Pragmatic Sanction of 1713
The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 (Latin: Pragmatica Sanctio) was an edict issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to ensure that the throne of the Archduchy of Austria could be inherited by a daughter.
Since their marriage in 1708, Charles and his wife Elizabeth Christine had not had children, and since 1711 Charles had been the sole male member of the House of Habsburg alive. Charles' elder brother Holy Roman Emperor Joseph I had died without male issue, making accession of a female a very plausible contingency. Because the Salic law tradition precluded female inheritance, Charles VI needed to take extraordinary measures to avoid a succession dispute.[1] These precautions proved wise as Charles VI was ultimately succeeded by his elder daughter Maria Theresa (born 1717). Nevertheless, her accession was promptly met with the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession.
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[edit] Events leading to the Pragmatic Sanction
In 1700, the senior line of the House of Habsburg went extinct with the death of King Charles II of Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession ensued, with Louis XIV of France claiming the crowns of Spain for his grandson Philip and Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I claiming them for his son Charles. In 1703, Charles and Joseph signed the Mutual Pact of Succession, granting succession rights to the daughters of Joseph and Leopold in case of complete extinction of the male line, but favouring Joseph's daughters over Charles's, due to Joseph being older than Charles.
In 1705, Leopold I died and was succeeded by his elder son, Joseph I. Six years later, Emperor Joseph I died leaving behind two daughters, Archduchesses Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia. Charles succeeded him according to the Pact and Maria Josepha became his heir presumptive. However, Charles soon expressed a wish to amend the Pact in order to give his own future daughters precedence over his nieces. On 9 April 1713, the Emperor announced the changes in a secret session of the council.[2]
[edit] Promulgation of the Sanction
Securing the right to succeed for his own daughters, who were not even born yet, would become Charles's obsession. The previous succession laws had also forbidden the partition of the Habsburg dominions and provided for succession by females but they had been mostly hypothetical. The Pragmatic Sanction was the first such document to be publicly announced and as such required formal acceptance by the estates of the realms it concerned.[3]
[edit] Events following the Pragmatic Sanction
Hungary, which had an elective kingship, had accepted the house of Habsburg as hereditary kings in the male line without election in 1687 but not semi-Salic inheritance. The Emperor-King agreed that if the Habsburg male line became extinct, Hungary would once again have an elective monarchy. This was the rule in the Kingdom of Bohemia too. Maria Theresa, however, still gained the throne of Hungary; the Hungarian Parliament voted its own Pragmatic Sanction in 1723 in which the Kingdom of Hungary accepted female inheritance supporting her to become queen of Hungary.[4]
[edit] The Pragmatic Sanction's failure
Charles VI spent the time of his reign preparing Europe for a female ruler, but he did not prepare his daughter, Maria Theresa. He would not read documents to her, take her to meetings, or allow her to be introduced to ministers or have any preparation for the power she would receive in 1740. It is possible that it was because such instruction would imply an acceptance of his inability to produce a male heir.
Charles VI managed to get the great European powers to agree to the Pragmatic Sanction (for the time being) and died in 1740 with no male heirs. However, France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony broke their promises and contested the claims of his daughter Maria Theresa on his Austrian lands, and initiated the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Austria lost Silesia to Prussia. The elective office of Holy Roman Emperor was filled by Joseph I's son-in-law Charles Albert of Bavaria, marking the first time in several hundred years that the position was not held by a Habsburg.
His wife would have inherited the Habsburg lands if the original pactum had been adhered to. However, he had bad luck even after being elected Emperor. As Charles VII, he lost his own country, Bavaria, to the Austrian army of his wife's cousin Maria Theresa and then died. His son, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, renounced claims on Austria in exchange for the return of his paternal duchy of Bavaria. Maria Theresa's husband was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I in 1745. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, finally recognized Maria Theresa's rule.
[edit] References
[edit] Bibliography
- Crankshaw, Edward: Maria Theresa, Longman publishers 1969
- Holborn, Hajo: A History of Modern Germany: 1648–1840 Princeton University Press 1982 ISBN 0691007969
- Ingrao, Charles W: The Habsburg monarchy, 1618–1815 Cambridge University Press 2000 ISBN 0521785057
- Kann, Robert A.: A history of the Habsburg Empire, 1526–1918 University of California Press 1980 ISBN 0520042069
- Mahan, J. Alexander: Maria Theresa of Austria READ BOOKS 2007 ISBN 1406733709
