Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 42. (1992)

BLACK, Jeremy: British policy towards Austria, 1780–1793

BRITISH POLICY TOWARDS AUSTRIA, 1780-93

[ make no apology to your Lordship for hinting in confidence, (what you know to be very true,) that no circumstance is more likely to throw stumbling blocks in our way, than that spirit of chicanery which is but too often remarked in the dealings of the Hanoverian ministry towards this Court. God knows I am far from wishing to see a state of subserviency, adopted by any man who has the honour to serve the King, (in England or Germany) in his correspondence with the ministers of any foreign power whatever. But at least my dear Lord whilst the King is seeking to cultivate the friendship of their Imperial Majesties let us not find his language contradicted by the harsh punctiliousness of His Hanoverian Chancery16).’

Many of the themes of Anglo-Austrian relations in the 1780s had, therefore, already been clearly enunciated in the previous decade: the British government’s hope that incompatible French and Austrian interests would drive the two powers apart and lead Austria to turn to Britain combined with Hanoverian hostility to Imperial pretensions and a consequent closeness to Prussia that bred Austrian distrust of Hanover and Britain. British hopes and Hanoverian fears centred on the person of Joseph II and as the policy of both Britain and Hanover were to be affected by the views and policies of the other as well as those attributed to the other, it could be suggested that there was already a dangerous failure of communication in the late 1770s, one that was to have serious results in 1785 at the time of the negotiation of the Fürstenbund. However, there was also a genuine problem in combining Hanoverian policy and in particular the need to respond to specific issues and initiatives by other German states with the British aspiration for better relations with Austria. It was easy for British diplomats and ministers who sought the latter and believed that a rapprochement was in Austria’s interest and indeed desired by some Austrian ministers to blame their failure in part on Hanoverian policy. This could supplement their tendency to ascribe much to Kaunitz.

The extent to which Hanoverian policy was to blame for poor Anglo- Austrian relations in the years before the Fürstenbund is open to debate. It is important to appreciate that the government of Hanover, in common with that of many other German states, felt threatened by Austrian policy. From 1769 the election of Maria Theresa’s youngest son, Maximilian, as coadjutor to the Archbishopric of Cologne and the Bishopric of Münster had been discussed and in 1779 Maria * 11

16) Beckers to Haslang, 10 Dec. 1774: HStA Munich Ges. London 232; Elliot to Keith,

11 Aug. 1778, Yorké to Keith, 9 Oct. 1778, Keith to Stormont, 4 Dec. 1779, British Library London Additional Manuscripts (hereafter BL London Add.) 35514 fol. 242, 35515 fol. 154, 35517 fol. 311.

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