War of the Polish Succession

War of the Polish Succession, (1733–38), general European conflict waged ostensibly to determine the successor of the king of Poland, Augustus II the Strong. The rivalry between two candidates for the kingdom of Poland was taken as the pretext for hostilities by governments whose real quarrels with each other had in fact very little connection with Polish affairs. The war resulted mainly in a redistribution of Italian territory and an increase in Russian influence over Polish affairs.

After Augustus died (Feb. 1, 1733), Austria and Russia supported the election of his son Frederick Augustus II of Saxony as king of Poland. Most Poles, however, preferred Stanisław I Leszczyński, who had been their king (1704–09) when the Swedes had temporarily forced Augustus II to be deposed and who also had become connected to France via the marriage of his daughter Marie to King Louis XV. France and Spain both opposed the Austro-Russian position and supported Leszczyński, who was elected king of Poland by a sejm (Diet) of 12,000 delegates in Warsaw on Sept. 12, 1733. But when a Russian army of 30,000 approached Warsaw, Leszczyński fled to Gdańsk, and another sejm of 3,000 delegates named Frederick Augustus as Poland’s new king, Augustus III (Oct. 5, 1733). France consequently formed anti-Habsburg alliances with Sardinia-Savoy (September 26) and Spain (November 7) and declared war on Austria (October 10).

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A History of War

Don Carlos, the Spanish infante, led a Spanish army of 40,000 across Tuscany and the Papal States to Naples, defeated the Austrians at Bitonto (May 25, 1734), conquered Sicily, and was crowned king of Naples and Sicily as Charles III. The French, however, after overrunning Lorraine, were effectively checked in southern Germany by Austria’s prince Eugene of Savoy. Furthermore, the French and Savoyard forces that invaded Lombardy were unable to take Mantua, and the small French contingent sent by sea to relieve the Russian siege of Gdańsk was ineffective. Gdańsk fell in June 1734.

Leszczyński escaped to Prussia, and to support him the Poles organized the Confederation of Dzików (November 1734), which, however, failed to defeat the Russians and Augustus. Furthermore, dissension between the Spaniards and the Savoyards made the Italian campaign of 1735 inconclusive; and, because the French feared that the British and the Dutch would enter the war as Austria’s allies, France signed a preliminary peace with Austria (Peace of Vienna; Oct. 3, 1735). It provided for Augustus to remain king of Poland. In addition, Don Carlos was to retain Naples-Sicily but had to give Austria both Parma and Piacenza, which he had inherited in 1731, and to renounce his claims to Tuscany. Sardinia-Savoy also acquired Novara and Tortona from Lombardy, which remained a Habsburg possession. Following the settlement, Leszczyński renounced the crown (Jan. 26, 1736), and the Dzików Confederation recognized Augustus as king (July 1736).

On Nov. 18, 1738, France and Austria signed the final Treaty of Vienna, in which the provisions of the preliminary agreement were confirmed and in which France also conditionally guaranteed the Pragmatic Sanction, by which Holy Roman emperor Charles VI named his daughter, the Austrian archduchess Maria Theresa, as the heiress to his Habsburg lands. The other outstanding belligerents acceded to the peace in 1739.