Revelations of the Diplomatic History of the 18th Century

On October 2, 1700, Charles If made a will by which the Spanish crown was to go to Philip of Anjou, the grandson of Louis XIV of France, provided Philip renounced his right to the French crown. Despite this, in February 1701 Louis XIV made Philip of Anjou, who in 1700 became King of Spain under the name of Philip V, his heir, which led to the War of the-Spanish Succession (1701-1 4). In, this war, Britain, Austria, the Netherlands and some other countries fought against France and Spain. France’s failures in the war resulted in the realignment of forces in Europe.

52 Presumably Marx means here the annexation of Cracow by Austria after the 1846 insurrection.

53 After the rout of the Swedish army at Poltava, Charles XII fled to Turkey and settled in Bendery where he stayed till 1713. Marx used the Latin text of the manifesto (Carolus, Espèce de Manifeste du Roi de Suède conire le Roi Auguste) published in Lamberty, Mémoires pour servir à 1'histoire du XVIII siécle, contenant les négociations, traitez, resolutions et autres documents authentiques concernant lea affaires d'état, Tome sixième, La Haye, 1728, pp. 434-36.

54 The Glorious revolution-the name given in English historiography to the coup d'état of 1688 which overthrew the Stuarts and established a constitutional monarchy, with William III of Orange at its h cad (from 1689), which was based on a compromise between the landed aristocracy and the big bourgeoisie.

55 The Peace Treaty of Travendahl signed on August 18, 1700, ended the war between Denmark and the duchy of Holstein. It was concluded under military pressure from England, Holland and Sweden. Denmark was forced to recognise the independence of Holstein and withdraw from the anti-Swedish coalition.

56 Marx is presumably referring to the fact that during the Northern War (1700-21) an abortive attempt was made in 1716 to unite the Danish and Russian naval forces.

57 An inaccuracy in the text: Count Gyllenborg calls himself the author of the pamphlet not in the letter to Baron Görtz of January 12 (23), 1717 but in a letter to his brother of October 16 (27), 1716. Marx quotes Gyllenborg’s letter from Letters which passed between Count Gyllenborg, the barons Görtz, Sparre, and others; relating to the Design of Raising a Rebellion in His Majesty’s Dominions, to be supported by a Force from Sweden. London, 1717.

The Court of St. James’s called so after St. James’s Palace in London, the residence of British kings until the beginning of the nineteenth century.

58 The reference is to the decisions reached at a conference held by Peter 1 and Danish and Saxon ministers on October 22, 1711 in the town of Crossen (Krossen), Brandenburg. The conference drew up plans for immediate military-diplomatic action by the Allies against Sweden.

59 Rix dollar — continental silver coin in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries.