Ah Maria, How Badly Do You Want It?

In order to save Austria, Queen Maria Theressa was willing to part ways with centuries of tradition. Witness what happened when she made Wenzel Anton Kaunitz a diplomat.

Wenzel Anton Kaunitz was a native Austrian. The sixth of sixteen children to an aristocratic father who served the crown as an ambassador. Raised in Morovia, where the family estates were located, young Wenzel was groomed for a career in the church.

After giving it a go he decided on a different path. That he was more or less an atheist may have had something to do with his decision, but as one historian pointed out; “his lack of faith would have in no way deterred him from presenting himself as a prince of the church,”

In 1733 or thereabouts he embarked on the Grand Tour. After visiting England for a spell, he returned home and announced he would study law with a goal of entering the diplomatic corps. By 1735, he had an entry level post with the Imperial Court Council.

He was in Turin in 1742, the year Maria was working hard to get Charles Emmanuel of Sardinia to ally himself with her cause. Kaunitz, working hard for Austria, came into contact with a man who attitudes toward diplomacy would serve as the lode star for Kaunitz’s entire career.

The Marchese d’Ormea was the Piedmontese statesman who served as minister to Charles Emmanuel. A man of enormous talent and no scruples, the Marchese urged His master to ally himself with Austria for the simple reason that Austria now seemed to be making a remarkable come-back. There was no advantage to be gained in backing losers just because they were your friends.

Watching him work inspired Kaunitz to see and raise his unofficial mentor in the cynical art of realpolitik. Which disregarded all considerations of morality and human decency, thinking only in terms of self-interest. All of this was, to the young Kaunitz, a revelation. It would be the guiding principal not only of his career, but of his life.

To Maria Theresa, who grew quite fond of him, he was everything she was not. “Vain, promiscuous, atheistical, showy, arrogant, greedy, self-dramatizing, cynical to a degree.” But these wonderful traits needed time to ripen. For the time being, he needed to make his mark. He did this by creating a master plan for dealing with Prussia and making Austria a stronger and more coherent power. He sent it to the aging Sinzendorf.

The plan came to nothing. Subsequent events rendered it useless, but it did bring Kaunitz to the attention of Maria, which was probably Kaunitz’s plan all along. In 1744, she sent him to the court of her brother-in-law, Charles of Lorraine to serve as a political adviser. While on the face of it, it was a step down, in reality, it was anything but. Maria respected Charles and was as close to his wife, Marianne, as she was to any woman.

What she was doing was bringing Kaunitz into her family councils. It was a test. Wither he knew this or not is unclear. What is clear is that he passed. He did well enough to represent Vienna at the peace negotiations at Aix-la-Chapelle. This served to show Kaunitz just where Austria stood in the grand scheme of things.

It was not an enviable position. At Aix-la-Chapelle. France and England were the power players, Austria, and her interests, were sidelined. Further, it became apparent to Kaunitz that England’s interest in Austria did not extend beyond what Austria could do for England in it’s seemingly eternal struggle with France.

This was not necessarily a good thing for an Austria that wanted help first and foremost with reducing Prussian power and getting Silesia back. Nor did it help Austria that England’s continued hostilities toward France made the bonds between France and Prussia stronger. It was a situation that had to change. So Count Kaunitz decided to change it. It was simple. Reverse course on the empires relations with France, without loosing the allegiance of the English or Dutch. Work to undo the alliance of France and Prussia with the goal of attaching France to Austria while at the same time alarming neither of them while seeking an alliance with Russia that would ultimately be used as a weapon against Prussia.

No problem. First, Kaunitz had to sell his plan to Maria. This wasn’t as difficult as it seemed. In the spring of 1749, Maria required each member of the State Conference to put into writing his recommendation for the future course of Austrian policy.

Nearly all recommended retaining the alliance with England while improving relations with Prussia (without forfeiting claims on Silesia) seeking alliances with Saxony and Hanover and cultivating ties with Russia. The consensus was, in essence, do everything possible to strengthen Austria to fight the French. Nearly everyone felt that way because, well, because everyone just KNEW the French were Extra Especially Bad.

Everyone except Kaunitz and the Queen. What all of Maria’s councilors failed to comprehend was how deeply the loss of Silesia affected her personally. Kaunitz knew. He laid out his ideas in a “memorandum” the length of a book..

He pointed out the obvious. That Silesia was Austria’s richest province, that German aggrandizement was not at all in Austria’s long term interest. This meant not only Prussia, but Saxony and Hamburg as well. He pointed out the not so obvious. That if Prussia were allowed to hold Silesia, the entire idea of a Hapsburg Empire was doomed.

If the Hapsburgs couldn’t re-claim Silesia, then they wouldn’t be able to hold onto their Slav possessions of Bohemia and Morovia. Moreover, a continued alliance with England did nothing for Austria’s claims on Silesia. They had no interest whatsoever in helping Austria along those lines. Why should they? They were in no position to supply the number of troops needed for a war with the French and Prussians in alliance.

That being the case, and with the recovery of Silesia being the foremost among Austrian goals, the path was clear. Undo centuries of Austrian policy and seek an alliance with France to smash Prussia, reclaim Silesia, put the Germans in their place and at the same time seek a new understanding with the Russians without alarming France and keep the goodwill of the English by reassuring them that the new Franco-Austrian alliance in no way changed Austria’s policies towards them even though the French were their deadly foes.

Maria greeted this new idea with excitement. She ordered all members of the State Conference to read the “memo” and get back to her with written opinions. Only one man opposed it, on the grounds that the French could never, ever be trusted to support the Hapsburgs, no matter what the gain to themselves.

Most supported it with varying degrees of enthusiasm. But the big question was…how? How could anyone pull off something like this without starting a diplomatic firestorm that could trigger renewed war? Kaunitz had a solution. It would all be done in secret to avoid alarming the English and alerting the Prussians.

Kaunitz not only planned, but truly believed he could re-arrange the diplomatic map of Europe, undo centuries old alliances and animosities, with no one but him and the Queen ever knowing what was really going on.

With supreme confidence in himself and the Queens full support, Count Kaunitz traveled to Paris.

— Mr. Al