king of Corsica, baron Niewhoff, grandee of Spain, baron of England,
king of Corsica, baron
Niewhoff, grandee of Spain, baron of England, peer of
France, baron of the holy empire, prince of the Papal
throne for thus he styled himself; “a man whose claim
to royalty,
” says lord Orford, “was as indisputable, as
the most ancient titles to any monarchy can pretend to
be;
” was born at Metz about 1696. The particulars of
his eventful history are thus related. In March 1736,
whilst the Corsican mal-contents were sitting in council,
an English vessel from Tunis, with a passport from our
consul there, arrived at a port then in the possession of the
roal-contents. A stranger on board this vessel, who had
the appearance of a person of distinction, no sooner went
on shore, but was received with singular honours by the
principal persons, who saluted him with the titles of excellency, and viceroy of Corsica. His attendants consisted
of two officers, a secretary, a chaplain, a few domestics
and Morocco slaves. He was conducted to the bishop’s
palace; called Himself lord Theodore; whilst the chiefs
knew more about him than they thought convenient to declare. From the vessel that brought him were debarked
ten pieces of cannon, 4000 fire-locks, 3000 pair of shoes,
a great quantity of provisions, and coin to the amount o
200,000 ducats. Two pieces of cannon were placed before
his door, and he had 400 soldiers posted for his guard,
He created officers, formed twenty-four companies of
soldiers, distributed among the mal-contents the arms and
shoes he had brought with him, conferred knighthood on
one of the chiefs, appointed another his treasurer, and professed the Roman Catholic religion. Various conjectures
were formed in different courts concerning him. The
eldest son of the pretender, prince Ragotski, the duke de
Ripperda, comte de Bonneval, were each in their turns
supposed to be this stranger; all Europe was puzzled but
the country of this stranger vas soon discovered he was,
in fact, a Prussian, well known by the name of Theodore
Antony, baron of Niewhoff.
He was again offered the title of king: he accepted it the 15th of April, 1736, was crowned king of Corsica, and received the oath of fidelity from his principal
He was again offered the title of king: he accepted it the 15th of April, 1736, was crowned king of Corsica, and received the oath of fidelity from his principal subjects, and the acclamations of all the people. The Genoese, alarmed at these proceedings, publicly declared him and his adherents guilty of high treason; caused it to be reported, that he governed in the most despotic manner, even to the putting to death many principal inhabitants, merely because they were Genoese; than which nothing could be more false, as appears from his manifesto, in answer to the edict. Theodore, however, having got together 25,000 men, found himself master of a country where the Genoese durst not appear he carried Porto Vecchio, and, May the 3d, blocked up the city of Bastia, but was soon obliged to retire. He then separated his force, was successful in his conquests, and came again before Bastia, which soon submitted to him. His court grew brilliant, and he conferred titles of nobility upon his principal courtiers.
Theodore king of Corsica