PRAGMATIC SANCTION (Sandia Pragmatica), a public edict relating to import ant state business, pronounced by the head of a state and differing from the simple rescript, in that the latter was a declaration of law in an swer to a question propounded on behalf of an individual. The pragmatic decree was consid ered irreversible and formed part of the funda mental law of the country. In European his tory the following are the most important prag matic sanctions: (1) The ordinance of Charles VII of France, drawn up at Bourges in 1438, conformably to the decrees of the Council of Basel and on which rest the claims of the Gal lican liberties. It was repealed by Francis I. (2) The instrument published in 1713 by which the German emperor, Charles VI, being without male issue endeavored to secure the succession to his female descendants. It was in accord ance with this instrument that he settled his dominions on his daughter Maria Theresa. He
induced most of the European sovereigns to guarantee it; but Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, the next heir to his dominions, re fused; this caused the Austrian War of Succes sion after the death of the emperor in 1740. In the Peace of Fiissen (1745) Bavaria acknowl edged the pragmatic sanction. (3) Charles III of Spain, when he ceded the throne of Naples to his third son and his successors in 1759, called the law of succession which he prepared for this branch of his family sanctio pragmatica. Con sult Wolf, A., 'Die Geschichte der Pragmatis chen Sanktion bis 1740) (Wien 1850) ; Turba, De Gustav, 'Die Grundlagen der Pragmatischen Sanktion' ( in 'Wiener Staatswissen-Schaft liche Studten,' 'Vol. X, part 2, and Vol. XI, part 1, Leipzig and Wien 1911-12).