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 298 CHARLES (GEBMANY) entered the war to prevent the accumulation of too great possessions in the hands of the French king, now feared a similar massing of power under the government of Charles ; and after the latter's coronation as emperor, which took place at Frankfort in December, 1711, they began, at first through secret negotiations and afterward openly, to withdraw from his support in the matter of the Spanish crown. Charles at first attempted with some success, with the assistance of Prince Eugene, to carry on the war in the Netherlands ; but when in 1713 his former allies made peace with France by the treaty of Utrecht, and when the princes of the empire during the following year mani- fested the greatest reluctance to give him the aid he needed in his plans, he found himself compelled to yield, and concluded the peace of Rastadt in 1714, abandoning his chief claims, and securing only the Spanish possessions in the Netherlands and Italy. In this way ter- minated the war of the Spanish succession, which for more than 12 years had agitated all western Europe, and had employed the most famous military leaders of the time. In 1715 Charles undertook the defence of the Venetian republic against the Turks, who had declared war against it, and Prince Eugene gained du- ring the campaigns which followed the decisive victories of Peterwardein (Aug. 5, 1716) and Belgrade (Aug. 16, 1717), besides numerous minor successes. In 1718 the war was ended by the peace of Passarowitz, by the terms of which Belgrade, northern Servia, and parts of Slavonia, Bosnia, and Wallachia were added to the imperial dominions. But Charles had only terminated one conflict because he found him- self engaged in another. The Spaniards attack- ed Sicily, and sought to win back the Italian possessions they had conveyed to Charles at Rastadt. In repelling this attempt the empe- ror gained the alliance of England, France, and Holland ; and the war made against these com- bined forces was of short duration. An Eng- lish fleet drove the Spanish troops from Sicily, and after the fall of the Spanish minister Car- dinal Alberoni, to whose schemes the conflict owed its origin, peace was made in 1720. By the death of his only son, Charles had been led to turn his attention to the question of the Austrian succession. Anxious to hand down his realms to his immediate descen- dants, he had in 1713 issued his pragmatic sanction, authorizing the transmission of the powers of his family through the female line, and appointing his daughter Maria Theresa as his successor. The consent of the daughter of his brother Joseph and of the princes of the empire was easily obtained ; but France refused to recognize the new law, as did also Bavaria and Saxony, to the heirs of whose thrones Jo- seph's two daughters were married. To obtain the support of the principal European states in this matter now became one of the chief aims of Charles. His persistent efforts for some years failed to produce any decisive result, but in 1725 he succeeded in gaining the alliance of Spain. A coalition for opposition to his plan was now formed by England, France, Denmark, and Holland ; and when Charles had been successively joined by Russia and Prussia, whose support he purchased by immense sacri- fices of territory and privileges, all the leading powers of Europe stood in two opposing par- ties. A great war seemed imminent, when through the intervention of the pope an ar- rangement was brought about, and signed at Vienna, March 16, 1731, by which, at the cost of still greater concessions on the part of the emperor, the pragmatic sanction was at last recognized by all. Spain's consent was pur- chased by the cession of Tuscany, Parma, and Piacenza ; France was conciliated by the prom- ise of Lorraine ; England and Holland by the abolition of the commercial society of Ostend ; and Augustus II. of Poland and Saxony, by the assurance of the succession to the crown of Poland of his son Augustus III. In accordance with this last promise, Charles, upon the death of Augustus in 1733, declared at once for his descendant ; and in this he was joined by Rus- sia ; but France, Spain, and Sardinia supported the claims of Stanislas Leszczynski, the former king, who still had a strong party in the coun- try of which he had once lost the crown. A new war now broke out ; but Charles was not long able to cope with the great force brought against him. Russia aided him but little ; the French overran and conquered Milan, nearly all Lombardy, and all Lorraine ; the Spaniards possessed themselves of Naples and Sicily ; and in order to secure his end, and give the suc- cession in Poland to Augustus III., at the pre- liminary peace of Vienna, Oct. 3, 1735, he was obliged to permanently abandon all these por- tions of his territory. Equal misfortune attend- ed him in a war which in the next year he declared against the Turks. In the three years of its continuance he lost nearly all the con- quests made in his last conflict with the sultan ; and when, at the solicitation of Maria Theresa, peace was again restored by the treaty of Bel- grade, Sept. 18, 1739, his power was at a lower ebb than ever before; his armies were entirely demoralized ; the finances of the empire were in a state of the greatest possible confusion; and the influence of the Hapsburgs had almost disappeared in the affairs of Europe. CHARLES VII. (Karl Albrecbt), emperor of Ger- many, born in Brussels, Aug. 6, 1697, died in Munich, Jan. 20, 1745. His father was Maxi- milian Emanuel, elector of Bavaria, and gov- ernor of the Spanish Netherlands. Joseph I., having taken possession of the elector's pos- sessions in Bavaria, outlawed him, and de- tained his son as prisoner at Klagenfurt and Gorz, where the young prince, however, en- joyed every advantage of education. Liberated in 1714, after the conclusion of the treaty of peace of Rastadt, Charles Albert was sent as commander of the troops against Turkey in 1716-'18. In 1722 he married a daughter of