“Archduke Joseph, indeed, should the Emperor die, is not of age to govern his dominions; but the evils of minority cannot be compared to those which the want of a head to the empire would occasion.
“Not that the Queen of Hungary is in the least apprehensive of her heirs being deprived of a throne, the legal appenage of her family; her leading motive in this settlement is to prevent the needless effusion of blood.
“On the death of Charles VI. it was seen that all Europe cannot make an Emperor. The Elector of Bavaria, after being placed on that throne by foreign armies, was always in a tottering condition; so that had not death deprived him of the crown, he would have been obliged to resign it, &c.”
I have observed that ambassadors, in cases of personal interest, generally overlook the regard due to Princes by the law of nations. Here the Vienna minister would have France subvert the very foundations of the Imperial constitution, and make that crown hereditary, which had always been elective. He surely forgot that the house of Bourbon, as I have been told, had, at the treaty of Westphalia, made itself a guarantee of the liberties and privileges of the empire. His court seemed not to recollect that the election of a King of the Romans depended on the consent of the electors, in a diet held expressly for such election.
The King, on reading this Memoir, asked M. de Puisieux what he thought of the business. Sir, answered the Minister, you must consent to every thing; it is no longer worth France’s while to meddle with the affairs of Germany; at present the King of Prussia is able to keep up the balance in the North, and hinder the house of Austria from lording it over yours; so that all we have to do now, is to look on. The council, however, was of a different opinion; but it is not the first time that one man has been wiser than an assembly.
The court of Vienna was likewise busy in bringing the other courts of Europe to countenance this election. That of England represented to the Marquis de Mirepoix, that it was the interest of France to close with the making a King of the Romans; doubtless, because it was theirs. This court afterwards went farther, and George the Second affirmed, that the election of a King of the Romans did not depend on the Electoral college; that is, that the dignity of presumptive heir to the empire might be conferred without any deliberation of the electors, which was making the Imperial crown absolutely hereditary.
I remember all the memoirs of that time agree in the Archduke’s being very young, but they all likewise added, that an Emperor under age was better than a vacancy of the throne, which amounts to an approbation of a regular succession.
A politician of our court, with whom I was talking of this election, told me, that there was an article in the treaty of Westphalia, which formally settled this affair. It is there expressly said, That no election of a King of the Romans shall be entered on, unless the reigning emperor be out of the empire, and with an intent to be absent a long time, or for ever; or that age should render him incapable of government; or there should manifestly appear some great necessity on which the safety of the empire depended. But treaties are never followed, and no more was said of this, than if it had never existed.
The King of Prussia alone stood up in defence of the Electoral-college; but he had his reasons for this specious conduct. The election of a King of the Romans secured the empire to the house of Austria; and it has been believed by many, that he himself looked that way. There is indeed no ambition, of which a Prince, so powerful in war as to subdue several nations, is not susceptible.
I return to Versailles, from whence the affair of the King of the Romans has carried me too far. Lewis XV. as I have said elsewhere, was now a little relieved from the load of business imposed on him by the war; peace allowed him a leisure, which was the very felicity of my life. Amidst the confusion of sieges and battles, he had no settled residence. Flanders had several times deprived me of him; but the treaty of peace entirely restored him to me, and his confidence in me daily increased; so that he even imparted to me his uneasiness, for kings have their troubles both as men and as Princes.