Protestant Union, as King. The States of
Austria and the Hungarians were also refractory.
Matthias died March 30, 1619, and Ferdinand
II. became Roman Emperor. The battle of
Prague (1620) subjected Bohemia to Ferdi-
nand, who suppressed Protestantism there with
a relentless hand. The events of the reign of
Ferdinand II. will be found treated in the article
on the Thirty Years' War. Bohemia's right of
election of its king and its patent of religious
liberty were withdrawn. The war closed (1648)
under Ferdinand's son, Ferdinand III. (1637-
57), a more politic prince and a better financier.
At the peace of Westphalia (1048), Austria had
to cede her possessions in Alsace to France.
Ferdinand III.'s son and successor, Leopold I.,
provoked the Hungarians to rebellion by his
severity. Tökölyi (q.v.) received aid from
the Porte, and Kara Mustapha besieged Vienna
(1683), which was rescued only by an array of
Poles and Germans under John Sobieski and
Charles of Lorraine, who inflicted a crushing de-
feat upon the Turks. In 1687 Leopold I. forced
the Hungarians to make their kingdom heredi-
tary in the Hapsburg family. Prince Eugene
compelled the Porte (1699) to give up the coun-
try between the Danube and Theiss, and, in 1718,
to cede other important territories to Hungary.
At this time also Transylvania became a posses-
sion of the Hapsburgs. On the death of Charles
II., the last of the Hapsburg sovereigns in Spain,
in 1700, the Archduke Charles, second son of
Leopold I., claimed the crown in opposition to
Philip V., grandson of Louis XIV. This led to
the war of the Spanish Succession (q.v.), dur-
ing which Leopold died, May 5, 1705. He was of
sluggish, phlegmatic character, and wholly under
the influence of the Jesuits.
His eldest son and successor, the enlightened Joseph I., continued the war. He died childless, April 17, 1711, and was succeeded by his brother, Charles VI. The peace of Utrecht (1713) se- cured to Austria the Spanish Netherlands, Milan, Mantua, Naples, and Sardinia (exchanged for Sicily in 1720). A curtailment of territory, however, soon ensued. At the peace of Vienna (1735), which ended the War of the Polish Succession, Charles VI. had to give up Naples and Sicily to Don Carlos of Spain, and part of Milan to the King of Sardinia, receiving only Parma and Piacenza instead. He also lost at the peace of Belgrade (1739) a great part of the fruits of Eugene's conquests, giving back to the Porte, Belgrade and the adjoining Servian territories, as well as the parts of Wallachia and Bosnia that had belonged to Aus- tria. The Emperor conceded all these points with a view of securing adhesion to the Prag- matic Sanction (q.v.), conferring the succession on his daughter, Maria Theresa, an object to which his whole policy for years had been di- rected.
With his death (October 20, 1740), the male line of the Hapsburgs was extinct, and Maria Theresa, who was married to Francis, Duke of Lorraine, assmned the government. Counter- claimants appeared, and the War of the Austrian Succession broke out. Frederick II. of Prus- sia took the opportunity to revive an old claim of the Hohenzollerns upon Silesia and to conquer that country. The Elector of Bavaria, who was supported by the power of France (Eng- land taking the part of Austria), assumed the
title of Archduke of Austria, was crowned King of Bohemia at Linz and Prague, and elected Em- peror as Charles VII. (1742). The Hungarians stood loyally by their Queen, who, however, at the peace of Breslau (1742) was forced to yield Silesia to Prussia. Frederick renewed the war in 1744 by coming to the assistance of the Em- peror, whose dominions had been overrun by his enemies. Charles VII. died in January, 1745, and Maria Theresa's husband was elected Roman Emperor as Francis I. A second treaty of peace (1745) confirmed Prussia in the possession of Silesia, and at the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748), Austria had to cede Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Don Philip of Spain. These sacrifices secured the existence of the Austrian monarchy; but Maria Theresa was bent on recov- ering Silesia, and with this view entered into alli- ances with France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden. This forced Prussia and England to act together. At the close of the Seven Years' War (q.v.), Prussia retained Silesia, and Austria had spent her blood and treasure in vain. At the death of Francis (1765), his son, Joseph II., became Emperor, and joint-regent with his mother, of the hereditary States. Collateral branches of the House of Austria were planted by the younger sons of Maria Theresa, the Archduke Leopold of Tuscany and the Archduke Ferdinand, who mar- ried the heiress of Este (see Modena). In the first partition of Poland (1772), Austria ac- quired Galicia and Lodomeria, and Bukowina was ceded by the Porte in 1777. Maria Theresa. died on November 29, 1780. Her administration had been distinguished by unwonted unity and vigor, both in home and foreign relations.
Joseph II., now sole ruler, was an active reformer in the spirit of the enlightened despotism of the times, though often rash and violent in his mode of proceeding. He introduced economy into every department, mitigated the censorship of the press, granted liberties and rights to Protestants, abolished 900 convents, and revised the school system. By a protective system of duties he gave an impulse to native manufactures. But his reforming zeal and passion for uniformity in the diverse countries composing his scattered realm excited opposition; the Netherlands rose in insurrection, and other disturbances broke out, which hastened his end (1790). He was succeeded in the hereditary Hapsburg dominions, as well as in the German Empire, by his brother, Leopold II., who pacified the Netherlands and Hungary. When the progress of the French Revolution had begun to threaten the political stability of Europe, Leopold entered into an alliance with Prussia against the Republican propaganda, but he died March 1, 1792, before the war began. This was declared by his son and successor, Francis, in the same year. (See France.) By the treaty of Campo Formio (1797), Austria lost Lombardy and the Netherlands, but received most of the territory of the extinguished republic of Venice (including Venetian Istria and Dalmatia). The war with France was renewed in 1799, and ended by the peace of Lunéville (1801). In 1804, when Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor of France, Francis declared himself hereditary Emperor of Austria (under the title of Francis I.), uniting all his dominions in one empire. In 1805 Austria engaged in a fresh struggle with Napoleon, who vanquished her forces and those of Russia at Austerlitz, on
