450 GERMANY. 



Ferdinand II died in 1637, and was succeeded by his son, Ferdi- 

 nand II I, who died in 1657, and was succeeded by the emperor Leopold, 

 a severe, unamiable, and not very fortunate prince. He had two great 

 powers to contend with ; France on the one side, and the Turks on 

 the other ; and was a loser in his war with both. France took from. 

 him Alsace, and many other frontier places of the empire ; and the 

 Turks would have taken Vienna, had not the siege been raised by- 

 John Sobieski, king of Poland. Prince Eugene, of Savoy, was a 

 young adventurer in arms, about the year 1697 ; and, being one of 

 the imperial generals, gave the Turks the first checks they received 

 in Hungary ; and by the peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, Transylvania 

 was ceded to the emperor. The empire, however, could not have 

 withstood the power of France, had not the prince of Orange, after- 

 wards king William III, of England, laid the foundation of the grand 

 confederacy against the French power, the consequences of which 

 have been already described. The Hungarians, secretly encouraged 

 by the French, and exasperated by the unfeeling tyranny of Leopold, 

 were still in arms, under the protection of the Porte, when that prince 

 died, in 1705. 



He was succeeded by his son Joseph, who put the electors of 

 Cologne and Bavaria to the ban of the empire : but being very ill 

 served by prince Lewis, of Baden, the general of the empire, the 

 French partly recovered their affairs, notwithstanding their repeated 

 defeats. The duke of Marlborough, though he obtained very splendid 

 victories, had not all the success he expected or deserved. Joseph 

 himself was suspected of a design to subvert the Germanic liberties ; 

 and it was evident, by his conduct, that he expected England should 

 take the principal part in the war, which was chiefly carried on for his 

 benefit. The English were disgusted at his slowness and selfish- 

 ness ; but he died in 1711, before he had reduced the Hungarians; 

 and, leaving no male issue, was succeeded in the empire by his 

 brother Charles VI, whom the allies were endeavouring to place on 

 the throne of Spain, in opposition to Philip, duke of Anjou, grandson 

 to Lewis XIV. 



When the peace of Utrecht took place, in 1713, Charles at first 

 made a show as if he would continue the war ; but found himself 

 unable, now that he was forsaken by the English. He therefore was 

 obliged to conclude a peace with France, at Baden, in 1714, that he 

 might oppose the progress of the Turks in Hungary, where he 

 received a total defeat from prince Eugene, at the battle of Peter- 

 waradin. They received another, of equal importance, from the same 

 general, in 1717, before Belgrade, which fell into the hands of the 

 imperialists ; and the following year the peace of Passarowitz, between 

 them and the Turks, was concluded. Charles was continually employ- 

 ed in making arrangements for increasing and preserving his heredi- 

 tary dominions in Italy and the Mediterranean. Happily for him, the 

 crown of Britain devolved to the house of Hanover ; an event which 

 gave him a very decisive weight in Europe, by the connexions of 

 George I and II with the empire, Charles was sensible of this, and 

 carried matters with so high a hand, that, about the year 1724 and 

 1725, a breach ensued between him and George I ; and so unsteady 

 was the system of affairs all over Europe at that time, that the prin- 

 cipal powers often changed their old alliances, and concluded new 



