(2) War of the Austrian Succession. —The Emperor Charles VI. died in 1740, leaving his hereditary dominions — Bohemia, Hungary, and the arch duchy of Austria — to his daughter Maria Theresa. She was at once beset by enemies eager to profit from the pre sumed weakness of a feminine ruler. The Elector Charles Albert of Bavaria, who had refused his signature to the PRAGMATIC SANCTION (q. v.), demanded the imperial crown as the descendant of the Emperor Ferdinand I., and he was backed up by France and Spain. Au gustus of Saxony and Poland advanced his claim as being the husband of the eldest daughter of the Emperor Joseph I. Frederick the Great of Prussia seized the opportunity to wrest Silesia, which he greatly coveted, from the crown of Austria. The Bavarians and French (under Belleisle) invaded Bohemia, and crowned the elector king of that coun try at Prague on Dec. 19, 1741. About two months later he assumed the im perial crown at Frankfort-on-Main; yet on the very next day his own capital (Munich) was occupied by the Austrian general KhevenhilIler, who, assisted by the high-spirited Hungarians, had ad vanced up the Danube, and now speedily overran Bavaria. A few months later the empress-queen bought off her most dangerous antagonist, Frederick, by giv ing up to him Silesia. At this time too, Augustus of Saxony, who had at first made common cause with the French and the Bavarians, withdrew from the con test and made peace with Maria The resa. In the end of 1742 the Austrians
were forced out of Bavaria and the French evacuated Bohemia. The Eng lisp, who from the first paid a substan tial subsidy to Austria, took up arms on her behalf in this same year, and in 1743 defeated the French at Dettingen in Bavaria. In this year the Austrians repossessed themselves of the Elector Charles Albert's dominions. Saxony now joined the allies and took the field against his former associates. On the other hand, Frederick renewed hostil ities and invaded Bohemia; but after a short interval he was once more willing to make peace. About this juncture Charles Albert died, and his son and successor abandoned his father's preten sions to Maria Theresa's dominions. This left France to carry on the struggle alone. But while Austria had the bet ter of the war in Italy, Marshal Saxe captured several of the Flemish fort resses, won the victories of Fontenoy (1745), Rocoux (1746), and Lawfeldt (1747), and reduced the Austrian (for merly Spanish) Netherlands. Peace was at length concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle on Oct. 18, 1748, things remaining pretty much in statu quo, except that Frederick was allowed to retain Silesia.