The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia

by Voltaire

The courts of England, Poland, Denmark, Holstein, Mecklenburg, and Brandenburg, were severally agitated with intrigues and cabals.

Towards the end of the year 1716, and beginning of 1717, Gortz, who, as Bassewitz tells us in his Memoirs, was weary of having only the title of counsellor of Holstein, and being only private plenipotentiary to Charles XII. was the chief promoter of these intrigues, with which he intended to disturb the peace of all Europe. His design was to bring Charles XII. and the czar together, not only with a view to finish the war between them, but to unite them in friendship, to replace Stanislaus on the crown of Poland, and to wrest Bremen and Verden out of the hands of George I., king of England, and even to drive that prince from the English throne, in order to put it out of his power to appropriate to himself any part of the spoils of Charles XII.

There was at the same time a minister of his own character, who had formed a design to overturn the two kingdoms of England and France: this was cardinal Alberoni, who had more power at that time in Spain, than Gortz had in Sweden, and was of as bold and enterprising a spirit as himself, but much more powerful, as being at the head of affairs in a kingdom infinitely more rich, and never paid his creatures and dependants in copper money.

Gortz, from the borders of the Baltic Sea, soon formed a connexion with Alberoni in Spain. The cardinal and he both held a correspondence with all the wandering English who were in the interest of the house of Stuart. Gortz made visits to every place where he thought he was likely to find any enemies of king George, and went successively to Germany, Holland, Flanders, and Lorrain, and at length came to Paris, about the end of the year 1716. Cardinal Alberoni began, by remitting to him in Paris a million of French livres, in order (to use the cardinal's expression) to set fire to the train.

Gortz proposed, that Charles XII. should yield up several places to the czar, in order to be in a condition to recover all the others from his enemies, and that he might be at liberty to make a descent in Scotland, while the partisans of the Stuart family should make an effectual rising in England: after their former vain attempts to effect these views, it was necessary to deprive the king of England of his chief support, which at that time was the regent of France. It was certainly very extraordinary, to see France in league with England, against the grandson of Lewis XIV., whom she herself had placed on the throne of Spain, at the expence of her blood and treasure, notwithstanding the strong confederacy formed to oppose him; but it must be considered, that every thing was now out of its natural order, and the interests of the regent not those of the kingdom. Alberoni, at that time, was carrying on a confederacy in France against this very regent.[97] And the foundations of this grand project were laid almost as soon as the plan itself had been formed. Gortz was the first who was let into the secret, and was to have made a journey into Italy in disguise, to hold a conference with the pretender, in the neighbourhood of Rome; from thence he was to have hastened to the Hague, to have an interview with the czar, and then to have settled every thing with the king of Sweden.

The author of this History is particularly well informed of every circumstance here advanced, for baron Gortz proposed to him to accompany him in these journies; and, notwithstanding he was very young at that time, he was one of the first witnesses to a great part of these intrigues.

Gortz returned from Holland in the latter part of 1716, furnished with bills of exchange from cardinal Alberoni, and letters plenipotentiary from Charles XII. It is incontestable that the Jacobite party were to have made a rising in England, while Charles, in his return from Norway, was to make a descent in the north of Scotland. This prince, who had not been able to preserve his own dominions on the continent, was now going to invade and overrun those of his neighbours, and just escaped from his prison in Turkey, and from amidst the ruins of his own city of Stralsund, Europe might have beheld him placing the crown of Great Britain on the head of James III. in London, as he had before done that of Poland on Stanislaus at Warsaw.

The czar, who was acquainted with a part of Gortz's projects, waited for the unfolding of the rest, without entering into any of his plans, or indeed knowing them all. He was as fond of great and extraordinary enterprises as Charles XII., Gortz, or Alberoni; but then it was as the founder of a state, a lawgiver, and a sound politician; and perhaps Alberoni, Gortz, and even Charles himself, were rather men of restless souls, who sought after great adventures, than persons of solid understanding, who took their measures with a just precaution; or perhaps, after all, their ill successes may have subjected them to the charge of rashness and imprudence.

During Gortz's stay at the Hague, the czar did not see him, as it would have given too much umbrage to his friends the states-general, who were in close alliance with, and attached to, the party of the king of England; and even his ministers visited him only in private, and with great precaution, having orders from their master to hear all he had to offer, and to flatter him with hopes, without entering into any engagement, or making use of his (the czar's) name in their conferences. But, notwithstanding all these precautions, those who understood the nature of affairs, plainly saw by his inactivity, when he might have made a descent upon Scania with the joint fleets of Russia and Denmark, by his visible coolness towards his allies, and the little regard he paid to their complaints, and lastly, by this journey of his, that there was a great change in affairs, which would very soon manifest itself.

In the month of January, 1717, a Swedish packet-boat, which was carrying letters over to Holland, being forced by a storm upon the coast of Norway, put into harbour there. The letters were seized, and those of baron de Gortz and some other public ministers being opened, furnished sufficient evidence of the projected revolution. The court of Denmark communicated these letters to the English ministry, who gave orders for arresting the Swedish minister, Gillembourg, then at the court of London, and seizing his papers; upon examining which they discovered part of his correspondence with the Jacobites.