pragmatic sanction

pragmatic sanction, decision of state dealing with a matter of great importance to a community or a whole state and having the force of fundamental law. The term originated in Roman law and was used on the continent of Europe until modern times. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by Charles VII of France in 1438, sharply limited the papal authority over the church in France and established the liberty of the Gallican Church (see Gallicanism). It was revoked in 1461 by Louis XI, who sought to improve relations with the Holy See, but relations between church and state remained dubious until Francis I concluded the Concordat of 1516 (see concordat). There have been many other pragmatic sanctions, but the term, if unqualified, always refers to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, issued by Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI to alter the law of succession of the Hapsburg family. Soon after Charles succeeded (1711) his elder brother Joseph I as emperor, he undertook to change the law so that, in the event of no male heir, the Hapsburg lands would be inherited through his own daughters rather than through Joseph's daughters. As it became apparent that there would be no male heir, the law took on great importance. By its terms, the succession to all Hapsburg dominions (but not to the imperial dignity, which was elective) was reserved for Charles's daughter Maria Theresa. The principal aim of the law was to guarantee the continued integrity of the Hapsburg territories and to prevent a struggle for the succession. Charles labored throughout his reign to obtain the adherence to the Pragmatic Sanction of the European sovereigns and of the diets and estates of the various Hapsburg lands. France gave it its support in 1738, and at the time of Charles's death (1740) most other powers and all the diets and estates of the Hapsburg domains (including those of the Austrian Netherlands, Bohemia, and Hungary) had endorsed it; the diet of the Holy Roman Empire had guaranteed it in 1732. A notable exception was that of Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria (later Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII), who was married to Maria Amelia, one of the daughters of Joseph I who had been displaced by the Pragmatic Sanction. The other daughter, Maria Josepha, had been married to Elector Frederick Augustus II of Saxony (Augustus III of Poland), who had ratified the Pragmatic Sanction in 1733 in exchange for Austrian support in his struggle for the Polish throne. When Maria Theresa acceded to the Hapsburg succession in 1740, she had to defend her right in a long and bitter struggle, the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48), in spite of all the guarantees her father had obtained. The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1748 confirmed the Pragmatic Sanction.

The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a legal mechanism designed to ensure that the Austrian throne and Habsburg lands would be inherited by Emperor Charles VI's daughter, Maria Theresa, was part of the law of the house of Austria.

Events leading to the Pragmatic Sanction

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, was the most powerful member of the Habsburg dynasty, being both King of Spain with its new world empire (inherited from his maternal grandparents), and Emperor of the Germanic Holy Roman Empire because of his possession of Austria (inherited from his paternal grandfather).

In 1520, a year after his election as emperor, he ceded his Austrian territories to his brother Ferdinand I of Germany to satisfy the Prince-electors who feared he would be too powerful if he retained them. This created two branches of the house of Habsburg: the Spanish branch and the Austrian branch.

The Austrian branch later acquired the hereditary crowns of Bohemia and Hungary. The throne of the Holy Roman Empire was virtually also an Austrian heirloom; although nominally an elected post, it was held by the house of Habsburg from 1439 to 1806 with only a single five-year interruption.

The Spanish branch died out in 1700 with the death of King Charles II of Spain and the War of the Spanish Succession resulted.

As the war was in progress, Emperor Leopold I, head of the Austrian branch, tried to establish an explicit law of succession within his surviving branch of the family. Leopold I and his two sons Joseph and Charles signed a succession pact (Pactum mutuae successionis) on 12 September 1703.

This pact specified that females could succeed only when all male lines had become extinct and further specified the priorities of the then living Habsburgs.

Leopold died in 1705, and was succeeded by his son Joseph I as Emperor. Joseph I died in December 1711 leaving two daughters, who were at the time of his death unmarried. Soon afterward the Croatian parliament under the presidency of Emerik Eszterhazy voted its Pragmatic Sanction of 1712 (9 March) in which the Kingdom of Croatia accepted female inheritance of its crown after extinction of the male line

Joseph was succeeded as Emperor by his brother Charles VI, who wrote a will specifying an order of succession different from that specified in the Pactum of 1703, giving precedence to his own daughters, ahead of his late brother's daughters. Because of this conflict a convocation of the Privy Council and the Ministers of the Emperor in Vienna was called, the Pactum was read aloud, and Charles VI's modifications announced. This declaration of 19 April 1713 is called the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.

Events following the Pragmatic Sanction

Hungary, which had an elective kingship, had accepted the house of Habsburg as hereditary kings in the male line without election in 1687, but had not accepted semi-Salic inheritance. The Emperor-King agreed that if the Habsburg male line became extinct, Hungary would once again have an elective monarchy. This was rule in the Kingdom of Bohemia too.

Maria Theresa, however, still gained the throne of Hungary.

The Pragmatic Sanction's failure

Charles VI spent the time of his reign preparing Europe for a female ruler, but he did not prepare his daughter, Maria Theresa. He would not read her documents, take her to meetings, not be introduced to ministers or have any preparation for the power she would receive in 1740. Charles VI did not prepare Maria because that meant giving up hope of having a son to succeed him.

Charles VI managed to get the great European powers to agree to the Pragmatic Sanction (for the time being), and died in 1740 with no male heirs. However, France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony reneged, and contested the claims of his daughter Maria Theresa on his Austrian lands, and initiated the War of the Austrian Succession, in which Austria lost Silesia to Prussia. The elective office of Holy Roman Emperor was filled by Joseph I's son-in-law Charles Albert of Bavaria, marking the first time in several hundred years that the position was not held by a Habsburg. As Charles VII, he lost Bavaria to the Austrian army and then died. His son, Maximilian III Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, supported Austria's claims in exchange for the return of Bavaria, and Maria Theresa's husband was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I in 1745.

The Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, finally recognized Maria Theresa's Habsburg inheritance.