Treaty of Breslau

Treaty of Breslau

Vorfrieden von Breslau (de) Vratislavský mír (cs) Pokój wrocławski (pl)
Wrocław city hall
Signed	11 June 1742
Location	Wrocław, Silesia
Effective	28 July 1742
Condition	Treaty of Berlin
Signatories	Austria  Prussia
Languages	French

The Treaty of Breslau was a preliminary peace agreement signed on 11 June 1742 following long negotiations at the Silesian capital Wrocław (German: Breslau) by emissaries of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria and King Frederick II of Prussia ending the First Silesian War.

Frederick II had taken advantage of Maria Theresa's difficulties to prevail as Queen of Bohemia according to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and in 1740 occupied Silesia, part of the Habsburg Monarchy since 1526. Several attempts to expel the invaders failed, while troops of Frederick's allies France, Saxony and Bavaria even campaigned in the adjacent Bohemian lands.

Secret peace negotiations had been carried on since fall 1741, yet still Frederick invaded Bohemia and defeated the Austrian troops at the Battle of Chotusitz on 17 May 1742. By the agency of John Carmichael, 3rd Earl of Hyndford (mocked as Hundsfott, "scoundrel" by Frederick), envoy of the British, which was eager to prevent further war in Europe, a peace was concluded.

Based on the terms of the treaty, Maria Theresa ceded most of the Silesian duchies to Prussia except for the Duchy of Teschen, the districts of Troppau and Krnov south of the Opava river as well as the southern part of the Duchy of Nysa, that were all to become the province of Austrian Silesia. Furthermore, Frederick annexed the Bohemian County of Kladsko.