Frederick II’s Counter Measures

Abstract

Karl August’s protest to the Reichstag at Regensburg did not have the desired effect at first. The Austrian delegation countered it by the simple means of maintaining that the Austrian occupation of Bavaria was taking place with the knowledge and consent of Prussia. As the Prussian representative, Herr von Schwarzenen, did not have his instructions and did not feel that it would be right to oppose the Austrian assertion without them, this fairly simple-minded improvisation was, for the time being, sufficient to paralyze the Reichstag.¹ But the hopes which the King of Prussia entertained for blocking Austrian expansion into Bavaria were by no means limited to convincing the representatives of the German princes of the rightness of his views. Frederick’s reaction to the Austrian pressure on Karl Theodor had been early, strong and varied. However, as the Austrians had taken care to keep their intentions veiled, he could at first only guess at what the real circumstances of the matter were. As early as the seventh of January, he had been greatly excited by a report to the effect that there had been a partial occupation of Bavaria.² Two days later, the Prussian minister Hertzberg, considering the possibility of some unilateral Austrian action in Bavaria, suggested that this might provide an ideal opportunity for Prussia to renew its claims on the districts of Jülich and Berg.³ The king thought that this might be worth considering but that such an arrangement might well create more difficulties than it resolved.⁴