The New International Encyclopædia/Succession Wars

​SUCCESSION WARS. The name given to wars arising out of conflicting claims of succession to the throne. Among such wars that have been waged in Europe the following deserve special notice: (1) The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701–14; (2) that of the Polish Succession, 1733–35; (3) that of the Austrian Succession, 1740–48; and (4) that of the Bavarian Succession, 1778–79.

The War of the Spanish Succession arose on the death without male heirs of Charles II. (q.v.), King of Spain, of the House of Hapsburg, November 1, 1700. The nearest natural heir to the throne was of the royal Bourbon line of France, Charles’s elder sister having married Louis XIV.; but, to prevent any possible union of the two crowns, a solemn renunciation had been exacted both from Louis and his Queen, for themselves and their heirs. Failing the Bourbons, the next heirs were the descendants of the younger sister of Charles, who had married the German Emperor Leopold I., ruler of the Austrian realm, and from whom no renunciation had been exacted; and the only issue being a daughter, who had married the Elector of Bavaria, and borne a son, Joseph Ferdinand, this prince was during his lifetime regarded both by Charles II. and the Spanish people as the rightful heir. As he died in 1699, the question of succession was reopened. Louis XIV. claimed the throne for himself, as the son of Philip IV.'s eldest sister, being, however, again legally barred here by another solemn renunciation. The Emperor Leopold maintained that the Bourbons had by these two renunciations lost all rights of succession, ​and he claimed the throne as the son of Philip IV.’s younger sister. (See genealogical table, The Hapsburg Family, under Hapsburg.) Leopold handed over his claim to his second son, the Archduke Charles. The Austrian party at first preponderated in Spain; but Louis succeeded in undermining the Austrian influence, and his grandson, Philip of Anjou, was declared the heir (October 2, 1700). On the death of King Charles, Philip appeared in Spain and was recognized as monarch. The Emperor Leopold at once took up arms and sent an army into Italy under Prince Eugene, who defeated the French general Villeroi at Chiari on September 1, 1701. William III., regarding the union of France and Spain under the Bourbons as a menace to the naval interests of England and Holland, and stirred up by the action of Louis XIV. in recognizing the Pretender, James Edward Stuart, determined to revive the Grand Alliance against France, and entered into a coalition with Austria and her allies in the German Empire, including Prussia. Savoy, Bavaria, and some of the other German States joined the Bourbons. William’s policy was continued by Queen Anne, who succeeded to the English throne in March, 1702, and immediately declared war.

In 1702 Churchill (the future Marlborough), at the head of an English-Dutch-German army, made a victorious advance against the French in the Spanish Netherlands; while a German army under the Margrave of Baden crossed the Rhine and encountered Villars, who proved too powerful for him. In Italy, Prince Eugene, after taking Villeroi prisoner at Cremona (January, 1702), was checked by Vendôme. In 1703 Marlborough gained fresh successes and the Duke of Savoy joined the Grand Alliance. The first great blow was struck on August 13, 1704, when the combined Austrian-German-British army under Marlborough and Prince Eugene totally defeated the French and the Bavarians under Tallard at Blenheim (q.v.). A few days before Gibraltar had fallen into the hands of the English. The campaigns of Marlborough in Germany and of Eugene in Italy in 1705, while successful, were not very important. In 1706 Marlborough suddenly attacked the French and Bavarians under Villeroi at Ramillies (q.v.), and routed them with great slaughter. The victory of Eugene over Marsin at Turin in the same year shattered the French power in Italy.

In the meanwhile in 1704 the Archduke Charles landed at Lisbon with a British and Dutch army and invaded Spain. In the following year the Earl of Peterborough and Sir Clowdisley Shovell landed with a small body of troops in Catalonia. Then, attacked from both east and west, the Bourbon forces were beaten and driven across the Pyrenees. After the departure of Peterborough, however, the Bourbon commander, the Duke of Berwick (q.v.), made head against his antagonists, and by his victory at Almanza (April 25, 1707) he recovered the whole of Spain except Catalonia. In the Netherlands Marlborough and Prince Eugene fell upon Vendôme’s army at Oudenarde (1708) and inflicted upon it a severe defeat. The capture of Lille, Ghent, and Bruges followed. France now began to show symptoms of exhaustion, and made overtures of peace, but the demands of the allies were of so exorbitant a character that Louis XIV. preferred to continue the war. The French under Villars suffered another great defeat in September, 1709, at the hands of Marlborough and Prince Eugene at Malplaquet (q.v.). The death of the Emperor, Joseph I., the successor of Leopold I. (April 17, 1711), and the accession in the Austrian dominions and in the German Empire of his brother, Charles VI., came to the rescue of France, for England became immediately lukewarm in support of a cause the success of which would result in the union of Austria and Spain; and the English Tories having come into power, England concluded an armistice with France in 1712. Prince Eugene still carried on the war, aided by Holland, but was compelled to give way; and in the following spring (1713) Holland, Prussia, and Savoy joined England as parties to the Peace of Utrecht (q.v.). The Emperor Charles VI. found himself forced to conclude a treaty of peace at Rastatt, March 7, 1714, and later on the more formal treaty of Baden (in Aargau), September 7, 1714, ended the struggle, leaving Philip in possession of the Spanish throne, but with the provision that the crowns of France and Spain should never be united in the same person, while Austria obtained the Spanish Netherlands, the former Duchy of Milan, Naples, and Sardinia. Sicily was awarded to Savoy, which exchanged it for Sardinia. Gibraltar and Minorca were ceded to England, which acquired Arcadia from France. The conflict waged between the English and French in America as part of the War of the Spanish Succession is known as Queen Anne’s War.

Consult: Stanhope (Lord Mahon), History of the War of the Succession in Spain (London, 1836); Coxe, Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon (ib., 1813); Von Noorden, Europäische Geschichte im 18ten Jahrhundert, “Der spanische Erbfolgekrieg” (Düsseldorf, 1874–83), perhaps the best work on the subject. See Louis XIV.

The War Of The Polish Succession. In 1733 Augustus II. of Poland and Saxony died and Stanislas Leszczynski (q.v.), whose daughter had married Louis XV. of France, was elected King by the Diet through French influence. Some of the nobles, however, were determined that the crown should pass to Augustus (Frederick Augustus II. of Saxony), son of the late King. Russia and Austria supported Augustus and a Russian army placed him on the throne. Stanislas withdrew to the fortress of Danzig, where he held out until June, 1734. France, in retaliation for Austria’s support of Augustus III., declared war on the Emperor. The French forces invaded Lorraine and fought successfully on the Rhine (1733–34). Charles Emmanuel III. of Sardinia took up arms against Austria, and in 1734 Don Carlos, son of Philip V. of Spain, seized the opportunity to undertake the conquest of the Two Sicilies, which had been wrested from Spain in the War of the Spanish Succession. The Austrians were overthrown at Bitonto on May 25, 1734, and in 1735 Don Carlos was crowned King of the Two Sicilies. By the preliminaries of Vienna (October 3, 1735), Austria relinquished the possession of these regions. Augustus III. was recognized as King of Poland, though Stanislas retained the royal title and was given for his life the duchies of Lorraine and Bar, which ​were afterwards to revert to France. Francis Stephen, the dispossessed Duke of Lorraine, received the Grand Duchy of Tuscany as compensation. France lent its guarantee to the Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.) and Parma and Piacenza were handed over to the Emperor by Don Carlos. The definitive Peace of Vienna was not signed till 1738.

The War of the Austrian Succession. This struggle arose after the death of the Emperor Charles VI. (q.v.), in 1740. In accordance with the Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.) Charles VI.'s daughter and heiress, Maria Theresa, had received assurances of support from most of the European powers, but hardly had she ascended the Austrian throne when she found her dominion contested on every side. Frederick the Great of Prussia reasserted an old claim and invaded and seized Silesia. Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, claimed to be the rightful heir to the Hapsburg possessions as a descendant through the female line of Ferdinand I., and in virtue of old arrangements. Augustus III. of Saxony and Poland put forward his claims as the husband of the eldest daughter of the Emperor Joseph I. The Bourbon courts of France and Spain seized the opportunity to make war upon Austria. England thereupon entered into an alliance with Maria Theresa. Charles Emmanuel III. of Sardinia was also among the princes who sought the dismemberment of the Austrian realm. Holland joined the Anglo-Austrian Alliance, and the Bourbon King of Naples joined the enemies of Maria Theresa. Some of the minor German princes engaged in the struggle, as allies of Prussia and France. On April 10, 1741, Frederick II. defeated the Austrians at Mollwitz. The Bavarians, the French, under Belleisle, and the Saxons poured into the Austrian dominions. Maria Theresa appealed for support to her Hungarian subjects at the Diet assembled at Pressburg and they responded chivalrously to her call. She was, however, unable to save Prague, which surrendered to Belleisle on November 26, 1741, but at the beginning of 1742 her forces entered upon a victorious campaign against Charles Albert. General Khevenhüller overran Bavaria, and on the very day of the Elector Charles Albert’s coronation as Emperor Charles VII. took Munich (February 12, 1742). On May 17, 1742, Frederick won a victory over the Austrians at Chotusitz, which was followed by the Treaty of Breslau (terminating the first Silesian War) which provided for the cession of most of Silesia to Prussia. The French General Belleisle effected a masterly retreat from Prague.

In May, 1743, Bavaria again fell into the hands of the Austrians. In June the English, under George II., defeated the French at Dettingen. In the same year Saxony and Sardinia were won over to the side of Austria. France and Spain now remained the sole representatives of the coalition. Seeing the tide turn so strongly in favor of Austria, Frederick became alarmed and renewed hostilities in 1744 by an invasion of Bohemia (second Silesian War). In January, 1745, Charles VII. died and his son, Maximilian Joseph, made peace with Austria. On June 4, 1745, Frederick won a victory over the Austrians at Hohenfriedberg, and on December 15th the Prussians defeated the Saxons at Kesselsdorf. Frederick, displeased with the overbearing conduct of France, was willing to make terms with Austria, and the Peace of Dresden (December 25, 1745) between Austria, Saxony, and Prussia terminated the second Silesian War. On September 13, 1745, the husband of Maria Theresa had been elected Emperor as Francis I. In the meanwhile the French were being led to victory in the Austrian Netherlands by Marshal Saxe, who, on May 11, 1745, defeated the English, Hanoverians, Dutch, and Austrians at Fontenoy. One after another the principal towns of the region fell before his attacks, and on October 11, 1746, he won a splendid victory over the allies under Charles of Lorraine at Raucoux. In Italy the war was waged with varying fortune. In 1745 the French were successful. In 1746 the Austrians and Sardinians made a victorious advance, and Genoa, which had joined the enemies of Austria, was occupied. The city, however, had soon to be evacuated, and an attempt to recapture it in 1747 was frustrated by the French. In 1747 Saxe routed the Duke of Cumberland at Laffeld, near Aix-la-Chapelle (July 2d), while his celebrated chief of engineers, Count Löwendal, after a two months’ siege, took Bergen-op-Zoom, a fortress believed by the Dutch to be impregnable. On the sea, however, the English gained victories in 1747 under Admirals Anson and Hawke. At this juncture the Empress Elizabeth of Russia came to the aid of Maria Theresa and sent her forces into the field. France was now willing to listen to proposals of peace. On October 18, 1748, the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle put an end to the war. It left the Hapsburgs in possession of their hereditary dominions, with the exception of Silesia. Parma and Piacenza (acquired in 1735) were handed over by Austria to Don Philip, brother of Ferdinand VI. of Spain. The principal event of the contest waged by the British and French in America (King George’s War) was the taking of Louisburg in 1745. The French held their ground in India.

The War of the Bavarian Succession. The Elector Maximilian Joseph of Bavaria died without issue on December 30, 1777. The natural heir was Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, head of the elder line of the House of Wittelsbach. This prince had no legitimate heirs, and with a view of furthering the interests of his illegitimate children, he had, in January, 1778, entered into a convention with the Emperor Joseph II. (the son of Maria Theresa, sovereign of Austria and Queen of Hungary) by which he agreed to transfer Lower Bavaria to Austria, which put forward an antiquated claim to a part of the Bavarian dominions. Frederick the Great would not consent to such an aggrandizement of Austria in South Germany, the more so as he felt that it might interfere with the claim of Prussia to the succession in the principalities of Ansbach and Bayreuth. As Austria refused to withdraw her pretensions, Frederick proceeded to make war on her, and in the summer of 1778 he invaded Bohemia. He was joined by the Elector of Saxony, who, as the husband of the only daughter of Maximilian Joseph, claimed a portion of the Bavarian inheritance. Maria Theresa and Joseph II. were in no haste to plunge into a war with Prussia, and the Austrian forces confronted the enemy without coming to an ​engagement. The hostile attitude of Catharine II. of Russia toward Austria induced her to give way, and in the Treaty of Teschen, signed on May 13, 1779, she had to content herself with the acquisition of the Innviertel, a district on the east side of the Inn, with the exception of which the whole of the Bavarian inheritance passed to Charles Theodore. The Elector of Saxony received a money indemnity.