The War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748) by M S Anderson

Author:M S Anderson [Anderson, M S]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780582059504
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-03-02T05:00:00+00:00

THE TREATY OF WORMS AND ITS RESULTS

Charles Emmanuel was indeed a more valuable ally than the poverty-stricken and rather pathetic Charles VII. (When Noailles met the emperor in Frankfurt some days after the battle of Dettingen he had to make him a personal loan of 40,000 crowns, so desperate was his financial position.)20 Yet no agreement between the king of Sardinia and Maria Theresa of the kind Carteret was determined to achieve could be reached without substantial concessions on her part in Italy. To combine a demand for these with an almost simultaneous one for what could be regarded as a surrender to Charles VII in Germany was impossible. The negotiation with the emperor at Hanau therefore was not followed up, in order to make possible a more successful, though still difficult, one with Charles Emmanuel. The king of Sardinia held strong cards, for he was now being courted by both sides; and he showed both ability and lack of scruple in playing each off against the other. There was, in fact, a marked symmetry about the position in this respect. On the one hand, the French government, well aware of the strategic and military advantages of an alliance with Charles Emmanuel, was pressing the very reluctant Philip V and Elizabeth Farnese to swallow the need to make substantial concessions to him. On the other, Great Britain was urging an equally reluctant Maria Theresa to even greater sacrifices for the same purpose. By August 1743 Charles Emmanuel had accepted in principle a treaty which the marquis de Saint-Necterre, the French minister in Turin, had been authorised to sign. This would have given him the whole of the duchy of Milan and some other territories on the left bank of the river Po, with the title of king of Lombardy. Don Philip for his part was to have most of the duchy of Mantua, parts of those of Parma and Piacenza, and the island of Sardinia, also with a royal title.21 Philip and Elizabeth did not like this arrangement, which they thought, with typical lack of moderation and common sense, did not go far enough in meeting the claims of their son: they also objected particularly to the fact that Charles Emmanuel was to have overall command of the allied armies in Italy against the Austrians. Nevertheless they accepted it. Simultaneously, however, Charles Emmanuel was negotiating actively at Worms, through Carteret, with the Austrians; and he was no more willing to see Austrian power in Italy destroyed than he was to see that of the Bourbons disappear. The discussions at Worms were difficult, indeed bitter. Maria Theresa and her ministers deeply resented the concessions which the king, backed by Carteret, demanded from them; and only a Sardinian ultimatum brought matters to a head. On 2 September the marquis d'Ormea, the Foreign Minister of Charles Emmanuel, told Villettes, the British minister in Turin, that unless Maria Theresa accepted his master's terms within the time needed for a messenger to go to Worms and return the king would be forced to accept a French alliance.

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