120 LA GUERRA DI SUCCESSIONE AUSTRIACA: IL NUOVO IMPERATORE CARLO VII DI BAVIERA - V.IV - ST MODERNA

On January 24, 1742, in the Römer in Frankfurt, delegates of the Electors of the Holy Roman Empire chose Charles Albert of Bavaria as the new King of the Romans. From that moment, pending his coronation on February 12, the Bavarian prince could begin using the name Charles VII. For the first time in more than three centuries, the imperial crown broke away from Habsburg continuity. It seemed like the triumph of the project constructed by Charles Albert, French diplomacy, and especially Belle-Isle, who had been working for months within the German courts, amidst pressure, promises, money, family alliances, and legal manipulation. Maria Theresa's Bohemian vote was blocked, Francis Stephen of Lorraine's candidacy was neutralized, and the Empire, at least formally, was wrested from the Habsburgs. But on the very day of success, the real picture was far more fragile than the ceremony suggested. While voting was taking place in Frankfurt, some five hundred kilometers away, Linz fell into the hands of Khevenhüller's Austrians. Upper Austria, which just months earlier seemed to be the gateway to Franco-Bavarian victory on the way to Vienna, became the site of Maria Theresa's first major military reaction. Charles Albert obtained the imperial crown while losing control of the line that was supposed to protect Bavaria. In this lesson, we will explore how January 24th came about: the workings of the imperial election, the problem of the Bohemian vote, the diplomatic work of Belle-Isle, the pressure on the electors, the role of France, Saxony, Prussia, the Palatinate, and the ecclesiastical electors. But we will also follow what happened on the ground: the defense of Linz, the contradictory decisions of Ségur, Minutzi, and Charles Albert, the Austrian advance on the Danube, and the way Frederick II and Augustus III exploited the crisis to focus on Moravia rather than saving their Bavarian ally. The result is one of the most paradoxical scenes of the War of the Austrian Succession: a man becomes emperor at the exact moment when his political and military base begins to crumble.