PART Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Princefs of II. Tranfilvania, Arch-Duchefs of Auftria, and fucceffor to all the provinces and hereditary do1740. minions of her illuftrious house. These dominions confifted, of the kingdom of Hungary, the kingdom of Bohemia, the principality of Tranfilvania, the duchy of Silefia, the margraviate of Moravia, the arch-duchy of Auftria, the duchies of Stiria, Carinthia, Sclavonia, Carniola, part of Croatia and Bofnia, with all Morlachia, the county of Tirol, and the bishopric of Trent; in Italy, the duchies of Milan, Mantua, Parma, and Placentia, besides Tuscany, belonging to the grand duke; in Germany, feveral teritories in Suabia; and in the Low Countries, all that belonged there to the Spanish monarchy. If extent of territories, and number of fubjects, alone conftituted power, the po tency of her Hungarian majefty would have been nothing inferior to any monarch in Europe; the area of her dominions being twice as large as that of France, including the conquered provinces, and containing feventeen millions of inhabitants: the forces the late emperor maintained in the year 1728, when there was a profound peace, were 145,000 men, but in the month of October 1733, that number was augmented to 180,000; and to fupport fo great an army, the annual revenue, collected throughout his whole dominions, generally amounted to about nine millions and a half of pounds fterling But though her Hungarian majefty fuc ceeded to fo long a train of magnificent titles, and the actual poffeffion of two potent king doms, and a variety of noble provinces, their wide disjunction rendered them incapable of a mutual fupport; they were ill provided for de feńce, fence, impoverished with continual taxes, and CHAP. liable to litigious claims. I. THE young queen iffued immediate orders for completing all the regiments in her fervice; the 1740. ftates of Hungary, Bohemia, Austria, and the other hereditary provinces, were fummoned to meet; and a few days after, her majesty, by a public act, affociated the grand duke her hufband in the regency. On the 1ft of December the states of Auftria affembled, as did the ftates of Hungary and Bohemia about the fame time; they acknowledged her majefty as their fovereign, and not only granted the neceffary fupplies, but the ftates of Bohemia agreed to lend her majesty 500,000 florins. THE queen difpatched her ambaffadors to the refpective courts of Europe, notifying her acceffion to the throne of Hungary, and the other hereditary dominions of the house of Anftria. France made the most folemn declarations inviolably to preferve the pragmatic fanction; while Saxony, Pruffia and Hanover, promised to fupport it, not only with their intereft, but if neceffary, by the troops of their electoral dominions: though the Elector of Bavaria returned her majefty's letters of notification unopened, and declared his refolution of difputing the fucceffion, by his ambaffador, to all the minifters then refiding at Vienna; and for this purpose, to his former claims, he now fet up another to the whole of her Hungarian majefty's dominions, under the will of Ferdinand I. With this view, the elector alledged, in a memorial prefented in November 1740, by his minifter at the court of Vienna, That Ferdinand, being then King of the Romans, in 1546, having married his daughter Anne to Duke Albert, A a 2 • fon PART fon of Duke William of Bavaria, a claufe was inferted in the marriage contract,'« That "the Arch-Duchefs Anne, in confideration of 1740. her dowry, fhould renounce all paternal and "maternal inheritance with this referve; that "if the male defcendants of the houfe of Auf"tria, not only thofe of her father Ferdinand, but alfo of his brother the Emperor Charles V. "fhould fail, and the fucceffion devolve to the daughter, the faid Arch-Duchefs Anne; and "her heirs, fhould be admitted to inherit all "that they might pretend to, as well in regard to the kingdom of Hungary and the provinces • 66 depending on it, as in regard to the princi-. "palities and dominions of the houfe of Auftria." And that by a claufe in the will of the Emperor Ferdinand he declares,' "That if his "wife, and all his fons, fhould die without lawful iffue, one of his daughters fhould fucceed in quality of lawful heiress to the kingdoms "of Hungary and Bohemia;" < And by a codicil annexed to the will the 4th of Febru fary 1547, he confirmed this difpofition, and exprefsly declared, "That in the above case, the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia "fhould be the inheritance of the eldest of his daughters, who fhould then be living." And the elector infifted, that Ferdinand did not thereby intend, that in cafe of failure of the males, his daughter the Princess Anne, who by the death of her fifter Elizabeth was then the eldeft, as fhe likewife was at the death of her father, fhould be put behind the last arch-ducheffes born at that time, and who might be ftill Jiving when the fucceffion fhould lie open; wherefore he reserved to that princess, by the marriage contract, her hereditary right and pretenfions, as as likewise to her heirs and defcendants, which CHAP. put the matter entirely out of difpute. Το · I. make his title the more demonftrable, the elector alfo cited another article of the will, where it is 1740. faid, "That in cafe the Emperor Charles V. "should also die without male iffue, or that af"ter his death his male heirs fhould become ex"tinct; the Auftrian dominions fhould devolve "to, and be inherited by, those who had a " right to them." And infers that it did not appear how this could be applied to any but the Princess Anne, who was called to the fucceffion not only by her right of feniority, but alfo by the reverfion ftipulated in her marriage contract: alledging that the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia having been brought by Ferdinand into the house of Auftria, he was confequently the first acquirer, and to him belonged the right and power of difpofal of them; this he did in favour of his eldest daughter, married into the house of Bavaria, and her lawful defcendants; from that eldest daughter the house of Bavaria descends in a direct and uninterrupted line; and the elector infifted, that the right of this houfe became indifputable, when it was confidered. that Ferdinand I. firmly infifted on the order of primogeniture eftablished in regard to the fucceffion of the male defcendants, and that he followed the fame order in cafe the fucceffion fhould devolve to the females. THIS memorial was accompanied with a protest by the Bavarian minifter, importing "That "the Elector of Bavaria, in conjunction with "fome other states of the Empire, had demonf"trated how attentive he had been to maintain "his rights fince the guarantee of the pragmatic fanction; and that his electoral highness 66 PART being conftant to his principles, thought himII. "felf obliged to neglect no opportunity, to fe"cure himself and his family against the preju1740.dices that might refult from the acceptance of the faid guaranty; and as the arch-duchefs had "challenged to herself the poffeffion of all the "kingdoms and dominions of the Auftrian fuc"ceffion, the elector found himself indifpenfa 66 66 66 bly obliged to proteft in the most folemn "manner, against the order of fucceffion eftablifhed by the pragmatic fanction, fo premature, illegal, and prejudicial to his rights; referving to himself, without any restriction, "the maintenance of the faid rights, and those "of his family." And on the delivery of this memorial and proteft, the Bavarian minifter, without taking leave, abruptly departed from the court of Vienna. THE Queen of Hungary being thus fenfibly attacked in her legal fucceffion; to vindicate her right, communicated by her minifters to the diet, and foreign courts, a declaration in anfwer to the above memorial, whereby to invalidate the elector's pretenfions, "That the eldest daughter of Ferdinand, and her defcendants, ought to fucceed immediately on failure of "the iffue male of the house of Auftria;" her majefty declared, fuch a claufe was fo far from being mentioned in the will of the faid emperor, that, quite the contrary, it fays" That the eldest ઃઃ daughter of the Emperor Ferdinand I. who "fhould be then alive, fhould fucceed to the "two kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, "with a preference when there were no de"fcendants living from her three brothers; and that her majefty, as eldest daughter of the laft furvivor of the males, ought to have the preference |