War of the Polish Succession
War of the Polish Succession | |
---|---|
Part of | |
Result |
|
Territorial changes |
Stanislaus Leszczyński (Passed to France following death with guarantee)Duchy of Parma to Austria |
- Poland loyal to Stanislaus I
- France
- Spain
- Savoy-Sardinia
- Duchy of Parma
- Jan Tarło
- Adam Tarło
- Charles I
- Berwick †
- Villars
- Coigny
- Broglie
- Belle-Isle
- James Fitz-James
- Albornoz
- Charles Emmanuel III
The War of the Polish Succession (
The war's major military campaigns and battles occurred outside the borders of Poland–Lithuania. The Bourbons, supported by
Although a preliminary peace was reached in 1735, the
The war proved disastrous for Polish–Lithuanian independence, and re-affirmed that the affairs of the Poland–Lithuania, including the election of its ruler, were controlled by the other great powers of Europe. After August III, there would only be one more king of Poland, Stanisław August Poniatowski, himself a Russian puppet, and ultimately Poland–Lithuania would be divided up by its neighbors and cease to exist as a sovereign state by the end of the 18th century. Poland–Lithuania also surrendered claims to Livonia and direct control over the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, which, although remaining its fief, was not integrated into it and fell under strong Russian influence that only ended with the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917.
Background
After the death of Sigismund II Augustus in 1572, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania was elected by the szlachta, a body composed of the Polish–Lithuanian nobility, in a specially-called election sejm. The Sejm, the legislative body of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, increasingly restricted royal power. In turn, the Sejm was often paralyzed by the liberum veto, the right of any member to block its decisions. The Commonwealth's neighbors often influenced the Sejm, and by the early 18th-century the democratic system was in decline.
In 1697, Augustus II became king due to Austrian and Russian backing. Deposed by Stanisław Leszczyński in 1705, he returned four years later and Stanisław fled to France, where his daughter Marie married Louis XV in 1725. Augustus failed in an attempt to settle the Polish crown on his son, Augustus III, leading to a contest for the throne when he died in 1733. In the secret 1732 Treaty of the Three Black Eagles, Russia, Austria and Prussia agreed to oppose the election of either Stanislaus or Augustus III and to support Manuel of Portugal instead.[1]
The dispute coincided with the breakdown of the Anglo-French Alliance that dominated Europe since 1714. The Peace of Utrecht ensured the separation of France and Spain despite the close relationship between Louis XV and his uncle Philip V of Spain and the two countries were opponents in the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718–1720). When Cardinal Fleury became French chief minister in 1726, he sought a closer relationship with Spain, helped by the birth of Louis, Dauphin of France in 1729, which seemed to ensure that the countries would remain separate.[2]
Fleury supported Stanisław, hoping to weaken Austria and secure the Duchy of Lorraine, a strategic possession occupied by France for large parts of the previous century. The current duke Francis Stephen was expected to marry Emperor Charles' heir Maria Theresa, bringing Austria dangerously close to France. Simultaneously, Philip wanted to regain the Italian territories ceded to Austria in 1714, which led to the Franco-Spanish Pacte de Famille in 1733.[3]
Death of Augustus II
Augustus II died on 1 February 1733. Throughout the spring and summer of 1733, France built up its forces along its northern and eastern frontiers, while the emperor massed troops on the Commonwealth's borders, reducing garrisons in the Duchy of Milan for the purpose. While the aging Prince Eugene of Savoy had recommended a more warlike posture to the emperor against potential French actions in the Rhine valley and northern Italy, only minimal steps were taken to improve imperial defenses on the Rhine.
The Marquis de Monti, France's ambassador in Warsaw, convinced the rival
Frederick August negotiated agreements with Austria and Russia in July 1733. In exchange for Russian support, he agreed to give up any remaining Polish claims to Livonia, and promised to Anna of Russia her choice of successor to the Duchy of Courland, a Polish fief (of which she had been duchess prior to her ascension to the Russian throne) which would have otherwise come under direct Polish rule on the death of the current duke, Ferdinand Kettler, who had no heirs. To the Austrian emperor he promised recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a document designed to guarantee inheritance of the Austrian throne to Maria Theresa, Charles' oldest child.
In August, Polish nobles gathered for the election sejm. On 11 August, 30,000 Russian troops under Field Marshal Peter Lacy entered Poland in a bid to influence the sejm's decision. On September 4, France openly declared its support for Leszczyński, who was elected king by a sejm of 12,000 delegates on September 12. A group of nobles, led by Lithuanian magnates including Duke Michael Wiśniowiecki (the former Lithuanian grand chancellor nominated by Augustus II), crossed the Vistula river and the protection of Russian troops. This group, numbering about 3,000, elected Frederick August II King of Poland as Augustus III on October 5. Despite the fact that this group was a minority, Russia and Austria, intent on maintaining their influence within Poland, recognised Augustus as king.
On 10 October, France declared war on Austria and Saxony. Louis XV was later joined by his uncle, King
Austrian isolation
When hostilities finally broke out, the Austrians had hoped for aid from Great Britain and the Dutch Republic. Such expectations quickly dissipated as both the Dutch and the British chose to pursue a policy of neutrality. British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole justified British neutrality in the conflict by noting that the Anglo-Austrian Alliance agreed at the 1731 Treaty of Vienna was a purely defensive agreement, while Austria was in this instance the aggressor. This position was attacked by British Austrophiles who wanted to aid the Austrians against France, but Walpole's dominant position ensured that Britain stayed out of the conflict.
The Dutch under the leadership of
On Austria's southern border, France in November 1733 negotiated the secret
The Austrians were thus left largely without effective external allies on their southern and western frontiers. Their Russian and Saxon allies were occupied with the Polish campaign, and the Emperor distrusted
War
Poland
The Russians, commanded by
Rhineland
Following France's 10 October declaration of war, it began military operations three days later, invading the Duchy of Lorraine and besieging the imperial fortress at Kehl, across the Rhine from Strasbourg, gaining control of both objectives in a few weeks. Unable to attack Austria directly, and unwilling to invade the intervening German states for fear of drawing Great Britain and the Dutch into the conflict, France consolidated its position in Lorraine, and withdrew its troops across the Rhine for the winter.
The emperor mobilized his active forces in response to the French attacks, and began the process of calling up the
French armies continued to advance along the Rhine, reaching as far as Mainz, but the growing imperial army, which came to include troops from Russia that had assisted with the capture of Danzig, was able to prevent France from establishing a siege there, and Eugene went on the offensive. A force of 30,000 under Friedrich Heinrich von Seckendorff crossed the Rhine and began pushing the French back toward Trier, defeating them at Clausen in October 1735, in one of the last battles before preliminary peace terms were reached.
Italy
French and Savoyard troops numbering over 50,000, under the command of Charles Emmanuel, entered Milanese territory as early as 10 October, against minimal resistance, as the Austrian forces in the duchy numbered only about 12,000. By 3 November, the city of
Mercy's forces made repeated attempts to cross the
In southern Italy, the Austrians, choosing a strategy of defending a large number of fortresses, were soundly defeated. Don Carlos assembled an army composed primarily of Spaniards, but also including some troops from France and Savoy. Moving south through the
The armies in northern Italy suffered significantly over the winter, with significant losses to disease and desertion. For the 1735 campaign the allied forces in northern Italy came under the command of the
Peace settlement
As early as February 1734 the British and Dutch had offered to mediate peace talks between the various parties of the conflict. By early 1735, proposals were being circulated. As 1735 progressed with the Austrians being in no real position to continue the fight, and the French concerned by the possible arrival of Russian reinforcements on the Rhine (which did eventually occur), negotiations continued through the summer of 1735.
A preliminary peace was finally concluded in October 1735 and ratified in the
Charles of Parma gave up Parma, which came under Austrian rule, but he was richly compensated by being confirmed instead as king of Naples and Sicily. Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia received territories in the western part of the Duchy of Milan west of the Ticino, including Novara and Tortona.
Although fighting stopped after the preliminary peace in 1735, the final peace settlement had to wait until the death of the last
The French (and their allies), hoping for détente and good relations with the Austrians, now also recognized the Pragmatic Sanction that would allow Emperor Charles's daughter Maria Theresa to succeed him. This proved a hollow guarantee, however, as the French decided to intervene to partition the Habsburg monarchy after all following the death of Charles in 1740. The acquisition of Lorraine for the former Polish king, however, proved of lasting benefit to France, as it passed under direct French rule with Stanisław's death in 1766.
Stanisław signed the act of abdication in 1736, while Augustus III pronounced a general amnesty. Michał Serwacy Wiśniowiecki was lavishly rewarded: the king made him the Grand Hetman and commander-in-chief of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.
See also
References
- ^ Lewinski-Corwin 1917, pp. 266–268.
- ^ Lodge 1931, pp. 146–147.
- ^ Ward & Prothero 1909, p. 63.
- ^ Van Alphen et al. 2019, p. 102.
- ^ Van Nimwegen 2002, p. 67.
- ^ Israel 1995, p. 993-994.
Sources
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 21 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 981–982.
- Lewinski-Corwin, Edward H (1917). The Political History of Poland. Polish Book Imports.
- Lodge, Richard (1931). "English Neutrality in the War of the Polish Succession". Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 14: 141–173. S2CID 155803033.
- Ward, AW; Prothero, GW, eds. (1909). The Cambridge Modern History; Volume VI The 18th century. Cambridge University Press.
- Sutton, John L (1980). The King's honor & the King's Cardinal: the war of the Polish succession. University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 978-0-8131-1417-0.
- Wilson, Peter Hamish (1998). German armies: war and German politics, 1648–1806. ISBN 978-1-85728-106-4.
- Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. Kriegsarchiv (1891). Geschichte des Kämpfe Österreichs: Feldzüge des Prinzen Eugen von Savoyen: Nach den Feldacten und anderen authentischen Quellen [History of Austrian Battles: Campaigns of Prince Eugene of Savoy: from the field records and other authentic sources] (in German). Verlag des K.K. Generalstabes, in Commission bei C. Gerold's Sohn.
- Colletta, Pietro; Horner, Ann Susan (translator) (1858). History of the kingdom of Naples, 1734–1825, with a suppl, Parts 1825–1856.
{{cite book}}
:|first2=
has generic name (help) - Lindsay, J. O (1957). The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-04545-2.
- Pajol, Charles Pierre (1881). Les guerres sous Louis XV [The Wars of Louis XV] (in French). Paris: Librairie de Firmin-Didot et Cie. p. 288.
Clausen Coigny.
- Navarro i Soriano, Ferran (2019). Harca, harca, harca! Músiques per a la recreació històrica de la Guerra de Successió (1794-1715). Editorial DENES. ISBN 978-84-16473-45-8.
- Van Alphen, Marc; Hoffenaar, Jan; Lemmers, Alan; Van der Spek, Christiaan (2019). Krijgsmacht en Handelsgeest: Om het machtsevenwicht in Europa (in Dutch). Boom. ISBN 978-90-244-3038-3.
- Israel, Jonathan (1995). The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477–1806. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-873072-1.
- Van Nimwegen, Olaf (2002). De Republiek der Verenigde Nederlanden als grote mogendheid: Buitenlandse politiek en oorlogvoering in de eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw en in het bijzonder tijdens de Oostenrijkse Successieoorlog (1740–1748) (in Dutch). De Bataafsche Leeuw. ISBN 90-6707-540-X.