Charles VI
Karl VI.
Holy Roman Emperor · King of Bohemia · King of Hungary · Archduke of Austria · Charles III of Spain (claimed)
1685 – 1740
Biography
Spent twelve years in Madrid as the allied claimant to the Spanish throne before inheriting Austria on his brother's death. The rest of his reign was consumed by negotiating the Pragmatic Sanction — the diplomatic act by which the European powers acknowledged his daughter Maria Theresa as his heir to all Habsburg lands. He was the last Habsburg male in the senior line; on his death the houses he had spent his life preserving would be tested by general European war.
Events
Charles VI, last male Habsburg in the senior line, issued an edict on 19 April 1713 declaring that the Habsburg hereditary lands were indivisible and could pass to a female heir if no male existed. He spent the next twenty-seven years securing the recognition of every European court for the eventual succession of his daughter Maria Theresa. Most of those guarantees were violated within months of his death, plunging Europe into the War of the Austrian Succession.
Also there: Maria Theresa
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