Buzási Enikő szerk.: In Europe' Princely Courts, Ádám Mányoki, Actors and venues of a portraitist's career (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2003/1)

János Kalmár: POWER AND THE PRINCELY COURT IN EARLY 18th-CENTURY EUROPE

János Kalmár POWER AND THE PRINCELY COURT IN EARLY 18

th-CENTURY EUROPE BETWEEN MARS AND PAX At the dawn of the 18

th century the clash of arms was reverberating through all of Europe. Charles II (1665/75-1700), the last Habsburg ruler of Spain, had died childless in 1700, and southern, western, and central Europe became the battleground in the fight for succession.

1 The French king, Louis XIV (1643/61-1715) and the Holy Roman Emperor, Leopold I (1658-1705), were equally close relatives of Charles II and thus claimed the Spanish throne for their families on similar grounds. Louis XIV was eager for his grandson, Philip of Anjou, to ascend the throne, while Leopold I was pushing for his younger son, Archduke Charles.

2 Should the French claimant succeed in gaining the Spanish throne, then the possibility existed of uniting the two neighbouring monarchies upon the death of Louis XIV. England and the united Netherlandish provinces (Holland) - fearing a possible French-Spanish hegemony backed Archduke Charles, even providing military support to the Habsburgs during the War of the Spanish Succession.

3 Besides Spanish military forces, the Bourbons' only other source of significant support was the armies of Maximilian Emanuel II (1679-1726), the elector of Bavaria.

4 Up to 1709 the imperial and allied forces were successful essentially everywhere except on the Spanish front. On the Iberian Peninsula, however, the superiority of French and Spanish land forces was becoming increasingly clear. With the war dragging on, representatives of Louis XIV, Emperor Joseph I (successor to the Habsburg throne following Leopold I's death in 1705), England and the United Provinces entered into negotiations in the Hague in spring 1709, and later in another Dutch town, Geertruydenberg, in March 1710.

5 It was a fortunate turn of events for the French that in August 1710 England's supporters of the war, the Whigs, were ousted. The Tories, seeing no point in further participation in military operations and fed up with huge expenses reaping little success, pushed for an agreement.

6 The coalition in opposition to the Bourbons received new impetus to split with the unexpected death of Emperor Joseph I on 17 April 1711. Archduke Charles, as the only brother of the deceased ruler, would inherit the entire Habsburg Empire. His allies, the naval powers, were as wary of an overly-powerful Habsburg Empire as they were of the potential Bourbon threat at the start of the war, and thus opposed Charles' acquisition of the Spanish throne.

7 Therefore, after Louis XIV agreed that France and Spain would not be united under one ruler, England and Holland recognised Philip of Anjou as the King of Spain (1700-1724).

8 In Utrecht in January 1712, representatives of the newly elected Habsburg ruler, now called Charles VI (1711-1740), came to the negotiating table with delegates from France, England, Holland, Prussia, and Spain to negotiate the peace that would end the war of succession. In spring 1713 an agreement was reached, first between England and Spain, and later between France and England, Holland, Prussia, Savoy, and Portugal, and also between Spain and Savoy.

9 Only afterwards, in March 1714, did the emperor and Louis XIV make peace with each other in Rastatt on the Rhine, in the margravate of Baden. The German imperial orders endorsed the treaty in the nearby town of Baden.

10 Finally another peace agreement in connection with the treaty of Utrecht was concluded in Antwerp in November 1715. This so-called barrier-agreement guaranteed the safety of the United Provinces by allowing the Dutch to occupy several strongholds in southern Holland along the French border.

11 At the start of the Utrecht peace negotiations, Ferenc Rákóczi II, leader of the Hungarian war for independence against the Habsburgs, was in his second year as an emigre, residing in Danzig (Gdansk). The war against the Habsburgs had just ended the year before with the Peace of Szatmár (1711) concluded between the government and revolutionaries back in Hungary.

12 From Poland Rákóczi requested the naval powers, who had always been accommodating,

13 to intervene in securing at least the acceptance of Transylvania's independence following this treaty, if not that of the entire Kingdom of Hungary.

14 However, as his Confessio [Confession] bears witness, he was sadly forced to agree that "since after the war I ceased to be an important, indispensable, and influential person in the negotiations, the promises made by the English queen and the United Orders to intercede on my behalf were admirably broken. The ministers of both powers even said [...] that my suggestions should be submitted with the intercession of the French king's ministers, as it would not be appropriate for them, the allies of the Emperor, to be the first to agree to arrange my affairs, but if with the assistance of the French, the matter were already on the