CHARLES VI. of Germany, born in 1685, was the son of the Emperor Leopold I. Charles II. of Spain, the last offspriug of the Spanish branch of the house of Austria, being childless, Leopold claimed the inheritance of the crown of Spain for one of his children, as next of blood. He fixed upon his younger son, the Archduke Charles, as the presumptive heir, aud king Charles confirmed the choice by his will ; but the intrigues of Louis XIV. and his friends at the court of Spain made the king alter his will before his death in favour of Philip of Anjou, whose grandmother was daughter to Philip IV. of Spain and sister to Charles II. This gave rise to the long war of the Spanish succession, in which most of the other European powers took part. After the death of Charles II. in November 1700, Philip of Anjou was proclaimed under the name of Philip V., but the emperor, England, Holland, and Portugal supported the claims of the Archduke Charles, who lauded at Lisbon in March 1704 with some English and Dutch troops, and was assisted by the Portuguese. Cetalonla and Aragon declared themselves for Charles, who entered Madrid in 170d, and was there proclaimed king of Spain. The Duke of Berwick however drove bins away from the capital, and aeries retired Into Valencia. The battle of Alumnae, in April 1707, decided the question in favour of Philip. The war continued for several years more In the easternproeinoss of Spain, as well as in Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands, till 1714, when Charles, who in 1711 had elacceoded his elder brother Joseph I. on the imperial throne, rave up his claims to the Spanish crown by the treaty of ilastadt, retaining however the kingdom of Nelda. and the Island of Serdinia, which last he afterwards exchanged for Sicily. In 1716 the Emperor Charles joined the Venetians in a war against the Turks, whom the Prise Eugene defeated at l'etcrenuadin, after which he took Belgrade and a ;teat part of Servie, which, as well as Temeswar, were formally ceded by the Ports to Austria by the treaty of Pasaarowitz In 1718, but were afterwards lost again to Austria by the peace of Belgrade in 1739.
In 1724 Charles Issued the Pragmatic Sanction, or fundamental law, which regulate* the order of succession in the family of Austria. By this law, in default of male Sue, Charles's eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, was called to the inheritance of the Austrian dominions, and her childroo and demendante after her. The Pragmatic Sanction was guaranteed by aU the German princes and several of the other powers of Europe, with the exception of the French and Spanish Bourbons, who were always jades of the power of Austria.
The death of Augustus 11., king of Poland, In February 1733, was the signal of a new war on the part of the Bourbon. against Austria, ostensibly on account of the NIA succession, which was disputed between An III. II and Stanislaue Leczineki. By tho peace of Vienna In la somber 1735 the emperor gave up Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos, Infante of Spain, while the succession of Tuscany, after the death of Clan Castes, the last of the Medici, who was childless, was secured to Maria Theresa of Austria and her husband Francis of Lorraine, who in 1739 took possession of that fine country. The Emperor Charles died at Vienna, 20th of October 1740, and was se ceeded in his hereditary dominions, and afterwards in the empire, by his daughter Maria Theresa, after a long and memorable war known by the name of the war of the Austrian succession. (Maus THERrse.] Charism was the last male offspring of the house of Austria Hapsburg. The present homes, though frequently called the house of Hapsburg, is AustzisLorratne, being the descendants of Maria Theresa and Francis of Lorraine.