COUNT MERCI ASSUMES THE COMMAND OF THE IMPERIAL ARMY

The king having appointed lords-justices to rule the kingdom in his absence, embarked in May for Holland, from whence he proceeded to Hanover, where he concluded a peace with Ulrica, the new queen of Sweden. By this treaty Sweden yielded for ever to the royal and electoral house of Brunswick the duchies of Bremen and Verden, with all their dependencies; king George obliged himself to pay a million of rix-dollars to the queen of Sweden; and to renew, as king of Great Britain and elector of Hanover, the alliances formerly subsisting between his predecessors and that kingdom. He likewise mediated a peace between Sweden and his former allies, the Danes, the Prussians, and the Poles. The czar, however, refused to give up his schemes of conquest. He sent his fleet to the Scheuron, or Bates of Sweden, where his troops landing to the number of fifteen thousand, committed dreadful outrages: but sir John Norris, who commanded an English squadron in those seas, having orders to support the negotiations, and oppose any hostilities that might be committed, the czar, dreading the fate of the Spanish navy, thought proper to recall his fleet. In the Mediterranean, admiral Byng acted with unwearied vigour in assisting the Imperialists to finish the conquest of Sicily. The court of Vienna had agreed to send a strong body of forces to finish the reduction of that island; and the command in this expedition was bestowed upon the count de Merci, with whom sir George Byng conferred at Naples. This admiral supplied them with ammunition and artillery from the Spanish prizes. He took the whole reinforcement under his convoy, and saw them safely landed in the bay of Patti, to the number of three thousand five hundred horse, and ten thousand infantry. Count Merci thinking himself more than a match for the Spanish forces commanded by the marquis de Lede, attacked him in a strong camp at Franca-Villa, and was repulsed with the loss of five thousand men, himself being dangerously wounded in the action. Here his army must have perished for want of provisions, had they not been supplied by the English navy.

GEORGE I, 1714—1727