1913 691 The Antecedents of the Treaty of Hanover p year 1725 saw a revolution in European politics. The Downloaded from _L death of Peter the Great on 8 February, which created a new situation in the north, waa followed by the treaties of Vienna between Austria and Spain, winch changed the whole political oonditionB of the sorrth. ^grJu-tt them, mainly, was directed the treaty of alliance between Great Britain, Fiance, and Prussia signed at Hanover on 3 September. Yet this was not http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ the reply first planned by George I; when at the beginning of March came to London news of Peter the Great's death and the first surprising intimations of private overtures made by Spain to Austria, negotiations actually in progress between the three powers were allowed to lapse, and a league against Austria was derised which left out Prussia. Later, a new treaty with France was drafted, and this was hurriedly altered to inntuHft at McMaster University Library on July 26, 2015 Prussia, when Frederick William I came to Hanover at the end of July and was found amenablp. At the beginning of the year five foreign negotiations engaged the attention of George I and hi* secretaries of state, Lord Towns- hend and the duke of Newcastle, negotiations * interwoven together', to use Newcastle's phrase,1 and soon to produce a very maze of complication. Firstly, George and Louis XV were posing as joint mediators between Austria and Spain, with the object of completing the settlement of southern Europe on the conditions of the quadruple alliance. Although during three years unceasing correspondence witji the courts of Vienna and Madrid had failed to obtain concessions from either, the pleni- potentiaries assembled at Cambray, the offiaial seat of the mediation, were busy with such work as was left to them without guessing how soon they were to disperse.1 The very obstinacy of Austria and Spain removed the thought of the possibility of their separate agreement. Secondly, Campredon at St. Petersburg was still employed upon the projeoted alliance between France, Great Britain, and Bussia, and here also the expectation that - ' ' Th» tJUia of th» North tad Sooth MX» to fatUrworm toylhrr. thai «ny or rub tin* htpparn in ttthv ^m, mm* in ooua^atDe* liEwt th* o4hcr' (to Hondo W*lpoU u Pufc, 4 T«brw7 (OJ.) 17M, Brfthh Munm, Add. MS. 31741). * Tor tb» oonfrw* of Cunbzmj M* Damtf, L* Due d* Smmiom * FA eh. fl ; BuQ WQfiunt, tnte, xr. 481 fl. TyJ 602 TEE ANTECEDENTS OF TBS October Peter the Great would accept the draft treaty lent him in October, though, not so confident as heretofore, was still maintained.* The third negotiation wa» that -with Prussia referred to. Fourthly, Stephen Poyntx at Stockholm was employing all possible means to re-establish the influence of George I in* Sweden. And, lastly, George had joined with other protestant sovereigns in violent expostulation with Augustus II of Poland against the per- secution of the Polish protestants, which had oulminated in December in the so-called ' blood-bath ' of Thorn. Downloaded from Tracing developments to the beginning of June, of the cautes which broke up the congress of Cambray little need be said; they have frequently been narrated.4 And in the north we have only to note the change of rule in Russia.; the difficulties with Catherine I came later. But the Prussian negotiation requires http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ treatment in some detail, if only as throwing a bright light on the position and politics of Frederick William I, and the Polish difficulty must be stated, for everything was complicated by it. We have seen * how, in 1724, the endeavours of George I to procure the accession of France to the treaty of Charlottenburg resulted in French consent to take Prussia into alliance in another way. A draft treaty was prepared at Paris and sent to London in November. When Count de Broghe intimated its receipt to at McMaster University Library on July 26, 2015 the Prussian envoy there, Baron W&Uenrodt, the latter under- stood that Russia was to be invited to join, and Frederick William, in reply to his report, wrote that he would enter into engagements with the tsar without difficulty, but into none with the emperor or the king of Poland, who were olearly of accord to do him all the harm they oould. At the same time he reminded his envoy that it was his constant tn*Tim not wilHngiy to bind hi* hands by new alliances, but rather to await conjunctures which fresh disturbances in Europe might produce and then take measures in accordance with hia own convenience.' • A**, xxrti. 003-10. In 17tft th* Omtitr cU Omffir, going u •~Hiwii~ from Fnoa to Denmark, wu f"VrmtH : ' L* Cur •'Atoi* »rpKqnl 6» nunUn qnt ] Vi 1rJ1idJ*h icnaqiH k mart •akrrm m pdao* ' (StcmtH i*$ Inttnctiom* iommim mac Ambatmdnn « MtmMrw i* Irvact, rffl. 111). • Pwtfcokrir, Syrian, UMCom-ttmAvntmiwmu XVIIFBUd*. Aha, bmSdm th» gturtl UctoriM, Anutnnf, &U*&tX TmntM, 6b. x i Ajawth, Prim Smftu «m» &noyn, TOL tti, oh. Til; BwidiilUrt, Ftiift* 7 «la Con- dt frame*, TOI. iil; Ptmog1! wade abtd j BuQ WttB*m», taH, TTJ. IT. A ptt ' Btktkn Ccmmtnu ' of 11 M»y by 84.3»pharfn «ad th* Tfnocb miniiUr *t Vkmn, Dn Borag (B«x»d Offlo*. Gtcnuny (Empfrt) SSXfiTMftdaUikd toooant of tbe moua-wimnbjiimjwttchmd Kippeidi'i doinfi sad of th«ir dmUnft with th» Anttrbfl nitnirtwi. Tb«ir princij*l wu tbe mfarirt<T of SATOT, tb* Itaqiifi dn Bmdl (Soluo dl Br^flo), wboM dunottf 1 A**, xxrtL *»-A 010^11. * Wtlknrodt, 11 tad U Normabc, toi rworipta to him of 9 and It Deoembcr, 1913 TREATY OF HANOVER On the French side, diplomatic intercourse between France and Prussia being in the hands of secretaries only, the negotia- tion was entrusted to Count Rottembonrg, plenipotentiary at Cambray and formerly ambassador at Berlin, who had long worked to bring Prussia and France together.7 So great was the secrecy demanded, that Townshend warned Wallenrodt neither to say a word to the king's Hanoverian ministers nor even to send his dispatches through Hanover/ while Rottem- bourg either oommunicated with Hgen personally by private Downloaded from messengers or, as later arranged, sent his letters to the Prussian envoy at the Hague by a route which escaped the imperial post- offices at Antwerp and Brussels.* The draft, after settlement between England and France, was sent to Berlin by Rottembourg on 15 December, with a long http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ letter to Tlgyn discussing it in detail and full of ardent assurance*.10 Besides the ordinary stipulations of a defensive treaty it contained provisions as to the employment of the obligatory contingents of Hanover and Prussia in the case of war between France and the empire, and, to attract the king of Prussia, engagements to support his rights in Neuohatel and Vallengin and his claim to the succession to Cleves and Juliers.u The treaties named for guarantee were those of Utrecht and Baden, of the Hague and at McMaster University Library on July 26, 2015 London (the triple and quadruple alliances), and the Swedish treaties of 1719-20 with Hanover, Great Britain, and Prufdia. The Dutch republio was named as a power specially to be ir rited to accede, and another clause exempted France from adhesion to the protestant engagemente of the British treaty of Stockholm. Frederick William was not slow to mark the deficiencies of the treaty from his point of view. He contrasted the little protection afforded him by the treaties to be guaranteed with the great responsibilities which they imposed upon him. He was interested, he said, only in that of Utrecht, which had given Prussia her share of Guelders, and his own of Stockholm, by which he held Stettin and its district. But for the former he required no further security, and for the latter he had a French guarantee already. Qn the other hand, hardly any disturbance oould take place in Europe in which the other treaties would not oblige him to take part in arms. France, he said, ought to guarantee him all his possessions both within and without the 7 Cocipu* hit WtUa of 3 July and IS Stptambor 1714, Aid. • Walknrodt, 18 Norembar, Had. Frtdtrbk WHUun approwd, tying tlat Hiurnriu amtbneoti toward* him wn known and th»* tajthktf dtaxi»er«d wtwld at OOM h« wwmtmt^t-4 to Vlaon* (i—uilpi ot 11 DtctmboEt cited). 1 L«fct«rB erf RotUmbooxg aod ol Mafawrtjhagoo, Pra^an mmj a* th* Hifa*, ibid. " ifc*. a 8tm io, u in t±» treaty ot ChadotUnbtng, twtaad ol JoHan and B*cg; of. xxrti. 71 n. 6M TSS ANTSCSDS2TT3 OF TBS October empire, ai Great Britain had done under the treaty of Chudotten- burg. In particular he objected to guarantee the quadruple alliance, .having no concern with the affairs ot Italy ox Spain nox wish to be involved in wars that might arise from them. He wanted also enlightenment ai to what engagements mentioned between France and England might be, and stronger expressions about Neuohatel and Juliert and Berg. In regard to military tuooour he called to mind his obligation already existing to fomiflh 10,000 men to the aid of George L Lastly, he descanted Downloaded from on his relations with Austria, whose behaviour, he said, had long been all but unbearable, In tpite of hia own friendly conduct. Describing the system of invariably adverse decisions in his suits before the oourU of the empire,11 he asserted that it was the fixed policy of Vienna to weaken him, and that under pretext of law and justice he was in danger of losing the best part of http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ his ancestors' dearry bought gains.