August 17, 1786: Death of Friedrich II, King of Prussia and Elector of Brandenburg

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Elector of Brandenburg, Elisabeth Christine Of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Empress Maria Theresa, Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, Friedrich-Wilhelm I in Prussia, Georg Ludwig of Hanover, House of Hohenzollern, King George I of Great Britain, King in Prussia, King of Prussia, Silesian Wars, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover

Friedrich II (January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. He was also Friedrich IV, Elector of Brandenburg.

Friedrich was the son of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, the only daughter of Elector Georg Ludwig of Hanover and Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, later King George I of Great Britain, and his wife, Sophia Dorothea of Celle. She was detested by her elder brother, King George II of Great Britain.

Friedrich was born sometime between 11 and 12 p.m. on January 24, 1712 in the Berlin City Palace and was baptised with the single name Friedrich by Benjamin Ursinus von Bär on January 31.

The birth was welcomed by his grandfather, Friedrich I in Prussia, Elector of Brandenburg, as his two previous grandsons had both died in infancy. With the death of Friedrich I in 1713, his son Friedrich Wilhelm I became King in Prussia, thus making young Friedrich the Crown Prince of Prussia.

Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia

Friedrich had nine siblings who lived to adulthood. He had six sisters. The eldest was Wilhelmine, who became his closest sibling. He also had three younger brothers, including August Wilhelm and Heinrich. The new king wished for his children to be educated not as royalty, but as simple folk. They were tutored by a French woman, Madame de Montbail, who had also educated King Friedrich Wilhelm I.

Friedrich Wilhelm I, popularly dubbed the “Soldier King,” had created a large and powerful army that included a regiment of his famous “Potsdam Giants”, carefully managed the kingdom’s wealth, and developed a strong centralised government. He also had a violent temper and ruled Brandenburg-Prussia with absolute authority.

In contrast, Friedrich’s mother Sophia, whose father, Georg Ludwig of Brunswick-Lüneburg, had succeeded to the British throne as King George I in 1714, was polite, charismatic and learned. The political and personal differences between Friedrich’s parents created tensions, which affected Friedrich’s attitude toward his role as a ruler, his attitude toward culture, and his relationship with his father.

In the mid-1720s, Queen Sophia Dorothea attempted to arrange the marriage of Friedrich and his sister Wilhelmine to her brother King George II’s children Amelia and Frederick Louis, who was the heir apparent. Fearing an alliance between Prussia and Great Britain, Field Marshal von Seckendorff, the Austrian ambassador in Berlin, bribed the Prussian Minister of War, Field Marshal von Grumbkow, and the Prussian ambassador in London, Benjamin Reichenbach.

The pair undermined the relationship between the British and Prussian courts using bribery and slander. Eventually Friedrich Wilhelm became angered by the idea of the effete Friedrich being married to an English wife and under the influence of the British court.

Instead, he signed a treaty with Austria, which vaguely promised to acknowledge Prussia’s rights to the principalities of Jülich-Berg, which led to the collapse of the marriage proposal.

Initially, Friedrich Wilhelm considered marrying Friedrich to Elisabeth of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, the niece of Empress Anna of Russia, but this plan was ardently opposed by Prince Eugene of Savoy. Friedrich himself proposed marrying Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria in return for renouncing the succession.

Instead, Eugene persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm, through Seckendorff, that the Crown Prince should marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel a daughter of Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Duchess Antoinette of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.

Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel

Having failed in his attempt to flee from the tyrannical regime of his father, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia was ordered to marry Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in 1733 in order to regain his freedom. Elisabeth was the niece of Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. The match had thus been arranged by the Austrian court in the hopes of securing influence over Prussia for another generation.

On June 12 1733, the 17-years-old Elisabeth Christine was married to Friedrich at her father’s summer palace, Schloss Salzdahlum in Wolfenbüttel.

Crown Prince Friedrich wrote to his sister that, “There can be neither love nor friendship between us”, and he threatened suicide, but he went along with the wedding. He had little in common with his bride, and the marriage was resented as an example of the Austrian political interference that had plagued Prussia.

Nevertheless, during their early married life, the royal couple resided at the Crown Prince’s Palace in Berlin. Later, Elisabeth Christine accompanied Friedrich to Schloss Rheinsberg, where at this time she played an active role in his social life.

After his father died and he had secured the throne, King Friedrich II separated from Elisabeth Christine. He granted her the Schönhausen Palace and apartments at the Berliner Stadtschloss, but he prohibited Elisabeth Christine from visiting his court in Potsdam.

Friedrich II of Prussia

Friedrich and Elisabeth Christine had no children, and Friedrich bestowed the title of the heir to the throne, “Prince of Prussia”, on his brother August Wilhelm. Nevertheless, Elisabeth Christine remained devoted to him. Friedrich gave her all the honours befitting her station, but never displayed any affection. After their separation, he would only see her on state occasions. These included visits to her on her birthday and were some of the rare occasions when Friedrich did not wear military uniform.

His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Silesian wars, his re-organisation of the Prussian Army, the First Partition of Poland, and his patronage of the arts and the Enlightenment.

Friedrich II was the last Hohenzollern monarch titled King in Prussia and declared himself King of Prussia after annexing Polish Prussia from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1772. Prussia greatly increased its territories and became a major military power in Europe under his rule. He became known as Frederick the Great (German: Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed “Old Fritz” (German: “Der Alte Fritz”).

Europe at the time when Frederick came to the throne in 1740, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet.

Europe at the time of Frederick’s death in 1786, with Brandenburg–Prussia in violet, shows that Prussia’s territory has been greatly extended by his Silesian Wars, his inheritance of East Frisia and the First Partition of Poland.

In his youth, Friedrich was more interested in music and philosophy than in the art of war, which led to clashes with his authoritarian father, Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia. However, upon ascending to the Prussian throne, he attacked and annexed the rich Austrian province of Silesia in 1742, winning military acclaim for himself and Prussia. He became an influential military theorist whose analyses emerged from his extensive personal battlefield experience and covered issues of strategy, tactics, mobility and logistics.

Friedrich was a supporter of enlightened absolutism, stating that the ruler should be the first servant of the state. He modernised the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service, and pursued religious policies throughout his realm that ranged from tolerance to segregation. He reformed the judicial system and made it possible for men of lower status to become judges and senior bureaucrats.

Friedrich also encouraged immigrants of various nationalities and faiths to come to Prussia, although he enacted oppressive measures against Catholics in Silesia and Polish Prussia. He supported the arts and philosophers he favoured, and allowed freedom of the press and literature.

King Friedrich II was presumably homosexual, and his sexuality has been the subject of much study. He is buried at his favourite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. Because he died childless, he was succeeded by his nephew, Friedrich Wilhelm II.

Friedrich II the Great of Prussia

Nearly all 19th-century German historians made Friedrich into a romantic model of a glorified warrior, praising his leadership, administrative efficiency, devotion to duty and success in building Prussia into a great power in Europe.

Friedrich II remained an admired historical figure through Germany’s defeat in World War I, and the Nazis glorified him as a great German leader pre-figuring Adolf Hitler, who personally idolised him.

His reputation became less favourable in Germany after World War II, partly due to his status as a Nazi symbol. Regardless, historians in the 21st century tend to view Friedrich II as an outstanding military leader and capable monarch, whose commitment to enlightenment culture and administrative reform built the foundation that allowed the Kingdom of Prussia to contest the Austrian Habsburgs for leadership among the German states.

The Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire. Part V: Austrian & Prussian Rivalry

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Austria, Emperor Charles VI, Emperor Franz I of Lorraine, Empress Maria Theresa, Frederick the Great, House of Habsburg, House of Hohenzollern, Pragmatic Sanction, Prussia, Silesian Wars, Treaty of Dresden

Austria and Prussia were the most powerful states in the Holy Roman Empire by the 18th and 19th centuries and had engaged in a struggle for supremacy in Germany. The rivalry was characterized by major territorial conflicts and economic, cultural and political aspects. Therefore, the rivalry continued after the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved and was an important element of the so called German question in the 19th centure.

The Margraviate of Brandenburg was officially declared one of the seven electorates of the Holy Roman Empire by the Golden Bull of 1356. It had extended most of its territory into the eastern Neumark region, and after the War of the Jülich succession by the 1614 Treaty of Xanten also gained the Duchy of Cleves as well as the counties of Mark and Ravensberg located in northwestern Germany.

Brandenburg finally grew out of the Imperial borders when in 1618 the Hohenzollern electors became dukes of Prussia, then a fief of the Polish Crown, and the lands of Brandenburg-Prussia were ruled in personal union. In 1653, the “Great Elector” Friedrich Wilhelm acquired Farther Pomerania and reached full sovereignty in Ducal Prussia by the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau concluded with the Polish king John II Casimir Vasa.

In 1701, Friedrich Wilhelm’s son and successor Friedrich III reached the consent of Emperor Leopold I to proclaim himself a King Friedrich I “in” Prussia at Königsberg, with respect to the fact that he still held the electoral dignity of Brandenburg and the royal title was only valid in the Prussian lands outside the Empire.

The centuries-long rise of the Austrian House of Habsburg had already begun with King Rudolph’s victory at the 1278 Battle on the Marchfeld and the final obtainment of the Imperial crown by Emperor Friedrich III in 1452. His descendants Maximilian I and Philipp the Fair by marriage gained the inheritance of the Burgundian dukes and the Spanish Crown of Castile (tu felix Austria nube), and under Emperor Charles V, the Habsburg realm evolved to a European great power.

Friedrich II of Prussia and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor meet at Neisse on August 25, 1769

In 1526 his brother Ferdinand I inherited the Lands of the Bohemian Crown as well as the Kingdom of Hungary outside the borders of the Empire, laying the foundation of the Central European Habsburg monarchy. From the 15th to the 18th century, all Holy Roman Emperors were Austrian archdukes of the Habsburg dynasty, who also held the Bohemian and Hungarian royal dignity.

After the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Habsburgs had to accept the 1555 Peace of Augsburg and failed to strengthen their Imperial authority in the disastrous Thirty Years’ War. Upon the 1648 Peace of Westphalia, Austria had to deal with the rising Brandenburg-Prussian power in the north, that replaced the Electorate of Saxony as the leading Protestant estate.

The efforts made by the “Great Elector” and the “Soldier-king” Friedrich Wilhelm I had created a progressive state with a highly effective Prussian Army that, sooner or later, had to collide with the Habsburg claims to power.

History

The rivalry is largely held to have begun when upon the death of the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI in 1740, King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia launched an invasion of Austrian-controlled Silesia, starting the First Silesian War (of three Silesian Wars to come) against Maria Theresa who had inherited the Habsburg royal lands as Queen of Hungry, Bohemia and Croatia as well as the Archduchy of Austria.

Friedrich II had broken his promise to acknowledge the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and the indivisibility of the Habsburg territories, whereby he sparked off the pan–European War of the Austrian Succession. He decisively defeated the Austrian troops at the 1742 Battle of Chotusitz, whereafter Maria Theresa, by the Treaties of Breslau and Berlin, had to cede the bulk of the Silesian lands to Prussia.

Friedrich II receives homage from the Silesian estates, wall painting by Wilhelm Camphausen, 1882

At the time, Austria still claimed the mantle of the Empire and was the chief force of the disunited German states. Until 1745, Maria Theresa was able to regain the Imperial Authority from her Wittelsbach rival Emperor Charles VII, her husband. Franz of Lorraine had been elected Emperor in 1742, by occupying his Bavarian lands, but, despite her Quadruple Alliance with Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Saxony, she failed to recapture Silesia.

The Second Silesian War started with Friedrich II’s invasion into Bohemia in 1744 and after the Prussian victory at the 1745 Battle of Kesselsdorf, by the Treaty of Dresden the status quo ante bellum was confirmed: King Friedrich II of Prussia kept Silesia but finally acknowledged the accession of Maria Theresa’s husband, Emperor Franz I. The terms were again confirmed by the final Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.

Empress Maria Theresa, still chafing under the loss of the most beautiful gem of my crown, took the opportunity of the breathing space to implement several civil and military reforms within the Austrian lands, like the establishment of the Theresian Military Academy at Wiener Neustadt in 1751.

Her capable state chancellor, Prince Wenzel Anton of Kaunitz, succeeded in the Diplomatic Revolution of 1756, allying with the former Habsburg nemesis France under King Louis XV in order to isolate Prussia.

Friedrich II, however, had completed the “stately quadrille” by the conclusion of the Treaty of Westminster with Great Britain. He again took action by a preemptive war, invading Saxony and opening a Third Silesian War (and the wider Seven Years’ War).

Nevertheless, the conquest of Prague failed and moreover, the king had to deal with Russian forces attacking East Prussia while Austrian troops entered Silesia. His situation worsened, when Austrian and Russian forces united to inflict a crushing defeat on him at the 1759 Battle of Kunersdorf.

Friedrich II, on the brink, was saved by the discord among the victors in the “Miracle of the House of Brandenburg”, when Empress Elizabeth of Russia died on January 5, 1762 and her successor Emperor Peter III, a great admirer of the Prussian king, concluded peace with Prussia.

By the 1763 Treaty of Hubertusburg, Austria, for the third time, had to acknowledge the Prussian annexations. The usurper kingdom had prevailed against the European great powers and would play a vital future role in the “Concert of Europe”.

They two states would join forces against Napoleon which I will cover in my next section on the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire.

Queen Marie Antoinette of France & the French Revolution

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Affair of the Diamond Necklace, Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, French Revolution, King Louis XVI of France and Navarre, The Bastille

Marie Antoinette Josèphe Jeanne of Austria (née Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; November 2, 1755 – October 16, 1793) was the last Queen of France and Navarre before the French Revolution.

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria was a member of the House of Habsburg and the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and his wife, the Empress Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia.

Maria Antonia spent her formative years between the Hofburg Palace and Schönbrunn, the imperial summer residence in Vienna, where on October 13, 1762, when she was seven, she met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, two months her junior and a child prodigy.

Despite the private tutoring she received, the results of her schooling were less than satisfactory. At the age of 10 she could not write correctly in German or in any language commonly used at court, such as French or Italian, and conversations with her were stilted.

Maria Antonia was raised together with her sister, Archduchess Maria Carolina, who was three years older, and with whom she had a lifelong close relationship. Maria Carolina of Austria (1752 – 1814) was Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies.

Maria Carolina of Austria, sister of Marie Antoinette

Maria Antonia had a difficult but ultimately loving relationship with her mother, who referred to her as “the little Madame Antoine”.

Maria Antonia formally renounced her rights to Habsburg domains, and on April 19 she was married by proxy to the Dauphin of France, Louis Augusté at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, with her brother Archduke Ferdinand standing in for the Dauphin.

On May 14, she met her husband at the edge of the forest of Compiègne. Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name: Marie Antoinette. A further ceremonial wedding took place on May 16, 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, after the festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding. The couple’s longtime failure to consummate the marriage plagued the reputations of both Louis-Augusté and Marie Antoinette for the next seven years.

The marriage was met with hostility from the French public. France’s alliance with Austria had pulled the country into the disastrous Seven Years’ War, in which it was defeated by the British and the Prussians, both in Europe and in North America. By the time that Louis-Augusté and Marie-Antoinette were married, the French people generally disliked the Austrian alliance, and Marie-Antoinette was seen as an unwelcome foreigner.

When Louis Augusté’s father died in 1765, he became the new Dauphin. Upon his grandfather’s death on May 10, 1774, he assumed the title King of France and Navarre and she became Queen Consort of France and Navarre.

Marie Antoinette’s position at court improved when, after eight years of marriage, she started having children. She became increasingly unpopular among the people, however, with the French libelles accusing her of being profligate, promiscuous, harboring sympathies for France’s perceived enemies—particularly her native Austria—and her children of being illegitimate.

The false accusations of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace damaged her reputation further. During the Revolution, she became known as Madame Déficit because the country’s financial crisis was blamed on her lavish spending and her opposition to the social and financial reforms of Turgot and Necker.

Several events were linked to Marie Antoinette during the Revolution after the government had placed the royal family under house arrest in the Tuileries Palace in October 1789.

The June 1791 attempted flight to Varennes and her role in the War of the First Coalition had disastrous effects on French popular opinion. On August 10, 1792, the attack on the Tuileries forced the royal family to take refuge at the Assembly, and they were imprisoned in the Temple Prison on August 13.

On September 21, 1792, the monarchy was abolished. Louis XVI was executed by guillotine on January 21, 1793.

Marie Antoinette’s trial began on October 14, 1793; she was convicted two days later by the Revolutionary Tribunal of high treason and executed, also by guillotine, at the Place de la Révolution.

May 5, 1747: Birth of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Carlos III of Spain, Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; May 5, 1747 – March 1, 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.

He was a son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria in her own right and her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

Leopold was also and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre as the wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre; Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies; Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma by her marriage to Ferdinand, Duke of Parma; and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany (left) with his brother Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him “one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown”.

Unusually for his time, he opposed capital punishment and abolished it in Tuscany in 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so.

As his parents’ third son, he was initially selected for a clerical career, he received education with focus on theology.

In 1753, he was engaged to Maria Beatrice d’Este, heiress to the Duchy of Modena and the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

As heiress to four states (Modena, Reggio, Massa and Carrara), she was a very attractive wedding partner. Empress Maria Theresa sought to arrange a marriage between Maria Beatrice and Archduke Leopold, but this never materialised. Instead she married Leopold’s brother, Archduke Ferdinand Charles bof Austria, in a union through which the Austrians aimed to expand their influence in Italy.

Upon the early death of his older brother Archduke Charles in 1761, the family decided that Leopold was going to succeed his father as Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a Secundogeniture, a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an Appanage.

Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain

On August 5, 1765 Leopold married the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Upon the death of his father, Franz on August 18, 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Leopold, during his government in Tuscany, had shown a speculative tendency to grant his subjects a constitution. When he succeeded to the Austrian lands he began by making large concessions to the interests offended by his brother’s innovations.

He recognized the Estates of his different dominions as “the pillars of the monarchy”, pacified the Hungarians and Bohemians, and divided the insurgents in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) by means of concessions. When these failed to restore order, he marched troops into the country and re-established his own authority, and at the same time the historic franchises of the Flemings.

Young Leopold as the Grand Duke of Tuscany

Yet he did not surrender any part that could be retained of what Maria Theresa and Joseph had done to strengthen the hands of the state. He continued, for instance, to insist that no papal bull could be published in his dominions without his consent (placetum regium).

One of the harshest actions Leopold took to placate the noble communities of the various Habsburg domains was to issue a decree on May 9, 1790 that forced thousands of Bohemian serfs freed by his brother Joseph back into servitude.

Leopold lived for barely two years after his accession as Holy Roman Emperor, and during that period he was hard pressed by peril from west and east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist émigrés, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France.

From the east he was threatened by the aggressive ambition of Empress Catherine II of Russia and by the unscrupulous policy of Prussia. Catherine would have been delighted to see Austria and Prussia embark on a crusade in the cause of kings against the French Revolution.

While they were busy beyond the Rhine, she would have annexed what remained of Poland and made conquests against the Ottoman Empire. Leopold II had no difficulty in seeing through the rather transparent cunning of the Russian empress, and he refused to be misled.

To his sister, he gave good advice and promises of help if she and her husband could escape from Paris. The émigrés who followed him pertinaciously were refused audience, or when they forced themselves on him, were peremptorily denied all help.

Leopold was too purely a politician not to be secretly pleased at the destruction of the power of France and of her influence in Europe by her internal disorders. Within six weeks of his accession, he displayed his contempt for France’s weakness by practically tearing up the treaty of alliance made by Maria Theresa in 1756 and opening negotiations with Great Britain to impose a check on Russia and Prussia.

Leopold put pressure on Great Britain by threatening to cede his part of the Low Countries to France. Then, when sure of British support, he was in a position to baffle the intrigues of Prussia. A personal appeal to King Friedrich Wilhelm II led to a conference between them at Reichenbach in July 1790, and to an arrangement which was in fact a defeat for Prussia: Leopold’s coronation as king of Hungary on November 11, 1790, preceded by a settlement with the Diet in which he recognized the dominant position of the Magyars.

Leopold II. Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany

He had already made an eight months’ truce with the Turks in September, which prepared the way for the termination of the war begun by Joseph II. The pacification of his eastern dominions left Leopold free to re-establish order in Belgium and to confirm friendly relations with Britain and the Netherlands.

During 1791, the emperor remained increasingly preoccupied with the affairs of France. In January, he had to dismiss the Count of Artois (afterwards Charles X of France) in a very peremptory way. His good sense was revolted by the folly of the French émigrés, and he did his utmost to avoid being entangled in the affairs of that country.

The insults inflicted on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, however, at the time of their attempted flight to Varennes in June, stirred his indignation, and he made a general appeal in the Padua Circular to the sovereigns of Europe to take common measures in view of events which “immediately compromised the honour of all sovereigns, and the security of all governments.” Yet he was most directly interested in negotiations with Turkey, which in June led to a final peace, the Treaty of Sistova being signed in August 1791.

On August 25, 1791, he met King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle, near Dresden, and they drew up the Declaration of Pillnitz, stating their readiness to intervene in France if and when their assistance was called for by the other powers.

The declaration was a mere formality, for, as Leopold knew, neither Russia nor Britain was prepared to act, and he endeavored to guard against the use which he foresaw the émigrés would try to make of it. In face of the reaction in France to the Declaration of Pillnitz, the intrigues of the émigrés, and attacks made by the French revolutionists on the rights of the German princes in Alsace, Leopold continued to hope that intervention might not be required.

When Louis XVI swore to observe the constitution of September 1791, the emperor professed to think that a settlement had been reached in France. The attacks on the rights of the German princes on the left bank of the Rhine, and the increasing violence of the parties in Paris which were agitating to bring about war, soon showed, however, that this hope was vain.

Leopold meant to meet the challenge of the revolutionists in France with dignity and temper, however the effect of the Declaration of Pillnitz was to contribute to the radicalization of their political movement.

Mozart’s opera La clemenza di Tito was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia for the festivities that accompanied Leopold’s coronation as king of Bohemia in Prague on September 6, 1791.

Leopold died suddenly in Vienna, in March 1792.

His mother Empress Maria Theresa was the last Habsburg. His brother Joseph II died without any surviving children, but Leopold in turn had also 16 children, just like his mother, and became the founder of the main line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

The eldest of Leopold II’s eight sons being his successor, Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. Some of his other sons were prominent personages in their day. Among them were: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, a celebrated soldier; Archduke Johann of Austria, also a soldier; Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary; and Archduke Rainer, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia.

January 12, 1751: Birth of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies. Part I.

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Archduchess Marie Caroline of Austria, Carlos III of Spain, Empress Maria Theresa, Ferdinand I of the Two-Sicilies, Ferdinand IV-III of Naples and Sicily, Fernando VI of Spain, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Napoleonic Wars

Ferdinand I (January 12, 1751 – January 4, 1825), was the King of the Two Sicilies from 1816, after his restoration following victory in the Napoleonic Wars. Before that he had been, since 1759, Ferdinand IV of the Kingdom of Naples and Ferdinand III of the Kingdom of Sicily. He was also King of Gozo. He was deposed twice from the throne of Naples: once by the revolutionary Parthenopean Republic for six months in 1799 and again by Napoleon in 1805, before being restored in 1816.

Ferdinand was the third son of King Carlos VII of Naples and V of Sicily by his wife, Maria Amalia of Saxony. On August 10, 1759, Carlos succeeded his elder brother, Fernando VI of Spain, becoming King Carlos III of Spain, but treaty provisions made him ineligible to hold all three crowns. On October 6, he abdicated his Neapolitan and Sicilian titles in favour of his third son Ferdinand because his eldest son Felipe had been excluded from succession due to illnesses and his second son Carlos was heir-apparent to the Spanish throne. Ferdinand was the founder of the cadet House of Bourbon-Two Sicilies.

Childhood

Ferdinand was born in Naples and grew up amidst many of the monuments erected there by his father which can be seen today; the Palaces of Portici, Caserta and Capodimonte.

Since Ferdinand IV-III of Naples was eight upon his accession to both thrones, a regency council presided over by the Tuscan Bernardo Tanucci was set up. The latter, an able, ambitious man, wishing to keep the government as much as possible in his own hands, purposely neglected the young king’s education, and encouraged him in his love of pleasure, his idleness and his excessive devotion to outdoor sports.

Ferdinand’s minority/childhood ended in 1767, and his first act was the expulsion of the Jesuits. The following year he married Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria, the thirteenth child of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

By the marriage contract the queen was to have a voice in the council of state after the birth of her first son, and she was not slow to avail herself of this means of political influence.daughter of Empress Maria Theresa

Archduchess Maria Carolina was the de facto ruler of her husband’s kingdoms. Maria Carolina oversaw the promulgation of many reforms, including the revocation of the ban on Freemasonry, the enlargement of the navy under her favorite, Sir John Acton, and the expulsion of Spanish influence.

She was a proponent of enlightened absolutism until the advent of the French Revolution, when, in order to prevent its ideas gaining currency, she made Naples a police state.

Although peace was made with France in 1796, the demands of the French Directory, whose troops occupied Rome, alarmed the king once more, and at his wife’s instigation he took advantage of Napoleon’s absence in Egypt and of Nelson’s victories to go to war.

Ferdinand IV-III marched with his army against the French and entered Rome (November 29), but on the defeat of some of his columns he hurried back to Naples, and on the approach of the French, fled on December 23, 1798 aboard Nelson’s ship HMS Vanguard to Palermo, Sicily, leaving his capital in a state of anarchy.

When, a few weeks later the French troops were recalled to northern Italy, Ferdinand sent a hastily assembled force, under Cardinal Ruffo, to reconquer the mainland kingdom. Ruffo, with the support of British artillery, the Church, and the pro-Bourbon aristocracy, succeeded, reaching Naples in May 1800. After some months King Ferdinand returned to the throne.

The king, and above all the queen, were particularly anxious that no mercy should be shown to the rebels, and Maria Carolina (a sister of the executed Marie Antoinette, Queen of France) made use of Lady Hamilton, Nelson’s mistress, to induce Nelson to carry out her vengeance.

September 19, 1803: Birth of Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

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Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria, Emperor Francis I of Austria, Emperor Franz Josef of Austria- Hungary, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, King Ferdinand V of Hungary and Bohemia, King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia, Princess Maria Anna of Savoy

Maria Anna of Savoy (September 19, 1803 – May 4, 1884) was Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary by marriage to Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria.

Biography

Maria Anna was born in Palazzo Colonna in Rome, the daughter of King Vittorio Emanuele I of Sardinia and his wife, Archduchess Maria Teresa of Austria-Este, daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, governor of Milan and son of Empress Maria Theresa after whom she was named. Her mother was Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa and heir to the Duchy of Modena. Maria Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Massa, was born in Modena, the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

Maria Anna of Savoy had a twin sister Maria Teresa, who became Duchess consort of Parma and Piacenza by marriage to Carlo II, Duke of Parma (Duke Charles I of Lucca).

The two princesses were baptised by Pope Pius VII. Their godparents were their maternal grandparents, Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and his wife Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este. In the Museo di Roma can be seen a painting of the baptism.

On February 12, 1831 Maria Anna was married by procuration in Turin to Archduke Ferdinand of Austria (later Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria). On February 27, the couple were married in person in Vienna in the Hofburg chapel by the Cardinal Archbishop of Olmütz.

Ferdinand was the eldest son of Franz II-I, Holy Roman Emperor and Emperor of Austria and Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Possibly as a result of his parents’ genetic closeness (they were double first cousins), Ferdinand suffered from epilepsy, hydrocephalus, neurological problems, and a speech impediment. He was educated by Baron Josef Kalasanz von Erberg, and his wife Josephine, by birth a Countess von Attems.

When Princess Maria Anna and Archduke Ferdinand married, the court physician considered it unlikely that he would be able to consummate the marriage. When he tried to consummate the marriage, he had five seizures.

Ferdinand succeeded on the death of his father Franz II-I on March 2, 1835. Fredinand also became King Ferdinand V of Hungary. Ferdinand was incapable of ruling his empire because of his mental deficiency, so his father, before he died, made a will which promulgated that Ferdinand should consult Archduke Ludwig on all aspects of internal policy and urged him to be influenced by Prince Metternich, Austria’s Foreign Minister.

Following the Revolutions of 1848, Ferdinand abdicated on December 2, 1848. He was succeeded by his nephew, Franz Joseph. Following his abdication, he lived in Hradčany Palace, Prague, until his death in 1875.

Maria Anna and Ferdinand had no children.

When Ferdinand succeeded as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary and Bohemia; Maria Anna became Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. On September 12, 1836 she was crowned as Queen of Bohemia at Prague.

After December 2, 1848 when Ferdinand abdicated as Emperor of Austria, but retaining his imperial rank; Maria Anna was henceforward titled Empress Maria Anna. They lived in retirement together, spending the winters at Prague Castle and the summers at Reichstadt (now Zákupy) or at Ploschkowitz (now Ploskovice).

Maria Anna died in Prague, May 4, 1884 (aged 80). She is buried next to her husband in tomb number 63 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

April 19, 1713: Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to ensure that Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would be inheritable by a female.

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Empress Maria Theresa, First Silesian War, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I, Holy Roman Empire, Mutual Pact of Succession 1703, Pragmatic Sanction, War of the Austrian Succession

In 1700, the senior branch of the House of Habsburg became extinct with the death of King Carlos II of Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession ensued, with Louis XIV of France claiming the crowns of Spain for his grandson Philippe, Duke of Anjou and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, claiming the Spanish throne for his son Archduke Charles. In 1703, Archduke Charles and Archduke Joseph, Leopold’s sons, signed the Mutual Pact of Succession, granting succession rights to the daughters of Archduke Joseph and Archduke Charles in the case of complete extinction of the male line but favouring the daughters of Joseph over those of Charles, as Joseph was older.

Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduke of Austria

In 1705, Leopold I died and was succeeded by his elder son, as Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I. Emperor Joseph was married to Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. They had three children and their only son, Archduke Leopold Joseph, died of hydrocephalus before his first birthday. Their eldest daughter was Maria Josepha of Austria (1699–1757) who was married to August III of Poland. Their last child was Maria Amalia of Austria (1701-1756) was herself Holy Roman Empress, Queen of the Germans, Queen of Bohemia, Electress and Duchess of Bavaria as the spouse of the Wittelsbach Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII.

Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduke of Austria

At the death of Emperor Joseph I his younger brother Archduke Charles succeeded as Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI. However, according to the Mutual Pact of Succession of 1703, Joseph’s eldest daughter Archduchess Maria Josepha became his heir presumptive to the Habsburg heredity lands.

Emperor Charles VI and his wife Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, the eldest child of Ludwig-Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen, had not, to that point, had children and since 1711 Charles had been the sole surviving male member of the House of Habsburg. This presented two problems. First, as mentioned, a prior agreement with his brother known as the Mutual Pact of Succession (1703) had agreed that, in the absence of male heirs, Joseph’s daughters would take precedence over Charles’s daughters in all Habsburg lands. Secondly, Salic law precluded female inheritance. At the time of the Mutual Pact of Succession Charles had no children, if he were to be survived by daughters alone, they would be cut out of the inheritance.

Eventually Charles VI and his wife Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel did have four children:

The eldest, Archduke Leopold Johann of Austria (April 13, 1716-November 4, 1716); died aged seven months.

The eldest daughter was Archduchess Maria Theresa (May 13, 1717 – November 29, 1780)

The second daughter, Archduchess Maria Anna, (September 14, 1718 – December 16, 1744) married Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, with whom she served as Governess of the Austrian Netherlands. Died in childbirth.

The last child, Archduchess Maria Amalia April 5, 1724 – April 19, 1730, died aged six.

Archduchess Maria Theresa

Archduchess Maria Anna

With only two daughters surviving, who would receive no inheritance under the Mutual Pact of Succession, this was not acceptable to Charles and he therefore decided to amend the Pact to give his own daughters precedence over his nieces. In order to accomplish this Charles VI needed to take extraordinary measures to avoid a protracted succession dispute as other claimants would have surely contested a female inheritance.

On April 19, 1713, he announced the changes in a secret session of the council by issuing the Pragmatic Sanction. The Pragmatic Sanction was an edict to ensure that the Habsburg hereditary possessions, which included the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Austrian Netherlands, could be inherited by a daughter. The Holy Roman Empire, which was guided by the Salic Law, did not permit female succession, and was therefore unaffected by the Pragmatic Sanction.

Charles VI was indeed ultimately succeeded by his own elder daughter Maria Theresa upon his death on October 20, 1740 in the Hofburg Palace. Maria Theresa then became the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress via her marriage to Franz of Lorraine.

However, despite the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction, her accession in 1740 resulted in the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession as Charles-Albert of Bavaria, backed by France, contested her inheritance. Friedrich II of Prussia, also disputed the succession of the 23-year-old Maria Theresa to the Habsburg lands, while simultaneously making his own claim on Silesia.

Accordingly, the First Silesian War (1740–1742, part of the War of the Austrian Succession) began on December 16, 1740 when Friedrich II invaded and quickly occupied the province of Silesia. Following the war, Maria Theresa’s inheritance of the Habsburg lands was confirmed by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, while the election of her husband Franz I as Holy Roman Emperor was secured by the Treaty of Füssen.

March 13, 1741: Birth of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Holy Roman Empire, Isabella of Parma, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

Joseph II (German: Joseph Benedikt Anton Michel Adam; March 13, 1741 – February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Franz I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France and Navarre. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism; however, his commitment to modernizing reforms subsequently engendered significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs.

Joseph married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. (The bride’s mother, Princess Louise Élisabeth, was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Navarre. Isabella’s father was Philip, Duke of Parma.) Joseph loved his bride, Isabella, finding her both stimulating and charming, and she sought with special care to cultivate his favor and affection. Isabella also found a best friend and confidant in her husband’s sister, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen.

The marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of a daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1762–1770), Just a few months short of her eighth birthday, Archduchess Maria Theresa became ill with pleurisy. Her father, by that time Holy Roman Emperor, did everything in his power to save her and attended her bedside even at night. However, the medicine in those days was highly undeveloped and Archduchess Maria Theresa died on January 23, 1770 from a very high fever.

Princess Isabella of Parma

In November 1763, while six months pregnant, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina, who died shortly after being born. Progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. The loss of his beloved wife and their newborn child was devastating for Joseph, after which he felt keenly reluctant to remarry.

For political reasons, and under constant pressure, in 1765, he relented and married his second cousin, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This marriage proved extremely unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. Though Maria Josepha loved her husband, she felt timid and inferior in his company. Lacking common interests or pleasures, the relationship offered little for Joseph, who confessed he felt no love (nor attraction) for her in return.

Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

Four months after the second anniversary of their wedding, Maria Josepha grew ill and died from smallpox. Joseph neither visited her during her illness nor attended her funeral, though he later expressed regret for not having shown her more kindness, respect, or warmth. Joseph never remarried.

On the death of his father, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I in 1765, he was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her hereditary dominions, Austria, Hungary and Bohemia until her own death in 1780. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

Joseph II (right) with his brother Peter Leopold, then Grand Duke of Tuscany, later Emperor Leopold II, by Pompeo Batoni, 1769, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

The death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 left Joseph free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all. He undertook the spread of education, the secularization of church lands, the reduction of the religious orders and the clergy, in general, to complete submission to the lay state, the issue of the Patent of Tolerance (1781) providing limited guarantee of freedom of worship, and the promotion of unity by the compulsory use of the German language (replacing Latin or in some instances local languages)—everything which from the point of view of 18th-century philosophy, the Age of Enlightenment, appeared “reasonable”.

Despite making some territorial gains, his reckless foreign policy badly isolated Austria. He has been ranked, with Catherine II the Great of Russia and Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. His reputation as an enlightened monarch was somewhat legendary, leading to false, but influential letters depicting him as a radical philosopher. His policies are now known as Josephinism. He was a supporter of the arts, and most importantly, of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.

In November 1788, Joseph returned to Vienna with ruined health and was left abandoned. His minister Kaunitz refused to visit his sick-room and did not see him for two years. His brother Leopold remained at Florence. At last, Joseph, worn out and broken-hearted, recognized that his servants could not, or would not, carry out his plans.

Joseph died on February 20, 1790. He is buried in tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. He asked that his epitaph read: “Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook.” Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II.