his brother Charles, changed the whole aspect of affairs. The British thought that if Charles became undisputed sovereign of Spain and her dependencies, the very evil of an almost uni versal monarchy would be again established, the prevention of which had been the, chief cause for taking up arms against Philip V. A new Tory ministry unfavorable to Marlborough having come into power, private preliminaries of peace were signed between France and Eng land 8 Oct. 1711. Eugene, however, continued the war aided by the Dutch, and was pushing steadily forward on Paris, but the defeat and capture of the British contingent under the Earl of Albemarle at Denain by Villars (24 July 1712) so weakened his forces that he was compelled to retreat. This defeat greatly modified the views of the Dutch, and the Eng lish government persuaded the States-General to moderate their demands and come to terms with France. On 11 April 1713, the Dutch plenipotentiaries signed a treaty of peace (Peace of Utrecht) with France, their example being immediately followed by Prussia, Savoy and Portugal. Forsaken by all his allies, the Em peror Charles was reluctantly compelled to sign a treaty at Baden, 7 Sept. 1714, in which he recognized Philip V as king of Spain.
War of the Austrian On the extinction of the male line of the house of Hapsburg, by the death of Charles VI (20 Oct. 1740), his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, in terms of the Pragmatic Sanction, (q.v.) claimed the whole of his dominions, and at -once as sumed the government, with the title of Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. The announcement of her accession was answered by England, Russia, Prussia and the States-General with assurances of friendship and good-will. France returned an evasive answer.; Charles Albert, elector of Bavaria, refused to acknowledge the queen of Hungary until his pretensions to the Austrian succession were examined and decided. He appealed to two ancient documents — the marriage contract between Albert V, Duke of Bavaria, and Anne, daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand I, and the testament of that mon arch; and he contended that by these two deeds the succession was assured to Anne and her descendants in default of male heirs, the issue of the archdukes, her brothers. Maria Theresa, however, having called together the foreign ministets at her court, caused the testament to be read before them when it turned out that it spoke not of the extinction of the male issue of Ferdinand's sons, but of their legitimate issue. The first blow against the young queen came not, however, from any claimants of her in heritance, but from a sovereign who had al ready acknowledged her right. This was Frederick II of Prussia, who, in the middle of December 1740, invaded Silesia at the head of 30,000 men, to sustain an old family claim on four duchies in that province. On the condition that Maria Theresa would cede to him all Silesia, he promised a close alliance with him self, in conjunction with the maritime powers arid Russia, his assistance in upholding the Pragmatic Sanction, his vote for her husband as emperor, and an advance of 2,000,000 thalers, but the high-spirited queen, determined not to begin her reign by dismembering her dominions, gave these offers a flat refusal. Owing to an principal among whoth were the electors of Bavaria and Saxony, sons-in-law of the Em peror Joseph I ; Philip V of Spain; Charles Emmanuel of Sardinia, who claimed the Milan ese, and Frederick II of Prussia, who de manded all Silesia. To this formidable coalition Austria could oppose only a few allies. Eng land granted her an annual subsidy equal to $1,500,000; the Dutch were arming in her favor; the mixed population of Hungary and the peasants of the Tyrol rose almost in a mass. Toward the end of June the Bavarians entered the Austrian territory, overran Bohemia, and being joined by the French under Belleisle, oc cupied Lintz, the capital of Upper Austria, without striking a blow. Alarmed by this in vasion Maria Theresa bought the neutrality of her most formidable foe, Prussia, by the ces sion of Silesia and the county of Glatz. On 24 Jan. 1742, the elector of Bavaria was unani mously chosen emperor, with the title of Charles VII, but at the moment when he had attained the object of his ambition his fortune began to turn. Khevenhfiller at the head of one Austrian army, advanced up the valley of the Danube, captured a Franco-Bavarian corps 12,000 strong in Lintz (24 January), invaded Bavaria, and on 13 February took possession of Munich, only a day or two after Charles VII's election to the imperial throne had been celebrated there. Another Austrian army under the grandduke of Tuscany kept the French in check in Bohemia. The successes of Austria alarmed Frederick II for the security of his new acquisitions, and he suddenly broke the treaty, poured his forces upon Moravia and Upper Austria, and defeated the Austrians un der Prince Charles of Lorraine at Czaslau (17 May). But Frederick was not inclined to push his victory further, he once more made peace with Austria (11 June), and his example was followed by the elector of Saxony. In conse quence of these arrangements the French under Belleisle, left without the co-operation of the Saxons, were forced by the maneuvers of Charles of Lorraine to shut themselves up in Prague, where Maillebois, with the French army, was defeated in endeavoring to relieve them. Only 12,000 of the 60,000 men whom Belleisle led into the campaign succeeded in escaping from Prague and making their way into France early in 1743. In the May of that year Bavaria was again occupied by the Aus trians under Prince Charles and Khevenhiiller. An Anglo-German army of 40,000, under the Earl of Stair, crossed the Maas and Rhine in March and April, in order to cut off the Bavarian army from France, and coming up with the French under Marshal Noailles at Dettingen completely routed them (27 June), but did not know how to profit by their victory, and nothing was done during the remainder of the campaign. The year 1744.brings with it a new phase of the war; France and Great Britain, which up till this time had been en gaged in the struggle merely as allies, declared war against each other. In February a descent was attempted on England, but Admiral Norris, aided by a tremendous storm, proved too strong for the French fleet and the English proceeded to destroy gradually the shipping of the French, and that of their allies, the Spaniards. As a compensation Marshal Saxe conducted a splendid defensive campaign in the Netherlands. Meanwhile the successes of Austria on the Rhine, and the ill-concealed regrets of Maria Theresa for the loss of Silesia, again alarmed Frederick for his possession of that province. He accordingly entered into an alliance known as the Union of Frankfort (22 May), with the emperor, the elector palatine, and the king of Sweden, as landgrave of Hesse-Cassel; a secret treaty was also signed with France, 5 June. A Prussian army of 80,000 men was at
once poured into Bohemia, which for a time car ried all before it, capturing the capital Prague after a siege of six days, 16 September. The junction of a superior Austro-Saxon force how ever, and the hostile attitude assumed by the Bohemian population compelled Frederick to quit the kingdom with considerable loss. To avenge this attempt upon Bohemia the Austro Hungarians broke into Upper Silesia and Glatz, from which the Prussians were almost totally expelled before the end of the year; but before the spring of 1745 the territory was again occu pied by the Prussians. Frederick's unsuccessful Invasion of Bohemia had proved of service to the emperor, as it compelled the Austrians to return from Alsace, and thus allowed time to recover his electorate of Bavaria. The Italian campaign of 1744 was unfavorable to the Aus trians. In the preceding year they had driven the Spaniards almost to the Neapolitan fron tiers, and seemed to threaten an invasion of Naples itself. To avert such a catastrophe Don Carlos joined the Spaniards with his forces, and enabled them to drive the Austrians and Sardinians out of the papal territories toward the Po. On 20 Jan. 1745, the Emperor Charles VII died, an unexpected event, which changed the face of affairs. He was succeeded in the Bavarian electorate by his son, Maximilian Joseph, then only 17 years of age. Being too young to make any pretensions to the im perial crown, and the war going so unsuccess fully for his cause, his subjects loudly demanded a termination of their miseries, and he accord ingly concluded a peace with Austria, 22 April. The king of Prussia having now no other ally but France, remained on the defensive for a considerable part of this year. He intrenched himself near lauernik, on the Bohemian fron tier, and awaited the approach of the Austro Saxons. Prince Charles, who commanded them, advanced by Landshut into the plains of Hohenfriedberg, where he was unexpectedly attacked and defeated by Frederick, near Striegau (4 June). Charles retreated into Bohemia followed by the Prussians, and an other battle was fought at Storr, which again went against the Austrians (20 September). About this time the queen of Hungary con ceived the bold plan of detaching 10,000 men from the army of the Rhine, who, supported by the Saxons, were to march upon Berlin; while Prince Charles was to attack the Prus sian king in his winter quarters in Silesia with another army. Hearing of this project, Fred erick determined to anticipate it by an advance into Saxony. About the end of November he entered Lusatia, reduced that province, and marched upon Dresden. The king of Poland (the elector of Saxony) fled to Prague, while Frederick's veteran lieutenant Leopold of Des sau entering Saxony by way of Halle, took Leipzig and Meissen, defeated the Saxon army at Kesseldorf (15 December) and joined the king before Dresden, which capitulated 18 De cember. Maria Theresa was now compelled to listen to the appeals of the elector of Saxony, as well as to the British Cabinet, which threat ened to withdraw its subsidy unless she made peace with Prussia. Frederick was willing to come to terms, feeling that he could not de pend on the assistance of France, and that he was unequal to another campaign, his money being almost exhausted. The Peace of Dres den (25 December) assured him of Silesia and Glatz, the cession of which was guaranteed by England, and of an indemnity of $1,000,000 from Saxony. As elector of Brandenburg Frederick adhered to the election of Maria Theresa's husband as emperor, with the title of Francis I. Meanwhile the French under Mar shal Saxe carried all before them in Flanders. The battle of Fontenoy, gained over the Duke of Cumberland and Field-Marshal Konigseck (11 May), was followed by the capture of Tournai, Ghent, Bruges, Oudenarde, Nieuport and Ath. Little was done on the side of the Rhine. The Italian campaign of this year was unfavorable to the Austrians. The Spanish Neapolitan army, now joined by the Genoese and Modenese, and numbering in all 70,000 men, overran the whole of Lombardy and the greater part of Sardinia, compelling, the king to seek refuge under the walls of his capital; but in the following year (1746) the battle of Piacenza, gained by the Austro-Sardinians over the Franco-Spanish forces (16 June), com pelled the latter to relinquish all their conquests and recross the Alps. On 9 July died Philip V of Spain. and was succeeded by Ferdinand VI, one of whose first steps was to recall his forces from Italy, and the French, unable to hold out against their enemies, retreated across the Var, which left Genoa at the mercy of the Austrians, 6 September. Marshal Saxe continued his career of conquest in Flanders, and in 1747 he entered and overran Dutch Flanders, defeated the Duke of Cumberland at Laffeld (2 July), while his chief engineer, Count Lowendahl, captured, after a siege of two months, the im portant fortress of Bergen-op-Zoom, deemed by the Dutch impregnable. Meanwhile it was evident that the war was drawing to a close. Though great preparations were being made for another campaign, negotiations had been going on during the winter, and a congress had been appointed to meet at Aix-la-Chapelle, whose first conference took place 24 April 1748. Great Britain and Holland were weary of the war; France and Spain were almost exhausted, and preliminaries of peace were signed between these powers (30 April) ; Austria, thus deserted by her allies, grudgingly consented to sign, 18 May; and the definite Treaty of Aix-la Chapelle was signed by the French, English and Dutch Ministers on 18 October, and in a few days after by those of Spain, Austria, Genoa and Modena.
The War of the Bavarian Succession, be tween Austria and Prussia, which lasted but little over one year, ended in the Peace of Teschen, 13 May 1779, the elector palatine Charles Theodore retaining possession of the Bavarian dominions. See AIX-LA-CHAPELLE, TREATIES OF PEACE CONCLUDED AT; AUSTRIA; BAVARIA' FREDERICK II; MARIA THFRVSA ; POLISH SUCCESSION WAR.
Bibliography.— De Vault, (Memoires mili taires relatifs a la succession d'Espagne" (Paris 1835) ; Stanhope, (History of the War of the Succession in
(London 1836); Parnell A.,