artillery,
fell into the hands of the conqueror. So signal was the victory, that
the disheartened Turks made no attempt to retrieve their loss. Belgrade
was surrendered to the Austrians, and the sultan implored peace. The
articles were signed in Passarovitz, a small town of Servia, in July,
1718. By this treaty the emperor added Belgrade to his dominions, and
also a large part of Wallachia and Servia.

Austria and Spain were still in heart at war, as the emperor claimed the
crown of Spain, and was only delaying active hostilities until he could
dispose of his more immediate foes. Charles, soon after the death of his
cousin, the Portuguese princess, with whom he had formed a matrimonial
engagement, married Elizabeth Christina, a princess of Brunswick. The
imperial family now consisted of three daughters, Maria Theresa, Maria
Anne and Maria Amelia. It will be remembered that by the family compact
established by Leopold, the succession was entailed upon Charles in
preference to the daughters of Joseph, in case Joseph should die without
male issue. But should Charles die without male issue, the crown was to
revert to the daughters of Joseph in preference to those of Charles. The
emperor, having three daughters and no sons, with natural parental
partiality, but unjustly, and with great want of magnanimity, was
anxious to deprive the daughters of Joseph of their rights, that he
might secure the crown for his own daughters. He accordingly issued a
decree reversing this contract, and settling the right of succession
first upon his daughters, should he die without sons, then upon the
daughters of Joseph, one of whom had married the Elector of Saxony and
the other the Elector of Bavaria. After them he declared his sister, who
had married the King of Portugal, and then his other sisters, the
daughters of Leopold, to be in the line of succession. This new law of
succession Charles issued under the name of the Pragmatic Sanction. He
compelled his nieces, the daughters of Joseph, to give their assent to
this Sanction, and then, for the remainder of his reign, made the
greatest efforts to induce all the powers of Europe to acknowledge its
validity.

Charles VI. was now, as to the extent of territory over which he reigned
and the population subject to his sway, decidedly the most powerful
monarch in Christendom. Three hundred princes of the German empire
acknowledged him as their elected sovereign. By hereditary right he
claimed dom