Ambassador J.F. Pretlack and the ceremonial aspects to overcoming the crisis in Russian-Austrian relations in 1745 - 1747

This article is devoted to the period of restoration and consolidation of Russian-Austrian relations during the period of overcoming the consequences of the so-called Marquis Botta affair (1743), when ties with allied Austria were defiantly broken because of unsubstantiated accusations of support for an alleged plot by a number of aristocrats against Elizabeth Petrovna. After an official apology had been agreed upon, in December 1745, the Chamberlain, Field Marshal-Lieutenant-General Baron Johann Franz Pretlack was sent to Russia with the notification on the election of Francis of Lorraine as the new Holy Roman Emperor. Within six months of his stay at the St. Petersburg court, he was officially accredited in the “ambassadorial character”, becoming the first diplomatic representative of the first rank in the history of the two realms. The article examines the ceremonial aspects that reflected the gradual warming of bilateral relations, culminating in the renewal of the treaty of alliance in the summer of 1746 and the invitation of the Orthodox-Christian Russian empress to be the godmother of the newborn son of Maria Theresa and Francis I. It is concluded that every time after cooling and ruptures, St. Petersburg and Vienna restored cooperation at a higher level, expanded the areas of interaction and forms of contact. Pretlak’s successors continued to be accredited in the rank of ambassadors until Russia’s withdrawal from the Seven Years’ War, to represent both the Holy Roman Empire and the House of Austria until the death of Maria Theresa in 1780, and to promote the expansion of ties between the courts and aristocratic communities of the two great powers.