Pragmatic Sanction of 1713

Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 (Latin: Sanctio Pragmatica), was an edict promulgated by Charles VI on April 19, 1713, with the objective of ensuring that the hereditary possessions of the House of Habsburg — which included the Archduchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Kingdom of Croatia, the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Duchy of Milan, the Kingdom of Naples, the Kingdom of Sicily and the Austrian Netherlands - could be inherited by a female descendant, in addition to its indivisibility. The edict did not affect the office of Holy Roman Emperor: although headed by Habsburgs for centuries, the Imperial crown was still elective, not hereditary.

Carlos and his wife Isabel Cristina were childless up to that time, and since 1711 Carlos was the only surviving member of the House of Habsburg. Carlos' older brother, José I, had died without leaving male descendants, leaving his daughter María Josefa de Austria as heir presumptive. This presented two problems. First, a previous agreement with his brother known as the Mutual Pact of Succession (1703) had agreed that, in the absence of male heirs, Joseph's daughters would have priority over Charles's daughters in all Habsburg lands. Although Carlos had no sons at the time, if only his daughters survived, they would be removed from the inheritance. Second, because Salic law prevented female inheritance, Charles VI needed to take extraordinary measures to avoid a protracted succession dispute—as had happened in the War of the Spanish Succession—as other claimants would surely have contested a female inheritance.

Finally, Charles VI was succeeded by his own eldest daughter, María Teresa (born 1717). However, despite the enactment of the Pragmatic Sanction, his accession in 1740 resulted in the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession, as Charles Albert of Bavaria, backed by France, contested his inheritance. After the war, Maria Theresa's inheritance of the Habsburg lands was confirmed by the Treaty of Aachen (1748), while her husband Francis I's election as Holy Roman Emperor had been secured by the Treaty of Füssen from 1745.

Context

Foreign recognition

For 10 years, Charles VI worked, with the support of his closest adviser, Johann Christoph von Bartenstein, to have his sanction accepted by the courts of Europe. Only the Electorate of Saxony and the Electorate of Bavaria did not. they accepted because it was detrimental to their inheritance rights. (Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony was married to Maria Josefa of Austria and Charles, Elector of Bavaria to Maria Amelia of Austria, both daughters of Charles' late older brother Joseph I.)

• France accepted in exchange for the Duke of Lorena under the Vienna Treaty (1738).
• Spain ' s acceptance was also achieved under the Vienna Treaty (1738). In 1731, Spanish Prince Charles, 15, became Duke of Parma and Piacenza, like Carlos I, after the death of his grandfather without children, Antonio Farnesio. He continued to conquer Naples and Sicily, after which Parma returned to the emperor by the Treaty of Vienna (1738). In 1759, he became king of Spain as Charles III.
• Britain and the Netherlands accepted in exchange for the cessation of operations of the Ostende Company.
• King Frederick I of Prussia approved for his loyalty to the Emperor.

Charles VI compromised with Russia and Augustus of Saxony, King of Poland, which led to two wars: the War of the Polish Succession, against France and Spain, which cost him Naples and Sicily, and the Russo-Turkish War (1735 -1739), which cost him Little Wallachia and northern Serbia, including the Belgrade fortress.

Internal recognition

The kingdom of Croatia and other Croatian lands at the time of Pragmatic Sanction.

Hungary, which had an elective monarchy, had accepted the House of Habsburg as male-line hereditary kings without election in 1687, but not the semi-Salic inheritance. The king-emperor agreed that if the Habsburg male line died out, Hungary would again have an elective monarchy; the same was the case with the government in the kingdom of Bohemia.

The Hungarian Parliament voted its own Pragmatic Assent of 1723 in which the kingdom of Hungary accepted the female inheritance supporting Maria Theresa—Charles VI's eldest daughter—to become queen of Hungary. In 1777, Maria Theresa enacted the rescript that handed over the port of Rijeka to Hungarian control.

For its part, Croatia was one of the crown lands that supported the Pragmatic Sanction of Emperor Charles of 1713 and supported Empress Maria Theresa in the War of the Austrian Succession of 1741-1748 and the Croatian Parliament signed also her own Pragmatic Sanction of 1712. Subsequently, the Empress made significant contributions to Croatian affairs by undertaking various changes in the administrative control of the Military Frontier, in the feudal system, and in the tax system.

File:Friedrich2 jung.jpg

Frederick II at the time of the Austrian war of succession, after which Prussia, under his leadership, emerged as a European power.

Consequences

Charles VI spent the time of his reign preparing Europe for the arrival of a female ruler. Although his daughter María Teresa was the heiress, his relatively scant military and financial resources made him appear weak in the face of the territorial ambitions of some of his neighbors. Holy Empire accepted the Pragmatics, after his death King Frederick II of Prussia did not respect it and invaded Silesia in December 1740 while claiming sovereignty over that territory under the Treaty of Brieg of 1537 which stipulated that the Hohenzollerns (Frederick's dynasty II) would be the heirs of Silesia if the primordial branch (through the male line) disappeared. This started the First Silesian War (1740-1742). France, Bavaria, and Saxony also broke their promises and questioned her daughter Maria Theresa's claims to her Austrian lands and started the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Austria lost Silesia to Prussia for good.

In addition, the elective office of Holy Roman Emperor was filled by Joseph I's son-in-law, Karl Albert of Bavaria, marking the first time in centuries that the position was not held by a Habsburg. Already as Emperor Charles VII, he lost his own country, Bavaria, to the Austrian army of his wife's cousin, Maria Theresa, and later died. His son, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, renounced claims to 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 Aachen in 1748 finally recognized Maria Theresa's rule.