ABSTRACT
Charles Whitworth’s mission to Prussia resulted in both the greatest personal achievement of his career and also the greatest disappointment. The achievement was that through skilful and patient diplomacy Whitworth was able to play an important role in bringing Prussia to change sides; in the years 1719 and 1720 the Prussians sacrificed their close association with Russia for a formal alliance with Britain and Sweden. By the autumn of 1718, Andreas Gottlieb von Bemstorff, George I’s Hanoverian minister, had become convinced that Russia and Prussia, with the support of Sweden and possibly even Spain, planned to attack either Hanover or Poland. The Hanoverian concerns about Prussian expansion were shared, of course, by Austria and were reflected in the Treaty of Vienna, which was directed against Prussia as much as against Russia. The Russians, at least, seemed to be in no doubt about Whitworth’s intention to break relations between Prussia and Russia.
