GERMANY. 45! 



ones, contrary to their interest. Without entering into particulars, 

 it is sufficient to observe, that the safety ot Hanover, and its aggran- 

 disement, was the main ooject of the British court; as that of the 

 emperor- was the establishment of the pragmatic sanction, in favour 

 of his daughter, the late empress-queen, he having no male issue. 

 Mutual concessions upon those great points restored a good under- 

 standing between George II and the emperor Charles ; and the elec- 

 tor of Saxony, being prevailed upon by the prospect of gaining the 

 throne of Poland, relinquished the claims he had upon the Austrian 

 succession. 



The emperor, after this, had very ill success in a war he entered 

 into with the Turks, which he had undertaken chiefly to indemnify 

 himself for the great sacrifices he had made in Italy to the princes 

 of the house of Bourbon. Prince Eugene was then dead, and he had 

 no general to supply his place. The system of France, under cardi- 

 nal Fleury, happened at that time to be pacific ; and she obtained for 

 him, from the Turks, a better peace than he had reason to expect. 

 Charles, to pacify the German and other European powers, had, be- 

 fore his death, given his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, in mar- 

 riage to the duke of Lorraine, a prince who could bring no accession 

 of power to the Austrian family. Charles died in 1740. 



He was no sooner in the grave, then all he had so long laboured for 

 must have been overthrown, had it not been for the firmness of George 

 II. The pragmatic sanction was attacked on all sides. The young 

 king of Prussia with a powerful army, entered and conquered Silesia, 

 which he said had been wrongfully dismembered from his family. 

 The king of Spain and the elector of Bavaria set up claims directly 

 incompatible with the pragmatic sanction ; and in this they were 

 joined by France ; though all those powers had solemnly guaranteed 

 it. The imperial throne, after a considerable vacancy, was filled by 

 the elector of Bavaria, who took the title of Charles VII, in January 



1742. The French poured their armies into Bohemia, where they 

 took Prague : and the queen of Hungary, to take off the weight of 

 Prussia, was forced to cede to that prince the most valuable part of 

 the duchy of Silesia, by a formal treaty. 



Her youth, her beauty and sufferings, and the noble fortitude with 

 which she bore them, touched the hearts of the Hungarians, under 

 whose protection she threw herself and her infant son ; and though 

 they had always been remarkable for their disaffection to the house 

 of Austria, they declared unanimously in her favour. Her generals 

 drove the French out of Bohemia ; and George II, at the head of an 

 English and Hanoverian army, gained the battle of Dettingen, in 



1743. Charles VII was at this time distressed on the imperial 

 throne, and driven out of his electoral Dominions (as had been his 

 ancestor, in queen Anne's reign, for siding with France) and would 

 have given the queen of Hungary almost her own terms ; but she 

 haughtily and impoliticly rejected all accommodation, though advised 

 to it by his Britannic majesty, her best and indeed only friend. This 

 obstinacy gave a colour for the king of Prussia to invade Bohemia, 

 under pretence of supporting the imperial dignity ; but though he 

 took Prague, and subdued the greatest part of the kingdom, he was 

 not supported by the French ; upon which he abandoned all his con- 

 quests, and retired to Silesia. This event confirmed the obstinacy 

 of the queen of Hungary, who came to an accommodation with the 



