However, it also modified the 1703 agreement by placing the rights of his own children first and after his first child Maria Theresa was born in 1717, Charles' internal and external policy was dominated by ensuring her succession ahead of his two nieces.

Charles assumed the rivalry between Saxony and Bavaria would secure his daughter's throne, since neither would be prepared to allow the other to inherit, but instead he gave his two greatest rivals a claim to the Habsburg lands.

The situation was compounded by a failure to prepare Maria Theresa for her new role, and many European statesmen were skeptical Austria could survive the contest that would follow Charles' death, which finally came about in October 1740.

[31] In under two weeks Prussia had occupied most of the richest province in the Holy Roman Empire, containing a population of over one million, and the commercial centre of Breslau along with mining, weaving and dyeing industries.

[41] While Frederick completed his conquest of Silesia, a French force under Maurice de Saxe took Prague on 26 November 1741, allowing the Bavarian elector, Charles Albert, to be crowned King of Bohemia.

The year ended with Khevenhüller decisively defeating a bigger Franco-Bavarian army at Sankt Pölten and advancing up the Danube towards Linz, while a second column under Johann Bärenklau moved through the Tyrol, towards Munich.

[50] Divided at the top, and their troops weakened by disease, the Franco-Bavarian forces offered limited resistance to the Austrian advance; on 9 May, the Bavarians were defeated outside Simbach, by Charles of Lorraine.

In July, the Russian court discovered an alleged plot to overthrow Empress Elizabeth, and restore three-year old Ivan VI, with his mother Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna as his regent.

[55] Anna Bestuzhev, wife of his brother Mikhail, and her friend Natalia Lopukhina, confessed to the plot after 25 days of torture; they were publicly flogged, and had their tongues removed before being exiled to Siberia.

The year ended with Saxony agreeing a pact of mutual defence with Austria, leaving Prussia isolated, and facing a renewed offensive as Maria Theresa sought to regain Silesia.

When an Austrian army under Prince Charles of Lorraine invaded Alsace in early June, Louis went on the defensive in the Southern Netherlands, and travelled to Metz to meet this threat.

[67] By mid-September, Frederick had captured Prague, Tabor, Budweis and Frauenberg; he now advanced up the river Moldau, hoping to catch the Austrians between his forces, and the Franco-Bavarian army he assumed was in pursuit.

This was offset by similar divisions among their opponents; Charles Emmanuel was reluctant to see the Bourbons expelled from Italy, leaving the Habsburgs as the dominant power, while his territorial ambitions could only be achieved at Austrian expense.

[76] Bavaria's exit allowed France to focus on the Low Countries, which Saxe persuaded Louis XV provided the best opportunity of defeating Britain, whose financial backing was crucial to the Pragmatic Alliance.

He proposed to attack Tournai, a vital link in the trading network for Northern Europe, and strongest of the Dutch Barrier Forts, this forcing the Allies to fight on ground of his own choosing.

[82] After 1745, Germany ceased to be an active military theatre; although Frederick knew Maria Theresa still intended to regain Silesia, both sides needed a period of peace in order to re-organise.

But then the Austrian commander, Prince Lobkowitz took the offensive and drove the Spanish army of the Count de Gages further southward towards the Neapolitan frontier near the small town of Velletri.

A swift march on Piacenza drew the Austrian commander thither and in his absence the allies fell upon and completely defeated the Sardinians at Bassignano on 27 September 1745, a victory which was quickly followed by the capture of Alessandria, Valenza and Casale Monferrato.

[109] At the same time, Maximilian Ulysses Browne with an Austrian corps struck at the allies on the Lower Po, and cut off their communication with the main body of the Gallispan army in Piedmont.

[116] The Dutch, British and Austrians withdrew from Fontenoy in good order but Tournai fell to French forces and through a swift advance, Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges, and Dendermonde soon followed.

[120] The strategic situation, however, failed to change and at Lauffeld on 2 July 1747, Saxe won another victory over a British and Dutch army under the Prince of Waldeck and Cumberland; the French then besieged Maastricht and Bergen op Zoom, which fell in September.

[127] On the other hand, the Treaty confirmed her right to the Monarchy, while the Habsburgs had survived a potentially disastrous crisis, regained the Austrian Netherlands without fighting and made only minor concessions in Italy.

[128] Administrative and financial reforms made it stronger in 1750 than 1740, while its strategic position was strengthened through installing Habsburg allies as rulers of key territories in Northwest Germany, the Rhineland and Northern Italy.

[131] The war confirmed the decline of the Dutch Republic, and the dismantlement of the Barrier fortresses marked the end of its period as a great power; combined with a sense they received little value for the subsidies paid to Maria Theresa, Britain moved to align itself with Prussia, rather than Austria, in order to protect Hanover from French aggression.

However, the conflict between the two companies continued by proxy during the interval before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, with British and French forces fighting on behalf of rival claimants to the thrones of Hyderabad and the Carnatic.

When Vernon had been joined by Sir Chaloner Ogle with massive naval reinforcements and a strong body of troops, an attack was made on Cartagena de Indias in what is now Colombia (9 March – 24 April 1741).

The utter weakness of the French at sea, due to long neglect of the fleet and the bankrupt state of the treasury, was shown during the Jacobite rising of 1745, when France made no attempt to profit by the distress of the British government.

[136] In 1746, a British combined naval and military expedition to the coast of France—the first of a long series of similar ventures which in the end were derided as "breaking windows with guineas"—was carried out during August and October.

In the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre which followed, the French admiral, Henri-François des Herbiers, Marquis de l'Estenduère, succeeded in covering the escape of most of the merchant ships, but Hawke's British squadron took six of his warships.

[138] Strategic warfare in this period centred around control of key fortifications positioned so as to command the surrounding regions and roads, with lengthy sieges a common feature of armed conflict.