Hey everyone,
I was reading something on Wikipedia the other day about the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 where the Holy Roman Emperor was able to change the succession law in the empire to allow Maria Theresa to inherit. The question I have is that it seemed like he had to get approval from like every major power and a lot of minor powers in Europe to make this change. Was that because of the nature of the Holy Roman Empire and it's various electors, or for some other reason?
Hi!
The primary reason why Charles VI needed the support of the major powers in Europe within and without of the Holy Roman Empire for the Pragmatic Sanction is because he wanted to avoid a conflict that would stem from those powers contesting his daughter's claims to the throne, which happened anyway.
Some context: Aside from the elective monarchy, the Holy Roman Empire, and certain sub-realms within post 1356, claimed its traditions from Salic Law, whose longest-lasting impact by this time was male-only or agnatic primogeniture which meant explicitly said that only males could inherit titles. Since Charles VI didn’t have any sons, so he had the Pragmatic Sanction created to ensure that the vast Habsburg dominions would be inherited by his daughter Maria Theresa (and preclude her nieces' succession as per a previous treaty called the Mutual Pact of Succession) and wouldn’t be divided up like what happened to their ancestor Charles V.
However, despite the massive price exacted from his attempts to have the other powers of Europe recognize the Pragmatic sanction, it would ultimately all be in vain, since Maria Theresa had to use the force of arms to defend her right to the Habsburg dominions from France, Prussia and Bavaria in the War of Austrian Succession. [1]
Sources:
[1] Anderson, Matthew Smith. The War of the Austrian Succession 1740–1748 pp 7-9