180

DEATH OF THE EMPRESS ELIZABETH.

[CHAP. XLVIII. carried about with him the poison which was to end his miseries.' But in this extremity of misfortune he was rescued by the death of the Russian Empress, Elizabeth, January 5th, 1762; an event which more than compensated him for the change of ministry in England. Abandoned to sensual indulgence of every kind, Elizabeth fell a victim to her intemperance. Her extravagance was as unbounded as her idleness and aversion to business. She is said to have left between 15,000 and 16,000 dresses, few of which had been worn more than once, besides whole chest-loads of ribands and silk stockings. She would neglect all business for months together, and could with difficulty be persuaded to affix her signature even to letters of necessary politeness to the highestpotentates.

3

The change of policy adopted by the Czar, Peter III., after his accession, was the result of private friendship, just as Elizabeth's hostility to Frederick had been the effect of personal hatred, without any regard to objects of State policy. Peter, who carried his admiration of Frederick, and of everything Prussian, to a ridiculous extent, communicated his aunt's death to Frederick in an autograph letter, written on the very evening that it occurred, and desired a renewal of their friendship. He also ordered an immediate suspension of hostilities between the Russian and Prussian armies. Peter had formed the design of recovering that part of Sleswick and Holstein which Denmark had gained through the Northern War; for which purpose he meant to employ the troops opposed to the Prussians. A truce with Prussia was accordingly signed at Stargard, in Pomerania, March 16th, 1762, and on May 5th a formal peace was concluded at St. Petersburg, by which the Czar promised to restore, within two months, all the Prussian territories which had been conquered. It was also agreed that a treaty for an alliance should be prepared, the conditions of which are not known, except that each Power was to aid the other with 15,000 men. Lord Bute had endeavoured to prevent this alliance by proposing to the Czar to choose for himself any part of Prussia that he might desire."

Sweden, which had suffered nothing but losses in her war with

1 Preuss, Lebensgesch. Fridrichs II. B. ii. S. 315.

2 She left the reply to Louis XV.'s announcement of the birth of his grandson unsigned for three years! Schlosser, Gesch. des 18ten Jahrh. B. ii. S. 406.

Biographie Peters III. B. ii. S. 38 f. ap. Stenzel, B. v. S. 289.

4 Wenck, t. iii. p. 299.

5 Lord Dover, Life of Frederick II. vol. ii. p. 259.

CHAP. XLVIII.]

THE CZAR PETER III. DEPOSED.

181

He

Prussia, followed the example of Russia in reconciling herself with that country. The war had cost Sweden, the poorest country in Europe, eight million dollars. Adolphus Frederick, had he been so inclined, might easily have overthrown the ruling oligarchy, to which the Czar Peter was hostile; but feelings of piety and honour led him to respect the oath which he had taken, and he contented himself with working on its fears. The conduct of the negotiations was intrusted to the Queen, Frederick II.'s sister. An armistice was agreed to, April 7th, followed by the Peace of Hamburg, May 22nd, by which everything was replaced in the same state as before the war.1 These events enabled Frederick to concentrate his forces in Saxony and Silesia. had not only got rid of the Russians as opponents, but even expected their friendly help; but in this hope he was disappointed by another revolution. Peter was deposed through a conspiracy organized by his own consort (July 9th), who mounted the throne in his stead with the title of Catharine II.2 In the manifest which she published on her accession, dated June 28th (O.S.), she charged her husband, among other things, with dishonouring Russia by the peace which he had made with her bitterest enemy, and Frederick, therefore, could only expect that she would revert to the policy of Elizabeth. But Catharine, the daughter of a Prussian General, born at Stettin, and married into the Russian Imperial family through the influence of Frederick, was not hostilely inclined towards her native land; and the King's alarm at her manifest was soon assuaged by a communication that she intended to observe the peace with him, but to withdraw the Russian troops from his service. Frederick, however, persuaded the Russian General, Czernischeff, to remain by him with his corps for three days after the receipt of this notice; and during this interval, aided by the support which he derived from their presence-for though they took no part in the action, Daun, being ignorant of their recall, was compelled to oppose an equal number of men to them he drove the Austrians from the heights of Burkersdorf. Two or three months afterwards he took the important town of Schweidnitz (October 9th), when 9,000 Austrians surrendered themselves prisoners of war. This event closed the campaign in Silesia. Prince Henry had succeeded in maintaining himself in

p. 307.

Martens, t. i. p. 12; Wenck, t. iii. We shall return to this subject in a subsequent chapter.

Biographie Peters III. B. ii. S. 64,

ap. Stenzel, B. v. S. 300; Hermann, Gesch. Russlands, B. v. S. 288. The date of the revolution, and consequently of the manifest, is erroneously given by Schlosser, Gesch. des 18ten Jahrh. S. 428, 431

182

THE MARQUIS OF POMBAL.

[CHAP. XLVIII. Saxony; and, on October 29th, he defeated the Austrians and the army of the Empire at Freiburg.

In Western Germany, Prince Ferdinand had also been, on the whole, successful. He drove the French from a strong position which they had taken up near Cassel; and though the Hanoverians were defeated at Friedberg, August 30th, they succeeded in taking Cassel, October 31st. This was the last operation of the war in this quarter, hostilities being terminated by the signing of the preliminaries of peace, November 3rd. But before we describe the negotiations for it we must advert to the war with Spain.

Portugal had been forced into the war through the threats of the Bourbon Courts. Joseph I. now occupied the throne of that Kingdom. John V. died in 1750, and Joseph, then a minor, was left under the guardianship of his mother, the Queen Dowager, an Austrian Princess. During this period Sebastian Joseph of Carvalho and Melo, better known afterwards in European history as the Marquis of Pombal, acquired a complete ascendency over the minds both of the young King and his mother, and continued many years to administer the affairs of Portugal with absolute authority. He had established his influence through his wife, the Austrian Countess Daun, a daughter of Marshal Daun, and a friend and confidante of the Queen. Pombal introduced many searching reforms both in Church and State, which he carried through with an arbitrary despotism more resembling a revolutionary reign of terror than the administration of a constitutional minister. Like Charles XI. of Sweden, he impoverished the nobles by revoking all the numerous grants made to them by the Crown in the Portuguese possessions in Asia, Africa, and America, for which he granted but very slender compensation. Those who ventured to oppose his measures were treated with the greatest harshness and cruelty; every lonely tower, every subterranean dungeon, was filled with State prisoners. His enlightened principles formed a strange contrast to the despotic manner in which he enforced them. He abolishedthe abuses of the middle ages by methods which seemed fitted only for that period, and proceeded in his work of reform regardless alike of civil and ecclesiastical law. He gave a signal proof of his severity after the terrible earthquake which, in 1755, shook Lisbon to its foundations. Upwards of 30,000 persons are said

Respecting Pombal, see Jagemann, Das Leben Sebastian Josephs von Carvalho und Melo, Markis von Fombal, &c. (Des.

sau, 1782); Moore, Life of the Marquis of Pombal, London, 1814; Smith, Memoir of Marquis of Pombal, 1843.

CHAP. XLVIII.] PLOT AGAINST JOSEPH I. Of portugal. 183

to have perished in that calamity; thousands more, deprived of all employment, wandered about homeless and starving; the Government stores were opened for their relief, and contributions poured in from all parts of Europe. It was not one of the least dreadful features of this terrible catastrophe that hundreds of wretches availed themselves of the confusion to plunder and commit all sorts of violence. Pombal put an end to these excesses in the most summary manner. Guards were stationed at every gate and in every street, and those who could not satisfactorily account for any property found upon them, were hanged upon the spot. Gallowses were to be seen in every direction amid the ruins filled with the dead and dying. Between 300 and 400 persons are said to have been hanged in the space of a few days.

Perhaps the most searching and salutary of Pombal's reforms were those which regarded the Church. He abolished the annual autos de fé, abridged the power of the Inquisition, and transferred the judgment of accused persons to civil tribunals. He especially signalized himself by his hostility to the Jesuits, as will be recorded in another chapter. The weak and superstitious Joseph was by nature fitted to be the slave and tool of the Romish Church; it was only the still greater awe inspired by Pombal, combined with fears for his own life, that induced him to banish the Jesuits. The King had formed an adulterous connection with the wife of the Marquis of Tavora. During the sojourn of the Court at Belem, while Joseph was supposed to be occupied with affairs of State in the apartments of his Minister, he would steal out to visit his mistress. The Duke of Aveiro, head of the family of Tavora, felt, or pretended to feel, indignant at the dishonour of his kindred, which, however, had been quietly endured several years, and laid a plot against the King's life. The story

is involved in considerable mystery, and political motives were probably mixed up in the plot. However this may be, several desperadoes were placed in ambush at three different spots of the road traversed by the King in his secret visits; and, on September 3rd, 1758, while Joseph was proceeding incognito to the house of the Marchioness in the carriage of his friend Texeira, an attempt was made upon his life. The Duke of Aveiro himself fired the first shot at the coachman without effect. The coachman turned back, and thus avoided the other ambushes; but those in the first fired after the carriage, and slightly wounded the King in the shoulder. The members of the Tavora family

184

ENGLAND AIDS PORTUGAL.

[CHAP. XLVIII. were now arraigned and condemned. The old Marchioness of Tavora, mother of the King's mistress, was beheaded; the Duke of Aveiro was broken on the wheel; their servants were either burnt or hanged; and even those distantly connected with the accused were thrown into loathsome dungeons. The young Marchioness alone, who was suspected of having betrayed her mother and relatives, experienced any lenity. As the family of Tavora was closely connected with Malagrida and the Jesuits, Pombal seized the opportunity to involve that society in the accusation, and to procure their banishment from Portugal, though it seems very doubtful whether they were at all connected with the plot. The weak and superstitious King himself was blindly devoted to the Jesuits; Pope Clement XIII. took them under his protection, and Joseph, haunted by the fear of hell, at length consented to their banishment only from the more immediate danger with which, according to his Minister, his life was threatened from their machinations.

Pombal, among his other reforms, had not overlooked the army; but a horde of undisciplined vagabonds, who resembled rather gipsies or bandits than soldiers, cannot be converted all at once into effective troops. Joseph's ragged and hungry soldiers would ask an alms from the passers by, even while they were standing sentinel; nor were their officers much better, though they strove to put on a military swagger. Even had the Portuguese army been better organized, it could apparently have offered but a slender resistance to the military force of Spain, when, early in 1762, Charles III. marched an army to the frontiers of Portugal, and, in conjunction with Louis XV., required Joseph I. to join them in the war against England. They offered to occupy Portugal with a powerful army, to protect it against the vengeance of England; and they required an answer within four days, intimating that they should consider any delay beyond that period as a refusal of their demands. Joseph answered by declaring war against Spain and France, May 18th, 1762; and he applied to England for aid; which Lord Bute, notwithstanding his pacific policy, could not of course refuse. This step was immediately followed by an invasion of Traz os Montes by the Spaniards, who, aided by a French corps, made themselves masters of Miranda, Braganza, Chaves, Almeida, and several other places; but the assistance of an English force, commanded first by Lord Tyrawley, and afterwards by the celebrated German general, the Count of Lippe Schaumburg, and ultimately reinforced by 15,000 men,