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By the end of the 17th century, King Carlos II of Spain was the head of the House of Habsburg. He had no children, and, with no explicit laws of succession governing the House of Habsburg, several possible heirs, including Louis, the Grand Dauphin of France, Maximilian II, the prince of Bavaria, Victor Amadeus II, the duke of Savoy, and Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor.
A succession crisis was clearly looming, and negotiations to avoid it began years before Carlos' death. England and Holland opposed the uniting of the French and Spanish dominions, which would make France the leading world power, while France, England and Holland were united in their opposition to Karl VI's position, which would reunite the Spanish and Austrian branches of the Habsburg family.
By the Treaty of the Hague , also known as the First Partition Treaty , in 1698, Carlos' Habsburg inheritance would be split between his two nephews, with Joseph Ferdinand, prince of Bavaria, son of Maximilian II, getting the larger share, while the dauphin of France, son of Louis XIV of France, obtained Naples and Sicily. Emperor Leopold's younger son Karl was to receive Milan.
The prince of Bavaria, however, unexpectedly died in 1699Events January 26 Treaty of Karlowitz signed March 30 the tenth Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa. May 1 Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville founds the first European settlement in the Mississippi River Valley Births February 17 Georg Wenzeslaus v, and a new arrangement was negotiated between potential claimants in the Treaty of LondonThe Treaty of London agreed in 1700 and sometimes known as the Second Partition Treaty was an attempt to restore the Pragmatic Sanction following the death of Duke Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, which had undermined the First Partition Treaty (the Treaty of, also known as the Second Partition Treaty. It was proposed that the dauphin of France would get NaplesAlternate uses: See Naples (disambiguation Naples ( Italian Napoli Neapolitan Napule from Greek Neapolis/) is the largest town in southern Italy, capital of the region of Campania. The city has a population of about 1 million, and together with its suburb, SicilySicily Sicilia in Italian) is an autonomous region of Italy and the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, with an area of 25,700 sq. 1 million inhabitants. Towns and Cities Sicily's principal cities include the regional capital Palermo, together with t, and TuscanyTuscany ( Italian Toscana is a region in central Italy, bordering on Latium to the south, Umbria to the east, Emilia-Romagna and Liguria to the north, and the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west. It is often regarded as among the most beautiful parts of Italy.; Karl would get SpainThe Kingdom of Spain is a country located in the southwest of Europe. It shares the Iberian Peninsula with Portugal, Gibraltar and Andorra. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. It inc, the Low CountriesThe Low Countries are the countries on low-lying land around the delta of the Rhine and Meuse rivers—usually used in modern context to mean the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg (an alternate modern term, more often used today, is Benelux). They roughly and the Indies, and Leopold, the duke of Lorraine, would take Milan, in turn ceding Lorraine and Bar to the dauphin. The emperor refused this arrangement, as it would divide the Spanish Empire. Carlos' will left all his possessions to the dauphin's second son, Philip, the duke of Anjou. On his death, the will was contested (by force), and a long and costly war involving all of Europe, the War of the Spanish Succession was begun in 1701 and resolved by the peace treaties of Utrecht and Rastatt in 1713.
As the war was in progress, Emperor Leopold tried to establish an explicit law of succession within the Habsburg house. Leopold I, and his two sons Joseph and Karl signed a succession pact (Pactum mutuae successionis) on 12 September 1703.
This pact specified that females could succeed only when all male lines had become extinct, and further specified the priorities of the then living Habsburgs.
Leopold died in 1705, and was succeeded by his son Joseph as Emperor. Joseph died in 1711 leaving two daughters, who were at the time of his death unmarried. He was succeeded as Emperor by Karl VI, who wrote a will specifying an order of succession different from that specified in the Pactum of 1703, giving precedence to his own daughters, moving them ahead of the daughters of his elder brothers in the succession. Because of this conflict a convocation of the Privy Council and the Ministers of the Emperor in Vienna was called, the Pactum was read aloud, and Karl VI's modifications announced. It was this declaration of 19 April 1713 that is called the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.