Frederick the Great and Maria Theresa. From hitherto unpublished documents. 1740-1742 ... From the French by Mrs. Cashel Hoey and Mr. John Lillie

Preface

. The work now presented to my readers is composed of a series of historical studies that have appeared at intervals in the Revue des Deux Mondes. They were received with approval in the serial form, and I hope they may find favour in their present guise, from a more numerous public. I am aware that a portion of the interest which these narratives of a long past epoch possess, is due to the comparison that no one can have failed to draw, between the part played by France, Austria, and Prussia, the powers engaged in the war of 1740, and that which they have acted in the more tragic dramas of recent times. I think I have, however, successfully resisted the temptation to warp historic truth by seeking in the past misplaced allusions to the present. If, notwithstanding my scrupulous care, a resemblance between the events of the last, Preface.

VI and those of our own century be traced here and there, that similarity arises from the continuous presence of certain traits of national character, which are transmitted from generation to generation in all peoples, surviving the lapse of time and the vicissitudes of revolution. Thus it is that, notwithstanding the social revo lution which our country has undergone, to the pride of some and the grief of others, the French nation of to-day is more like that of the eighteenth century than it believes itself to be. Our ancestors were disposed, in their time, to do the very thing of which a French sovereign in ours con gratulated himself upon having had to repent ; they too would " go to war for an idea, — " preferring an ideal aim whose generosity and grandeur ap pealed to their imagination, to practical and positive results.

I think I have proved to my readers that on the death of the Emperor Charles VI., it would have been easy to have obtained from his daughter, Maria Theresa, such an accession of territory as would have strengthened the defence of our northern frontier, and probably rendered it secure for ever, by the surrender of the whole or a part of the Low Countries. To this practical, tangible, certain Preface. VII advantage, France preferred the " idea" of re-estab lishing the German Empire according to its primi tive conception ; that is to say, free from Austrian preponderance and heredity. Marshal de Belle-Isle, who was the author of that great project, and, for a brief space, its hero, was a true Frenchman in valour, vivacity, and resource. But, in order to carry out his enterprise, indeed even to render it possible, he had to begin by pro claiming the absolute disinterestedness of France, and her resolution to exact nothing for herself as the reward of her action; and Belle-Isle was still im pressing this upon Frederick II., at the very moment when our ally, whose calculations were of quite an other kind from ours, deserted us, to secure himself in the possession of a rich province, which he had captured by a surprise, and which is still held by Prussia.

For this " idea " did France rush into a great war, of which she had ultimately to bear the whole cost, and from which, under the best of circumstances, she could have derived only an' imaginary advantage. The re-establishment of the German Empire, striven for under such conditions as these, was simply a conception, under a form consonant with the spirit of the time, of that vague principle of nationality which we have Preface. VIII twice defended, and to which we have now fallen victims. Without straining history by an arbitrary assimilation of its facts, we may learn lessons from it which, however late, are not superfluous. October, 1882. CONTENTS.

Chapter I. The Invasion Of Silesia

Importance and interest of unpublished correspondence taken from state archives — New documents relating to the history of Frederick II. and Maria Theresa — Political correspondence of Maria Theresa — Correspondence of the French agents, taken from the archives of Foreign Affairs — Condition of the Austrian monarchy and the Prussian monarchy at the beginning of 1740 — The Pragmatic Sanction — Character of the heirs of those two monarchies, — The Archduchess Maria Theresa — The Prince Royal of Prussia — General uncertainty and expectation — Death of Frederick William, King of Prussia, and accession of Frederick II. — First measures taken by the new King — Colonel de Camas is sent to Paris, and Count von Truchsess to London — Their instructions — Camas is ordered to visit Voltaire at Brussels — Frederick goes to Strasburg incognito — His interview with Marshal de Broglie, Governor of that city — First meeting of Frederick and Voltaire, on the banks of the Rhine — PVederick's quarrel with the Bishop of Liege — Death of the Emperor Charles VI. — Consternation and uneasiness at Vienna — Maria Theresa takes the helm of government, and her example encourages and fortifies all — Protest of the Elector of Bavaria against the royal rule of Maria Theresa — Attitude of various powers — France — Formation of the Treaty of 1735, and guarantee of the succession appointed by the Pragmatic Sanction — Disposition and character of Cardinal Fleury — He hesitates to take a line — Prussia — Frederick takes military measures with an unknown pur- VOL. I. a Contents.

X pose— Fleury, in order to discover his designs, gives the Marquis de Beauvau an official, and Voltaire a secret, mission — Frederick's reception of Voltaire, and that of the Marquis de Valori, French Minister — Alarm at Vienna — Maria Theresa sends the Marquis de Botta to Berlin — Frederick demands from him the cession of Silesia, and prepares to invade that province — Count Gotter is sent to Vienna— His interview with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, husband of Maria Theresa — Resistance of the Grand Duke — Interview between Frederick and Valori— Frederick's proposals to France — He enters Silesia . . page 1

Chapter II

Intervention of France — State of Europe, and of the Empire at the commencement of the war — The policy which should have been pursued by France with regard to the German quarrel — Why that policy was not adopted — Reminiscences of the contest carried on, for two centuries, against the house of Austria — The success of that struggle had rendered it useless to protract it — Indecision in the Council of Louis XV. — The Court carries the day against the government, who therefore decide upon supporting the aggressions of Frederick and the claims of the Elector of Bavaria — Count de Belle- Isle — His birth, the opening of his career, his disposition — The first interview of Belle-Isle with Fleury — Fleury unwillingly follows Belle-Isle's advice — Effect of the intervention of France — Frederick becomes master of the position — Both England and France make advauces to him — A second interview between Frederick and Valori — He demands active intervention from France — England offers to mediate, but this proposal is rejected by Maria Theresa — The people of Silesia revolt — Frederick becomes uneasy — He makes advances to France — Belle-Isle is sent to Germany as ambassador to the Electoral Diet — State of Europe at the opening of the Diet — England — Holland — Russia — Sweden — The pretensions of Spain in Italy — Secret designs of the King of Sardinia— State of the Empire — Dismemberment and powerlessness of the German nation — Nominal power of the Emperor, the government, the administration of justice, and Contents.

XI the armies of the Empire — Religions dissensions — They in tensify political divisions — Irritation against France is shared by all parties in Germany — Cause of that irritation — Effect of this feeling on the part played by Frederick and by Prussia in Germany ....... page 108

Chapter III. Belle-isle At Frederick's Camp

Belle-Isle's entry into Germany — Character of his brother, the Chevalier — Belle-Isle visits the three Bishop-Electors of Treves, Cologne, and Mayence — Characters of these petty sovereigns, and the parts they played — Belle-Isle goes from Mayence to Dresden — Unfavourable disposition of the Elector of Saxony, King of Poland, towards France — This is opposed by his natural brother, Maurice de Saxe, Lieutenant- General in the service of France — The battle of Mollwitz — Flight, and subsequent victory of Frederick — He detaches himself from the French Alliance,andwishes to make advances to England — Belle-Isle repairs to the Prussian Camp — His interviews with the King — He departs without obtaining the immediate conclusion of the treaty of alliance — Fresh proposals are transmitted to Vienna by the English envoy, Lord Hyndford — Maria Theresa rejects them — Frederick makes up his mind to treat with France — The difficulty raised by him to the execution of the treaty . . . page 204 Appendix (1740-1742).

Chapter I. The Invasion Op Silesia

Importance and interest of unpublished correspondence taken from state archives — New documents relating to the history of Frederick II. and Maria Theresa — Political correspondence of Maria Theresa — -Correspondence of the French agents, taken from the archives of Foreign Affairs — Condition of the Austrian monarchy and the Prussian monarchy at the beginning of 1740 — The Pragmatic Sanction — Character of the heirs of those two monarchies — The Archduchess Maria Theresa — The Prince Royal of Prussia — General uncertainty and expectation — Death of Frederick William, King of Prussia, and accession of Frederick II. — First measures taken by the new King — Colonel de Camas is sent to Paris, and Count von Truchsess to London — Their instructions — Camas is ordered to visit Voltaire at Brussels — Frederick goes to Strasburg incognito — His interview with Marshal de Broglie, Governor of that city — First meeting of Frederick and Voltaire, on the banks of the Rhine — Frederick's quarrel with the Bishop of Liege — Death of the Emperor Charles VI. — Consternation and uneasiness at Vienna — Maria Theresa takes the helm of government, and her example encourages and fortifies all — Protest of the Elector of Bavaria against the royal rule of Maria Theresa — Attitude of various powers — France — Formation of the Treaty of 1735, and guarantee of the succession appointed VOL. I. B by the Pragmatic Sanction — Disposition aud character of Cardinal Fleury— He hesitates to take a line — Prussia — Frederick takes military measures with an unknown purpose — Fleury, in order to discover his designs, gives the Marquis de Beauvau an official, and Voltaire a secret mission — Frederick's reception of Voltaire, and that of the Marquis de Valori, French Minister — Alarm at Vienna — Maria Theresa sends the Marquis de Botta to Berlin — Frederick demands from him the cession of Silesia, and prepares to invade that province — Count Gotter is sent to Vienna — His interview with the Grand Duke of Tuscany, husband of Maria Theresa — Resistance of the Grand Duke — Interview between Frederick and Valori — Frederick's proposals to France — He enters Silesia.

The investigation of unpublished documents, recently brought to light from the long-sealed treasure-houses of State Papers, and the revela tion of them to the public, has become a favourite occupation among men of letters. For several years the archives of Vienna, St. Petersburg, and Berlin have been laid open to the investigation of students of history, and have furnished them with invaluable materials. Our own French collec tions, our public libraries, which are better classified and better managed than they used to be, are also more available, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself, which was formerly inaccessible, has been easier of approach for the last four or five years. The number of persons who avail themselves of these novel facilities is now so considerable that it is diffi cult to find a place in the reading-rooms, and manu scripts are in eager demand.

That it should be so is not at all surprising. I do not know of any occu pation more delightful, I may indeed say enthrall ing, than study of this kind. To communicate directly with the men of the past without the obligatory medium of an official historian, to find them at home, as it were, and off their guard, not in the attire and attitudes they have assumed to meet the eye of posterity in ready-made memoirs, but as they reveal themselves in documents never intended to meet the light of day, is equally instructive and amusing. To drink at the unadulterated spring of original correspondence is thenceforth to reject most other kinds of historic testimony. All besides seems artificial and dubious ; but, on the other hand, the smallest scrap of a note is of value, provided it be original and authentic.

If the writer is an obscure person, there is real interest in learning from him what was thought of the events upon which we are looking back, by those before whose eyes they took place, by those who actually touched them with their hands, by that great mass of men which makes up " public opinion." The details related may be insignificant in themselves, but we shall find that in most cases they reveal some trait of manners which helps us to trace the daily course of our forefathers' lives. If, however, one is so fortunate as to come upon the autograph letters of a famous man, then the very b paper seems to turn into a living thing under one's eyes. The character of the writing reveals that of the writer, and even allows one to trace his varying moods. If his pen-strokes differ, or are hurried, one can see his hand trembling with emotion, or thrilling with anger; an erasure, with a half-effaced phrase beneath it, tells the secret of a hidden thought or a restrained feeling.

How eagerly one pounces on a half-formed word, or an obscure indication, endeavouring to complete the one or discover the other, and what a triumph it is to succeed ! How swiftly the time flies that is devoted to this pursuit ! I am sure the most ardent lover of hunting feels no pleasure in that sport to be compared with this ; they who know it not have never experienced one of the keenest of intellectual delights. And then, when a particular search has been completed, there comes what may be called that counter-proof ; an operation which consists of ascer taining to what extent the information drawn from fresh sources, adds to, subtracts from, or modifies the accepted version of the facts. Generally speaking, this process of comparison proves a disap pointing one, and, to some extent, pulls down the pride of discovery.

In many instances we find that the most precious acquisitions effect very slioht changes in the general aspect of events, that the generally just impressions of contemporaries have been transmitted to posterity with tolerable ac curacy, and that, although truth has some times suffered eclipse, the mere action of time has sufficed clearly to reveal it. We become convinced, in short, that in the case of historical as in that of criminal justice, rectification is rarely necessary, and rehabilitation is seldom legitimate. It is, however, no less true that no sooner are facts put through this new crucible, than the whole history has to be reconstructed, even though it be for con firmation after revision. Of all the histories we learn in our school days, that which will least successfully stand the test of confrontation with original documents, that which most abounds in errors requiring correction, and where truths of great importance are most ignored or misunderstood, is, the history of the eighteenth century.

I was led to this conclusion while search ing into the nooks and corners of the diplomacy of Louis XV. In the course of my scrutiny I came across assertions which had been generally received and obediently transmitted from historian to historian, but which could no longer stand before the evidence of authentic documents. The fact, although at first it surprised me, appeared less remarkable on reflection. An explanation is to be found in the passionate controversies that sprang from the philosophic movement of the last century, in the influence exercised by that movement Al aria Theresa. 6 over contemporary events with which it had no overt connexion, and in the striking and terrible results that ensued from it. In such a conflict of opinion impartiality was impossible, all the more because men of letters (among whom we must count the historians), being called for the first time to play a part in politics, were all personally interested in the struggle.

There is not an incident of the last century, which witnessed so many and such strange events, that has not been used by the opposite parties in one sense or the other ; none stood aloof from both the adverse camps, all were partisans. When all were combatants no one could be a mere spectator, and consequently a faithful narrator. I will not say with M. de Maistre, that " history in the last century was only a prolonged con spiracy against truth," but I do venture to affirm that we have not, as yet, any history of the eighteenth century, properly so styled. That which is called history is simply the product of party-spirit, always recognizable by one characteristic feature — a blind credulity that admits the most baseless suspicions when it can turn them to advantage, and contests all evidence which it finds inconvenient.

Are we sufficiently far removed from those first impressions, are we so completely under the guid ance of good sense that we can at length form a correct judgment of a period from which we are divided by three generations? We are the grandchildren of the eighteenth century ; do we know better than the eye-witnesses of it, or than its direct heirs, what to think and say concerning it ? It is doubtful whether we do, for passions still run high, and many questions remain unsettled. One thing is, however, plain, if we are to deal with the subject at all, we must endeavour to see as clearly, to think as fairly, to make as few mistakes, and to accept as few falsehoods as possible. The study of original documents is the best means of attaining this end, and it is with such a purpose that I have consulted the last three books — very different in character and interest — that have been issued from the offices of the Berlin and Vienna Chanceries — D'Arneth's "History of Maria Theresa," Droysen's "History of Prussian Policy," and the political correspond ence of the great Frederick himself.1 These three books are destined to shed the light of truth on the great epoch that fills the central space of the eighteenth century, and is occupied by the equally prolonged and similarly illustrious reigns of Frederick II. and Maria Theresa.

No epoch is more worthy of profound study. Few more striking spectacles have ever been offered to the mind's eye 1 D'Arneth, Histoire de MerierThe'rese, ' 10 vols., Vienna, 1863 — 1879. H. G. Droysen, Histoire de la Politique Prus sienne, 5th part. Frederic le Grend, Leipzig, 1874 — 1881. Correspondence Politique de Frederic le Grend, 7 vols., Berlin, 1878—1881. than the simultaneous appearance on the stage of history of the free-thinking prince and the pious woman who ascended their respective thrones on the same day, and followed each other almost as closely to the grave, after they had occupied the world for forty years by a political, military, diplomatic, philosophic, and religious rivalry, which they bequeathed to their descendants, and which has survived all the vicissitudes of the French Revolution, and is not yet extinct, even in the present generation.

By an incomprehensible decree of Providence, the destinies of those two royal natures, so richly, but so differ ently gifted, were closely bound together, and entangled from first to last, so that all the acts of the one reacted upon those of the other. In the battle-field as well as in diplomatic conferences; whether they are disputing the possession of Silesia or the partition of Poland, Frederick and Maria Theresa are always to be seen confronting each other. Here is material ready made for one of those academic parallels after the fashion of Plutarch, in which our classical literature took delight in by gone days. Neither Droysen the Prussian, nor D'Arneth the Austrian, indulges in the puerilities ofcomparison and antithesis, but each has his favourite hero and his patriotic predilections.

Droysen, we find, has received confidential communications intended to glorify the memory of Maria Theresa's enemy, while M. d'Arneth allows his tender, loyal, almost filial respect to appear in every page of the work which is a monument to the illustrious ancestress of his sovereign, the Emperor of Austria. The influence of dynastic and national jealousy is to be traced in the narratives of both the Prussian and the Austrian ; there are many points of diver gence in their respective versions of the same facts, and several different or contradictory assertions. Both are conscientious writers, who have gone direct to the source, and who do their work with proofs in hand, and quotations noted. They are equally and absolutely trustworthy with respect to documents ; the records are full and correct ; that the advocates plead in opposite interests is only a useful element in the formation of a judgment on the facts and their issues.

The evidence that is, above all, veracious and irrefutable — in short, priceless — is that of Frederick himself, and we have recently been given access to this. It consists of seven volumes of political correspondence, perfectly intact, and comprises his most private cabinet notes. In this correspondence we have the whole Frederick, no longer the Frederick who has depicted himself in his " Histoire de mon Temps " with apparent frankness not devoid of art — no longer the transfigured Frederick who was adulated in Paris by hired flatterers, selected by himself from the highest ranks of literature and philosophy, but a Frederick with out mask or make-up, who issues his commands to his servants with cynical freedom that proves his sincerity. This Frederick is to be believed, even, nay especially, when himself is his theme ; for the harshest of his censors would have held himself guilty of calumny had he said of the King of Prussia what Frederick says.

Unfortunately these invaluable revelations do not go beyond the first four years of his reign ; but from these begin nings we can judge the man, and prejudge the sequel. I regard those first years, in which the great prince entered upon his career, as especially interesting to us. The dawn of the reign of Frederick II. is also the birth-time of that power which is now attaining to its full and colossal development under our eyes and at our expense. There is no French man but must feel a painful curiosity to know what it was in its cradle. Again, were not the early misfortunes and trials of Maria Theresa only the opening scenes of that great drama of which Sadowa was the close and Sedan the epilogue ? The stage is the same, the personages directly engaged, or who interpose in the action, are the same ; they are, as they were only yesterday, Prussia and Austria: France also, for, at both epochs in the strife of her neighbours, France was directly and immediately concerned beyond the Rhine.

Our diplomatists were negotiating at Berlin, in 1740, on the eve of the invasion of Silesia, just as they were negotiating at Berlin in 1866, on the eve of the invasion of Bohemia, and in 1740 our troops followed closely upon our diplomatists, even as they did fifteen years ago. To narrate the first passages of arms in the deadly duel between Frederick and Maria Theresa, is then, whether we mean it or not, to write a chapter of the history of France, and indeed of contemporary history. It was this relation between past events and recent occurrences, by which the present generation is still so deeply moved, that led me to make these studies. Later events have thrown a lurid retro spective light upon the former relations of Austria, France, and Prussia. Believing that many French readers besides myself would be struck with this, I thought a brief summary of the fresh information now placed within reach by the Chan ceries of Vienna and Berlin would be interesting, especially as I proposed to check and supple ment those foreign documents by others to be taken from our own archives.

To interpose France as a third interlocutor, represented by political or military agents, between Austria and Prussia — both loudly accusing each other or making confession, but also differing much and often in their respective narratives or estimates of the same incidents — would be a curious study, and one with a useful bearing upon contemporary events. I have been permitted by the various ministries to examine the reports of the French agents whose position during that critical epoch makes their testimony especially trustworthy and valuable. Observe that I say the French agents, not the French historians. The latter, on the contrary, have merely repeated, with stupid servility, everything that was dictated by Frederick, so that neither advantage nor instruction is to be gained from them.

But the government of Louis XV., having been by turns the ally and the enemy, now of Prussia, and again of Austria, and having carried into each of its successive alliances a great deal of inde cision, reserve, and distrust, its representatives, ministers or ambassadors, were in a position to know everything, while their minds were free to form independent judgments of men and things without passion or prejudice. They habitually avail them selves of this, with the frankness, vivacity, and good sense that were characteristic of the inter course of good society under the old regime. If their despatches did not add anything to our knowledge of events, they would still be lively and pleasant reading ; so that I hope to find favour for the necessary extracts from those documents. From general history, which may be read everywhere, and with which every one is familiar, I shall borrow only what is indispensable to enable my readers to follow the course of events.

I. On New Year's Day, 1740, two great German sovereigns, the Emperor Charles VI. and Frederick William, King of Prussia, were near their death. Their thrones were soon to devolve upon their respective heirs, under very different conditions. The long reign of Charles VI., which had been brilliant in its earlier years, was closing in humilia tion and misfortune. Since his accession to the throne, the Emperor had witnessed the final dissolu tion of that powerful agglomeration of States whose union under the hand of a great man, had, for a while, threatened Europe with the return of universal monarchy. Spain, with her great dependencies beyond the seas, had detached herself for ever from the vast inheritance of Charles V. ; with Naples and Sicily the whole southern portion of the Italian peninsula was also lost.

In the north of Italy the Austrian crown still retained extensive possessions on the two banks of the Po ; Milan and Tuscany and the duchies of Parma and Piacenza were still hers ; but even there her rule was menaced, either by the pretensions of the princes of the new Spanish dynasty, or by the growing ambition of the dukes of Savoy, who were masters of Piedmont, and had just assumed the title of Kings of Sardinia. The honour Alaria Theresa. 14 of the imperial arms had not been enhanced by an unfortunate campaign against France, recently fought in those very plains of Lombardy ; nor had they been more happily employed at the other end of Europe, on the banks of the Danube, where the Turks had just wrested Wallachia, Servia, and all the conquests of Prince Eugene from the Empire, by the Treaty of Belgrade.

These unfortunate cam paigns had exhausted the finances of the Empire, and disorganized its administration. It was not, however, upon these things that the dying prince chiefly brooded. His sleepless nights were haunted, and his malady was aggravated by other cares. It grieved him sorely that with his fading life the integrity of the royal inheritance which he had received from his ancestors must end. His race was dying out with him, for he had no male heir. Would his daughter, a princess of twenty-three years old, have the right or the power to assume the whole ? Nothing was more disputable than her right to do so, nothing less likely than her power. In former days the house of Austria had been com plimented upon the acquisition of its wide domains, not by force of arms, but by the more pacific method of princely alliances and conjugal unions; " Bella gerant alii : tu, felix Austria, nube :' but the consequence, of these extensions of territory, in the shape of family acquisitions, not that of conquest, and according to the rules of civil law, was that almost all the provinces united under the sceptre of the Hapsburgs, had come into its possession by marriage contracts, laden with charges of every kind, and testamentary dispositions that almost exhausted the varieties and complications of Germanic jurisprudence in matters of inheritance.

The extinction of the male line opened the way to litigious claims of all kinds on behalf of " agnate and cognate " kin of every degree. In vain had Charles VI. tried to anticipate those contending claims by regulating the succession by an edict to which he gave the name of " Pragmatic Sanction," reserved for the most solemn legislative acts of the Empire ; in vain had he obtained the guarantee of the principal powers of Europe for this edict at the cost of heavy sacrifices : he had no great faith in his own efforts, and events proved that he was not wrong. In his mind's eye the dying Emperor beheld the princes of his kin and his neighbourhood hurrying, on the day after his death, to claim a fragment of his Empire, each of them armed with a black letter title-deed. Would a woman's hand be strong enough to collect and bind together the loosened fasces of so many different States, and what was to become of the Imperial Crown, which, by virtue of a tenfold election, had become almost hereditary in the House of Austria, when there would no longer be a man's head to wear it ?