Part 3

The Elector of Bavaria demanded a part of the succession; Augustus King of Poland set forth his pretensions; the King of Spain likewise put in for a share: and, what is more, there appeared two pragmatic fanctions; one giving the Austrian dominions to the Archduchess, spouse to the Polish Prince; and the other securing them to Maria Theresa, Charles’s eldest daughter. Such a contrariety of interests must of course give rise to a general war; but it began from a quarter which policy would never have apprehended.

The King of Prussia, almost the only Prince in Europe who had no pretensions to the Austrian succession, yet made his demands, and, instead of manifestoes, asserted them by the sword. His troops invaded the very best province of all the Queen of Hungary’s dominions, and made themselves masters of it. The crown was of no long standing in the Brandenburgh family: it had first obtained the title of Majesty from the Emperor Leopold; and this honour had little added to its real greatness. The King of Prussia was of little account among the European potentates; and what claims he had to any of the Austrian effects were merely on a private account; and turns on the restitution of some duchies, which his family had been possessed of by right of purchase; yet he invades Silesia as a sovereign.

I have heard that Maria Theresa was on the brink of ruin, when her very enemies saved her. The Hungarians, who for ages past had been endeavouring to overthrow that family, now, one and all, vigorously rose in her defence.

The Duke of Belleisle told me, that this change in the political world was wrought by that Princess’s haranguing them in Latin; “a great change, indeed (added he), for had the Hungarians abandoned that princess, very probably we should have heard no more of the house of Austria.”

Lewis XV. joined with the King of Prussia to place the Elector of Bavaria on the Imperial throne; besides the diversion occasioned in the North by the election, the King said, that the house of Bourbon was now discharging an old debt with Bavaria.

Were gratitude of any weight in the conduct of Sovereigns, France might indeed be thought to have taken arms in return for its obligations to the Electors of Bavaria, who have ever been firm allies to this crown, and had sustained very considerable losses in its cause.

The house of Bourbon joined with that of Brandenburgh to weaken the succession of Charles VI; besides, the exaltation of a Prince of the house of Bavaria to the Imperial throne secured to France an ascendancy in Germany.

It has been reported that the King of Prussia, at first, offered Maria Theresa money and troops to maintain her right against the other powers, on condition of her ceding Lower Silesia to him. Had she agreed to this, the affairs of Europe would have taken a different turn. But, from what I have perceived since my living at Versailles, Princes often make a tender of what they have no mind to give. This the Marshal de Noailles called _political compliments_.

Frederick had a sure game of it; and it is seldom that Princes ask of others what they can get by themselves. The house of Austria was not able to make head against his invasion of Silesia; nothing was in readiness for preventing it; therefore France in a manner could do no otherwise than declare for the Prussian Monarch. Accordingly the treaty was made; and to give it the greater weight the King of Poland was made a party; he then little thought that this same Frederic would one day invade his dominions.

This confederacy was the basis of several others: the Palatinate, Spain, and Italy came into the plan; Spain wanted to procure Parma, Placentia, and the Milaneze, for Don Philip.

All the negociations in Germany were committed to the Marshal Belleisle. The poor Elector of Bavaria, who was to be made Emperor, had not wherewith to raise six regiments; so that, in the war which we were now undertaking for his sake, every thing was to be furnished him. France as it were armed him from head to foot; and made him her Lieutenant General in Germany: and thus the successor of the Cæsars became a subaltern officer of the house of Bourbon: however, in consequence of his title, an army was sent for him to command.

Whilst one party was forming to overthrow the house of Austria, another was gathering to prevent its fall. Holland and England, whose common interest it was that there should be a power in Germany able to cope with Versailles, were already making preparations for a German war; but hitherto the house of Austria received only pecuniary aids.

Prague was taken, and the Elector of Bavaria proclaimed King of Bohemia, and soon after Emperor. This last title he first received from Marshal Belleisle: thus a subject of the King of France disposes of a throne, which anciently, had disposed of all the empires of the world.

This Marshal has since said to me, that the court of Versailles overshot itself, and that the war had been begun where it should have ended. The armies of the King of France and the Elector of Bavaria, together with the Saxon troops, were not sufficient for keeping the countries which it was necessary to reduce.

The victors advanced without ever looking behind them, till Marshal Belleisle, foreseeing that these victories would soon occasion defeats, thought it proper to be indisposed, and ask leave to retire. Marshal Brogolio was dispatched to him, and on taking a view of things, soon saw into the cause of Belleisle’s indisposition. Six years after, these two Generals being in my apartment, the latter said to the other concerning this affair, _faith, Marshal, you played me a scurvy trick there_.

The Hungarians made good all losses of men; and I have been since told by connoisseurs in military affairs, that of infantry we sent a sufficiency, but had forgot cavalry, which, in Germany, is the more necessary body.

The King of Prussia’s drift was to profit by the disadvantages of his allies: he had made conquests, which he carefully kept to himself, regardless of the losses of his allies; but he still wanted a decisive victory to make himself dreaded by the house of Austria, with whom he was already disposed to come to terms. He fought the battle of Czaslaw, which terminating in a complete victory on his side, he remained inactive, and soon after struck up a peace with Maria Theresa.

Every thing now went against France; her troops were driven from their posts, her convoys intercepted, her magazines seized, and the far greater part of the army perished by sickness.

Then it was that the French Generals discovered the Prussian Monarch’s temper. Marshal Belleisle has often told me, that he had seen into his way of thinking; but judged that the progress of the French arms in Germany would force him to be faithful to the alliance. So true is this, added he, that on the first rumour of our misfortunes, I said to M. de Broglio, _the King of Prussia now will shift sides_.

One of the articles of the treaty was, to renounce his alliance with the house of Bourbon; and thus the French troops were sacrificed.

For that, said a very knowing man to me, not long since, we may thank the council of Versailles, which, instead of such a body of troops as would have been equal to any undertaking, had only sent small armies, whose sickness ruined them as fast as they came.

The Emperor, being but ill assisted by France, was flying before his enemies; he had quitted his capital, and was at a loss where to shelter himself. His destiny seemed the more melancholy, as he was on the point of being tumbled down from the highest pitch of human exaltation.

Of all his mortifications the most severe certainly was his being forced to become a suppliant to his capital enemy, the Queen of Hungary. He made her an offer to limit his ambition to the imperial crown, and desist from all his claims to the Austrian succession.

But things now went so well with Maria Theresa, that, instead of a moderate answer to these proposals, she very nearly called him rebel, and driving him out of Bavaria, signified to him that the only safe shelter for him in Germany was the territory of the empire.

England’s hands were tyed; Maillebois, at the head of a large body of troops, had obliged George II. to sign a treaty of neutrality, and the Dutch were unable and as little disposed to interfere in the affairs of Germany.

Robert Walpole, then the ruling minister in Great Britain, was all for peace, as understanding nothing of war. Every minister in Europe, (as a man of great wit, who often came to me at Versailles, pointed out to me) has his peculiar talents, according to which he gives the bias to public affairs. Walpole’s system was that the power of Great Britain lay in trade, and that such a nation is to keep clear of sieges and battles.

The king shewed me several of that minister’s letters to Cardinal Fleury. In one he says,

“_I engage to keep the parliament to a peaceable disposition, if you will bridle the martial ardour of your people; for a minister in England cannot do every thing_,” &c. &c.

In another,

“_I have a deal of difficulty to keep our people from coming to blows; not that they are bent on war, but because I am for preserving peace; for our English politicians must be ever skirmishing, either in the field or at Westminster._”

In a third letter he expresses himself thus:

“_I pension half the parliament to keep it quiet; but as the King’s money is not sufficient, and they to whom I give none, clamour loudly for a war, it would be expedient for your Eminence to remit me three millions of French livres, in order to silence these barkers. Gold is a metal which here corrects all qualities in the blood. A pension of two thousand pounds a year will make the most impetuous warrior in parliament as tame as a lamb. In short, should England break out, you will, besides the uncertainty of events in war, be under the necessity of paying larger subsidies to foreign powers, to be on an equality with us; whereas, by furnishing me with a little money, you purchase peace at the first hand._” &c. &c.

But Walpole having been obliged to quit the ministry, Great Britain sided with the house of Austria. She was already at war with Spain. The English sent a large army into Flanders, before ever the court of Versailles had thought of garrisoning its strong places, so that the way lay open for them into France; and why they did not enter it, will ever remain a secret. A British minister has since told me, that there were at that time too many malecontents in the army; and that the invasion of France was omitted, purely in spight to a party, who had ever maintained, that the only way to restore the balance of Germany, was to penetrate beyond Flanders. Thus, added the minister by way of reflection, our government which is looked on as one of the best modeled in Europe, is sacrificed to private passions.

Prague, that city on which France had founded all its hopes, began to be despaired of; and from thence it was that, some time after, Belleisle made that fine retreat, with which, every day of his life afterwards I was sure to be entertained; for the old man was very vain. He used to say, it was the finest military performance the age had seen.

All Europe was in a ferment. Italy had taken arms to defend a liberty which it no longer enjoyed. I have been told that the Pope himself entered into treaties tending to continue and spread the war.

The balance of Europe seems to have been the point in question; but all states aimed at giving France some underhand wounds.

Cardinal Fleury, though he had avoided war, had not studied peace so much as he ought. He had, for some years past, perfectly doated through length of age, and his sticklers took his reveries for so many refined strokes of policy.

Some people in France have greatly cried up his order and œconomy, whereas they were nothing more than the effects of his niggardliness; for so penurious was he, that he never could prevail on himself to furnish his house. All the affairs of France savoured of avarice and parsimony.

On his death, the King became his own master; for till then Lewis had been in reality only the second person in the state: but he made not the least alteration in the tenour of affairs. The same faults went on; so that a judicious person who, at that time, had a place at court, told me lately, that things looked as if the Cardinal had been living after his death, small armies being sent into Germany, by way of œconomy; which all perished like the former. The Dutch, after many prayers and threats, had declared themselves.

I have been told by a person who has made it his business to observe the policy of every nation, that the Dutch have two maxims from which they never depart, the first is, whatever wars arise between the great powers, to be always neuter, that they may engross the whole commerce of Europe. The second is, to watch the moment of France’s being over-powered by its enemies, and then declare against it. It was unquestionably in consequence of the latter, that they joined their troops to those of England, and took the field. This last alliance was offensive and defensive, and all Europe found itself in a state of war.

Germany, Holland, Flanders, Piedmont, and every part of Italy, swarmed with soldiers. The Count d’Argenson calculated that Europe had then nine hundred thousand men on foot, ready to cut each others throats, without any known reason. Particularly France was ruining its finances, and losing the flower of its people, to no manner of purpose; for, after all, said an able politician to me one day, on this head, what was an Elector of Bavaria’s being Emperor of Germany to us; or Don Philip being Duke of Parma? I shall never forget what I read in Voltaire concerning this: _It was_, says he, _a game that Princes were playing all over Europe, hazarding, pretty equally, their people’s blood and treasure_; _and by a medley of fine actions, faults, and losses, keeping fortune a long time suspended_. It must be observed that, amidst all this fighting, no war had been declared; the greater part of the troops slaughtered each other only as auxiliaries.

Charles VII. the cause of this general conflagration, had now neither subjects nor dominions left; he was not allowed so much as to bear the title of Emperor, the only honour remaining to him; and his election was declared all over Germany to be null and void; so that he saw himself reduced to accept of a neutrality in his own cause. This step alone ought to have put an end to the German war; but, by my own experience, I have since known, that princes do not make war from any connected system, but only as coinciding with the motions of second causes.

The large French armies were now withdrawn out of Germany; indeed most of the troops left there had been made prisoners of war. The Marshal de Noailles has several times said to me, that of all the political errors committed in Europe for these thousand years past, the German war was the greatest.

In reading the history of that time, it appeared to me, that of all the princes engaged in the war, Emanuel King of Sardinia was the only one who had any shadow of reason for it. France was for settling contiguous to his dominions, a prince of the house of Bourbon, whose settlement must have been highly inconvenient to him; accordingly, in order to exclude this dangerous neighbour, he struck in with the enemies of France. From the beginning of the war, this prince had assisted the house of Austria, and now entered into a treaty with it. England supplied him with money to defray the charges of the war: but the Queen of Hungary went farther, conferring on him a little state, which did not belong to her[3].

France, in 1744, declared war against England, and the house of Austria; and soon after this declaration, a great project was taken in hand: overtures were made to Prince Edward, the Pretender’s son, for recovering the throne of his ancestors.

He was a spirited, bold, courageous young man, quite tired of leading an indolent life at Rome, and impatient to signalize himself.

The house of Stuart is so unfortunate, that I question, whether it would be in the power of all Europe joined, to restore it to its antient rights. There seems something of a fatality annexed to that name.

France made all the preparatives in his favour, and gave him all the assistance which the posture of affairs could admit of; but the whole design miscarried. A long time after, I, one day, asked the King, whether it had been his real intention, to place the Pretender on the throne of Great Britain? his answer was, that neither he nor his council ever thought it practicable; that this restoration depended on a multitude of second causes, the course of which was no longer under any political direction. The Marshal de Noailles one day said to him in my hearing, _Sir, if your Majesty would have had mass said in London, you should have sent an army of three hundred thousand men to officiate at it_.

In the mean time, young Edward, eager of doing something to be talked of, put to sea, and had a distant view of the kingdom, the possession of which both fate and policy denied to him. A tempest disappointed his landing, and scattered his fleet; yet the ardent Pretender would, in spight of the wind, make his landing good, and fight alone against all England. Versailles had received the most particular assurances, that he had a very strong party at London, and it was on this plan that the expedition had been formed.

It is not very long since I happened to be at the Marshal Bellisle’s; as he was looking for some writings in his closet, he put a paper into my hand, saying, _There, Madam, there is something for you to read; that letter has cost us a great many millions, which are gone to the bottom of the sea; it was directed to the court of France, by a party of_ Jacobites, _as they are called in England_. The words of it were these.

“_The tabernacle is ready, the holy sacrament need but appear, and we will go and meet it with the cross. The procession will be numerous, but the people here being very hard of belief, soldiers and arms will be necessary; for it is only by powder and ball, that the system of transubstantiation can be made to go down in England. Depend on it, that we will do every thing to the utmost of our power; and we can before hand assure you, that the landing once made, our party will have nothing to do but to pronounce these words_: ite, Missa est.”

In this letter were mentioned twenty-two persons, several of whom now hold a considerable rank in England. Sometime after, he showed me another, the tenor of which is this.

“_Whatever people say, the expedition is not difficult: a landing may easily be made; every tiring favours the revolution; the advantages religion gives us, will be greatly strengthed by political motives. The Hanoverian is hated, he is continually oppressing the nation, aiming both at absolute power, and draining the peoples substance._”

The attempt on England failing, fresh efforts were made in Italy for settling Don Philip; but this the King of Sardinia, who has the key of the Alps, opposed; and the Prince of Conti engaged to make his way through them. This was in some measure warring against God, who has separated the two states by inaccessible mountains. I have had several times read to me in my apartment, the transactions of that Prince in those impracticable climates; the taking Chateau Dauphin, and his other successes amidst those rocks and precipices: and the Prince of Conti in this expedition appears to me greater than many heroes whose fame is high; but great men have not always justice done them.

Lewis XV. who never had seen an army, was now for putting himself at the head of his troops, and determined to make his first campaign in Flanders. On his arrival, Courtray surrendered; and soon after Menin followed its example. The King himself, to the great encouragement of the soldiery, used to be present at the works.

This first campaign of the King’s having been much talked of in France; on the peace, I asked his Majesty, whether he had found in himself a fixed inclination for war. He at first eluded answering me, and talked in general terms; but a year after, in one of those moments of confidence, when the heart lays itself open in the arms of friendship, he told me it would have been his reigning passion; and that, without the recent example of his great-grand-father, and Cardinal Fleury’s earnest councils to him, he should totally have given himself up to war; but that the affection due to his people had got the better of his passion. Happy government, when the Monarch sacrifices his propensions to the welfare of his subjects!

Lewis was obliged to quit his first conquests, and fly to the assistance of Alsace, Prince Charles having passed the Rhine to invade several of the French provinces; but upon the King’s approach at the head of his army, the prince repassed the Rhine.

All the advantages which France had gained in Flanders did not much improve its situation. The Queen of Hungary’s alliance with England, Holland, Sardinia, and Saxony was too great a counterpoize. The king of Prussia himself made a convention with Great Britain, but had not included in his agreement that the house of Austria should become so powerful. In treaties between Sovereigns, it is always understood, that the party in favour of whom a neutrality is observed, shall not increase his forces beyond a certain relative proportion: now the house of Brandenburgh has more to fear from that of Austria than from any other in Europe; so he kept himself a mere spectator of the war, whilst the losses of France and the emperor were inconsiderable; but on the queen’s making a rapid progress, he armed to stop her career. I have since frequently asked the Marshal de Noailles, one of the greatest politicians in France, why Sovereign Princes make no scruple to commit these breaches of faith, which in common life are reckoned intolerable vices? His constant answer was, that these infractions were necessary, and that Europe even owed its safety to them: were it not for such failures, the universal commonwealth would soon be made subject to one single prince; and this he might compass, only by once bringing the others to stand neuter.

The King of Prussia’s first step, after his new alliance with France, was, to march with a powerful army towards Prague. Whilst all France was rejoicing at Frederic’s successes, advice came that the King was taken ill at Metz, and the symptoms were grown very dangerous: this caused a general affliction; I remember every body was in tears. These cordial marks of affection are a higher praise, and express his character better than all the flattering strokes with which writers will disfigure his history. I have talked with many who were present at the death of Lewis XIV. and according to them, not a tear was shed in France. Nobody was afflicted with the news; and his death was quite forgot before he was buried; heroism being less esteemed than goodness; and Lewis XV. is the best Prince that ever sat on a throne.

The beloved Monarch recovered, and then the nation’s joy exceeded its former consternation. He laid siege to Friburg in Brisgau, and razed its fortifications, as he had demolished those of other places which had yielded to his arms: A policy, which, perhaps, may prevent many wars hereafter.