anish America. The Emperor was dying; and pledged as
France was to the Pragmatic Sanction few believed she would redeem her
pledge. It had been given indeed with reluctance; even the peace-loving
Fleury had said that France ought to have lost three battles before she
confirmed it. And now that the opportunity had at last come for
finishing the work which Henry the Second had begun, of breaking up the
Empire into a group of powers too weak to resist French aggression, it
was idle to expect her to pass it by. If once the hereditary dominions
of the House of Austria were parted amongst various claimants, if the
dignity of the Emperor was no longer supported by the mass of dominion
which belonged personally to the Hapsburgs, France would be left without
a rival on the Continent. Walpole at once turned to face this revival of
a danger which the Grand Alliance had defeated. Not only the House of
Austria but Russia too was called on to join in a league against the
Bourbons; and Prussia, the German power to which Walpole had leant from
the beginning, was counted on to give an aid as firm as Brandenburg had
given in the older struggle. But the project remained a mere plan when
in October 1740 the death of Charles the Sixth forced on the European
struggle.

[Sidenote: Fall of Walpole.]

The plan of the English Cabinet at once broke down. The new King of
Prussia, Frederick the Second, whom English opinion had hailed as
destined to play the part in the new league which his ancestor had
played in the old, suddenly showed himself the most vigorous assailant
of the House of Hapsburg; and while Frederick claimed Silesia, Bavaria
claimed the Austrian Duchies, which passed with the other hereditary
dominions according to the Pragmatic Sanction to Maria Theresa, or, as
she was now called, the Queen of Hungary. The hour was come for the
Bourbon courts to act. In union with Spain, which aimed at the
annexation of the Milanese, France promised her aid to Prussia and
Bavaria; while Sweden and Sardinia allied themselves to France. In the
summer of 1741 two French armies entered Germany, and the Elector of
Bavaria appeared unopposed before Vienna. Never had the House of Austria
stood in such peril. Its opponents counted on a division of its
dominions. France claimed the Netherlands, Spain the Milanese, Bavaria
the kingdom of Bohemia, Frederick the Second Silesia. Hungary and the
Duchy of Austria alone were left to Maria Theresa. Walpole, thoug