The War began in 1688 when King Louis XIV of France invaded the Rhineland in support of his sister-in-law, Elzabeth Charlotte, to succeed her dead nephew, the Palatine Elector Charles, instead of the Neuburg line. This is despite the Palatinate having whereby women were barred from inheritance. Immediately the League of Augsburg, formed in 1686 between the most powerful princes of the empire to defend Germany from French aggression, declared war.