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The Northern Policy of George 1. to 1718
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 February 2009
Extract
The policy pursued by George I. in the north of Europe in the first years of his reign has not received much attention from historians, at least in England. The few paragraphs which authors of such merit as Lord Mahon or J. R. Green allot to the subject show that they did not think it worth while, or were not able, to inform themselves of the facts. They record, rightly enough, that George's own principal purpose was to add the Swedish provinces of Bremen and Verden to his electoral dominions, and they attribute to Charles XII. the design of invading Great Britain in revenge, with the object of placing James III. upon the throne. Though he does not appear to have ever seriously contemplated such a thing, the belief that he held it in view was, after the Jacobite rebellion, genuine and general. But nothing is said of the pressing importance to Great Britain of the Baltic commerce, with which Charles interfered and Peter the Great seemed likely to interfere. This it was solely that gave George I. the services of a British squadron in the Baltic in 1715, and this the principal cause of the estrangement between Great Britain and Russia, which lasted for over twenty years. The object of the present paper is to present a narrative of events up to the death of Charles XII., from which conclusions may be drawn. Details may be avoided, as these have appeared in papers by the author published in the ‘English Historical Review.’
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- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1905
References
page 80 note 1 References in the earlier articles to specific volumes at the Record Office are erroneous, owing to the recent rearrangement of them.
page 82 note 1 ‘Your Imperial Majesty is no doubt sensible that the intention of Us and of Our Allys, when we entered into the Act of Neutrality, was, by covering from any hostile attempt the countrys therein mentioned, to preserve the Peace of the Empire, and so prevent any divertion of that Force which is employed against France, and We remember with much pleasure, how readily your Imperial Majesty concurred in these views for the Preservation of the Common Cause.’ Anne to Peter the Great, July 23, o.s., 1711, Record Office, Foreign Entrybook 214.
page 83 note 1 To Marlborough, July 20, o.s., 1711, Record Office, Foreign Entrybook 78.
page 85 note 1 Droysen, IV. ii. 92–95; Stenzel, iii. 259–61.
page 85 note 2 At ‘Alten-Landsburg’ (probably Alt-Landsberg, near Potsdam), Staatsarchiv, Hanover. Droysen gives the date as November 27, perhaps that of the ratification, or of a counterpart.
page 86 note 1 See Droysen, IV. ii. 106.
page 86 note 2 Ibid. p. 113.
page 87 note 1 Paris, , Ministère des Affaires Etrangéres, Suède 131, 04 18, 1715Google Scholar.
page 87 note 2 Wich from Hamburg, May 24, Record Office, Hamburg 32. Cp. Jackson, March 19 and 26, o.s., ibid. Sweden 21.
page 87 note 3 To Jefferyes, March 8, o.s., ibid., Foreign Entrybook 155.
page 88 note 1 See fully on this Michael, i. 717–9.
page 88 note 2 See for their contents the English Historical Review, xvii. 443, foil.
page 88 note 3 Aug. 2, o.s. Brit. Museum, Add. MSS. 28154, f. 248; cp. Michael, pp. 726–7.
page 89 note 1 Baemeister, ii. 15; Koch and Schoell, xiii. 256; Droysen, p. 139.
page 89 note 2 Not in an invasion of Scania, as Höer and Droysen (p. 152). See Holm, p. 11.
page 90 note 1 Original in the Staatsarchiv at Hanover. The treaty was ratified by the tsar at St. Petersburg on December 18, o.s.
page 91 note 1 The Congress of Brunswick was intended to settle the affairs of the north under the presidency of the emperor. It had been sitting for some time, and continued to sit till after the peace negotiations of 1719–20. In each case then the preliminary treaties assigned the formal conclusions to the congress. But each Power in the event found much satisfaction in making the final settlements apart from it, leaving to the emperor only the confirmation of such provisions as affected Germany.
page 91 note 2 On the manifestos of Charles and Frederick William and other papers in connection with this subject see the English Historical Review, xvii. 464–5.
page 93 note 1 Cp. Stanhope's despatch, printed by Coxe and quoted thence by Mahon, i. 229 foll.
page 96 note 1 See fully on Fabrice's mission English Historical Review, xxi. 57.
page 99 note 1 ‘Die Grundlage von Allem bildete der Friede zwischen dem Kaiser und den Türken zu Passarowitz’ (Ranke, , Preussische Geschichte, v. 29Google Scholar).
page 105 note 1 See on this treaty Droysen, IV. ii. 247 foll., and his essay ‘Die Wiener Allianz,’ in his Abhandlungen zur neueren Geschichte, and Michael, , Hist. Zeitschrift, LXXVIII. i. 58Google Scholar. Droysen is, as usual, ultra-Prussian.
page 105 note 2 Daniel Moore from Dresden, January 11, 1719, Record Office, Poland 25.
page 106 note 1 Craggs to Stair, December 29, 1718, o.s., Record Office, Foreign Entrybook 30.