Page:Bohemia An Historical Sketch.djvu/339

 Imperial Diet became known as the "pragmatic sanction." Charles VI, who had also obtained the recognition of the pragmatic sanction by all European powers, was at the moment of his death, in 1740, justified in believing that he had assured the succession to his daughter Maria Theresa, who had married Francis, Duke of Lorraine, and afterwards Grand Duke of Tuscany.

The Electors of Saxony and Bavaria, however, who had both married daughters of the Emperor Joseph I, immediately refused to recognize Maria Theresa as Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. They were, in accordance with the traditional Bourbon policy, strongly supported by France, which believed that the extinction of the male line of the house of Habsburg would inevitably be followed by the complete ruin of that dynasty. The court of Spain, closely connected by relationship with that of France, also opposed Maria Theresa, who found in England her only ally. A considerable time was, however, required before these numerous countries, whose interests were in so many respects antagonistic, could determine on a joint action. Only one prince, acting quite independently, decided to strike immediately, and he alone eventually obtained great and permanent advantages by means of the Austrian war of succession.

Frederick II, King of Prussia, ascended the throne a very short time before the death of Charles VI, and—as he tells us in his Histoire de mon temps—he immediately determined to seize the opportunity which presented itself. Prussia had long coveted some parts of the lands of the Bohemian crown. A prince who, like Frederick, repeatedly expressed his contempt for the German language in very strong words could find no objection to the acquisition of lands in which a large part of the population did not speak the language. The Prussian sovereigns had to a certain extent favoured the Bohemian exiles who sought refuge in their state, and Bohemian books were printed at Berlin, at a time when it would have been impossible to do so at Prague. These facts had not been forgotten, and Frederick