against them, and the inferiority of their generals, they had little reason to complain of fortune. The negociations at Frankfort being brought to an issue, a treaty was there concluded, through the influence of France, between the emperor and the king of Prussia, the king of Sweden, as landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and the elector Palatine. The declared object of this treaty was to restore the Imperial dignity and the tranquillity of Germany; the contracting powers engaging either to persuade or oblige the queen of Hungary to acknowledge the title of Charles VII. to give up the archives of the empire still in her possession, and evacuate Bavaria; the emperor's claims on the Austrian succession to be settled by a friendly compromise, or juridical decision. So far the confederacy seemed laudable. But, by a separate article, which breathed a very different spirit, the king of Prussia engaged to put the emperor in possession of Bohemia, and to guarantee to him Upper-Austria, as soon as conquered, on condition that he should give up to his Prussian majesty the town and circle of Koningsgratz, in its whole extent, with all the country situated between the frontiers of Silesia and the river Elbe, and from the town and circle of Koningsgratz to the confines of Saxony. The king of Prussia, however, by previous agreement, and a separate treaty with the court of Versailles, was not obliged to take up arms, until he should see France act with vigour13.

In order to procure the ready co-operation of this politic, ambitious, and powerful prince, Lewis XV. put himself at the head of his army in Flanders, consisting of a hundred and twenty thousand men, as early as the season would permit, and invested Menin. The duke de Noailles, and the celebrated count Saxe, now a mareschal of France, commanded under him, and carried every thing before them. Menin surrendered in seven days. Ypres, fort Knocke, and Furnes, were reduced with almost equal

43. Mem. de Noailles, tom. iv.

facility.

facility. And the king of France entered Dunkirk in triumph, while the allied army, to the number of seventy thousand men, unable to obstruct his progress, continued posted behind the Scheld.

But Lewis XV. was soon obliged to quit this scene of conquest, and hasten to the defence of his own dominions. Having received intelligence that prince Charles of Lorrain had passed the Rhine, and entered Alsace at the head of sixty thousand Austrians, he dispatched the duke de Noailles with forty thousand choice troops, to join the mareschal de Coigni, who commanded in that province, while he himself followed with a farther reinforcement; leaving mareschal Saxe, with the remainder of his army, to oppose the allies in Flanders44. And the masterly movements of that consummate general, together with the want of concert between the Austrian and English commanders, d'Aremberg and Wade, prevented them from gaining any advantage during the campaign though now greatly superior in force.

Before the duke de Noailles could form a junction with Coigni, the prince of Lorrain had taken Weissenburg, and laid all Lower-Alsace under contribution. At Metz the king of France was seized with a fever, which threatened his life, and retarded the operations of his generals. Meanwhile prince Charles having got information that the king of Prussia had entered Bohemia, repassed the Rhine in sight of a superior army, and hastened to the relief of that kingdom. Lewis XV. after his recovery, laid siege to Friburg; and the reduction of this important place by the famous engineer count Louendahl, who had entered into the French service, concluded the business of the campaign on the side of Alsace.

The king of Prussia, on taking up arms, published a manifesto, in which he declared, That he could no longer remain an idle spectator of the troubles of Germany, but found himself obliged to make use of force, to restore the

44. Id. ibid.

power

power of the laws, and the authority of the emperor; that he desired nothing for himself, had no particular quarrel with the queen of Hungary, and had only entered into the war as an auxiliary, in order to assert the liberties of the Germanic body; that the emperor had offered to relinquish his claims on the Austrian succession, provided his. hereditary dominions were restored to him; and that the queen of Hungary had rejected this and all other equitable proposals.

Before the arrival of prince Charles, the Prussian monarch had made himself master of Prague, Tabor, and all Bohemia to the east of Moldaw. But these conquests were of short duration. Augustus III. king of Poland and elector of Saxony, animated by a British subsidy, ordered sixteen thousand men to join the prince of Lorrain. He was also joined by a large body of Hungarians, zealous in the cause of their sovereign, Maria-Theresa, who had acquired by her popular manner45, as well as her indulgences both civil and religious, an extraordinary interest in their affections; so that the king of Prussia, unable to to withstand so great a force, was obliged evacuate Bohemia, and retire with precepitation into Silesia. He was pursued thither by prince Charles; and the rigour of the season, only, perhaps, prevented the recovery of that valuable province. The Prussians in their retreat, lost above thirty thousand men, with all their heavy baggage, artillery, and waggons, loaded with provisions and plunder.

DECEMBER.

45. To old count Palfy, chief Palatine of Hungary, who had, on this occasion, caused the red standard of the kingdom to be displayed, as a signal for every man who could bear arms to turn out, she wrote the following letter, accompanied with a present of her own horse, richly caparisoned, a gold-hilted sword ornamented with diamonds, and a ring of great value:

"Father Palfy!

"I send you this horse, worthy of being mounted only by the most zeal. ous of my faithful subjects. Receive, at the same time, this sword, to defend me against mine enemies; and accept of this ring, as a mark of my af fection for you." MARIA-THERESA."

While the high minded Frederic III. was experiencing this sudden reverse of fortune, the dejected fugitive, Charles VII. got once more possession of his capital. Seckendorff, the Imperial general, having been joined by a body of French troops, had driven the Austrians out of Bavaria. But the retreat of the Prussians, and the rapid progress of the prince of Lorrain, filled the emperor with new apprehensions: and he was in danger of being a third time chased from his dominions, when death came to his reA.D. 1745. lief, and freed him from a complication of bodily ills, aggravated by the anguish of a wounded spirit. His son, Maximilian Joseph, being only seventeen years of age, could not become a candidate for the Imperial throne. He therefore, very wisely concluded, through the mediation of his Britannic majesty, notwithstanding all the intrigues of France, a treaty of peace with the queen of Hungary, who had again invaded Bavaria, and was ready to strip him of his whole electorate. By this treaty, Maria-Theresa agreed to recognize the Imperial dignity, as having been vested in the person of Charles VII. and to put his son in possession of all his hereditary dominions. On the other hand, the young elector renounced all claim to any part of the Austrian succession; consented to guarantee the pragmatic sanction, engaged to give his vote for the grand duke at the ensuing election of an emperor, and to dismiss the auxiliary troops in his service46.

This treaty it was confidently expected, would prove a prelude to a general pacification; as the cause of the war in Germany no longer existed; and the treaty of Frankfort, the avowed purpose of which was the support of the Imperial dignity, had now no object. The queen of Hungary, to procure peace, and the vote of Brandenburg for her husband would readily have agreed to confirm the treaty of Breslaw; and the king of Prussia, after his severe losses, could have required nothing more for himself than the

46. See the treaty in Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's Hist. of England,

vol. xi.

undisputed

undisputed possession of Silesia. But the court of France, which had begun the war out of policy, instigated and pensioned by that of Spain, resolved to continue it from passion; and his Britannic majesty was too intimately connected with the queen of Hungary, as well as too highly interested in preserving the balance of Europe to desert his allies at such a crisis.

The marquis d'Argenson, the French minister for war, who had at this time great influence in the cabinet, declared that France, having undertaken to give a head to the Germanic body, ought to hazard the last soldier, rather than suffer the grand duke to be elected emperor. The court of Versailles accordingly made an offer of the Imperial crown to Augustus III. king of Poland and elector of Saxony; but he, sensible that it was not in their gift, very prudently refused it unless it could be procured without violence; and renewed his engagements with the courts of London and Vienna. The French ministry, however, persisted in their resolution of opposing the election of the grand duke, and of continuing the war with vigour in Germany and the Low-Countries, in order to facilitate the operations of the combined forces of the house of Bourbon in Italy; where Elizabeth Farnese, who still directed all the measures of the court of Madrid, was determined, cost what it might, to establish a sovereignty for her second son, Don Philip, at the expense of Maria-Theresa47. And the success of the ensuing campaign seemed to justify her firmness and perseverance.

The republic of Genoa, which had been long wavering, at last concluded a treaty with the house of Bourbon, that

47. See Mem. Politiq. et Militaires, &c. composes sur les pieces originales recueilies, par Adrien Maurice, duc de Noailles, mareschal de France, et ministre d'etat, par M. l'Abbe Millot. It is not a little remarkable that the same Abbe, in his Elemens d'Hist. Gen. ascribes the continuance of the war, after the death of Charles VII. to the batred of the English against the French nation! He was not then favoured, it is to be presumed, with the papers of the duke de Noailles, which throw new light upon the subject.