Diplomacy and Mission in Europe during the War of the Spanish Succession: Habsburg-Wolfenbüttel Dinasties, the State of Milan and the Northern Catholicism

The geopolitical perspectives of the War of the Spanish Succession went beyond the limits of Charles II’s territorial heritage. The marriage between Charles of Habsburg with Elizabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, a Lutheran princess converted to the Catholicism, linked both dynasties with the missionary effort of the Holy See in the Holy Empire. This paper is focuses on the Wolfenbüttel diplomatic network with the Papacy and the Habsburg monarchy in Vienna, Barcelona and Milan, as well as on the role of the Queen-Empress in this confessional project