The disasters of Oudenarde and Lille led France to the brink of ruin. Louis XIV was forced to negotiate; he sent his foreign minister, the Marquis de Torcy, to meet the allied commanders at
The Hague. Louis agreed to surrender Spain and all its territories to the allies, requesting only that he be allowed to keep
Naples (in Italy). He was, moreover, prepared to furnish money to help expel Philip V from Spain. The allies, however, imposed more humiliating conditions; they demanded that Louis use the French army to dethrone his own grandson. Rejecting the offer, Louis chose to continue fighting until the bitter end. He appealed to the people of France, bringing thousands of new recruits into his army.