The greatest story in the world, period 3 (of 3)

by Horace G. Hutchinson

For the moment, however, the western nations are perhaps not considering them greatly. They are occupied with wars amongst themselves. France and Spain are in arms against each other within a very few years after the peace signed at Utrecht. In the Mediterranean, fighting is nearly perpetual. Venice takes part of Greece from the Turks, and the Turks regain it. Italy and the islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily are the scenes of battles and exchanges of territory. But still we have to remember what we have seen reason to note before, that we should quite misunderstand the effect of the wars if we were to estimate them by anything like the scale which the last Great War has painfully made known to us. The fighting was all done by the professional soldiers, and the numbers engaged were what we should deem very small, even in comparison with the far smaller population of the countries at that date. The area of the fighting was restricted, so that comparatively small tracts were laid waste; nor was the land so cultivated as it is now. There were not the same crops to be destroyed.

The Austrian Succession

After the war over the Spanish Succession, which terminated with the Peace of Utrecht in 1713, the most important of the wars of the same kind was that over the succession to the Austrian throne, which begun in 1740 on the accession of Maria Theresa, who was the daughter and heiress of the Emperor and Austrian Grand Duke, Charles VI.

Frederick II., King of Prussia, known in history as Frederick the Great, appears to have thought the opportunity good for getting a slice of Austrian territory for himself. It was that land which was called Silesia, and he claimed it on the ground that it had at one time belonged to the Electors of Brandenburg. The Electors of Brandenburg, we shall remember, had become rulers of the kingdom of Prussia.

Frederick was a great general, and two successive victories quickly induced Maria Theresa to make peace with him, ceding him a portion of that Silesia for which he had gone to war.

Maria Theresa was married to Francis of Lorraine, who was Grand Duke of Tuscany. She was of the Habsburg house. Louis XIV. was a Bourbon—a younger branch of the Capet family—and in direct descent from the Henry IV., who was the first of the Bourbons to be King of France. And of the same Bourbon family was the King of Spain and of Southern Italy and Sicily—"the Two Sicilies," as they were called.

Nearly thirty years before his death, the Emperor Charles had secured the assent of the great powers of Europe to his decree that if he died without sons his daughter should succeed to the Austrian dominions. The Bourbons, with others, had assented. Nevertheless, directly Charles died and Maria Theresa, according to this arrangement, claimed to succeed him, they took sides with the Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the throne.

For allies, she had only England, with Hanover, in the north, and, in the south, the small but ancient kingdom of Savoy, often, in course of the story, the object of fighting between France and Spain, yet still, after varying fortunes, maintaining its independence. Moreover, Sardinia, which had long been a Spanish possession, now belonged to Savoy. The armies of this small State had a great reputation, due to the genius for generalship shown by Prince Eugene of Savoy both against the Turks and in Marlborough's service.

Mainly, however, it was the valour and devotion of the Hungarians that saved Austria for Maria Theresa. The armies of France and Bavaria advanced through Russian territory, but they were flung back by Hungarians and Austrians. Maria Theresa returned to the throne from which she had fled. Her principal enemy, the Bavarian Elector, who had been chosen as Emperor, died, and her own husband, Francis, was elected Emperor in his place.

In the north, England and France met in the battles of Dettingen and Fontenoy. The English were assisted by the Dutch, for Holland was now a member of the alliance, but neither of the allies gained much glory in the campaign. They did at least divert some of the strength of France from the Austrian battlefields, while the armies of Savoy occupied the attention of Spain in Italy and also of such troops as France had to spare for that quarter of the far-flung war. Frederick the Great broke his word, with the cynicism which the Prussian has always shown since, and took the field on the side of France and Bavaria. Again he was victorious. He was confirmed in possession of Silesia, though he assented to the election of Francis as Emperor.