The Pragmatic Sanction, 1713
19. Apr 1713
In 1713 Emperor Charles VI issued an edict declaring the indivisibility of all Habsburg lands and that the succession was henceforth to be in the direct line, in particular that Charles’s daughters were placed before those of his father and brother in the line of succession. After Charles’s death in 1740 Maria Theresa duly succeeded to the throne, but a number of rulers rejected her claim, leading to the War of the Austrian Succession. The Pragmatic Sanction was finally accorded general recognition at the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748.
