The imperial election of 1745 was an
imperial election
The election of a Holy Roman Emperor was generally a two-stage process whereby, from at least the 13th century, the King of the Romans was elected by a small body of the greatest princes of the Empire, the prince-electors. This was then followed ...
held to select the
emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire. It took place in
Frankfurt on September 13.
Background
War of the Austrian Succession
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
, house = Habsburg
, spouse =
, issue =
, issue-link = #Children
, issue-pipe =
, father = Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
, mother = Eleonore Magdalene of Neuburg
, birth_date ...
died on October 20, 1740. His daughter
Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (german: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position ''suo jure'' (in her own right). ...
inherited his royal titles in
Austria,
Hungary,
Croatia,
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
,
Transylvania,
Mantua,
Milan, the
Austrian Netherlands and
Parma according to the terms of the
Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.
Although
Prussia had accepted the Pragmatic Sanction, it now repudiated Maria Theresa's inheritance as a violation of
Salic law
The Salic law ( or ; la, Lex salica), also called the was the ancient Frankish civil law code compiled around AD 500 by the first Frankish King, Clovis. The written text is in Latin and contains some of the earliest known instances of Old Du ...
. Its king
Frederick the Great invaded
Silesia on December 16.
France and
Bavaria, whose
elector
Elector may refer to:
* Prince-elector or elector, a member of the electoral college of the Holy Roman Empire, having the function of electing the Holy Roman Emperors
* Elector, a member of an electoral college
** Confederate elector, a member of ...
Charles Albert rejected the Pragmatic Sanction for self-interested reasons, joined Prussia in 1741. Charles Albert's territories in Bavaria were quickly overrun by the Austrian forces of Maria Theresa, but the alliance remained on the attack. On November 26,
Prague was captured and on December 9, Charles Albert crowned himself king of Bohemia. On January 24, 1742, in the
imperial election of 1742, from which Maria Theresa was excluded, he was elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VII.
He died of gout at
Nymphenburg Palace on January 20, 1745, three years before the conclusion of the war.
Election of 1745
The electors called to Frankfurt to choose Charles VII's successor were:
*
Johann Friedrich Karl von Ostein, elector of
Mainz
*
Franz Georg von Schönborn
Franz Georg von Schönborn-Buchheim (15 June 1682 – 18 January 1756) was the Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1729 until 1756, and the Prince-Bishop of Worms and Prince-Provost of Ellwangen from 1732 until 1756.
Biography
Franz Georg was bo ...
, elector of
Trier
*
Clemens August, elector of
Cologne
* Maria Theresa,
queen regnant of Bohemia
*
Maximilian III Joseph
Maximilian III Joseph, "the much beloved", (28 March 1727 – 30 December 1777) was a Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745 to 1777.
Biography
Born in Munich, Maximilian was the eldest son of Holy Roman Empero ...
, elector of
Bavaria
*
Frederick Augustus II
, image = Friedrich August II of Saxony.jpg
, caption = Portrait by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein
, image_size = 220px
, reign = 6 June 1836 – 9 August 1854
, coronation =
, predecessor = Anthony
...
, elector of
Saxony
*
Frederick the Great, elector of
Brandenburg
*
Charles Theodore, elector of the
Palatinate
*
George II of Great Britain, elector of
Hanover
Maria Theresa came to an arrangement with Maximilian III Joseph, Charles VII's son, wherein she would allow his return to Bavaria in exchange for his support, and the support of his uncle Clemens August, of the candidacy of her husband,
Francis of Lorraine
Francis I (Francis Stephen; french: François Étienne; german: Franz Stefan; 8 December 1708 – 18 August 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor, Archduke of Austria, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Grand Duke of Tuscany. He became the ruler of the Holy ...
.
Elected
Francis was elected Emperor Francis I with the support of seven of the electors. Frederick the Great and Charles Theodore, opponents of Maria Theresa in the War of the Austrian Succession, abstained.
[Mack Walker, ''Johann Jakob Moser and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation''. Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1981.]
References
{{Holy Roman Empire elections
1745
Events
January–March
* January 7 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Austrian Army, under the command of Field Marshal Károly József Batthyány, makes a surprise attack at Amberg and the winter quarters of the Bavaria ...
1745 in the Holy Roman Empire
18th-century elections in Europe
Non-partisan elections
Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor