village of Niederschönfeld, by which he agreed to abandon to them Bavaria, on condition that Charles's troops should be allowed to occupy unmolested quarters between Franconia and Suabia. Maria Theresa seemed at first indisposed to ratify even terms so humiliating to the Emperor. She had become perhaps a little too much exalted by the rapid turn of fortune. She had caused herself to be crowned in Prague. She had received the homage of the Austrians, and entered Vienna in a sort of triumph. She now dreamt of nothing less than conquering Lorraine for herself, Alsace for the Empire; of hurling Charles VII. from the Imperial throne, and placing on it her own consort. She would not recognise Charles as Emperor, but accorded to him the title only of "Elector of Bavaria," and threatened to treat his troops as enemies wherever she should find them. But she was at length mollified, and consented that the Bavarian army, so long as it betrayed no design to renew hostilities, should remain in some neutral State of the Empire. Maria Theresa now caused the Bavarians to take an oath of fidelity and obedience to herself; whereupon the Emperor published an indignant protest against this proceeding of the "Grand Duchess of Tuscany."

Meanwhile the allied army of English and Germans, under the Earl of Stair, nearly 40,000 strong, which, from its destined object, had assumed the name of the "Pragmatic Army," had crossed the Meuse and Rhine in March and April, with a view to cut off the army of Bavaria from France. George II. had not concealed his intention of breaking the Treaty of Hanover of 1741, alleging as a ground that the duration of the neutrality stipulated in it had not been determined; and on June 19th he had joined the army in person. He found it in a most critical position. Lord Stair, who had never distinguished himself as a general, and was now falling into dotage, had led it into a narrow valley near Aschaffenburg, between Mount Spessart and the river Main; while Marshal Noailles, who had crossed the Rhine towards the end of April, by seizing the principal fords of the Main, both above and below the British position, had cut him off both from his magazines at Hanau, and from the supplies which he had expected to procure in Franconia. Nothing remained but for him to fight his way back to Hanau; but to accomplish this, it was necessary to pass the village of Dettingen, at the other extremity of the valley, which the French had occupied in force; while the line of

VOL. III.

• Menzel, Neuere Gesch. der Deutschen, B. v. S. 308 f.

BB

370

BATTLE OF DETTINGEN.

[Book VI. march lay along the river Main, the opposite bank of which had been occupied by the French, whose artillery began to make dreadful havoc with the British columns. Noailles had fortunately intrusted the command of the French division posted at Dettingen to his nephew, the Duke of Grammont, an inexperienced young man, who, thinking that he had to deal only with an advanced guard, quitted the strong position he had taken up to give battlea movement by which he placed himself between the British and the French batteries, and compelled the latter to suspend their fire. The British and Hanoverian infantry, with the King and the Duke of Cumberland at their head, now charged and routed the French, and thus opened the road to Hanau. In the BATTLE OF DETTINGEN, fought on June 27th, the French are said to have lost about 6000 men, and the British half that number. It is the last action in which a King of England has fought in person. But George II., or rather Lord Stair, did not know how to profit by his victory. Although the Pragmatic army was joined after the battle of Dettingen by 15,000 Dutch troops, under Prince Maurice of Nassau, nothing of importance was done during the remainder of the campaign. The French did not retire into Alsace till the approach of Prince Charles of Lorraine with the Austrians in August. The Croats, Pandours, and other Austrian partisans made forays as far as Lorraine; but towards the end of autumn the allies cantoned their forces in winter quarters that extended from Bavaria to Flanders.

The Emperor Charles VII., abandoned by all the world, had endeavoured to obtain the neutrality of his hereditary dominions, which Maria Theresa refused to grant without the concurrence of her allies; though, as we have said, she gave a verbal declaration that she would not attack the Bavarian army so long as it remained on neutral ground. Braunau and Straubing were surrendered to the Austrians; Ingoldstadt was taken early in October; and Charles VII., without dominions or money, went to hold his melancholy court at Frankfort. Much negociation went on in the course of 1743 between him and Lord Carteret for a settlement of his affairs with the Queen of Hungary. In answer to his last proposals in August, the English minister finally told him that Maria Theresa would make no peace unless she received entire satisfaction; that she demanded Lorraine, and would meanwhile hold Bavaria in pledge for it; that if Charles Albert desired a sincere reconciliation he should cause the German States to declare war against France, in order to reunite Alsace to the Empire, and cause Lorraine to be ceded to the Queen; and that on this

condition-which was of course an impossible one-Great Britain and the States-General would furnish him with subsidies.

Much negociation had also been going on in other quarters. As it was suspected that the King of Sardinia would not observe the Convention of February 1742, so unsatisfactory to his ambition, and that he would again listen to the overtures of France and Spain, the English ministry persuaded Maria Theresa to make a sacrifice in order to retain him. By a treaty between Great Britain, the Queen of Hungary, and the King of Sardinia, signed at Worms September 23rd 1743,* Charles Emanuel renounced his pretensions to Milan; the Queen of Hungary ceding to him the Vigevanesco, that part of the duchy of Pavia between the Po and the Tessino, the town and part of the duchy of Piacenza, and a portion of the district of Anghiera. Also whatever rights she might have to the marquisate of Finale; hoping that the Republic of Genoa would facilitate this agreement, in order that the King of Sardinia might have a communication with the sea. The Queen of Hungary promised to increase her army in Italy to 30,000 men as soon as the affairs of Germany would permit; while the King of Great Britain engaged to keep a strong fleet in the Mediterranean, and to pay Charles Emanuel annually 200,000l. so long as the war lasted, he keeping in the field an army of 45,000 men.

5

While Maria Theresa was thus procuring a slippery ally, her enemies were drawing closer their league against her. France and Spain signed a secret treaty of perpetual alliance at Fontainebleau, October 25th 1743. The treaty is remarkable as the precursor of the celebrated Family Compact between the French and Spanish Bourbons. The Spaniards, indeed, call it the Second Family Compact, the first being the Treaty of November 7th 1733,6 of which, with regard to colonial affairs, it was a renewal. But this treaty had a more special reference to Italy. Louis XV. engaged to declare war against Sardinia, and to aid Spain in conquering the Milanese. Philip V. transferred his claims to that duchy to his son, the Infant Don Philip, who was also to be put in possession of Parma and Piacenza. All the possessions ceded by France to the King of Sardinia, by the Treaty of Utrecht, were to be again wrested from him. A public alliance was to be formed, to which the Emperor Charles VII. was to accede; whose states, and even something more, were to be recovered for him. Under certain

Rousset, Recueil, t. xviii. p. 83; Wenck, Cod. jur. g. rec. t. i. p. 677.

The marquisate of Finale had been sold to the Genoese by Maria Theresa's

Ве

father, Charles VI., in 1713, and she had, consequently, no legal claim to it. Pfeffel, t. ii. p. 500.

See above, p. 337.

372

LOUIS XV. AIDS THE PRETENDER.

[Book VI. circumstances war was to be declared against England; in which case France was to assist in the recovery of Gibraltar, and also, if possible, of Minorca. The new colony of Georgia was to be destroyed, the Asiento withdrawn from England,' &c.

Hence the year 1744 brings with it a new phase of the war, of which the most remarkable events are, the declaration of war by France against Maria Theresa and George II.; the union formed in favour of the Emperor, and the fresh rupture between Austria and Prussia.

Early in that year, many indications betrayed the tone of France towards Great Britain. Louis XV., at the instigation of Cardinal Tencin, who owed his hat to the Pretender, called at Rome James III., invited the Chevalier de St. George, son of that phantom monarch, into France, with the view of assisting him in a descent upon England. An armament was prepared at Brest; the English fleet was to be overpowered, although there had yet been no declaration of war, and 15,000 men were to be thrown on the coasts of Great Britain. The news of these preparations excited some alarm in England. Precautions were taken against an invasion, and the Dutch, under the treaties of 1678 and 1716, sent 6000 men into England. In February, a descent was actually attempted, but without success, as Admiral Norris, aided by a tremendous storm, proved too strong for the French fleet. About the same time (Feb. 24th) a drawn action took place between the French, Spanish, and English fleets in the Mediterranean, near Toulon. The disputes between the English admirals, Matthews and Lestock, prevented them from acting in concert, and compelled Matthews to withdraw. The Spaniards and French, however, also complained of each other, and the quarrels of their admirals left the English masters of the Mediterranean; though the immediate result of the battle was that the Spaniards were enabled to send large supplies into Italy.

8

The campaign in that country in 1743 had not proved much more important than that of the preceding year. In December 1742 and in the following February, the Spaniards and French had renewed their attempts to penetrate into Piedmont, but without

The treaty does not seem to have been published in the usual collections, but it is in Cantillo, Tratados de Paz, 307, ap. Ranke, Preuss. Gesch. B. iii. S. 142.

8 M. Martin, speaking of this action, says, "Les alliés sortirent de la rade le 19 Février, et livrèrent aux Anglais, le 22, un combat qui resta indécis. C'était un résultat très-honorable pour ceux qui étaient les plus faibles en navires et en

canons."-Hist. de France, t. xv. p. 267. Here M. Martin suppresses the dissension between the English admirals, and the fact that the honour of the result was claimed by the Spaniards alone, and that the French admiral, De Court, was disgraced. See Coxe, Spanish Bourbons, vol. iii. p. 345 sq.

See preceding chapter.

success. On February 8th, Montemar, in attempting to form a junction with them, fought a drawn action with the Austrians under Count Traun, at Campo Santo on the Tanaro. The Prince de Conti and Don Philip passed the Var and succeeded in occupying Nice in April; but were compelled to relinquish the enterprise, as the Genoese Senate, alarmed by the threats of Admiral Matthews, who told them that if they permitted the French and Spaniards to pass through their territories, he should regard it as a breach of their neutrality and commence hostilities against them accordingly, refused the invaders a passage. They were, therefore, compelled to retire, leaving garrisons in Nice and Villa Franca. They then made an attempt by the valley of Barcelonette (July), penetrated into the valley of the Stura, and laid siege to Coni, September 12th. The King of Sardinia gave them battle on the 30th of that month at Madonna dell' Olmo; and, although they gained the advantage, the autumn floods and want of supplies compelled them to raise the siege (October 22nd), and retire with great loss over the mountains. Meanwhile in Southern Italy the Austrians had advanced into the Campagna. Don Carlos, believing himself menaced, marched against them; many bloody skirmishes took place in the neighbourhood of Veletri, but nothing decisive was accomplished, and in November the Austrians retired.

10

Louis XV. had made a formal declaration of war against George II. (March 15th 1743), and against Maria Theresa (April 26th), and in May he had put himself at the head of the grand army of the Netherlands. He is said to have been stimulated to this unwonted energy by a new mistress, Madame de la Tournelle, whom he created Duchess de Châteauroux; the fourth. sister of the family of Nesle that had successively passed into his incestuous embraces.' The army numbered 80,000 men under the command of Marshal Noailles and Count Maurice of Saxony. The latter, who, under the name of Marshal Saxe, became so celebrated as a general, was one of the numerous natural sons of Augustus II., the late King of Poland, by the beautiful Aurora von Königsmark, the foiled tempter of Charles XII. of Sweden. He had procured himself to be elected Duke of Courland by the States of that duchy in 1726, and after disputing his title with an heroic temerity against Russia and Poland, had finally placed himself in the service of France. Noailles had seen and appreciated his

10 It is related that the King's confessor, the Jesuit Lémeri, not being able to give him absolution, advised him, in order to save appearances, to communicate in blank, or with unconsecrated wafers. Louis was

so shocked with the proposal that he banished the confessor. Chronique du règne de Louis XV, ap. Martin, t. xv. p. 265. The story reflects still less credit on the Jesuit than on the King.