mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
[personal profile] selenak asked what would have happened if Maria Theresia had taken up Fritz's offer of Silesia in return for defence of her realm against the rest of Europe. In the course of some lengthy speculation, we ended up writing down a lot of what actually did happen. Here are the notes on the factual parts. See the thread linked to for the speculative parts.

[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard: Part of the reason MT was able to come off so well, holding on to everything apart from Silesia, was the same reason Prussia was able to survive the Seven Years' War: Having four enemies doesn't mean they're all super into supporting each others' land grabs. Fritz specifically wanted to keep France, Bavaria, and Saxony from getting too powerful in Germany. Or as Macaulay put it, "He had no wish to raise France to supreme power on the continent, at the expense of the house of Hapsburg. His first object was to rob the Queen of Hungary. His second was that, if possible, nobody should rob her but himself."

Macaulay actually said that before Fritz invaded, it was looking like Europe would respect the Pragmatic Sanction, and that there wouldn't have been a war of the Austrian Succession without him. I was skeptical at the time, but now having dug more into the internal politics of each country, I'm less skeptical. Saxony and France each have reasons not to go to war over Habsburg territory. Bavaria's unlikely to act alone. Spain would have gone to war regardless, but only in Italy. Russia was in support of Austria and the Pragmatic Sanction (and, like, genuinely, not reluctantly),

[personal profile] selenak: One reason why MT - who, it‘s always worth pointing out, was the first female Habsburg to rule not as a regent for a male monarch but as a monarch in her own right - managed to have her authority accepted in her own realms was that nobility and people alike could see she didn‘t fold, that she didn‘t flee, that she wasn‘t dominated by a favourite and/or her husband. As Rillinger points out, the caricatures during the first two Silesian Wars show the changing public perception - at first you have the misogynistic ones, some even with rape imagery (not disapproving of the rapists), and she’s a damsel crying for help, whereas later you have her wearing the proverbial pants instead. I‘m also thinking of all the envoy reports by Podewils between Silesian Wars saying MT is now bossing everyone around and thus showing what‘s under the „attacked woman“ mask. (Meaning she acts like any other male monarch, I suppose.) Would people have let themselves be ordered if she hadn‘t stood up to Fritz? Female rulers perceived as „weak“ usually don‘t end up ruling long.

Saxony )
France )
More France notes )
Spain )

Bonus Fleury quote describing Fritz during this period:

I confess that the king of Prussia, who is not in this situation [of not being rich or powerful enough for a land grab, like Bavaria], disquiets me more than any other. He has no order in his disposition: he listens to no counsel and takes his resolutions thoughtlessly, without having previously prepared measures suitable for success. Good faith and sincerity are not his favourite virtues and he is false in everything, even in his caresses. I even doubt whether he is sure in his alliances, because he has for guiding principle only his own interest. He will wish to govern and to have his own way without any concert with us, and he is detested throughout Europe.
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard's random comments on Isabella of Parma's pre-marriage days from her biography by Ursula Tamussino. For a fuller story of Isabella's life, see the tag.

Isabella of Parma is named after her grandmother Isabella Farnese, strong-willed (second) wife of Philip V "the Frog" of Spain. Her father is Don Philipp, second son of Isabella and Philip. Their first son, Don Carlos, is the one who Isabella, among other things, unsuccessfully tried to get married to one of the Austrian Archduchesses, hoping for MT. More on him at Rheinsberg here.

Mom )

Isabella, meanwhile, is about 7 years old, and a hyperactive kid.

One teacher, who wanted to intimidate her by making faces, she only imitated, and unsettled him with unpleasant truths, which she told him bluntly to his face. She couldn't see a pile of earth or coal without jumping over it, she chased butterflies, flooded her room, wanted to play war, write, sing, dance, construct a horse that could be set in motion by a string, nothing was too difficult for her, she would have loved to dance on the tightrope!

She writes later in life that this was received better at Versailles than at the hyper-etiquette-conscious world of the Spanish court. Considering how stifling Marie Antoinette found the etiquette of Versailles after Vienna, Spain was really something! (The daughter of Regent Philippe who was sent to Spain in the 1720s as part of the "exchange of princesses" also found Spanish etiquette stifling and was always getting in trouble.)

Mom after leaving Spain )

Meanwhile, Isabella is growing up in Italy. She doesn't like it and writes about it in terms not unlike Algarotti's. The climate is terrible (alternating sweltering summers with frozen winters), the people are stupid, especially the "cicisbei", who are pretty but empty-headed, everyone is stupid and false, and only exist to cause her ten thousand irritations, and she always has the feeling she is surrounded by mortal enemies.

Not happy!

It's also not clear that she has any friends her own age, and as we've seen, her mother isn't around much even when she's around.

What she does have are a lot of hobbies. From Mom's agent in Paris, she orders:

four volumes of sonatas by Leclair, Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", the quartets by Telemann, the sonatas op. 6 by Locatelli, pieces for the harpsichord by Couperin, but also a wealth of operatic works, mainly by French composers.

She also went for dancing, archery, cooking, and gardening. She had a secret garden hidden away from prying eyes, and bred silkworms. She learned drawing, painting in pastels and copper engraving. We have one pastel painting by her ("Roman Charity", in which a young woman offers her breast to her dying father in a dark prison), and two landscape drawings.

And of course, she reads and writes a lot. Her library is again thanks to Mom's agent in Paris. Of course, this episode made me laugh.

She/her tutor wanted a bilingual "Telemachus" (remember, Fenelon's bestselling novel on how to be a good prince) from France, so Isabella could practice her German.

But no luck, there are no bilingual editions in Paris. A French copy and a German translation, then?

German translations in Paris? You must be kidding. :-P

There are worse marriages than Joseph, it turns out )

Instead, she ends up with Joseph. What happened was that for the entirety of the 1750s, MT was trying to decide whether to marry Joseph off to someone from Parma (Don Philipp's kids) or Naples (Don Carlos's kids).

Marriage preparations )

Salon discusses )
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
This is a snapshot of 1720s foreign policy, geared toward providing a context for answering the question of what happens when a runaway Prussian crown prince shows up in France in 1730.

Trending topics


In this section, I'm sharing a selection of major issues that the major international players care about, i.e. their trending topics.

There are a lot, obviously. I'm ignoring ones that don't seem likely to directly affect Fritz in 1730, like Jacobitism, many of the ones having to do with trade and colonies overseas (although not all, as you'll see), and, like, Russia.

Wittelsbachs as emperors )

Wittelsbach subsidies )

Jülich & Berg )

Dunkirk )

Gibraltar )

Parma and Tuscany )

Pragmatic Sanction )

Ostend Company )

Bremen and Verden )

Holstein-Gottorp and Schleswig )

Mecklenburg )

Decision-making Characters


In this section, I'm talking about some characters that will be relevant to the decision-making process about a Prussian crown prince seeking asylum.

They're French, because this was researched for a fictional AU (unwritten) in which Fritz shows up in France.

Cardinal Fleury )

Chauvelin )

Rottembourg )

International relations


Britain-France )

Britain-Austria )

Britain-Spain )

Britain-Bavaria )

Britain-Prussia )

Austria-Spain )

Austria-France )

Austria-Prussia )

France-Spain )

Netherlands )

Russia )

Diplomacy


These are SOME of the relevant treaties made in our period.

1725: Treaty of Vienna
1725: Treaty of Hanover
1726: Treaty of Wusterhausen
1727: Preliminaries of Paris
1728: Peace of Pardo
1729: Treaty of Seville
1731: Treaty of Vienna
1733: Bourbon Family Compact

1725: Treaty of Vienna )

1725: Treaty of Hanover )

1726: Treaty of Wusterhausen )

1727: Preliminaries of Paris )

1728: Peace of Pardo )

1729: Treaty of Seville )

1731: Treaty of Vienna )

1733: Bourbon Family Compact )

FW, awkward negotiator )

Salon Discussion


Saxony )
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)
[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard
The War of the Spanish Succession: Why do we care?

The generation prior to ours was deeply involved: F1, FW, MT's dad Charles VI, Hans Heinrich von Katte, Grumbkow, Prince Eugene, George I, Louis XIV, etc. Lots of royals died and new ones inherited, leading to tons of exciting political developments. It had as much to do with "Everyone in Europe is unhappy with everyone else" as it did with the actual Spanish Succession. It changed the map of Europe. New wars were started afterward by the people unhappy with the way this one ended.

It intersects in interesting ways with the Great Northern War, which was going on simultaneously, and about which I hope to learn more next.

Finally: all of Europe spent 40 years anticipating this war, making treaties to try to prevent it, and fighting other wars with an eye toward how this one was going to develop.

Overview )

Philip V )

Hanovers and Stuarts )

Netherlands backstory )

Royal Turnover 1711-1715 )

Battle of Blenheim )

1709 and Malplaquet )

Malplaquet tactics )

French, Dutch, and Bavarian Backstories )

Preventative Treaties That Prevent Nothing )

Some anecdotes )

Philip V: The Later Years )

For more backstory from the 15th-17th centuries, see [personal profile] selenak's various posts in this thread.

Profile

rheinsberg: (Default)
rheinsberg

June 2025

S M T W T F S
12 34567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930     

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 15th, 2025 07:24 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios