ABSTRACT
In 1715, Hungary was hardly a great source of strength to Austria, and the almost complete autonomy which the country possessed helped to keep them apart. Austria, occupied simultaneously with the recovery of Hungary from the Turks and the defence of Western Germany against Louis XIV, was in sore need of the considerable military force of which they could dispose. Alarmed by the aggressions of Louis XIV, he had joined the so-called Magdeburg Concert of 1688 and had been one of the first German Princes to join the Grand Alliance, while Hessian troops had done excellent service under Marlborough and Eugene. If the map of South-western Germany may be described as a mosaic of petty states, that of Thuringia easily bears off the palm for bewildering intricacy of subdivision. North-Westward of Mecklenburg lies a land whose story involves some of the very worst complications in all German history.
