SUCCESSICIN, WAR OF THE AUSTRIAN. The death of the emperor Charles VI. (Oct. 20, 1740), by which the male line of the house of Hapsburg became extinct, was the signal for a general uprising of the powers of Europe, some to prey on the Austrian pos sessions, and others to aid the eldest daughter and heir of the deceased emperor. The probability of such a contingency had long been foreseen by Charles VI., for as early as 1713 he had published a Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.), stipulating that, in default of male heirs, the whole of his dominions should descend undivided to his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa (q.v.); and it was almost his sole aim, during his subsequent reign, to gain the consent of all parties having proximate claims to any of the Austrian domains, and of the principal powers of Europe, to this arrangement. The elector of Bavaria, Charles Albert, alone refused to resign his pretensions. On the death of her father, Maria Theresa intimated her accession to the various European powers, and from all of them, except France and Bavaria, received assurances of good-will and support; but notwith standing, two months did not elapse till Frederick II. of Prussia, without a declaration of war, invaded Silesia. The Austrian treasury was at this time exhausted, and the army much disorganized; so that little or no effective resistance could be made to the Prussians; while the state of alarm into which this sudden attack had thrown the court of Vienna was increased by doubts as to the intentions of France. These doubts were soon resolved by the latter, in the spring of 1741, forming a confederacy of all the claim ants to the Austrian dominions—the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, sons-in-law of the emperor Joseph I. Philip V. of Spain; Charles Emmanuel of Sardinia, who claimed the Milanese; and Frederick II. of Prussia, who now demanded almost the whole of Silesia. On the other hand, Britain granted Maria Theresa an annual subsidy of .P.300,000; the Dutch were willing to aid her when opportunity offered; and Hungary gallantly responded to her pathetic appeal by sending in thousands her motley popula tion, Magyars, Croats, Slays, and Tolpatches,. to fight in defense of their heroic queen. Meantime the Bavarians, in conjunction with the French under Belleisle, overran the greater part of Bohemia. This invasion compelled the queen to buy off her most for midable opponent, Prussia,, by the surrender of Silesia and Glatz; and then, while prince Charles of Lorraine kept the French at bay in Bohemia, Khevenhuller, the most enter prising of the Austrian generals, advanced up the valley of the Danube, captured 12,000 French in Lintz, overran.Bavaria, and on the very day of the elector's coronation as the emperor Charles VII., took Munich his capital (Feb. 12, 1742). But this great success alarmed Frederick II. for the security of his new possessions, and abruptly breaking the treaty, he poured his forces into Bohemia and upper Austria, and gaiued the battle of Chotusitz (May 17). The same year witnessed increased activity on the part of Britain (the Walpole administration being now in power) and Holland on behalf of Austria; the expulsion of the French and Bavarians from Bohemia; the severance of the king of Sardinia from the coalition against Austria, produced by the bribe of some districts of the Milanese, which, however, he did not obtain till some time afterward; the enforce ment of neutrality upon Naples by the threatening attitude of a British fleet off the capital; and, on the other hand, the recovery of Bavaria by the elector.
In May, 1743, Bavaria again fell into the hands of prince Charles and Khevenhuller; count Saxe was driven with great loss from the Palatinate; the "emperor" Charles. Albert and the Swedes, disgusted at their ill-success in the war, retired from the contest, so that France and Spain now remained the sole representatives of the once mighty coalition. In 1744, France and Britain, which had hitherto engaged in the conflict only as allies, declared war on each other; and the latter proceeded to destroy piecemeal the French and Spanish shipping on the high seas, and to attack their colonial possessions.
For this, however, the successes of Saxe in the Netherlands were a compensation. However, the great successes of Austria on the Rhine, and the ill-concealed ambitious projects of Maria Theresa, again alarmed Frederick II. for Silesia; and he resolved on another attempt to rivet his hold on the much-coveted province before it was too late. Accordingly, he concluded at Frankfurt (May 13, 1744), a secret convention with France, the emperor,the elector-palatine, and the king of Sweden. Bursting into Bohemia with his usual celerity, Frederick II. forced the Austrians at once to return from Alsace, thus enabling the elector to recapture Bavaria; but before prince Charles had time to reach Bohemia, a fresh levy of 44,000 men, which had been raised by the chivalrous and patriotic Hungarians, joined by 6,000 Saxons, had reached the Prussians, and by cutting off their supplies, and capturing their stragglers and foraging parties, compelled them to evacuate the kingdom with considerable loss. In Italy, the Spaniards, who were now joined by the Neapolitans, were defeated repeatedly, and compelled to retreat down the peninsula; and the king of Sardinia succeeded in preventing the French from effect ing a permanent lodgment in n.w. Italy. In 1745, the emperor-elector died, and his son, Maximilian Joseph, profiting from his father's misfortunes, declined to take part iu the contest, or to allow himself to be nominated emperor, and made peace with Austria. Frederick II., displeased with the meddling and overbearing conduct of France with respect to the approaching imperial election, also sought to come to terms with Austria, by the mediation of Britain, and the peace of Dresden (Dec. 25, 1745) finally withdrew Prussia from the- conflict. In Flanders, the fortunes of Austria also declined; and after the victory of Fontenoy (May 11, 1745) she could not prefent Saxe from capturing the chief Belgian fortresses in succession. In Italy, also, fortune declared for the coalition; for the Spanish-Neapolitan army, now re-enforced by the Geno ese and Modenese-70,000 men in all—defied all opposition, overran the whole of Lom bardy and much of the Sardiniau territories, driving the king under the walls of his capital. Similar reverses befell the allies in Flanders duriug the campaign of 1746; but these were more than counterbalanced by the great successes obtained in Italy, where all the lost fortresses of Lombardy, Parma, and Guastalla, were recaptured, the coalition army totally routed in a great battle near Placentia (June 16), and Genoa overrun and occupied. Another of fortune's favors to Austria was the death of Philip V. of Spain (July 9), which, by depriving that arch-plotter, his queen, of the supreme power, considerably diminished the zeal of the Spanish court in the prosecution of the war. In 1747, the Dutch, who had hitherto escaped the ravages of war, were made practically acquainted with them by Saxe, who, having completely subdued the Austrian Netherlands, invaded and overran Dutch Flanders, routed the unfortunate duke of Cumberland at Laffeldt (July 2), while his celebrated chief of engineers, count Lowendal, after a two months' siege, took Bergen-op-Zoom, Cohorn's masterpiece, a fortress believed by the Dutch to be impregnable. At the commencement of 1748, Britain, France, and Holland sought to bring about a peace, and agreed among themselves to certain preliminaries, which were submitted to Austria and Sardinia; but as one of them was the surrender of Parma and Placentia to don Philip of Spain, the former refused her consent; and her twoeillies, disgusted at her disregard of the sacrifices they had made on her behalf, at once signed, the preliminaries (April 30), and Austria sullenly followed suit on May 18. Much dis cussion followed, but on Oct. 18, 1748, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (q.v.) put an end to this most disastrous war, which left the Hapsburgs in possession of their hereditary dominions, with the exception of Silesia and some of their Italian provinces. See Aix LA-CHAPELLE.