1747 - Political Events

Political Events

France's minister of foreign affairs René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, marquis d'Argenson, resigns in January (see 1745); the widower dauphin, still only 18, is remarried at Versailles February 9 to Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, 15, a niece of Marshal de Saxe, who has obtained the help of Mme. de Pompadour in gaining the king's consent to the marriage. Etiquette requires that the entire court witness the bridal couple being put to bed together.

Jacobite Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, is condemned by the House of Lords March 18 and executed at Tower Hill, London, April 9 at age 79 (approximate). Statesman Duncan Forbes (of Culloden) dies at Edinburgh December 10 at age 62, having lost favor with the English by trying to lighten the punishment meted out to the Jacobite rebels following their defeat last year at Culloden Moor.

Prussian field marshal Leopold I, prince of Anhalt-Dessau, dies at his native Dessau April 7 at aged 70, having invented the iron ramrod, introduced the modern bayonet, and founded a military system that will remain essentially unchanged in the Prussian Army until 1806.

Former Russian foreign minister Andrei Ivanovich Osterman dies in exile at Berëzovo, Siberia, May 31 at age 60.

The Battle of Laffeldt (Lauffeld) southwest of Maastricht July 2 ends in victory for the Marshal de Saxe over the Duke of Cumberland's Anglo-Dutch army in the continuing War of the Austrian Succession, but the victory is costly. Saxe loses 14,000 of his 120,000-man army in the hard-fought battle, while Cumberland's 90,000-man army suffers only 6,000 casualties. The French capture the fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom September 16; they consolidate their occupation of Austrian Flanders; the republic of the United Provinces is overthrown; and Willem of Nassau, Prince of Orange, is made hereditary stadtholder.

British admirals George Anson and Edward Hawke score smashing victories against the French in the West Indies as King George's War continues. Anson defeats the French in May off Cape Finisterre; Captain Edward Boscawen sustains a musket-ball wound in the shoulder, but Anson's squadron takes 10 French ships and captures £300,000 worth of French prizes. Boscawen is promoted to rear admiral July 15 and appointed commander in chief of an expedition to the East Indies (see 1748); Anson will be made first lord of the Admiralty in 1751. Hawke captures six French warships off Ushant on the coast of Brittany October 14. The Royal Navy dominates European waters and increases the peril to France's huge convoys of sugar from the Caribbean (see 1744).

French naval officer Roland-Michel Barrin, 53, marquis de La Galissonnière, uses his family influence to gain appointment as commandant general of New France, becoming in effect governor general of Canada, where British and French forces have been vying for control since 1744. Galiossonnière will try in the next 2 years to link French Canada with the Louisiana settlements but will not have enough settlers to implement his plan (see 1749).

Persia's Nadir Shah is assassinated by a group of his own Afshar tribesmen and some Qajar chiefs at Fathabad (Khabushan) June 10 at age 57 (approximate) after an 11-year reign in which he has become increasingly paranoid, obsessed with gold and jewels, and inclined to random acts of cruelty. Tens of thousands of people have died in his military campaigns, and his death leaves Persia in anarchy. The army that he has built up disperses as the chiefs of various tribal units try to establish their own political entities, his blind grandson makes himself head of an Afsharid state in Khorasan, the Qajar chief Mohammad Hasan takes Mazanderan south of the Caspian Sea, the Afghan Azad Khan takes Azerbaijan, and Zand tribesmen gain power in central and southern Persia (see 1750).

The Barkzai dynasty that will rule Afghanistan until 1929 comes to power as one of Nadir Shah's generals assumes control of the Afghan provinces. Crowned near Kandahar, he will invade India nine times by 1769 (see 1748) and will reign until 1773 as Ahmad Shah; his Pashtun tribe will dominate Afghanistan for more than 2½ centuries.

Dahomey in West Africa accepts defeat by the Yoruba kingdom of Oyo after half a century of effort by Oyo cavalry to take over.