Louis XIV plans to conquer as many Spanish territories as possible with a new campaign, so as to use these as bargaining counters at any peace negotiations.

To this end, he plans to take the Spanish Franche-Comté.

This is isolated, and practically devoid of Spanish troops, for several reasons: France had respected the territory's neutrality in the last war against Spain; furthermore, the Spanish generals do not expect an attack by the French in the middle of winter.

Louis XIV instructs the Prince de Condé to undertake preparations for a winter campaign against the Franche-Comté.

Condé had fallen into disgrace as a former opponent of the King during the Fronde and is entrusted with a military command in 1668 for the first time in nine years.

As the Governor of Burgundy, Condé is in the best position to prepare an attack against the County.

To this end, a second army of newly raised troops is set up.

Louis XIV once again personally accompanies the campaign.

The King leaves Saint-Germain on February 2, 1668, in order to join up with the man army.

It is at this point that he receives news of the formation of the Triple Alliance; he is also informed by a spy that its members would be prepared to declare war on France.

Despite this, he persists with the campaign, as he hopes to conquer territories that would be a suitable bargaining counter in later negotiations.

General de Condé had started the invasion on February 4, and on February 7 takes the free imperial city of Besançon, which also lies in Franche-Comté.

On the same day, ...

...a further French corps under General François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, manages to take Salin.

Both strongholds put up practically no resistance.

After this, ...

...the French army concentrates on taking the town of Dole.

This town does not surrender until February 14 after a short siege of four days, in which four hundred to five hundred French soldiers lose their lives.

Five days later, ...

...on February 19, the stronghold of Gray also falls to the French.

Shortly before, the Spanish Marquis de Yenne had surrendered to the French king, and now persuades the Governor of Gray to capitulate.

Louis XIV returns to Saint-Germain, arriving on February 24, 1668.

After only seventeen days, the whole County has been occupied.

The causes behind this quick success are surprise, and the fact that the Spanish were badly prepared.

Furthermore, the local population tends to sympathize with the French, and has mostly welcomed them.

The Battle of Cassel, fought near the city of Cassel, thirty kilometers south of Dunkirk in present-day France, on April 11, 1677, as a part of the Franco-Dutch War, results in a French victory under Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, assisted by the Duke of Humières and Marshal Luxembourg, against the Dutch under William III of Orange.

After William III left for England in 1688 to claim the English throne, Prince Georg Friedrich of Waldeck had been appointed Field Marshal of William's forces during the War of the Grand Alliance in the Spanish Netherlands.

He is successful in the battle of Walcourt, fought near the ancient walled town of Walcourt near Charleroi in the Spanish Netherlands, which brings to a close a summer of uneventful marching, maneuvering, and foraging.

The battle is the only significant engagement in the theater during the campaign of 1689.

The exiled François-Henri de Montmorency, duc de Luxembourg, who had been one of King Louis XIV's most successful generals in the Dutch War of 1672 to 1678), had been recalled to court as captain of the king's guards in 1681.

Made commander in chief of the royal armies shortly after France went to war with the other major European powers in 1689, he prevents an invasion of France by crushing Waldeck’s army at Fleurus, in the Spanish Netherlands, on July 1, 1690.

The pacification of Ireland has released thousands of troops for William’s war on the continent, but Louis also benefits from twelve thousand Irish troops (the so-called Wild Geese) ceded to him under the terms of the Treaty of Limerick.

William had returned to the Spanish Netherlands in early 1691, but despite the death of Louis’ talented War Minister, Louvois, the campaign in the Spanish Netherlands is a military failure for the Allies.

Marshal Louis-Francois de Boufflers takes Mons on April 10 after a thirty-five-day siege.

Marshal Luxembourg follows Boufflers’ triumph at Mons with a victory on September 19 against Waldeck at Leuze.

After this defeat, Waldeck is appointed chief-of-staff of the Dutch States Army (he will die in Arolsen on November 19, 1692).

The French follow up their victories at Mons and Leuze with a bloody siege of Namur, beginning on May 25.