Seven Years' War

The great event of Elizabeth's later years was the Seven Years' War. Elizabeth regarded the treaty of Westminster (January 16, 1756) as utterly subversive of the previous conventions between Great Britain and Russia. And by no means unwarrantable fear of the king of Prussia, who was to be reduced within proper limits, so that he might be no longer a danger to the empire, induced Elizabeth to accede to the treaty of Versailles, in other words the Franco-Austrian league against Prussia, and on the May 17, 1757 the Russian army, 85,000 strong, advanced against Königsberg.

Neither the serious illness of the empress, which began with a fainting-fit at Tsarskoe Selo, nor the fall of Bestuzhev, nor the cabals and intrigues of the various foreign powers at St Petersburg, interfered with the progress of the war, and the crushing defeat of Kunersdorf at last brought Frederick to the verge of ruin. From that day forth he despaired of success, though he was saved for the moment by the jealousies of the Russian and Austrian commanders, which ruined the military plans of the allies.

On the other hand, it is not too much to say that, from the end of 1759 to the end of 1761, the unshakable firmness of the Russian empress was the one constraining political force which held together the heterogeneous, incessantly jarring elements of the anti-Prussian combination. From the Russian point of view, Elizabeth's greatness as a stateswoman consists in her steady appreciation of Russian interests, and her determination to promote them at all hazards. She insisted throughout that the King of Prussia must be rendered harmless to his neighbors for the future, and that the only way to bring this about was to reduce him to the rank of a Prince-elector. Frederick himself was quite alive to his danger.

On May 21, 1760 a fresh convention was signed between Russia and Austria, a secret clause of which, never communicated to the court of Versailles, guaranteed East Prussia to Russia, as an indemnity for war expenses. The failure of the campaign of 1760, wielded by the inept Count Buturlin, induced the court of Versailles, on the evening of January 22, 1761, to present to the court of St Petersburg a dispatch to the effect that the king of France by reason of the condition of his dominions absolutely desired peace. The Russian empress’s reply was delivered to the two ambassadors on February 12. It was inspired by the most uncompromising hostility towards the King of Prussia. Elizabeth would not consent to any pacific overtures until the original object of the league had been accomplished.

Simultaneously, Elizabeth caused to be conveyed to Louis XV a confidential letter in which she proposed the signature of a new treaty of alliance of a more comprehensive and explicit nature than the preceding treaties between the two powers, without the knowledge of Austria. Elizabeth's object in this mysterious negotiation seems to have been to reconcile France and Great Britain, in return for which signal service France was to throw all her forces into the German war. This project, which lacked neither ability nor audacity, foundered upon Louis XV's invincible jealousy of the growth of Russian influence in Eastern Europe and his fear of offending the Porte.

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