Outlines of Universal History, Designed as a Text-book and for Private Reading

by George Park Fisher

Great as was the work of Peter, "he brought Russia prematurely into the circle of European politics. The result has been to turn the rulers of Russia away from home affairs, and the regular development of internal institutions, to foreign politics and the creation of a great military power." In his last years, the frugality of his own way of living in his new capital was in striking contrast with the splendor with which his queen, Catherine, preferred to surround herself. He died at the age of fifty-three, in consequence of plunging into icy water to save a boat in distress.

The document called "The Testament of Peter the Great," which explains what has to be done in order that Russia may conquer all Europe, is not genuine. It is first heard of in 1812, in a book published by Lesur, probably by direction of Napoleon I. "Lesur's book," says Mr. E. Schuyler, "was merely a pamphlet to justify the invasion of Russia by Napoleon." (Schuyler's Life of Peter the Great, vol. ii, p. 512.)

CHAPTER IV. WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCCESSION; GROWTH OP THE POWER OF PRUSSIA: THE DESTRUCTION OF POLAND.

THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION.—On the death of Augustus II., there were two competitors for the Polish crown,—his son, Augustus III. of Saxony, and Stanislaus Lesczinski whom France supported. After a contest, by the consent of the Emperor Charles VI., Lesczinski, whose daughter had married Louis XV., obtained the duchy of Lorraine, which thus became a possession of France (1735). In return, the emperor's son-in-law, Francis Stephen (afterwards Francis I.), was to have Tuscany; and France, in connection with the other powers, assented to the Pragmatic Sanction, according to which the hereditary possessions of Austria were to descend intact in the female line. It was expected that the empire would pass along with them.

PRUSSIA: FREDERICK WILLIAM I.—In 1611 the duchy of Prussia and the mark or electorate of Brandenburg were joined together. The duchy was then a fief of Poland. But under the Great Elector, Frederick William (1640-1688), this relation of the duchy to Poland ended. By him the military strength of the electorate was increased. Frederick, his son (1688-1713), with the emperor's license, took the title of King of Prussia (Frederick I.). He built up the city of Berlin, and encouraged art and learning. King Frederick William I. (1713-1740), unlike his predecessor, was exceedingly frugal in his court. He was upright and just in his principles, but extremely rough in his ways, and governed his own household, as well as his subjects generally, with a Spartan rigor. Individuals whom he met in the street, whose conduct or dress he thought unbecoming, he did not hesitate to scold, and he even used his cane to chastise them on the spot. He cared nothing for literature: artists and players were his abomination. He favored industry, and was a friend of the working-class. Every thing was done with despotic energy. He disciplined the military force of Prussia, and gathered at Potsdam a regiment of tall guards, made up of men of gigantic height, who were brought together from all quarters. He left to his son, Frederick II. (1740-1786), a strong army and a full treasury.

CHARACTER OF FREDERICK THE GREAT.—Young Frederick had no sympathy with his father's austere ways. The strict system of training arranged for him, in which he was cut off from Latin and from other studies for which he had a taste, his time all parceled out, and a succession of tasks rigorously ordained for him, he found a yoke too heavy to bear. Once he attempted to escape to the court of his uncle, George II. of England; but the scheme was discovered, and the incensed father was strongly inclined to execute the decree of a court-martial, which pronounced him worthy of death. Frederick, from the window of the place where he was confined, saw Katte, his favorite tutor, who had helped him in his attempt at flight, led to the scaffold, where he was hanged. In the later years of the old king, the relations of father and son were improved. The prince had for his abode the little town of Rheinsberg, where he could indulge, with a circle of congenial friends, in the studies and amusements to which he was partial. He grew up with a strong predilection for French literature, and for the French habits and fashions—free-thinking in religion included—which were now spreading over Europe. On his accession to the throne, Frederick broke up the Potsdam regiment of giants, and called back to Halle the philosopher Wolf, whom his father had banished. Frederick was visited by Voltaire, who at a later day took up his abode for a time with him in Berlin. But the king was fond of banter, and the foibles of each of these companions were a target for the unsparing wit of the other; so that eventually they parted company with mutual disgust. Later they resumed their correspondence, and never wholly lost their intellectual sympathy with each other. As a soldier, Frederick had not the military genius of the greatest captains. He applied superior talents to the discharge of the duties of a king, and to the business of war. He was cool, knew how to profit by his errors and to repair his losses, and to press forward in the darkest hour. Napoleon said of him that "he was great, especially at critical moments."

WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN SUCESSION—-Charles VI. was succeeded, in 1740, by his daughter Maria Theresa, who united in her character many of the finest qualities of a woman and of a sovereign. Notwithstanding the pragmatic sanction by which all the Austrian lands were to be hers, different princes deemed the occasion favorable for seizing on the whole, or on portions, of her inheritance. Charles, elector of Bavaria, claimed to be the lawful heir, and was aided by France, which was afraid of losing Lorraine if Maria Theresa's husband, Francis Stephen, should become emperor. Augustus III. of Poland was a participant in the plot. Frederick II. of Prussia claimed Silesia, and, after defeating the Austrians at Molwitz (1741), seized the greater part of that district. Soon after, the French and Bavarians overran Austria. The Bavarian elector was chosen emperor. Even the elector of Hanover (George II. of England) engaged not to assist the empress.

The claims to Austria were as follows:—

Augustus III., king of Saxony, and Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, had married daughters of the Emperor Joseph I. (the brother and predecessor of Charles VI.). The wife of Charles Albert was the younger daughter; but he appealed to an alleged provision in the will of the Emperor Ferdinand I., according to which the posterity of his daughter Anna (who married a Bavarian duke) was to inherit the duchy of Austria and Bohemia, in case his male descendants should die out. It was not to the male descendants, but to the legitimate descendants, however, that the will referred. The Bourbons in France and Spain seized the occasion to regain the possessions of Spain lost in the Peace of Utrecht (p. 466). Francis Stephen, the husband of Maria Theresa, it was feared, might seek to get back Lorraine from France (p. 474). Spain was anxious to recover Milan. Philip V. of Spain claimed the Austrian possessions on the basis of certain stipulations of Charles V. and Philip III. in the cession of them. To weaken the Austrian house in Germany, was an aim of France. The courts of France and Spain were ready, on all these grounds, to support Charles of Bavaria. They were ready, also, to support Frederick II. in legal claims which he set up to a portion of Silesia. The empress rejected the offer of Frederick to defend Austria if she would give up this territory.

SPIRIT OF THE EMPRESS: CESSION OF SILESIA.—Maria Theresa proved herself a Minerva. She threw herself for support on her Hungarian subjects, who responded with loyal enthusiasm to her appeal made at the Diet of Presburg. Her forces drove the Bavarian and French troops before them in Austria, entered Bavaria, and captured Munich. Reluctantly the queen, in the Peace of Breslau (1742), ceded Silesia to Frederick, in order to lessen the number of her antagonists. She was crowned (1743) in Prague, and at length gained an ally in George II. of England. The "Pragmatic Army," as it was called, defeated the French under Marshal Noailles at Dettingen. Sardinia and Saxony joined the Austrian alliance.