Pragmatic Sanction of 1713

[1] Charles VI was indeed ultimately succeeded by his own firstborn child Maria Theresa, who was born four years after the signing of the Sanction.

However, despite the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction, her accession in 1740 resulted in the outbreak of the War of the Austrian Succession as Charles Albert of Bavaria, backed by France, contested her inheritance.

The Pragmatic Sanction was the first such document to be publicly announced and so required formal acceptance by the estates of the realms affected.

[3] For 10 years, Charles VI labored, with the support of his closest advisor, Johann Christoph von Bartenstein, to have his sanction accepted by the courts of Europe.

The Emperor-King agreed that if the Habsburg male line became extinct, Hungary would once again have an elective monarchy; the same was the rule in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Subsequently, the empress made significant contributions to Croatian matters by making several changes in the administrative control of the Military Frontier, the feudal and tax system.