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.
M. de Maurepas was saying one day to me on this head, that the Turks and
Persians have scarce any fortified places, and that was the reason of
their seldom making war on one another. I have since heard, that most of
our wars in Europe were owing to this; that states confided too much in
bastions and citadels, which hindered negociations from taking effect.
If so, the famous Vauban, whose genius is so often extolled, must have
done a great deal of mischief to France.
In the mean time, the King of Prussia, who, by arming in favour of
France, had changed all the German systems, decamped from Prague; his
army fled before that of Prince Charles, who, repassing the Rhine in the
sight of the French, crossed the Elbe to attack the Prussians. I never
could come at a certain knowledge of this Prince Charles, who directed
most of the plans of this war; some speaking so very well of him, and
others so very ill, that I have not been able to form any settled
judgment of his character.
Marshal Noailles, who knows men, has told me that this Prince wanted
neither talents nor genius, but that the goodness of his heart
frustrated the qualities of his mind. Instead of having a will of his
own, added he, he suffers himself to be directed by those about him; and
these are not always the best head-pieces in the world. For instance,
continued he, Prince Charles is now at Brussels as Governor of the Low
Countries; but there is a German about him, who turns and winds him at
his pleasure, and his pleasure is not always what should be.
The Austrian power, which had been weakened by the king of Prussia’s
joining with France, now received an increase by an alliance with the
Elector of Saxony, King of Poland. This Monarch changed measures for the
same reason which had induced the King of Prussia to change.
All parties in these treaties deceived each other. France looked for
mighty advantages from a diversion which the King of Prussia was making
only for himself; and the King of Poland, who had engaged to furnish the
Queen with thirty thousand men, had a part of Silesia given to him,
which now did not belong to her.
Elevated with this alliance, and especially the assistance of England,
the council at Vienna hoped not only to recover Silesia, but even to
reduce French Flanders. They certainly did not consider that Lewis XV.
had committed the security of it to one, who was most likely to give a
good account of it to the kingdom: This was Count Maurice of Saxony.