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| 1667–68 |
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| War of Devolution. This began a series of wars of conquest by Louis XIV. French strength and ambition provided the main issues in European diplomacy for the ensuing 50 years. | 1 |
| Cause: After Philip IV of Spain's death, Louis XIV laid claim to the Spanish royal family's personal estates in the Netherlands on behalf of his wife. He based this claim on Spain's failure to pay his wife's entire dowry (invalidating her renunciation of her inheritance) and the local droit de dévolution, a principle in private law which gave the survivor (widow or widower) usufruct of the property but vested its ownership in the children. Under this law, daughters of the first marriage inherited before sons of a second marriage. | 2 |
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| 1667 |
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| Turenne invaded Flanders, where he met with little resistance. Flanders received no support from the Holy Roman Emperor because the Rhineland states refused to assist him. | 3 |
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| 1668, Jan |
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| Louis XIV and the emperor signed a partition treaty. | 4 |
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| Jan. 23 |
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| Sweden, Holland, and England signed the Triple Alliance. | 5 |
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| May 2 |
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| Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle: Louis XIV restored Franche-Comté (the fortresses having been dismantled) to Spain, in return for 12 fortified towns on the border of the Spanish Netherlands (Lille, Tournay, Oudenarde, etc.) The question of succession was deferred. | 6 |
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