Pragmatic sanction, << prag MAT ihk SANGK shuhn, >> was a type of decree concerning church or state matters issued by European rulers. The most famous of these decrees was privately issued by the Habsburg Emperor Charles VI in 1713 and publicly announced in 1724. At that time, German law allowed only male heirs to succeed to the throne. Charles had no sons, but his Pragmatic Sanction allowed females to inherit the Habsburg throne in the absence of male children. It also stated that the Habsburg lands could not be divided.
Several countries recognized this Pragmatic Sanction. But after Charles died without a male heir in 1740, such major powers as France and Spain broke their pledges. They joined several German states in trying to seize most of the Habsburg lands from Charles’s oldest daughter, Maria Theresa. The resulting War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) involved most of Europe.
