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Family Compact & The Fourth Treaty of Versailles

By February the three powers, France, Spain and Austria, had worked out terms for a mutual alliance. Although France and Spain had a form of separate alliance via the Family Compact, and France and Austria had a separate one regarding Prussia via the Fourth Treaty of Versailles, together they would commit to war against the British Empire, such that no one power could make a separate peace without the consent of the other two.

There were of course numerous conditions in the whole arrangement. Austria desperately needed France's aid, in subsidies, troops, and guns to rebuild her armies, and finish the conquest of Silesia. Although Austria would have wanted to be able to have a separate peace with the British, they were formally at war already, and this desperate need was primary reason for Austria’s consent to be beholden to only a mutually approved peace.

France would directly provide 12 to 15 thousand soldiers, numerous guns, supplies, and monetary subsidies to Austria for direct action in concert with rebuilt Austrian forces against Prussia in the Silesian and Brandenburg theaters. They were to arrive as soon as possible off the Adriatic coast to join elements being raised there and travel north for the campaigning season to the front. Since France had effective control over the Mediterranean, and were already mustering troops in southern France (originally intended for use with Spain against Portugal and/or Gibraltar) this was easily accommodated. France also agreed to expand on their defensive alliance with the Austrian Empire against the Ottomans, from navel to both land and navel defense if the Ottoman Empire took any qualifying hostile actions.

In exchange Austria would agree to the support of her Naval fleet of (presently) 2 ships of the line (with a third being built) of 64+ guns, 6 frigates of 30-44 guns, and a few dozen smaller support vessels in all actions against the British in the Mediterranean sea during the war. If Prussia should fall, and Hanover is not yet fully occupied, then Austrian land forces would march west, with all due haste, to assist.

The French, who already occupied Ostend, Nieuport, and Dunkirk, were granted further permission to occupy all other forts and strategic areas at risk of invasion by the British on the Flanders coast. While at present, the interior portions of the Austrian Netherlands remained under Austrian control. The arrangement for the French client state in the event of victory is upheld and Silesia is turned over to Austria.

Numerous other proposals and tentative agreements were worked out concerning the distribution of Prussian lands among the victors. Austria however did express disapproval over the Treaty of Copenhagen, when they learned the full details, and demanded adjustments and for its final form to be approved by the Imperial Diet. France though was insistent that some form of punishment, either loss of land, money, or both, in some capacity be inflicted on those imperial states and principalities that had sided with Fredrick.

As of the begging of 1761, the French were presently in control of:
The Prussian provinces of Neuchatel, Cleaves, Mark, Lingen, Ravensburg, Minden (west of the Wesser), and Hohnstein; the Hanover provinces of Hohnstein, Grubenhagen, Gottingen, and Calenburg (south of Munden); the Brunswick provinces between Calenburg and Gottingen; and the entirety of the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.

The Austrian were presently in control of all parts of Silesia southeast of a line between Oels, Breslau, and Schweidnitz. Saxon forces held the Prussian exclave of the (Saalkries) Halle Region and Saxony west of the Elbe, while Prussia controlled Saxony east of the Elbe.

The agreements between France and Spain, for Spain’s full entry to the war, were that France would provide assistance in any necessary invasion of Portugal (if they refused their demands) and assistance in taking Gibraltar. Territories obtained from Portugal and Gibraltar would ultimately belong to Spain. France though would be granted co-usage of Gibraltar, for a period of no less than 30 years. Spain would be prohibited from trading away Gibraltar without French consent in any future negotiations during that period of time. Spain would also relent and provide a small contribution to the ‘North African Fund’ in order to secure co-belligerent action by Morocco and the Barbary states against British interests, while also noting their reservations and concerns about the potential for such funds to pay for means of Morocco threatening Spanish held Ceuta. To address Spanish concerns here, France agreed to assist in the defense of Ceuta against Moroccan (or Barbary) aggression during the proposed 30 year co-usage of Gibraltar.

France, Austria and most significantly Spain collectively put pressure on the regents of the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily for entry into the war on their side. Given The King of Spain, Charles III's prior rule over those lands and their subsequent passing to one of his younger sons, this was not difficult. While the two Kingdoms did not have a formal declaration of war against the British, nor were barred from a separate peace, they were compelled to contribute their naval forces on the order of 4 ships of the line, 6 frigates of more than 20 guns, and a few dozen support ships to the collective Franco-Spanish-Austrian-Sicilian-Neapolitan fleet for actions against British interests in the Mediterranean sea.

Historian’s Note: Together as of 1761, the combined French, Spanish, Austrian, Neapolitan, and Sicilian naval forces consisted of 151 ships of the line (of 50 or more guns), 107 frigates (of 20 – 49 guns), and numerous smaller support ships. On top of that would be any ships that Morocco and the Barbary States put into play, although their numbers were not recorded, and they were not known to have any ships of the line, and few if any frigates of substantial gun numbers. This would be set up against the British fleet as of 1761 consisting of 107 ships of the line (with 5 more slated to be launched that year), 86 frigates, and numerous support ships.

Should Portugal reject the Franco-Spanish demands they could lend 15 ships of the line (plus 1 to be launched that year) and 3 frigates (plus 1 to be launched that year) plus whatever support ships they had of lesser gun numbers to the British side. Or if they submit to the Franco-Spanish demands those numbers would be added to the ‘Grand Fleet’ on the Franco-Spanish side.

Regardless of which way Portugal would decide, copious amounts of fecal material was about to collide with many rotating blades.

*(These numbers are as best I could find via research as per OTL, with TTL changes already taken into account for up to this year, it’s probably not perfectly accurate but hopefully close enough)