In general, the man chiefly responsible – in all innocence – for the sluggish and lukewarm defense arrangements was Kinsky, Supreme Chancellor of Bohemia on my accession, who especially set himself to persuade me, and did convince me, because it was undeniable, that the Bohemians were always overreached by the Austrians; and he made such an impression on me by his arguments and by many old documents and proofs which he produced, that I took him into the Ministry, against everyone’s advice, with the laudable intention of proving myself the true mother of all the peoples under me.
Hardly had this been done when the vehemence of Kinsky’s temperament became entirely uncontrollable. And although at first I flattered myself that my move would have good results, it presently became clear that all my hopes had been vain, for Kinsky was openly prejudiced in favor of his own nation, devoting all his efforts to getting advantages for it, and consequently simply acted as advocate of the Provinces in his charge and attacked all the others, alleging that his object was to establish an ideal proportion between the Bohemian and Austrian Provinces, under which the latter should pay more, and the former less.
This produced a deep enough split between Ministers, services, and peoples, which I did not notice early enough, and later, when it became very acute, did not deal with resolutely enough, because I was too good-hearted – moreover, the situation was very ticklish – but only applied palliatives, which only made matters worse. This was, in fact, the beginning of the trouble, for although I must pay all tribute to Kinsky’s honesty and loyalty, it is certain that his temperament, vehemence, passions, and local feeling were the real sources and causes of the whole calamity, and carried away Kinsky himself, contrary to his own intentions, because when the war was carried into the Bohemian Provinces he refused to allow them to be flooded by too many troops, always expecting that we should be too much for the Prussians; moreover, the movement of the weak regiments quartered on the Turkish and Transylvanian frontiers proceeded very slowly, as the whole dispositions in those Provinces were extremely sluggish.
Matters got worse and worse, and owing to the division between the Provinces, none of the Ministers was really trying to rescue me and the State from this terrible embarrassment. At first, all proposals of nature to inflict the smallest hardship on any Province were immediately rejected by the officials in charge of that Province, and everyone cared only for his own interest, and I was not able to oppose this, knowing too little of the situation.
Khevenhüller and Neipperg were proposed for commanders of the force to be sent against the Prussians, but the former asked for many regiments and assured money for their pay. Neipperg’s appointment was canvassed by the Supreme Chancellor of Bohemia, that is, the man who had undertaken to supply the army, and he refused to have anything to do with Khevenhüller. I therefore decided for Neipperg, especially as no one questioned his experience in the field.
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