364

REVOLUTION IN RUSSIA.

[BOOK VI. to strong drink, and had entirely gained their favour by her good humour and joviality. Her indolence made her utterly averse to business, and she would never have thought of encumbering herself with the cares of government had she not been restricted in her amusements, reproved for her behaviour, and, what was worst of all, threatened with a compulsory marriage with the ugly and disagreeable Anthony Ulrich, of Brunswick Bevern, brother of the Regent's husband. At the instigation, and with the money, of the French ambassador, La Chétardie, a revolution was effected, in which Lestocq, a surgeon, son of a French Protestant settled in Hanover, and one of Elizabeth's friends, was the chief agent. In the night of December 5th 1741, Elizabeth was escorted by about a hundred soldiers of the guard, who had previously secured the officer of the watch, to the winter palace, where they were joined by the rest of the soldiery. The Empress, her son Ivan and his sister, and all the members of the Government were arrested by their own sentinels, and by eight o'clock in the morning the revolution was accomplished. The Empress and her husband were conducted under custody from one place to another; while the unfortunate Ivan was thrown into a wretched dungeon, and treated as an idiot. Marshal Münnich, Ostermann, and others were banished to Siberia.

Elizabeth, in the manifest which she published on the day of her accession, declared that the throne belonged to her by right of birth, in face of the celebrated ukase issued by her father in 1722, which empowered the reigning sovereign to name his successor;59 and her whole reign promised to be a Muscovite reaction against the principles of reform and progress adopted by Peter the Great. On communicating her accession to the Swedish Government, she expressed her desire for peace, and her wish to restore matters to the footing on which they had been placed by the Treaty of Nystadt. The Swedes, who took credit for having assisted the revolution. which raised her to the throne, demanded from the gratitude of the Empress the restitution of all Finnland, with the town of Wiborg and part of Carelia; but Elizabeth, with whom it was a point of honour to cede none of the conquests of her father, would consent to nothing further than the re-establishment of the Peace of Nystadt. On the renewal of the war the Swedes were again unsuccessful in every rencounter, as they had been before. General Bousquet, who had succeeded Löwenhaupt, cashiered for incapacity, and afterwards beheaded, concluded a disgraceful capitulation with

59 See above, p. 328.

CHAP. III.]

ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN ALLIANCE.

365

the Russians Sept. 4th 1742, by which ten Finnish regiments were disarmed, and the Swedish regiments permitted to return home only on condition of abandoning all Finnland.

These events spread consternation throughout Sweden. Peace was now earnestly desired, and the Diet was summoned to deliberate on the situation of the kingdom. The Swedish Queen, Ulrica Eleanora, who, in spite of her close affinity with the House of Holstein, was always decidedly opposed to it, had died Nov. 23rd 1741; and the Diet, in order to conciliate the Empress Elizabeth, resolved to name her nephew, Charles Peter Ulric, Duke of HolsteinGottorp, to the succession of the Swedish throne. But Elizabeth had higher views for that young prince. On Nov. 18th 1742, before the arrival of the Swedish deputies at St. Petersburg, she had declared him Grand Duke and heir presumptive of the Russian throne, and he publicly embraced the Greek confession of faith.

At this period Russia renewed her alliance with Great Britain, with a view to the preservation of the general peace of Europe, and especially that of the North. By the Treaty of Moscow, Dec. 11th 1742, the two Powers were reciprocally to assist and advise each other in their wars, except those which Russia might wage with the Ottoman Porte and the East, or those which England might be carrying on in the Spanish peninsula and in Italy. The Kings of Poland and Prussia and the States-General were to be invited to accede to the treaty.60 This alliance increased the difficulties of the Swedish Government, and caused them to throw their eyes upon Denmark, as the only Power that could aid them in their distress. A project was formed to renew the ancient union of the three Scandinavian kingdoms, and Christian VI. of Denmark, on condition that his son Frederick should be appointed to the succession of the Swedish crown, offered the aid of twelve ships of the line, and of an army of 12,000 men. The report of this alliance assisted the Swedes in their negociations with Russia in the Congress already opened at Abo in Finnland. The Russians wished to preserve the greater part of their conquests; but the menace of the Swedish plenipotentiaries that if a peace were not concluded by June 26th 1743 the Prince Royal of Denmark should be elected to succeed to the Swedish throne, induced the Court of St. Petersburg somewhat to moderate its pretensions. Elizabeth wished to procure the crown of Sweden for Adolphus Frederick of Holstein-Gottorp, Bishop of Lübeck, who was the guardian of her nephew, Charles Peter Ulric. Preliminaries were signed and an armistice agreed

60 Wenck, t. i. p. 645.

366

PEACE OF ABO.

[BOOK VI. on June 27th; when, after the election of Adolphus Frederick by the Swedes, the restitution of the Swedish provinces by Russia was to be arranged in a definitive treaty.61

The peasants of Dalecarlia, incited, it is said, by a promise of assistance from Denmark, and supported with Danish money, opposed the election of the Russian protégé. They even entered Stockholm in arms, and it became necessary to employ the regular troops against them. After this insurrection had been quelled, the Bishop of Lübeck was elected July 4th 1743; and the treaty of peace was then proceeded with and signed August 17th. By the TREATY OF ABO 62 Sweden ceded to Russia in perpetuity all the provinces and places assigned to the latter Power by the Peace of Nystadt. Russia, on the other hand, restored her recent conquests, except the province of Kymmenegord, the towns and fortresses of Friedrichshamn and Willmanstrand, and some other places. Henceforth the river Kimmené was to form the boundary of the two States. The inhabitants of the places ceded by Sweden were to enjoy their former civil and religious privileges. The Russians insisted upon a clause for the extradition not only of fugitive criminals, but even subjects. Their object was to be able to reclaim the serfs who might cross the borders; but it is singular that the Swedes should have made the condition reciprocal, the Swedish peasants being not only free, but even forming one of the orders of the national States.

By this peace Sweden for ever renounced the hope of recovering the provinces situated on the Gulf of Finnland. The conclusion of it, and the election of Adolphus Frederick of Holstein as successor to the Swedish throne, had nearly involved Sweden in a war with Denmark. Christian VI. prepared to assert by force the rights of his son; George II., as Elector of Hanover, was disposed to assist him; while the Empress of Russia sent to the aid of Sweden a formidable fleet and army, and promised a subsidy of 400,000 roubles. After much negociation, however, an arrangement was concluded in February 1744, by which the Prince Royal of Denmark renounced his pretensions to the Swedish succession.

But we must now return, in another chapter, to the war of the Spanish Succession, in which Great Britain was preparing to take a more decisive part.

CHAP. IV.] ENGLISH ENTHUSIASM FOR MARIA THERESA.

367

CHAPTER IV.

THE year 1743 opened with the death of Cardinal Fleury (Jan. 29th), who had attained his ninetieth year, and was almost sunk in the dotage of a second childhood. A few months before his death, when Belle-Isle and his army were in jeopardy in Bohemia, Fleury had instructed him to make peace at any price; and at the same time, in a letter to Field-Marshal Königseck, the Austrian commander, with whom Belle-Isle had to treat, denounced him as the author of the war, declared that it had been undertaken against his own feelings and principles, and made something very like an appeal to the mercy of the Court of Vienna. Maria Theresa immediately caused this effusion to be published, and exposed the Cabinet of Versailles to the laughter of all Europe.' After Fleury's death, Louis XV. declared that in future he should govern for himself, but in fact left the conduct of affairs to the heads of the four ministerial departments. The natural consequence was an almost complete anarchy in the government.

England also had previously lost her pacific minister by the retirement of Sir Robert Walpole." The cause of Maria Theresa had begun to excite a remarkable enthusiasm in England. Even the women had raised by private subscription a large fund for her use, to which the Duchess of Marlborough is said to have contributed 40,000l.; but the high-spirited young Queen declined to receive an aid which bore the appearance of an alms. The desire of the English for more decisive measures was further stimulated by the ill success which had hitherto attended their naval expeditions to America, and which was attributed to Walpole. The convention of neutrality entered into by George II. in September

'Martin, Hist. de France, t. xv. p. 250 sq.

It is surely beneath the dignity of History that M. Martin (Ibid. p. 248), after Flassan, should quote as genuine from Coxe's Memoirs of Sir R. Walpole,

vol. i. p. 686 note, a pretended letter of Walpole's to Cardinal Fleury, requesting three million livres to buy members of Parliament, without intimating that Coxe cites it as a fabrication.

368

AUSTRIAN AND BAVARIAN WAR.

[BOOK VI. 1741, and the extortion of his vote for the Elector of Bavaria, properly concerned that prince only as Elector of Hanover; yet, as he was also King of England, they were felt as a disgrace by the English people. The elections that year went against Walpole, and in February 1742 he found himself compelled to resign. He was succeeded in the administration by Pulteney, Earl of Bath, though Lord Carteret was virtually prime minister. Carteret was an ardent supporter of the cause of Maria Theresa. His accession to office was immediately followed by a large increase of the army and navy; five millions were voted for carrying on the war, and a subsidy of 500,000l. for the Queen of Hungary. The Earl of Stair, with an army of 16,000 men, afterwards reinforced by a large body of Hanoverians and Hessians in British pay, was despatched into the Netherlands to co-operate with the Dutch. But though the States-General, at the instance of the British Cabinet, voted Maria Theresa a subsidy, they were not yet prepared to take an active part in a war which might ultimately involve them in hostilities with France. The exertions of the English ministry in favour of the Queen of Hungary had therefore been confined during the year 1742 to diplomacy, and they had helped to bring about, as we have already seen, the Peace of Breslau. In 1743 they were able to do more; but we must first cast our eyes on the affairs of the Emperor and the Queen of Hungary.

By the expulsion of the Austrians from Bavaria, recorded in the preceding chapter, Charles VII. was enabled to return to Munich in April 1743. Seckendorf now advised him to follow the example of Prussia and Saxony, and make his peace with Maria Theresa. Charles, however, could not resolve to humble himself before the proud young Queen whose crown he had so recently claimed as his property. While he was debating the point with the French generals, a Bavarian division of 7000 men under Minucci was attacked by the Austrians under Prince Charles of Lorraine and Khevenhiller at Simpach, near Braunau, and almost annihilated (May 9th). After this blow Broglie, who had assumed the command of the French army in Bavaria, and who was always at variance with Seckendorf, suddenly set off for the Rhine with his troops, thus leaving Bavaria again at the mercy of the Austrians, as Seckendorf, with his remaining 10,000 men, was unable to defend it. On June 12th, the Austrian general, Nadasti, took Munich after a short bombardment. Charles VII. was now again obliged to fly, and took refuge at Augsburg. At his command, Seckendorf made a Convention with the Austrians at the