I.

ference of fucceffion, according to the exprefs CHAP. difpofitions of the will; efpecially as it is a truth agreed by the civilians, that when a fucceffion is in difpute, which does not exclude the females, 1740. they ought to be included under the denomination of lawful defcendants; and that confequently the electoral houfe of Bavaria had not the fhadow of a pretenfion to dispute a fucceffion with her majefty, which God, nature, and all' laws, and particularly the ufage of her archiducal family fecured to her.

As the Elector of Bavaria always protested against the pragmatic fanction, the powers of Europe were no ways furprized at thefe declarations, nor from his own abilities were their confequences to be dreaded, as his whole annual revenue never exceeded one million fterling, and his forces were too feeble, without affiftance, to affert his rights by the fword. But the court of Munich, fince the treaty of Munster in 1648, being wholly devoted to the intereft of France; and it being confpicuous, the court of Verfailles had long affisted the electoral house, as a falcon fed and cherished only to fly at the royal eagle of Austria on every opportunity; it was therefore justly to be fufpected, France, notwithstanding her declaration to preferve the pragmatic fanction, would enterfere in favour of the elector, either in the fucceffion, or in the election of an emperor; which the Elector of Mentz, as arch-chancellor of the empire, had fixed for the 16th of Februáry. The elector, during this year, was incapable of any military operations to enforce his pretenfions, and contented himself with the refult of the cabinet. But the tranquility of her Hungarian majefty was disturbed by a fudden and violent ftorm from another quarter, from whence as it

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PART was the leaft expected, it therefore occafioned a II. more general furprize.

UPON the death of the late emperor, no prince 1740. in Europe gave greater affurances of his refolution to fupport the pragmatic fanction than the King of Pruffia; and it was univerfally believed he would be one of the firmeft friends of the house of Auftria. This young monarch, on the death of the emperor, recruited his regular troops, and collected an army of 100,000 men. At first this proceeding was difregarded, because all the princes in Germany were recruiting their forces, to preferve the empire from any occafional dif turbances; and it was more particularly imagin ed, that his majefty was preparing to affift the Queen of Hungary against any attack from Bavaria. Far otherwife tended the views of this enterprizing monarch; he found himself at the head of a potent nation, with a standing army of 80,000 complete foldiers, and an annual revenue of two millions fterling; and grew impatient to manifeft his own capacity, and the power of his arms, to the rest of Europe. In this he was neither in want of powerful incentives, or plaufible pretences. He infifted on an incontestable right, in the royal and electoral family of Brandenburgh, to the principalities and lordships of Jagerndorff, Lignitz, Brieg, Wohlau, Beuten, Oderberg, and other territories in the duchy of Silefia; partly founded upon antient pacts of fucceffion and cofraternity, between his predeceffors in the electoral dignity, and the dukes of Silefia, Lignitz, Brieg, and Wohlau; as well as upon other controvertible titles. For George Frederick, Duke of Jagerndorff, having no children, by his laft will, bequeathed that duchy, which he had a right to difpofe of under the permiffion granted

by

by Lewis King of Bohemia, to the Margrave CHAP. George, who had purchased the duchy from the Lords of Schellenberg in 1524; and alfo the hereditary lordships of Lubfchutz, Oderberg, Beu- 1740, ten, Tarnowitz, and other dependencies, to the electoral house of Brandenburg: which on his death defcended to Joachim-Frederic, then Elector of Brandenburg, who took poffeffion of the duchy of Jagurndorf and of all its dependencies; and in 1607 granted it to his youngest fon, the Margrave John-George; who, during the troubles of Bohemia, allying himself with Frederic V. Elector Palatine, engaged in a bloody war with the Emperor Ferdinand II. the emperor afterwards difpoffeffed the margrave of his duchy of Jagurndorf, and put him to the ban of the empire in the year 1623; under which he died the year following; and his fon, being thus deprived of his patrimony, dying in 1642, with him was extinct the appanaged branch of Brandenburg to which Jagurndorf belonged. The duchy then fell, with all its dependencies, to the electoral line, as an inheritance which by right belonged to the males of the family and as his Pruffian majesty insisted, that even the children of a vaffal, convicted of felony, could not be deprived of the natural right they have to the fief of which the family has received the inveftiture, because they do not hold their right of fucceffion of the laft poffeffor, but of the will and difpofition of the person from whom their fief originally defcends; and that the laft poffeffor of an hereditary fief, muft tranfmit it to his relations of the collateral line; therefore as the house of Auftria had been in the poffeffion and enjoyment of the duchy and revenues VOL. I. almoft

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PART almost a hundred years, his Pruffian majesty thought fit to reclaim it.

II.

As to the duchies of Lignitz, Brieg, and Woh1740. lau, the antient Dukes of Lignitz, defcended from the Piafts, were fovereigns in their dominions, and governed them as a country free and hereditary in their family, without fubjection to the Kings of Poland or Bohemia, or even depending on any one. But in the year 1329, they offered in fief to John of Lutzenberg King of Bohemia, as well their duchies and principalities, as their other eftates; declaring, as appears by the first letters of inveftiture, "That the offer "was voluntary; that they poffeffed their terri"tories as perfonal and hereditary estates; and "intended to hold them alfo for the future as "hereditary fiefs, preferving all their rights and

privileges." And by other letters, granted by King Uladiflas in the year 1511, the fiefs and ftates of Lignitz, are declared "To be he"reditary and alienable; fo that the Dukes of "Lignitz fhould preferve their antient privileges "to fell, mortgage, or alienate all their eftates "and poffeffions." Upon this Robert Frederic, Duke of Lignitz, executed a treaty of Union and hereditary cofraternity with Joachim the second, Elector of Brandenburg, in the year 1537, figned and confirmed by oath; whereby the Duke of Lignitz, by confent of the prelates, lords, gentlemen, and other his fubjects, agreed, "That in cafe he, or his male defcendants, fhould

die without iffue male, that all his principa lities and eftates, and all that his defcendants fhould leave behind them, fhould belong to the Elector Joachim and his heirs male, from generation to generation for ever; and in failure thereof, to his brother Prince John, Mar

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grave of Brandenburg, in like manner; and in CHAP. "default of them, to fuch of the Margraves of I. "Franconia who fhould fit on the electoraln "throne: And that when fuch cafe fhould hap- 1740. pen, it should be lawful for the Elector of "Brandenburg to put himself actually in poffef"fion of the territories of Lignitz, Brieg, Woh“ lau, and all their appertenances, his house having already received the homage of them; "with a reservation, to render the fervices due to "the crown of Bohemia." But on the 18th of May 1546, Ferdinand I. King of Bohemia, published an edict, declaring "That the Duke "of Lignitz had not a right to make hereditary "treaties of cofraternity;" and the king, as Lord Paramount of the fiefs of Silefia, annulled and abolished the fame; obliging the Duke of Lignitz, and his two fons, to renounce the treaty with the houfe of Brandenburg, though they had confirmed it by a folemn oath, and even forced them to acknowledge, that after the death of the last male of their family, the duchies and principalities of Lignitz, Brieg, and Wohlau, ought by right immediately to revert to the King of Bohemia.

THIS was looked upon both by the Duke of Lignitz and Elector of Brandenburg as unjust; for that the treaty was neither prejudicial to the crown of Bohemia, nor derogatory from the infeoffment of the country of Lignitz, and its ap purtenances. The elector maintained the validity of the treaty, and vindicated his right, acquired in fo lawful a manner, with a refolution to preferve the fame to his family; and kept the original acts, as authentic proofs of his right.

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