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PART THE male line of the Dukes of Lignitz beII. coming extinct, by the death of George-William, in the year 1675, the duchies of Lignitz, Brieg, 1740. and Wohlau, fell to the electoral house of Brandenburg. On this occafion, the Elector Frederic-William, furnamed the Great, did not neglect representing to the Imperial court the right he had to the fucceffion of Lignitz; and upon his reiterated follicitations, the Emperor Leopold ordered the Chancellor of Lignitz to examine into, and fend him his opinion on the affair: but the chancellor's report being difatisfactory to the Imperial court, in the years 1685 and 1686, endeavours were used for adjusting the controverted rights by an agreement; and the Imperial court, to facilitate the means of obtaining it, confented to deliver to the elector the circle of ́Schibus, fituated in Silefia, and the ceffions of the Prince of Lichtenftein's pretenfions to certain lordships of Eaft-Friefeland, amounting to great fums. The offer was accepted, and a treaty was accordingly concluded; but at the fame time as this convention was made with the Elector of Brandenburg, the Imperial minifter fecretly engaged the electoral prince his fon, to promife, that upon his coming to the regency of the ftates, he would reftore all that was yielded up to the elector his father, and annul the convention that had been made after fo diffimany culties; and this minifter having drawn up reverfals, or an act of fecurity, to that purpose, after many importunities, obtained the electoral prince's hand to the faid reverfals; whereby the elector was deceived in the acquifition of Schibus, and his fon, by the greateft artifice and invention, drawn into a private negotiation, to the preju dice of the whole electoral family. FredericWilliam

William dying in the year 1686, his fon Frede- CHAP. ric III. fucceeded him in the electorate, and af- I. terwards became firft King of Pruffia. As foon n as that prince had taken poffeffion of the regen- 1740. cy, the houfe of Auftria demanded the execution of what was contained in the reverfals; but the elector acquainting his minifters of the tranfaction, defired their opinion on the affair; and upon a mature deliberation, their advice was, "That "the reverfals in queftion, being contrary to "the conventions made in the house of Branden

burg, and having been fubreptitiously ob"tained, were neither binding according to "law, nor according to natural right." It was thus reprefented to the Auftrian ministry, and the reverfals demanded back again: but the Chancellor of Bohemia, refufing to deliver them, anfwered, "That if his electoral highness would "not reftore the country of Schibus, it should "be re-taken by force." Some years paffed with fruitlefs follicitations, and nothing being determined in the affair of Schibus, at length the elector, growing weary of this whole negotiation, in the year 1695 re-delivered the country to the Imperialifts, on payment of an inconfiderable. fum, without any renunciation of the four principalities of Jagurndorf, Lignitz, Brieg, and Wohlau. Therefore his Pruffian majefty affirmed, that as foon as the houfe of Auftria re entered on the poffeffion of Schibus, which had been ceded by it as an equivalent for thofe duchies in Silefia, the royal and electoral houfe of Pruffia re-entered alfo to the rights fhe had on thofe duchies, which had been kept up by fucceffion; efpecially as the houfe of Auftria could not perform her promife in relation to the pretentions of the house of Lichtenstein. And as a further confideration for

the

PART the Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, to restore II. at leaft to the house of Brandenburg the princi

palities and lordships in Silefia that were devolved 1740. to it, his Pruffian majefty infifted, that those duchies are hereditary eftates only in the male line, and were never tranfmitted to the females; befides thofe ftates had furrendered a formal homage to the houfe of Brandenburg: and as the electors had never been able to obtain redrefs, on account of the great power to which the house of Auftria had arrived by fitting on the Imperial throne; on the declenfion of their grandeur, his Pruffian majefty embraced the opportunity of afferting his rights.

CHAPTER II.

From the invafion of SILESIA in December 1740, to the furrender of BRIEG in 1741; containing the fiege of GLOGAW, and battle of MOLWITZ.

A

S there were feveral claimants to dispute the Imperial fucceffion, his Pruffian ma jetty, without conforming to the laws of the golden bull, by entering his claim to any part Silefia, and fubmitting to the decifion of the Im

of

II.

perial diet, with the utmost celerity affembled CHAP. an army at Berlin, and on the 4th of December 1740, entered Silefia at the head of 30,000 men, when his majesty made the following fpeech to 1740. his troops:

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"Gentlemen, I do not confider you as my fubjects, but as my friends; you have at all times

given marks of unconquerable valour: I fhall "be present at all your enterprizes, and you "fhall fight under my direction: and as for any "that fhall diftinguish themselves, by their cou"rage and zeal for my service, I fhall reward "them, not as a king but as a father."

THOUGH his Pruffian majefty had thus put himself in a capacity of acquiring his claim in the field, he did not neglect to obtain an accommodation in the cabinet: for this purpose, the Count de Gotter and the Baron de Borck, his ministers at the court of Vienna, pursuant to his inftructions, grounded upon the apprehenfions of an attack on the Austrian dominions by the Electors of Saxony and Bavaria, laid the following proposals before her Hungarian majefty.

Ift" THAT his Pruffian majefty was ready "with all his forces, to guaranty the dominions "poffeffed by the house of Austria in Germany, "against all invaders.

2d" FOR this end he would enter into a strict "alliance with the courts of Vienna, Ruffia, and "the Maritime powers.

3d "He would use all his intereft to procure "the Imperial dignity for the Duke of Lor"rain, and to fupport his election against all opposers.

4th "To put the court of Vienna into a good "ftate of defence, he would immediately fur"nifh it with two millions of florins.

" AND

PART
II.

" AND that for fuch fubftantial fervices, his "Pruffian majefty expected the entire and abso"lute ceffion of all Silefia; not only as his right, 1740. but as his reward for the toils and hazards "which he might incur in the career that he "was entered upon, for the fafety and glory of "the house of Auftria."

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THIS propofition was looked upon with equal concern and indignation by the court of Vienna, yet his Pruffian majefty inftructed the Count de Gotter, to be indefatigable in his endeavours to induce the court of Vienna, to look with lefs prejudice upon the plans and views his majesty had propofed to himfelf, for the welfare and fecurity of the houfe of Auftria; and to reprefent to the Duke of Lorrain, that although his majesty had. demanded the entire ceffion of Silefia, he might perhaps make fome abatement, and content himfelf with a part of that country; provided the Queen of Hungary would enter into a reasonable and fincere accommodation with him, and to contract ftrict engagements that might confift with their mutual interefts. The king alfo authorized the Count de Gotter to declare verbally, that his Pruffian majefty would be very ready to embrace every opportunity for affifting the Queen of Hungary to maintain the grandeur of her family, and fatisfy her for the lofs of Silefia.

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FROM this the court of Vienna inferred, that his Pruffian majefty founded the entrance of his troops into Silefia, upon the neceffity of guaranteeing the house of Auftria against fome other powers ready to swallow it up; and on the expe- . diency of facrificing a part of their dominions for faving the reft: though it was evident that the queen's dominions enjoyed a perfect tranquility..

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