The Treaty of Worms, a political alliance…
September 1743 CE
The Treaty of Worms, a political alliance formed between Great Britain, Austria and the Kingdom of Sardinia, is largely an ambitious piece of foreign policy on the part of the British government, which seeks to split the Emperor Charles VII from French influence, while simultaneously resolving the differences between the Emperor, Queen Maria Theresa of Hungary and King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia.
Under the terms of the treaty, signed on September 13, 1743, Maria Theresa agrees to transfer to the King of Sardinia the city and part of the duchy of Piacenza, the Vigevanesco, part of the duchy of Pavia, the county of Anghiera, and claims to the marquisate of Finale.
She also engages to maintain thirty thousand men in Italy, to be commanded by Savoy-Sardinia.
Great Britain agrees to pay the sum of three hundred thousand pounds for the ceding of Finale, and to furnish an annual subsidy of two hundred thousand pounds, on the condition that Savoy-Sardinia should employ forty-five thousand men.
In addition to this fiscal arrangement, Britain agrees to send a fleet into the Mediterranean.
Under a separate, secret convention, agreed contemporaneously with the Treaty, but which wis neither formally ratified nor publicly acknowledged, it is stipulated that Britain will pay Maria Theresa an annual subsidy of three hundred thousand pounds, for as long "as the necessity of her affairs should require."
The terms of the Treaty of Worms relative to the ceding of the marquisate of Finale to Savoy-Sardinia are particularly unjust to the Genoese, since the territory had been guaranteed to them by the fourth article of the Quadruple Alliance of August 2, 1718, between Britain, France, Austria, and the Netherlands.