Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"Thus French diplomacy, in the best traditions of Richelieu, could easily take advantage of these circumstances, playing off the Portuguese against Spain, the Magyars, Turks, and German princes against Austria, and the English against the Dutch . . . All this gave Louis XIV time enough to establish himself as absolute monarch, secure from the internal challenges which had afflicted French governments during the preceding century. More important still, it gave . . . Key ministers the chance to overhaul the administration and to lavish resources upon the army and the navy in anticipation of the Sun King’s pursuit of glory. . . . From 1685, however, things began to swing against France. The persecution of the Huguenots shocked Protestant Europe. . . . By the end of 1689, therefore, France stood alone against the United Provinces, England, the Habsburg Empire, Spain, Savoy, and the major German states. . . . For three years he dithered; and when in 1692 he finally assembled an invasion force of 24,000 troops to dispatch across the Channel, the “maritime powers” were simply too strong, smashing up the French warships and barges at Barfleur-La Hogue." [Kennedy: Great Powers, p. 100-3]