In this treaty, with studied neglect, even the name of the emperor was not mentioned; and yet the allies, as if to provoke a quarrel, sent Charles VI. a copy, peremptorily demanding assent to the treaty without his having taken any part whatever in the negotiation.

This insulting demand fell like a bomb-shell in the palace at Vienna.  Emperor, ministers, courtiers, all were aroused to a frenzy of indignation.  “So insulting a message,” said Count Zinzendorf, “is unparalleled, even in the annals of savages.”  The emperor condescended to make no reply, but very spiritedly issued orders to all parts of the empire, for his troops to hold themselves in readiness for war.

And yet Charles was overwhelmed with anxiety, and was almost in despair.  It was a terrible humiliation for the emperor to be compelled to submit, unavenged, to such an insult.  But how could the emperor alone, venture to meet in battle England, France, Spain and all the other powers whom three such kingdoms could, either by persuasion or compulsion, bring into their alliance?  He pleaded with his natural allies.  Russia had not been insulted, and was unwilling to engage in so distant a war.  Prussia had no hope of gaining any thing, and declined the contest.  Sardinia sent a polite message to the emperor that it was more for her interest to enter into an alliance with her nearer neighbors, France, Spain and England, and that she had accordingly done so.  The treasury of Charles was exhausted; his States were impoverished by constant and desolating wars.  And his troops manifested but little zeal to enter the field against so fearful a superiority of force.  The emperor, tortured almost beyond endurance by chagrin, was yet compelled to submit.

The allies were quite willing to provoke a war with the emperor; but as he received their insults so meekly, and made no movement against them, they were rather disposed to march against him.  Spain wanted Parma and Tuscany, but France was not willing to have Spain make so great an accession to her Italian power.  France wished to extend her area north, through the States of the Netherlands.  But England was unwilling to see the French power thus aggrandized.  England had her aspirations, to which both France and Spain were opposed.  Thus the allies operated as a check upon each other.

The emperor found some little consolation in this growing disunion, and did all in his power to foment it.  Wishing to humble the Bourbons of France and Spain, he made secret overtures to England.  The offers of the emperor were of such a nature, that England eagerly accepted them, returned to friendly relations with the emperor, and, to his extreme joy, pledged herself to support the Pragmatic Sanction.