At the time of his ascension to the throne, Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire (1685–1740) was the last male Austrian Habsburg. He knew how dangerous it was to leave Austria without a firm heir, as he had been involved in the dispute for the throne of Spain when the last Spanish Habsburg king had died. When he only had two surviving daughters, he implemented the Pragmatic Sanction, making his daughter Maria Theresa his heir. This overthrew a previous family statute, angering Maria Theresa’s cousins, and gave other European countries an excuse to challenge Austrian power with the War of Austrian Succession.
The Spanish Succession and Archduke Charles of Austria
Before becoming Holy Roman Emperor, the young Archduke Charles had tried to become king of Spain. In 1700, King Carlos II of Spain, the last of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, died, leaving the Spanish throne vacant and several candidates fighting for power. Charles’s claim to the Spanish throne was relatively distant compared to the other claimants, as he only had a Spanish grandmother, but the Austrian Habsburgs thought they deserved the throne just to keep it in the Habsburg family.
In 1703, his father, Emperor Leopold I, and his older brother, Joseph, gave up their claims to the Spanish throne in favor of Charles and named him the rightful king of Spain. Charles then went to Spain and set up a rival court to the new Bourbon King Felipe V. This threw Europe into the War of Spanish Succession.
In 1711, however, Charles’s brother Emperor Joseph I died and Charles had to return to Austria to take the throne himself. This settled the Spanish succession in favor of Felipe because Europe did not want a dual empire with one monarch ruling both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire.
The Daughters of Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire
It took Emperor Charles VI and his wife, the German Princess Elizabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, eight years to have their first child. Charles was so desperate for a male heir that he had a specific coronation ceremony in the superstitious hope that it would help him have a son. Eventually, they did have a son but sadly he died when he was eight months old.
Eventually, they were left with only two daughters, Maria Theresa and Maria Anna. And when Maria Theresa began having children, she only initially had daughters. Emperor Charles VI despaired of ever having a male Habsburg heir.
The Pragmatic Sanction and the Austrian Succession
In desperation, both to secure the Habsburg holdings and to prevent a war, Emperor Charles VI promulgated the 1713 Pragmatic Sanction. It stated that if he had no male heirs, then his daughters would inherit after him. After his daughters would come the daughters of his brother Emperor Joseph I.
The Pragmatic Sanction was problematic because women did not usually inherit Austrian Habsburg land, although there was a tradition of them being regents, for example in the Habsburg-controlled Netherlands. The Pragmatic Sanction also joined the Habsburg-controlled lands of Austria, Hungary, and Bohemia into a legally inseparable unit and reinforced primogeniture, instead of allowing for the lands to be broken up by several heirs as had been done in the past.
Other countries, however, did not want to acknowledge Maria Theresa or any woman as the new heir to the Austrian lands. Emperor Charles VI had to make all kinds of international agreements and give up territory in order to get other European powers to agree to respect her claims.
Even within the Austrian Habsburg dynasty the Pragmatic Sanction was unpopular. It overthrew the 1703 family pact of Emperor Leopold I, which specifically stated that Joseph’s daughters would inherit before any other Habsburg woman.
After Emperor Charles VI died, the War of Austrian Succession waged for eight years as Europe and the Habsburg family fought over Maria Theresa’s succession. Joseph’s two daughters even fought her claims, and Joseph’s son-in-law was even crowned Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, becoming the first and only non-Habsburg emperor since the 1400s.
Emperor Charles VI of the Holy Roman Empire and His Austrian Heir
The most important thing Emperor Charles VI had to do during his reign was produce an heir. As a rival for the Spanish throne, he had seen how dangerous it was for a country not to have a secure heir. Therefore, after having only two daughters, he promulgated the Pragmatic Sanction, which stated that his daughter Maria Theresa would succeed him. This law was unpopular within the Habsburg family and Europe, and led to the War of Austrian Succession.
Sources
- Beutler, Gigi. Imperial Vaults of the PP Capuchins in Vienna. Vienna: Buetler-Heldenstern Publications, 2003.
- McGuigan, Dorothy Gies. Habsburgs. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1966.
- Wandruszka, Adam. House of Habsburg: Six Hundred Years of a European Dynasty. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1964.
- Wheatcroft, Andrew. Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. London: Viking, 1995.
Emily Chauviere - Emily Chauviere earned Bachelor of Arts degrees in history and theology and a concentration in International Studies from the University ...
