My dignity was my disgrace,
And I was rais'd to shame.
[17] I.e., by advancing the King's views in favour of Hanover and encouraging the passion for war which Walpole had so long repressed. Carteret attended George II. throughout the campaign of 1743, and was even present—the last prime minister to take part in an action—at the Battle of Dettingen. He spoke German well, which greatly endeared him to the King.
THE ORIGIN OF THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR (1741-1748).
Source.—Samuel Boyse: Historical Review of the Transactions of Europe, 1739-45, pp. 69-73.
The late Emperor, in order to preserve the Succession of his hereditary Dominions entire, had obtain'd from the chief Powers in Europe, the Guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction of which it is therefore necessary to give the Reader some Account. Leopold, his Father, apprehensive of the Troubles which the Failure of the Male Line in his Family might excite not only in Germany, but in Europe, form'd the Design of settling the Succession in the Female Line, as the only way to prevent all Disputes, and keep his Dominions entire. He communicated his Intentions to his Sons Joseph and Charles (who both succeeded him) by whom this Regulation was approved; and afterwards by his Ministers he had it ratify'd in the Imperial Dyet. Joseph, his Successor, made no Alteration in it, and died without Male Issue. Charles VI. seven Years after his Accession, having no Male Heir, and seeing that if the Male Line should end in him, the right of Succession would remain in his Nieces, and not his Daughters, in order to secure the Succession to his own Posterity, by confining the Entail, had a new Instrument drawn up, which in 1720, after being approved by his Council, was sworn to by all the Estates of his hereditary Dominions. But foreign Courts, foreseeing the Difficulties that might attend it, were averse to intermeddle with it. In 1724 Great Britain and France refused to guarantee it, tho' then Mediators between the Emperor and Spain. This occasion'd the first Treaty of Vienna in 1725, in which this Prince threw himself into the Hands of Spain, and gave up Naples and Sicily on the sole Condition of that Crown's guaranteeing the Pragmatic Sanction. In 1726 he obtain'd the Guarantee of Russia, and some Months after the Imperial Dyet confirmed it as a Publick irrevocable Law. In 1731, by the second Treaty of Vienna, we consented to give it our Sanction; and in 1732, the King of Denmark, and the States General follow'd our Example. The Elector of Saxony in 1733 acquiesced in it, on account of the Emperor's contributing to raise him to the Throne of Poland, and by the last Treaty of Vienna in 1738, France also confirm'd it, in Consideration of the Cession of Lorrain. Yet both the Courts of Paris and Madrid, who had obtain'd large Accessions of Territory for their Guarantees, were the first to violate their Engagements; whereas Great Britain, Holland and Russia, who got nothing by theirs, continued firm to what they had promis'd.
The only Princes who refus'd to acknowledge it at the Emperor's Death, were the Electors of Bavaria, Cologne, and Palatine. As to the two first, their Interests were too nearly concern'd not to oppose a measure that defeated the Claim of their House to so rich and powerful a Succession: As to the latter, it is not well known what his Motives were, unless a Disinclination to the Austrian Interests, which he discover'd all his Life.
The Emperor in 1736, had married the Archduchess Mary Teresa, his eldest Daughter, to the Duke of Lorrain, for whom, by the succeeding Treaty of Vienna, he obtain'd the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The eminent Services his august House had received from this Prince and his Ancestors, very well entitled him to this illustrious Alliance. Had this monarch liv'd a little longer, it is thought he would have procured his Son-in-Law the Dignity of King of the Romans, a Step that would, in a great measure, have prevented the Confusions that follow'd, and which almost brought his Family to the Brink of Ruin. This fatal Neglect was owing to the Empress's Youth, and the Hopes conceived she might still have a Male Heir.
The Emperor was no sooner dead, than pursuant to his will, Mary Teresa, his eldest Daughter, was declared Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and peaceably invested in the Sovereignty of all his hereditary Dominions. This Princess immediately took care to notify her Accession to the different Courts of Europe, by whom she was acknowledged, and especially by that of France, who on this occasion renew'd its Assurance, in the strongest Terms, of performing its Guarantee of the Pragmatic Sanction. But her Letters of Notification to the Court of Munich were returned unopen'd, the Elector declaring he could not acknowledge the Princess's Titles, without Prejudice to his own Claim, as founded on the Will of Ferdinand I., which imported, "That the eldest Archduchess, Daughter of the said Ferdinand, who should be alive when the said Succession should be open, should succeed to the two Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia, in case there be no Male Heir of any of the three Brothers of that Emperor." Now the Male Line of that House being extinct by the Death of Charles VI., the Elector being descended from Anne, second daughter to Ferdinand I. (the eldest dying issueless) claimed the Succession as now open by the Terms of the Will. On the other hand, the Court of Vienna maintain'd that the Succession was not open, the last Words of the Will, according to the original Copy in the Austrian Archives being "in case there shall be no lawful Heir living of any of the Emperor's three Brothers."