Charles VI of Habsburg
Charles VI spent his reign securing his daughter's inheritance and it was repudiated within weeks of his death. Born in 1685, he was the younger son of Leopold I and was the Habsburg candidate for the Spanish throne when Charles II died childless in 1700 — which is what the War of the Spanish Succession was fought over. He spent years in Barcelona as the claimant king, supported by Britain and the Dutch, until his elder brother Joseph died in 1711 and made him emperor. That ended the war. The allies had gone to war to prevent France and Spain uniting and had no intention of letting Spain and Austria unite instead, and made peace at Utrecht leaving the Bourbon in Madrid. Charles never really accepted it and kept the Spanish court ceremonial in Vienna for the rest of his life. He had no surviving son. The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 declared the Habsburg lands indivisible and inheritable by a daughter, and he spent nearly thirty years buying recognition of it — from the estates of every territory, and from Prussia, Britain, France, Spain, Russia, the Dutch and the imperial diet, at the cost of trade concessions, territory and the dissolution of his own Ostend Company. Prince Eugene told him that a full treasury and a strong army would be a better guarantee than any signature. He died in October 1740 after eating mushrooms. Frederick the Great invaded Silesia in December, and almost every signatory joined in. Maria Theresa fought eight years and kept everything but Silesia.
- Lived: 1685 CE – 1740 CE
- Nationality: Austrian
- Roles: emperor, head_of_state, military_leader
