Page "Louis XV of France" Paragraph 66

Louis apparently expected that joining with Austria would prevent another war on the continent by confronting Prussia with a counter-coalition.

He was mistaken.

Austria was bent on regaining Silesia, which Prussia had grabbed in 1740 and had not returned.

At the end of August 1756, having learned that Austria was negotiating to enlist Russia against him, Frederick II invaded Saxony without a declaration of war.

He soon defeated the unprepared Saxon and Austrian armies and occupied the whole of Saxony.

The Saxon ruler's younger daughter was the Dauphin's wife and his elder daughter was married to Charles VII of Naples, a Bourbon cousin.

Frederick's treatment of the Polish – Saxon royal family was seen as uncommonly disrespectful ; moreover, Queen Maria Josepha, the dauphine's mother, died from a stroke some in France attributed to maltreatment, without evidence.

Rumours of these actions by Frederick II shocked the French.

The dauphine had a miscarriage as a result of the news coming from Saxony.

Louis XV decided he was left with no choice but to enter the war.