In the spring of 1728 the international situation was characterized by alarming instability, so that many contemporaries expected the outbreak of a pan-European war. Issues such as the question of the suspension of the Imperial Ostend Company, the restitution of Gibraltar and Menorca, and the establishment of a Spanish secundogeniture in Italy turned Europe into a powder keg about to explode. Nevertheless, in June 1728, the diplomats of Europe gathered in the French episcopal city of Soissons to negotiate a...