CARLO VI, IMPERATORE

CARLO VI, EMPEROR. — Born in Vienna on 1 Oct. 1685, died there on 20 Oct. 1740. His name is linked to the War of the Spanish Succession, to the war against the Turks concluded with the Peace of Belgrade in 1739, to the struggle for the Pragmatic Sanction and the diplomatic complications that followed. C. regulated the succession to his States with the Pragmatic Sanction of April 1713; with the death of his eldest son Leopold, the problem became more acute because succession had to pass to his daughter Maria Theresa. The Pragmatic Sanction was proclaimed only in 1724 after approval by the diets of the imperial lands, but it received practical recognition only in 1748 with the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Internally, C.’s reign marked the flourishing of Austrian culture in the broadest sense—religion, art, commerce—and the great residences of Vienna and Prague were renewed in the Baroque splendor that became their hallmark.