Heart of Europe: A History of the Roman Empire (131 page)

1701

Leopold I precipitated the War of the Spanish Succession by disputing last-minute arrangements that assigned all of Spain to Louis XIV’s younger grandson, Philip V. Britain and the Dutch Republic backed Austria from 1702, while Leopold used the formal framework of the Reichstag to sanction full imperial mobilization against France. The conflict overlapped with the Great Northern War (1700–1721), in which Denmark, Russia and Saxony-Poland challenged Sweden’s status as the dominant Baltic power. Bavaria and Cologne (held since 1583 by Bavarian Wittelsbach archbishops) backed France in the hope of securing a kingdom to be carved out of the Spanish Netherlands. The rival Palatine branch backed Austria for the same reason. Bavaria and Cologne were declared outlaws following the allied victory at the battle of Blenheim (1704).

1705–11

The reign of Joseph I, elder son of Leopold I, represented the peak of the Habsburgs’ recovery of imperial influence since 1648.

1711–40

The reign of Charles VI, younger brother of Joseph I. Joseph’s unexpectedly early death wrecked Leopold’s arrangement with his British and Dutch allies, who had insisted on the continued separation of the Spanish and Austrian possessions and refused to accept Charles as ruler of both. Charles was obliged to agree peace with France, ending the War of the Spanish Succession in the treaties of Utrecht (1713) and Rastatt and Baden (both 1714). Philip V received Spain and its colonies, while Naples, Sicily, Milan and the Spanish Netherlands were recognized as Austrian possessions.

1714

The Hanoverian accession in Britain added another German prince with a royal crown. Bavaria and Cologne were released from the imperial ban, but, like their Palatine relations, the Bavarian Wittelsbachs had failed to secure a kingdom from the War of the Spanish Succession. The Grand Duke of Savoy became a full king, initially in Sicily, and then Sardinia (from 1720).

1716–18

The Austrian conquest of Serbia in a renewed war with the Ottomans. Following the other Habsburg gains since 1699, this made Austria a European great power, reducing the significance of its association with the imperial title.

1726

Austria recognized the tsar as Russian emperor to secure the continued friendship of this increasingly powerful eastern neighbour.

1733–5

The War of the Polish Succession saw a revision of the 1713–14 settlement in Spain’s favour, forcing Austria to cede Naples and Sicily to a junior line of the Spanish Bourbons. Lorraine was detached from the Empire to compensate the defeated candidate in the Polish succession dispute. It transferred fully to France in 1766.

1736–9

The renewed Turkish war, in support of Russia, cost Austria its gains from 1716–18 and compounded the financial and political crisis following the Polish succession conflict.

AUSTRO-PRUSSIAN RIVALRY, 1740–92

1740

The death of Charles VI ended the main Habsburg male line ruling since 1440 and precipitated another interregnum (the first since 1657–8) as the electors rejected Francis, former duke of Lorraine and husband to Charles’s daughter Maria Theresa.

1740–48

The War of the Austrian Succession began due to the unprovoked Prussian invasion of Silesia by Frederick the Great, who sought to profit from the crisis to enlarge his lands at Austria’s expense. The war expanded through the merger of the Austro-Prussian conflict with renewed Spanish efforts to recover the remaining possessions lost in 1714, as well as a new Anglo-French War.

1742–5

The reign of Charles VII, elector of Bavaria (the Wittelsbach Carl Albrecht), who contested Maria Theresa’s inheritance of Austria and Bohemia (but not Hungary) since 1741. Although initially welcomed by many minor imperial Estates and those disillusioned with the last years of Habsburg rule, Charles’s obvious dependency on French and Prussian support weakened imperial authority and prestige.

1745

The death of Charles VII and election of Maria Theresa’s husband as Francis I. The electors recognized that only the Habsburgs had sufficient direct possessions to sustain an imperial role. Prussia accepted Francis’s accession and withdrew from the war in return for Austria’s reluctant acknowledgement of its retention of Silesia.

1756–63

The Seven Years War, started by Prussia to break a coalition forming to deprive it of Silesia. Like the War of the Austrian Succession, this was an imperial civil war, but this time the Empire was formally mobilized against Prussia. Prussia survived with its territory intact, demonstrating its influence as a second great power alongside Austria. Although the Empire achieved its official aim of restoring peace, the war discredited its system of collective security and encouraged a growing debate on renewed imperial reform.

1765–90

The reign of Joseph II, eldest son of Francis I and king of the Romans since 1764. Joseph accelerated internal reforms initiated after 1748 and intended to match Prussia’s military efficiency. These reforms not only consolidated Austrian power distinct from its imperial status, but increasingly impinged on its position in the Empire by alienating traditional imperial supporters, notably amongst the imperial church by 1781. This allowed Prussia to assume the mantle of constitutional champion, rallying anti-Austrian sentiment to hinder both Habsburg imperial management and the reform agenda.

1772

The First Partition of Poland, by Austria, Prussia and Russia, raised the possibility of a ‘Polish Future’ for the Empire should the two German great powers ever decide to settle their rivalry at the expense of the weaker imperial Estates. This stimulated the reform debate, which was boosted further by the brief Austro-Prussian War of the Bavarian Succession (1778–9).

1790–92

The reign of Leopold II, Joseph II’s brother, dominated by the difficulty of responding to rapidly changing circumstances: the French Revolution (1789), revolt in the Austrian Netherlands (1790), and the growing power of Russia in Poland and the Balkans.

THE END, 1792–1806

April 1792

The French declaration of war on Austria began the French Revolutionary Wars. Austria bought Prussian support (recognition of Hohenzollern inheritance of Ansbach and Bayreuth), and both pressured the imperial Estates to declare imperial war (1793).

July 1792

The accession of Francis II in the last imperial election and coronation.

1793, 1795

The Second and Third Partitions removed Poland from the map, and distracted Prussia, which had difficulty digesting its new gains.

1795

The Peace of Basel. Prussia withdrew from the war against France, taking the whole of northern Germany into neutrality (until 1806). Several other princes began negotiating with France. French annexation of the Austrian Netherlands removed the Burgundian Kreis and shifted the imperial frontier east to the Rhine.

1797

The Peace of Campo Formio. Austria accepted French annexations west of the Rhine and opened a congress at Rastatt to settle peace between France and the Empire.

1799–1801

The failure of the Rastatt Congress led to renewed imperial war with France. Without aid from Prussia and the north, Austria and the rump Empire were defeated.

1801

The Peace of Lunéville. The Empire accepted peace on the basis of Campo Formio. Imperial Italy was ceded to France, but Austria took Venice. Those princes who had lost territory west of the Rhine were to be compensated east of that river at the expense of the imperial church and cities. Powerful armed princes forced the pace, occupying land ahead of formal sanction, but with the backing of international allies, especially France and Russia.

1803

An Imperial Deputation decision sanctioned the redistribution of territory, radically altering the Empire’s internal balance and status hierarchy. Reform discussions intensified, but little could be achieved in the face of Austrian and Prussian opposition.

1804

Francis II responded to Napoleon Bonaparte’s self-coronation as ‘emperor of the French’ by assuming an hereditary Austrian imperial title distinct from the Holy Roman one.

1805

Napoleon forced the pace of events by assuming the title of ‘king of Italy’, and forging closer alliances with German princes. Austrian efforts to resist were crushed at the battle of Austerlitz, leading to the Peace of Pressburg, which declared France’s German allies to be sovereign states.

July 1806

Sixteen princes renounced allegiance to the Empire and formed the Confederation of the Rhine in alliance with Napoleon.

August 1806

Francis II abdicated to prevent Napoleon usurping the Holy Roman imperial title and its associations.

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