452 GERMANY. 



emperor, that she might recover Silesia. Soon after, his imperial 

 majesty, in the beginning of the year 1745, died; and the duke of 

 Lorraine, then grand duke of Tuscany, consort to her Hungarian 

 majesty, after surmounting some difficulties, was chosen emperor, by 

 the title of Francis I. 



The bad success of the allies against the French and Bavarians in 

 the Low Countries, and the loss of the battle of Fontenoy, retarded 

 the operations of the empress-queen against his Prussian majesty. 

 The latter defeated the emperor's brother, prince Charles of Lor- 

 raine, who had before driven the Prussians out of Bohemia ; and the 

 conduct of the empress-queen was such, that his Britannic majesty 

 thought proper to guarantee to him the possession of Silesia as ceded 

 by treaty. Soon after, his Prussian majesty pretended that he had 

 discovered a secret convention which had been entered into between 

 the empress-queen, the empress of Russia, and the king of Poland 

 as elector of Saxony to strip him of his dominions, and to divide them 

 among themselves. Upon this he suddenly attacked the king of 

 Poland, drove him out of Saxony, defeated his troops, and took pos- 

 ses ion of Dresden, which he held till a treaty was made under the 

 mediation of his Britannic majesty, by which the king of Prussia 

 acknowledged the duke of Lorraine, now become great duke of 

 Tuscany, for emperor. The war continued in the Low Countries, 

 not only to the disadvantage but to the discredit of the Austrians and 

 Dutch, till it was finished by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelie, in April 

 1748. By that treaty, Silesia was once more guaranteed to the king 

 of Prussia. It was not long before that monarch's jealousies were 

 renewed and verified ; and the empress of Russia's views falling in 

 with those of the empress-queen and the king of Poland, who were 

 unnaturally supported by France in their new schemes, a fresh war 

 was kindled in the empire, in the year 1756. The king of Prussia 

 declared against the admission of the Russians into Germany, and his 

 Britannic majesty against that of the French. Upon those two prin- 

 ciples, all former differences between these monarchs were forgot- 

 ten, and the British parliament agreed to pay an annual subsidy of 

 670,000/ to his Prussian majesty during the continuance of the war, 

 the flames of which were now rekindled with more fury than ever. 



His Prussian majesty once more broke into Saxony, defeated the 

 imperial general Brown at the battle of Lowositz, forced the Saxons 

 to lay down their arms though almost impregnably fortified at Pirna j 

 and the elector of Saxony again fled to his regal dominions in Poland. 

 After this, his Prussian majesty was put to the ban of the empire ; and 

 the French poured, by one quarter, their armies, as the Russians did 

 by another, into Germany. The conduct of his Prussian majesty on 

 this occasion is scarcely to be paralleled in history. He broke once 

 more into Bohemia with inconceivable rapidity, and defeated an army 

 of 100,000 Austrians, under general Brown, who was killed, as the 

 brave marshal Schwerin was on the side of the Prussians. He then 

 besieged Prague, and plied it with a most tremendous artillery ; but, 

 just as he was beginning to imagine that his troops were invincible, 

 they were defeated at Colin, by the Austrian general Daun, obliged 

 to raise the siege, and to fall back upon Eisenach. The operations 

 of the war now multiplied every day. The emperialists, under count 

 Daun, were formed into excellent troops ; but they were beaten at the 

 battle of Lissa, and the Prussians took Breslau, and obtained many 



