A. D..

made at Seville, by which it was agreed that all the 1729. stipulations of the quadruple alliance should be fulfilled.

The treaty of Seville was confirmed by the emperor, 1731 and the Spanish troops took possession of Parma and Placentia. The contracting powers agreed to guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction, or law by which the emperor secured to his female heirs the succession of the Austrian dominions in case of his dying without male issue, and the peace of Europe was now restored.

But, on the death of Augustus king of Poland, Stanis- 1733. laus, who was recommended by the king of France, who had married his daughter, being a second time chosen king, the emperor and the Russians made the Poles proceed to another election, and choose the elector of Saxony, son of Augustus. The king of France entered into an alliance with the kings of Spain and Sardinia, and war was commenced against the emperor in Germany and Italy. The French arms were successful in Germany. In two campaigns the Spaniards became masters of Naples and Sicily; the troops of France and Savoy took Milan and other places, and gave the imperialists two complete defeats at Parma and at Guastella. The emperor was now desirous of peace; and as the pacific Fleury directed the councils of France, a treaty was easily brought about. Stanislaus was to resign his 1735. claim to the crown of Poland for the duchy of Lorrain, the duke of Lorrain being secured by Louis an annual pension of 3,500,000 livres till the death of John Gaston, the last of the house of Medici, and in that event the duchy of Tuscany; the emperor was to acknowledge Don Carlos as king of the two Sicilies, and to receive the duchies of Parma and Placentia; Novara and Tortona were to be given to the king of Sardinia; France was to give back her conquests in Germany, and to guarantee the Pragmatic Sanction. Peace was made at 1738. Vienna on these terms..

A. D.

1727.

Russia.

Catherine reigned but two years after the death of Peter. She died in the 38th year of her age, and her son Peter became emperor. After a short reign of three 1730. years, Peter also died. The Dolgoruki family, as the male line of the house of Romanov expired in him, thought this a favourable occasion for gaining the love of the nation by limiting the imperial authority. Deputies were sent to offer the crown, on certain conditions, to Anne, the widow of the duke of Courland, and daughter of the Tsar Ivan, brother of Peter the Great. She accepted the conditions; but when she found herself fixed on the throne, she tore the contract, and ruled with absolute power. Having no children, Anne fixed on marrying the daughter of her sister Catherine, duchess of Mecklenburg, also named Anne, to some foreign prince, and settling the succession on the offspring of their marriage. The princess was, therefore, united to Anton Ulrich of Brunswick-Bevern, by whom she bare 1740. a son named Ivan, who succeeded the empress.

Turkish wars.

The Turks had, in 1669, taken Candia from the Venetians. By the peace of Carlowitz (1699), the Venetians obtained the Morea, and some places in Dalmatia. While Charles XII. was in Turkey a war broke out between the Turks and Russians; but the Tsar, who had advanced to the Pruth, being greatly outnumbered 1711. by the army of the vizier, was glad to conclude a treaty. Immediately after the peace of Utrecht, sultan Ahmed III. declared war against the Venetians, and overran the Morea. The emperor, Charles VI., as guarantee of the peace of Carlowitz, declared war against the Turks, and prince Eugene gave the troops of the sultan a total defeat at Peterwaradin. He laid siege to Belgrade, de1717. feated an army that came to its relief, and compelled it to surrender.

1715.

1718.

A peace was made at Passarowitz, by which the Turks

surrendered Belgrade and the Bannat of Temiswar, but retained the Morea.

A. D.

The 1737.

Under the pretext of the incursions of the Nogai 1736. Tatars not being checked, the empress of Russia declared war against Turkey. A Russian army, under Münnich took possession of the Crimea. In the following campaign the town of Oczacoff was taken by storm. emperor now joined the Russians, as he was bound to do by treaty; but the imperial arms met little success, and a peace was concluded, to which the Russian empress, though her forces had gained a great victory at Chotin, was obliged to accede. Belgrade, Sabatch, and the Austrian part of Servia, were ceded to Turkey; Russia 1739. retained Azoph.

Persia Nadir Shah.

The dynasty of the Suffavies had occupied the throne of Persia for 220 years. Their latter princes had been effeminate sensualists, and capricious tyrants. In the reign of Shah Hoossein, Mahmood, an Affghan prince, 1722. invaded Persia, defeated the troops of Hoossein, and forced him to abdicate in his favour. Tamasp, the son of Hoossein, struggled ineffectually against the usurper. The Turks and the Russians invaded Persia. Mahmood 1725. dying, was succeeded by Ashraff, a valiant Affghan chief: but Tamasp was now supported by Nadir Kooli, who, from a low rank in one of the Turkish tribes in Khorassan, had, by his valour and talents, raised himself to power and importance. The fortune of war was adverse to the Affghan monarch; he was defeated, and 1729. afterwards slain.

Nadir was presented by Shah Tamasp with the four finest provinces of the empire. He turned his arms with success against the Turks; but while he was absent in Khorassan, Tamasp marched against them, was defeated, and reduced to make an ignominious peace. Nadir, inveighing against this national disgrace, dethroned the unhappy prince, and occupied his place. He then 1732. commenced operations anew against the Turkish forces,

and defeated them. Offended at a breach of friendship by the emperor of India, Nadir invaded that country. A. D. One great victory, near Delhi, laid the power of the 1738. descendant of Timoor at his feet. Upwards of 30,000,000 sterling of booty, and the annexation of the country west of the Indus to his dominions, rewarded the victory of Nadir, who committed less crimes in so great a conquest than almost any Asiatic victor. He afterwards subdued the kings of Bokhara and Khowaresm, and gained a final victory over the Turks in Armenia. For the last five years of his life, Nadir exercised the most dreadful tyranny: he blinded his brave son, Riza Kooli, massacred his subjects by thousands, and was at length as1747. sassinated by his own officers. His nephew, Adil Shah, seized on the supreme power, and murdered all the family of Nadir but his grandson, Shah Rokh, who ruled Khorassan while Persia was struggled for by contending chiefs.

CHAP. VII.

TIMES OF FREDERIC II.

The Silesian Wars.

1740. THE emperor Charles VI. was succeeded in his hereditary dominions by his daughter Maria Theresa, who was in her twenty-fourth year, and married to Francis duke of Lorrain, now grand duke of Tuscany. Various princes laid claim to the whole or a part of her dominions; but allegiance was readily sworn to her by all her subjects, and by her voluntarily taking the oath of their ancient sovereigns, she completely gained the affections of the Hungarians.

1741.

The first power by which she was assailed was Prussia. Frederic William, the late king, had amassed a consi

derable treasure, and formed an army of 60,000 men. His son, Frederic III., was young, talented, and ambitious he resolved to take advantage of the present state of the queen of Hungary, and he revived an antiquated claim to a part of Silesia. At the head of 30,000 men he overran a great part of that province, and took Breslau, its capital. He offered to aid the queen with men and money to protect the rest of her dominions, and to assist in obtaining the imperial throne for her husband, if she would cede to him Lower Silesia. Maria refused, and sent an army against him: their forces met at Molwitz, near Neiss, and the superiority of the Prussian infantry won the day.

France had guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction, and Fleury wished to observe it; but the princes and the young nobility were eager for war, and represented that the time was come for humbling the house of Austria, and exalting that of Bourbon, by diminishing the Austrian dominions, and raising to the imperial dignity the elector of Bavaria, the stipendiary of France.

The moderation of Louis yielded to these brilliant prospects treaties of spoliation and division were made with the elector of Bavaria and the kings of Prussia and Poland. The French forces were put in motion; Louis appointed the elector of Bavaria to be his lieutenantgeneral, with the marshals Belleisle and Broglio under him. The king of England, fearing for his German dominions, concluded a treaty of neutrality for Hanover.

The elector of Bavaria, being joined by Broglio, surprised Passau, and entering Upper Austria, took Lintz and menaced Vienna. The queen fled to Hungary, and, with her infant son in her arms, called on the assembled nobles for protection. They swore to defend her cause till death.* These were not idle words; crowds of warriors rushed to the field. To the astonishment of her enemies, 30,000 Hungarians marched to the relief of Vienna. The elector retired into Bohemia, where, joined by 15,000 Saxons, he took Prague, and having been * Moriamur pro rege nostro Maria Theresa.