance established in 1686, building upon the Triple Alliance of Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Louis' actions in the past two decades had antagonized many of the nations around him, and although he and his generals were afraid of being surrounded by enemies. The war was characterized by French invasions of both the Rhineland of the Holy Roman Empire and the Spanish Netherlands ruled by the Habsburg Dynasty in Mainland Europe, as well as a Royalist invasion of Ireland under the Duke of York and one of the first major conflicts in the New World in what became known as Phips' War for the British captain and future Massachusetts governor who led the British war effort. The war was characterized by the Grand Alliance's inability to gain decisive victories against the slightly smaller French Army, leading to a war of attrition and sieges that resulted in the relatively even Treaty of Ryswick in 1695. Charles Fleetwood, the late Lord Protector of the United Republic of Britain and Ireland, had hoped to decisively contain the French, but the peace ended up lasting only until 1701 when the War of the Spanish Succession broke out around Europe.