[1]The term “Pragmatic Sanction” was first used in the case of decrees issued by Byzantine emperors with reference to the affairs of their provinces. It was next applied to the limitations of the spiritual authority of the Pope in European countries. In the sense in which it is used above it is applied to the succession of sovereignty. The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI is the most famous of all. It had three provisions, (1) that the lands belonging to the house of Austria should remain indivisible; (2) that in the absence of male heirs they should devolve upon Charles’ daughters, the oldest of whom was Maria Theresa; and (3) that in case of the extinction of the line, the inheritance should pass to the daughters of Joseph I and their descendants. Charles issued this Sanction in 1713.
[2]Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Empress of Germany, was the daughter of Charles VI of Austria and Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-WolfenbÜttel. After the death of Archduke Leopold, her only brother, she became sole heiress of the Austrian dominions in 1724, married Francis Stephen of Lorraine in 1736, came to the throne in 1740, her husband being declared co-regent. She died in 1780. Of her sixteen children, ten reached maturity. Her sons were Joseph II, who succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1765; Emperor Leopold II; Ferdinand, Duke of Modena, and Maximilian, Elector of Cologne. Her most famous daughter was Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France, one of the many victims of the French Revolution.
[3]Prince Eugene, one of the greatest of the world’s generals, was born at Paris, October 18, 1663, and died at Vienna, April 21, 1736. He entered the service of Austria in 1683; defeated the Turks in 1697; at the outbreak of the Spanish war of the succession invaded Italy; joined Marlborough in Germany; and defeated the French and Bavarians at Blenheim in 1704. In 1706 he drove the French out of Italy, and in 1708 won the great victories at Oudenarde, Lille, and Malplaquet. War breaking out afresh with Turkey, he won the great battle at Belgrade against overwhelming odds, and forced the Turks to accept peace. The year of Maria Theresa’s nuptials, 1736, was the year of his death.
[4]Frederick contended that he inherited a lawful claim to Silesia, and that the Pragmatic Sanction, which his father had recognized, referred only to lands belonging to the house of Austria.
[5]Frederick offered to aid Maria Theresa against all her enemies if she would concede his claims upon Silesia, but the Queen haughtily declined, and even intimated that Frederick was a robber.
[6]Count Maximilian Ulysses von Browne, an Austrian field-marshal, was born at Basel, Switzerland, Oct. 23, 1705, and died at Prague, Bohemia, June 26, 1757. He was a commander both in the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years’ War.
[7]Count Kurt Christoph Schwerin, a German general, was born at Wusecken, Pomerania, Oct. 26, 1684, and was killed at the battle of Prague, May 6, 1757. He was made a field-marshal by Frederick the Great, and won the important victory of Mollwitz, a Silesian village.
[8]This refers to the time when the Hungarians revolted and called upon the Turks to help them. The latter, under Kara Mustapha, besieged Vienna in 1683, which was only saved by an army of Poles and Germans under Sobieski (John III, King of Poland), in which Kolonitzsch and Stahremberg were conspicuous.
[9]Karl Albrecht, Elector of Bavaria, subsequently Charles VII, was born at Brussels, Aug. 6, 1697, and died at Munich, Jan. 20, 1745. He was a claimant of the Austrian inheritance, took part in the War of the Succession, was proclaimed King of Bohemia in 1741, and crowned Emperor in 1742.
[10]Hans Joachim von Zieten was a famous cavalry officer in the Prussian army, and won distinction from a march with his hussars in 1745. He decided three of Frederick’s victories,—Leuthen, Liegnitz, and Torgau.
[11]Count Raimondo Montecuculi was born at Modena, Italy, in 1608, and died at Linz, Austria, in 1680. He served with great distinction in the Thirty Years’ War; commanded the Austrian army which was sent to Poland against the Swedes and Transylvanians, 1657-60; gained a great battle over the Turks at St. Gotthard in 1664; and fought Turenne and CondÉ on the Rhine from 1672 to 1675. He wrote a famous treatise on the art of war, from which the saying above attributed to him is quoted.
[12]Kurmark the old name for the larger portion of Brandenburg, Prussia.
[13]Philip V of Spain, the grandson of Louis XIV of France, was born at Versailles, Dec. 19, 1683; died at Madrid, July 9, 1746. He was called the Duke of Anjou until his succession to the Spanish throne, which caused the War of the Spanish Succession.
[14]Ferdinand VI, born Sept. 13, 1712, was the son of Philip V, and succeeded his father in 1746. He was of a weak constitution and melancholy, and relinquished the affairs of government almost entirely to his counsellors. His melancholy eventually developed into insanity.
[15]Wenzel Anton Kaunitz, Count of Rietberg, was one of the most famous of European diplomatists. He was born at Vienna, Jan. 2, 1711. His first mission was the formation of an alliance of Austria, Sardinia, and Great Britain against the Bourbons. He laid the foundation of his fame at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. Between 1750 and 1752 he concluded a secret alliance between France and Austria. In 1756 he was made Chancellor of the Netherlands and Italy, and at the partition of Poland in 1772 he secured Galicia for Austria. He directed the affairs of Austria for more than forty years, and was specially prominent in his resistance to the power of Prussia.
[16]“Prince Folly.”
[17]Madame Pompadour had great influence in the Court of Louis XV of France, and virtually dictated the policy of the government during this period.
[18]The Czarina died Jan. 5, 1762.
[19]Banat is a part of Southern Hungary between the Maros on the north, the Theiss on the west, and the Danube on the south. It was part of the “Military Frontier” which M
