Why did Louis XIV invade the Spanish Netherlands in 1667?

Louis XIV invaded the Spanish Netherlands in 1667 to initiate the War of Devolution, a conflict based on a legal pretext regarding inheritance rights.

Following the death of Philip IV of Spain in 1665, Louis XIV argued that the local custom of "devolution"—which prioritized daughters of a first marriage over sons of subsequent marriages—should apply to sovereign territories. Under this claim, he asserted that his wife, Marie-Thérèse, should inherit the Spanish Netherlands in preference to her younger half-brother, Charles II, whom Louis viewed as a sickly heir unlikely to produce children.1

This invasion ignored the formal renunciation of inheritance rights that Marie-Thérèse had made during her marriage to Louis XIV as part of the Peace of the Pyrenees in 1659. By pursuing this claim, Louis sought to expand French territory and influence, though the resulting conflict ultimately led to the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1668 after the Dutch, English, and Swedish formed an alliance to contain French expansion.213