Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 Worksheets
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Summary
- Mutual Pact of Succession
- Recognition of the Pragmatic Sanction
- Failure of the Pragmatic Sanction
Key Facts And Information
Let’s know more about the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713!
The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was an edict issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to ensure that all his Habsburg territories and domains would be inherited as a unified entity without division. It mandated that his whole inheritance be bequeathed to his eldest son if he had one; if not, it would pass to his eldest daughter, and thereafter, if she died without progeny, to the daughters of his late brother Joseph I and their descendants.
Page of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, an act issued by Emperor Charles VI
MUTUAL PACT OF SUCCESSION
- Joseph I served as Holy Roman Emperor and governed the Austrian Habsburg Empire from 1705 until he died in 1711. He was the firstborn son of Emperor Leopold I and his third wife, Eleonor Magdalene of Neuburg. Joseph was crowned King of Hungary at nine years old in 1687 and elected King of the Romans at eleven in 1690. He ascended to the thrones of Bohemia and the Holy Roman Empire upon his father’s death. On 24 February 1699, he wed Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg in Vienna.
- Wilhelmine Amalia was the youngest daughter of Johann Friedrich, Duke of Brunswick-Calenberg, and Princess Benedicta Henrietta of the Palatinate of the Rhine.
- Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia had three children, and their sole son, Archduke Leopold Joseph, succumbed to hydrocephalus before his first birthday. Joseph was enamoured with romantic liaisons (none of which led to illegitimate offspring) and contracted a sexually transmitted infection, likely syphilis, which he transmitted to his wife during their attempts to conceive an heir. This incident caused her sterility.
- Emperor Leopold I formulated the Mutual Pact of Succession upon Archduke Charles’s departure for Spain. The agreement designated Archduke Charles as the claimant to the Spanish territories. At the same time, the succession rights to the remaining Habsburg hereditary domains were assigned to his elder brother, Archduke Joseph, thereby further bifurcating the House of Habsburg into two branches.
- The Pact delineated the succession for the brothers: each would be succeeded by his male heirs, but should one lack a son, the other would inherit all his territories.
- Should both brothers perish without male heirs, the daughters of the elder brother, Joseph, would take precedence over those of the younger brother, Charles, with the eldest daughter of Joseph ascending to all Habsburg thrones. In 1703, the Treaty of the Mutual Pact of Succession was signed by Archduke Joseph and Charles of Austria, the future monarchs of the Holy Roman Empire.
- In 1700, the senior line of the House of Habsburg became extinct upon the death of King Charles II of Spain. The War of the Spanish Succession commenced with Louis XIV of France and Navarre asserting the claim to the Spanish throne for his grandson Philippe Louis of France, Duke of Anjou. In contrast, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I asserted the claim for his son Archduke Charles.
- The Kingdom of Portugal, the Kingdom of England, Scotland, Ireland, and most of the Holy Roman Empire supported Archduke Charles’s claim to the Spanish throne.
- Archduke Charles, who became King Charles III, arrived in his kingdom in 1705 and remained there for six years, exercising his authority solely in Catalonia. During the smallpox pandemic of 1711, Emperor Joseph I contracted the disease. He passed away on 17 April 1711 in the Hofburg Palace. He bequeathed two daughters, Archduchesses Maria Josepha and Maria Amalia.
- Charles VI succeeded Joseph I as the head of the Habsburg dynasty, sovereign of the Austrian territories, and emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The new emperor, who was also the Habsburg claimant to the Spanish succession and still referred to himself as Charles III of Spain, had no offspring at that time. In 1703, during Leopold I’s lifetime, a familial agreement was established to govern the Habsburg succession in the event of the male line’s extinction, as neither prince had male heirs.
- The agreement specified that if Joseph, who had two daughters, Maria Josepha (1699–1757) and Maria Amalia (1701–1756), died without male heirs, he would be replaced by his younger brother Charles by the existing Salic law. Should Charles likewise perish without male heirs, the Habsburg territories would belong to the eldest surviving daughter of Joseph, irrespective of whether Charles had daughters. The agreement overlooked the applicability of Salic law in the Habsburg territories. It transformed it into what is occasionally referred to as semi-Salic law: the acknowledgement of female succession following the extinction of all male lines.
- Salic law established a formal code of civil law, including inheritance statutes and criminal law, encompassing murder penalties. Initially conceived as the law of the Franks, it has significantly shaped the tradition of statutory law that has persisted into modern history across much of Europe, particularly in the German states and Austria-Hungary in Central Europe, the Low Countries in Western Europe, Balkan kingdoms in Southeastern Europe, and certain regions of Italy and Spain in Southern Europe. The application of agnatic succession regulated the succession of monarchs in realms such as France and Italy.
Depiction of Maria Josepha
- During a meeting with the Privy Council and key ministers, Charles VI declared his modification of this idea. Despite lacking a child with his wife, Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Charles sought to alter the line of succession in favour of his prospective daughters rather than Joseph’s. The Pragmatic Sanction released that day affirmed the unity of the Habsburg territories while ensuring the succession of the crown to his eldest daughter, should he lack a male successor, prioritising her over the daughters of Joseph I.
- Initially, the Pragmatic Sanction held less direct significance, but this circumstance evolved in subsequent years. Following the birth and demise of a boy in 1716, the new emperor and his consort had three daughters: Maria Theresa (1717–1780), Maria Anna (1718–1744) and Maria Amalia (1724–1730). Beginning around 1720, it became imperative for Charles VI and his ministers to get acknowledgement of the Pragmatic Sanction to ensure the succession of his eldest surviving daughter. To accomplish these objectives, it was essential to persuade three primary kinds of stakeholders.
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- Initially, there were the daughters of Joseph I and their prospective spouses. This acquiescence was guaranteed – at least temporarily – by the inclusion of a cession of succession rights in the marriage contracts of Maria Josepha with the future Augustus III (1696–1763), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in 1719, and of Maria Amalia with Karl Albrecht (1697–1745), the future Elector of Bavaria and Emperor Charles VII, in 1722.
- Secondly, there existed the diets and other authoritative organisations of the various Habsburg territories. Their adoption occurred fairly easily between 1720 and 1725, with Hungary stipulating that in the absence of a male heir, it retained the authority to nominate a successor. In 1740, the Hungarian diet officially elected Maria Theresia as their queen.
- Third, Charles VI and his ministers sought to prevent a new succession conflict by securing the endorsement of the Pragmatic Sanction from the major European countries, the Holy Roman Empire, and the prominent princes of the Empire. This goal would initiate a diplomatic campaign for the Habsburg ministry, consuming a significant portion of its governmental authority and diplomatic resources for the subsequent two decades.
RECOGNITION OF THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION
- For a decade, Charles VI endeavoured, with the assistance of his chief advisor Johann Christoph von Bartenstein, to secure acceptance of his decree by the European courts and the Habsburg hereditary domains. All the principal empires and states consented to acknowledge the sanction. Hungary, with its elective monarchy, has recognised the Habsburg dynasty as hereditary rulers in the male lineage. It was concurred that should the Habsburg male lineage become extinct, Hungary would revert to an elective monarchy. This was likewise the regulation in the Kingdom of Bohemia.
- France acquired the Duchy of Lorraine in exchange, pursuant to the Treaty of Vienna.
- Spain’s acquiescence was likewise secured in the Treaty of Vienna. In 1731, the 15-year-old Spanish prince Charles ascended to the title of Duke of Parma and Piacenza as Charles I following the demise of his childless granduncle Antonio Farnese. He subsequently conquered Naples and Sicily, following which he restored Parma to the Emperor through the Treaty of Vienna. In 1759, he ascended to the Spanish throne as Charles III.
- Great Britain and the Dutch Republic acquiesced in return for the termination of the Ostend Company's activities.
- King Frederick William I of Prussia approved in deference to the Emperor.
- Charles VI entered into agreements with Russia and Augustus of Saxony, King of Poland, resulting in two conflicts: the War of the Polish Succession against France and Spain, which resulted in the loss of Naples and Sicily, and the Austro-Turkish War, which led to the loss of Little Wallachia and northern Serbia, including the Belgrade Fortress.
FAILURE OF THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION
- In 1687, Hungary, which practised elective monarchy, accepted the House of Habsburg as hereditary rulers through the male line but rejected semi-Salic succession. The Emperor-King consented that should the Habsburg male lineage become extinct, Hungary would revert to an elective monarchy, a stipulation also applicable to the Kingdom of Bohemia.
- Maria Theresa, nonetheless, ascended to the throne of Hungary. The Diet of Hungary, the most crucial political assembly in Hungary since the 12th century, enacted its Pragmatic Sanction of 1723, which permitted female inheritance, so enabling a woman to ascend to the throne of Hungary. Charles’s objectives had not yet been acknowledged by all his domains, as the County of Tyrol and the Kingdom of Hungary expressed objections. The Hungarians contended that the 1687 accord permitting hereditary succession by male Habsburgs was excessive and resisted its extension to Habsburg women, favouring a return to an elective monarchy instead. The Kingdom of Croatia and the Principality of Transylvania, two distinct territories under the Hungarian Crown, independently ratified the King’s decree in 1721 and 1722, respectively.
- The Kingdom of Croatia was a crown territory that endorsed Emperor Charles’s Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and supported Empress Maria Theresa during the War of the Austrian Succession from 1741 to 1748. The Croatian Sabor (assembly) ratified its Pragmatic Sanction in 1712. Subsequently, the empress made substantial contributions to Croatian affairs by implementing several modifications in the administrative oversight of the Military Frontier, as well as in the feudal and taxation systems. In 1776, she ceded the autonomous port of Rijeka to Croatia.
Frequently Asked Questions About The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713
- What was the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713?
The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 was an edict issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to ensure that a daughter could inherit his hereditary Habsburg lands if he had no male heir. It aimed to keep the Habsburg territories (Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, etc.) united under one ruler.
- Why was it necessary?
Charles VI had no male heirs, and under traditional Habsburg succession laws, women were not allowed to inherit. To prevent the fragmentation of the empire and dynastic disputes, Charles issued the Pragmatic Sanction to all, which allowed his daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit the throne.
- Did other European powers accept the Pragmatic Sanction?
Initially, many European powers recognised the Pragmatic Sanction during Charles VI’s lifetime, including France, Prussia, and Britain. However, after he died in 1740, some of them reneged on their promises and challenged Maria Theresa’s succession, leading to war.