She likewise ordered the counts Osterman and Munich, with their adherents, to be tried; they were condemned to death, but pardoned on the scaffold, and sent in exile to Siberia. The Swedes, still encouraged by the intrigues of France, refused to listen to any terms of accommodation, unless Carelia, and the other conquests of the czar Peter, should be restored. The French court had expected to bring over the new empress to their measures; but they found her as well disposed as her predecessor to assist the house of Austria. She remitted a considerable sum of money to the queen of Hungary; and at the same time congratulated the elector of Bavaria on his elevation to the Imperial throne. The ceremony of her coronation was performed in May, with great solemnity, at Moscow; and in November she declared her nephew, the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, her successor, by the title of grand prince of all the Russias. The cessation of arms being expired, general Lasci reduced Fredericksheim, and obliged the Swedish army, commanded by count Lewenhaupt, to retire before him, from one place to another, until at length they were quite surrounded near Helsingsors. In this emergency the Swedish general submitted to a capitulation, by which his infantry were transported by sea to Sweden; his cavalry marched by land to Abo; and his artillery and magazines remained in the hands of the Russians. The king of Sweden being of an advanced age, the diet assembled in order to settle the succession; and the duke of Holstein-Gottorp, as grandson to the eldest sister of Charles XII., was declared next heir to the crown. A courier was immediately despatched to Moscow, to notify to the duke this determination of the diet; and this message was followed by a deputation; but when they understood that he had embraced the religion of the Greek church, and been acknowledged successor to the throne of Russia, they annulled his election for Sweden, and resolved that the succession should not be re-established until a peace should be concluded with the czarina. Conferences were opened at Abo for this purpose. In the meantime, the events of war had been so long unfortunate for Sweden, that it was absolutely necessary to appease the indignation of the people with some sacrifice. The generals Lewenhaupt and Bodenbrock were tried by a court-martial for misconduct; being found guilty and condemned to death, they applied to the diet, by which the sentence was confirmed. The term of the subsidy-treaty between Great Britain and Denmark expiring, his Danish majesty refused to renew it; nor would he accede to the peace of Breslau. On the other hand, he became subsidiary to France, with which also he concluded a new treaty of commerce.
THE KING OF SARDINIA DECLARES FOR THE HOUSE OF AUSTRIA.
The court of Versailles were now heartily tired of maintaining the war in Germany, and had actually made equitable proposals of peace to the queen of Hungary, by whom they were rejected. Thus repulsed, they redoubled their preparations; and endeavoured, by advantageous offers, to detach the king of Sardinia from the interest of the house of Austria. This prince had espoused a sister to the grand duke, who pressed him to declare for her brother, and the queen of Hungary promised to gratify him with some territories in the Milanese; besides, he thought the Spaniards had already gained too much ground in Italy; but, at the same time, he was afraid of being crushed between France and Spain, before he could be properly supported. He therefore temporized, and protracted the negotiation, until he was alarmed at the progress of the Spanish arms in Italy, and fixed in his determination by the subsidies of Great Britain. The Spanish army assembled at Rimini under the duke de Montemar; and being joined by the Neapolitan forces, amounted to sixty thousand men, furnished with a large train of artillery. About the beginning of May, they entered the Bolognese; then the king of Sardinia declaring against them, joined the Austrian army commanded by count Traun; marched into the duchy of Parma; and understanding that the duke of Modena had engaged in a treaty with the Spaniards, dispossessed that prince of his dominions. The duke de Montemar, seeing his army diminished by sickness and desertion, retreated to the kingdom of Naples, and was followed by the king of Sardinia as far-as Rimini.
Here he received intelligence that Don Philip, third son of his catholic majesty, had made an irruption into Savoy with another army of Spaniards, and already taken possession of Chamberri, the capital. He forthwith began his march for Piedmont. Don Philip abandoned Savoy at his approach, and retreating into Dauphiné, took post under the cannon of fort Barreaux. The king pursued him thither, and both armies remained in sight of each other till the month of December, when the marquis de Minas, an active and enterprising general, arrived from Madrid, and took upon him the command of the forces under Don Philip. This general’s first exploit was against the castle of Aspremont, in the neighbourhood of the Sardinian camp. He attacked it so vigorously, that the garrison was obliged to capitulate in four-and-forty hours. The loss of this important post compelled the king to retire into Piedmont, and the Spaniards marched back into Savoy, where they established their winter quarters. In the meantime the duke de Montemar, who directed the other Spanish army, though the duke of Modena was nominal generalissimo, resigned his command to count Gages, who attempted to penetrate into Tuscany; but was prevented by the vigilance of count Traun, the Austrian general. In December he quartered his troops in the Bolognese and Romagna; while the Austrians and Piedmontese were distributed in the Modenese and Parmesan. The pope was passive during the whole campaign; the Venetians maintained their neutrality, and the king of the two Sicilies was overawed by the British fleet in the Mediterranean.
The new ministry in England had sent out admiral Matthews to assume the command of this squadron, which had been for some time conducted by Lestock, an inferior officer, as Haddock had been obliged to resign his commission on account of his ill state of health. Matthews was likewise invested with the character of minister-plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia and the states of Italy. Immediately after he had taken possession of his command, he ordered captain Norris to destroy five Spanish galleys which had put into the bay of St. Tropez; and this service was effectually performed. In May he detached commodore Rowley, with eight sail, to cruise off the harbour of Toulon; and a great number of merchant ships belonging to the enemy fell into his hands. In August he sent commodore Martin with another squadron into the bay of Naples, to bombard that city, unless his Sicilian majesty would immediately recall his troops, which had joined the Spanish army, and promise to remain neutral during the continuance of the war. Naples was immediately filled with consternation; the king subscribed to these conditions; and the English squadron rejoined the admiral on the road of Hieres, which he had chosen for his winter station. Before this period he had landed some men at St. Remo, in the territories of Genoa, and destroyed the magazines that were erected for the use of the Spanish army. He had likewise ordered two of his cruisers to attack a Spanish ship of the line which lay at anchor in the port of Ajaccio, in the island of Corsica; but the Spanish captain set his men on shore, and blew up his ship, rather than she should fall into the hands of the English.
OPERATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES.
In the course of this year admiral Vernon and general Wentworth made another effort in the West Indies. They had in January received a reinforcement from England, and planned a new expedition, in concert with the governor of Jamaica, who accompanied them in their voyage. Their design was to disembark the troops at Porto-Bello, and march across the isthmus of Darien to attack the rich town of Panama. They sailed from Jamaica on the ninth day of March, and on the twenty-eighth arrived at Porto-Bello. There they held a council of war, in which it was resolved, that as the troops were sickly, the rainy season begun, and several transports not yet arrived, the intended expedition was become impracticable. In pursuance of this determination, the armament immediately returned to Jamaica, exhibiting a ridiculous spectacle of folly and irresolution.*
* In May, two English frigates, commanded by captain Smith and captain Stuart, fell in with three Spanish ships of war, near the island of St. Christopher’s. They forthwith engaged, and the action continued till night, by the favour of which the enemy retired to Porto Rico in a scattered condition.—In the month of September, the Tilbury ship of war, of sixty guns, was accidentally set on fire, and destroyed, off the island of Hispaniola, on which occasion one hundred and twenty-seven men perished; the rest were saved by captain Hoare of the Defiance, who happened to be on the same cruise.