Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular WarAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 4 (of 8): From the Fall of Marlborough to the Peninsular War
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
By the firmness of the Allies a peace which continued twelve years was
given to Europe, and the storm which Alberoni had so fondly expected
out of the North was as completely dissipated. The new Queen of Sweden
had consented to yield absolutely to George I., as King of Hanover,
the disputed possession of Bremen and Verden. Poland was induced to
acknowledge Augustus of Saxony as king, and Prussia to be satisfied
with the acquisition of Stettin and some other Swedish territory.
But the Czar and the King of Denmark, seeing Sweden deprived of its
military monarch, and exhausted by his wild campaigns, contemplated the
actual dismemberment of Sweden. The Queen of Sweden threw herself for
protection on the good offices of the King of England, and both England
and France agreed to compel the Czar and the King of Denmark to desist
from their attacks on Sweden if they would not listen to friendly
mediation. Lord Carteret, a promising young statesman, was sent as
ambassador to Stockholm, and Sir John Norris, with eleven sail of the
line, was ordered to the Baltic. Russia and Denmark, however, continued
to disregard the pacific overtures of England, trusting to there being
no war with that Power. They ravaged the whole coast of Sweden, burning
above a thousand villages, and the town of Nyköping, the third place in
the kingdom. Seeing this, Lord Stanhope, who was still at Hanover with
the king, sent orders to Admiral Norris to pay no regard to the fact of
there being no declaration of war, but to treat the Russian and Danish
fleet as Byng had treated the Spanish one. Norris accordingly joined
his squadron to the Swedish fleet at Carlscrona, and went in pursuit
of the fleet of the Czar. Peter, seeing that the English were now in
earnest, recalled his fleet with precipitation, and thereby, no doubt,
saved it from complete destruction; but he still continued to refuse to
make peace, and determined on the first opportunity to have a further
slice of Swedish territory. Denmark, which was extremely poor, agreed
to accept a sum of money in lieu of Marstrand, which it had seized; and
thus all Europe, except the Czar, was brought to a condition of peace.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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