War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748): Maria Theresa's Fight

The War of the Austrian Succession was a European war fought from 1740 to 1748 over the right of Maria Theresa to inherit the lands of the Habsburg dynasty. It began when Frederick II of Prussia seized the rich province of Silesia, and it drew in France, Spain, Bavaria, Britain and the Dutch Republic, with fighting from Bohemia to India. Maria Theresa survived and kept most of her realm, but the loss of Silesia set up the next great conflict, the Seven Years’ War.

Background: a daughter’s inheritance

Emperor Charles VI, head of the Habsburg house, had no surviving son. In 1713 he issued the Pragmatic Sanction, a decree allowing all his lands, including Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, to pass undivided to a daughter. He spent the rest of his reign persuading other states to guarantee it, often by making concessions.

When Charles died on 20 October 1740, his 23-year-old daughter Maria Theresa inherited a realm with an empty treasury and a weak army. Women could not be elected Holy Roman Emperor, so the imperial title was also open. Several rulers saw an opportunity, among them Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, who claimed the inheritance through his Habsburg wife.

Prussia seizes Silesia

The first to act was Frederick II of Prussia, who had come to the throne only in May 1740. On 16 December 1740 he marched into Silesia, a prosperous province with around a million inhabitants, with a well-trained army. He offered Maria Theresa support in return for the province; she refused.

On 10 April 1741 the Prussians defeated an Austrian army at Mollwitz. The victory encouraged others to join in. France, led by Cardinal Fleury and pushed by the war party around Marshal Belle-Isle, backed Charles Albert, along with Spain and Saxony. Franco-Bavarian forces invaded Upper Austria and Bohemia and took Prague in November 1741. In January 1742 Charles Albert was elected Emperor Charles VII, the first non-Habsburg emperor in three centuries.

Maria Theresa’s fightback

Maria Theresa turned to Hungary. Crowned queen of Hungary at Pressburg (Bratislava) in June 1741, she appealed in person to the Hungarian Diet that September. In return for concessions, the nobles voted troops for her cause, a scene later turned into a patriotic legend.

The new forces counter-attacked. In early 1742 Austrian troops overran Bavaria and occupied Munich on the very day Charles VII was crowned. To split her enemies, Maria Theresa made peace with Frederick by the treaties of Breslau and Berlin in 1742, giving up most of Silesia. The French were driven out of Bohemia by the end of the year.

Britain, which guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction and feared French power, became Austria’s paymaster and ally. In June 1743 a British, Hanoverian and Austrian army under George II defeated the French at the Battle of Dettingen.

A wider war

Austria’s revival alarmed Frederick, who reopened the conflict in 1744 in the Second Silesian War. He won at Hohenfriedberg in June 1745 and at Soor and Kesselsdorf, and the Treaty of Dresden in December 1745 confirmed his hold on Silesia. In return he recognised Maria Theresa’s husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, who had been elected Emperor Francis I in September 1745 after Charles VII’s death.

France and Britain formally declared war on each other in 1744. In the Austrian Netherlands (roughly modern Belgium) the gifted French commander Maurice de Saxe defeated the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy on 11 May 1745 and then won at Rocoux (1746) and Lauffeld (1747), conquering almost the whole country. France also backed the Jacobite rising of 1745 in Britain, which forced London to recall troops from Flanders.

In Italy the war swung back and forth. Spanish and French armies, supported for a time by Genoa, fought Austrian and Sardinian forces for control of Lombardy and the Italian duchies. An Austrian victory at Piacenza in June 1746 drove the Bourbon armies back, but a popular revolt in Genoa that December expelled the Austrian garrison and forced the Austrians to abandon a brief invasion of Provence.

The war spread overseas. New England colonists captured the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in 1745, in what Americans called King George’s War. In India the French took the British post of Madras in 1746. At sea the Royal Navy gradually gained the upper hand, defeating French squadrons twice off Cape Finisterre in 1747 and disrupting French trade with its colonies.

Key people

• Maria Theresa (1717–1780): archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, whose determination held her realm together.
• Frederick II of Prussia (1712–1786): later called Frederick the Great, whose seizure of Silesia began the war.
• Charles Albert of Bavaria (1697–1745): rival claimant and, as Charles VII, emperor from 1742 until his death.
• Maurice de Saxe (1696–1750): Marshal of France and the war’s most successful general.
• George II (1683–1760): king of Great Britain and elector of Hanover, the last British monarch to lead troops in battle.

Myths and facts

“Maria Theresa won over the Hungarians by showing them her baby son.” The image of the young queen holding the infant Joseph before the Diet became a popular legend and a favourite subject of painters. Contemporary records show she did make an emotional appeal in person, but the nobles’ support was bought with political concessions, and the baby’s role is probably exaggerated.

“The war was only about Silesia.” Silesia was the decisive prize, but the conflict also involved the imperial crown, Bourbon ambitions in Italy, the Anglo-French colonial struggle and Britain’s own War of Jenkins’ Ear with Spain, which had begun in 1739 and merged into the wider war.

The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle

Exhausted, the powers met at Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen), and the main treaty was signed on 18 October 1748. Prussia kept Silesia and the county of Glatz. The Pragmatic Sanction was confirmed, and Maria Theresa kept the rest of her lands, though she ceded the Italian duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla to the Spanish prince Philip, and small territories to Sardinia.

France handed the Austrian Netherlands back. Britain returned Louisbourg, to the anger of New Englanders, and France returned Madras. Many in France felt the country had gained nothing from its victories, and the phrase “bête comme la paix” (“as stupid as the peace”) became popular.

Consequences

The real winner was Prussia, which emerged as a great power with one of Europe’s richest provinces. Maria Theresa used the peace to reform her army, taxes and administration, determined to recover Silesia. Her adviser Kaunitz, later chancellor, began to look for an alliance with France, Austria’s old enemy.

In North America and India nothing was settled, and clashes between British and French colonists resumed within a few years. Together these tensions produced the reversal of alliances of 1756 and the Seven Years’ War.

Timeline

• 1740, 20 October: Emperor Charles VI dies; Maria Theresa inherits the Habsburg lands.
• 1740, 16 December: Frederick II invades Silesia.
• 1741, 10 April: Prussian victory at Mollwitz.
• 1741, September: Maria Theresa appeals to the Hungarian Diet at Pressburg.
• 1742, January–June: Charles Albert elected emperor; peace of Breslau gives Prussia most of Silesia.
• 1743, 27 June: George II defeats the French at Dettingen.
• 1745, 11 May: French victory over the allies at Fontenoy.
• 1745, 25 December: Treaty of Dresden ends the Second Silesian War.
• 1748, 18 October: Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle ends the war.

Why it matters

The War of the Austrian Succession turned Prussia into a great power, confirmed Maria Theresa as one of the century’s most capable rulers and created the Austro-Prussian rivalry that dominated Germany for over a hundred years. Its unfinished business led directly to the Seven Years’ War.