It
has, however, been generally assumed that, after the usual residence of
three years at the University, he crossed over into France to study the
art of war under the famous Turenne. As the practice was common then
among young men of good birth and slender fortune, it is not unlikely
that Claverhouse followed it. A large body of English troops was a few
years later serving under the French standard. In 1672 the Duke of
Monmouth, then in the prime of his fortune, joined Turenne with a force
of six thousand English and Scottish troops, amongst whom marched John
Churchill, a captain of the Grenadier company of Monmouth's own
regiment. But the military glory Claverhouse is said to have won in the
French service cannot have been great: his studies in the art of war
must have been mainly theoretical. In the year 1668, the year in which
Claverhouse is said to have left Scotland for France, Lewis had been
compelled to pause in his career of conquest. The Triple Alliance had in
that year forced upon him the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. He had been
compelled to restore Franche Comte, though he still kept hold of the
towns he had won in the Low Countries. But the joy with which all
parties in England welcomed this alliance had scarcely found expression
when Charles, impatient of the economy of his Parliament and indifferent
to its approval, opened those negotiations which, with the help of his
sister the Duchess of Orleans, and that other Duchess, Louisa of
Portsmouth, resulted in the secret treaty of Dover.
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