“To the ministers, the Turks seem to be already in Hungary; the Hungarians in insurrection; the Bohemians in open revolt; the Duke of Bavaria, with his army, at the gates of Vienna; and France the soul of all these movements.  The ministers were not only in despair, but that despair even was not capable of rousing them to any desperate exertions.”

Maria Theresa immediately dispatched couriers to inform the northern powers of her accession to the crown, and troops were forwarded to the frontiers to prevent any hostile invasion from Bavaria.  The Duke of Bavaria claimed the Austrian crown in virtue of the will of Ferdinand I., which, he affirmed, devised the crown to his daughters and their descendants in case of the failure of the male line.  As the male line was now extinct, by this decree the scepter would pass to the Duke of Bavaria.  Charles VI. had foreseen this claim, and endeavored to set it aside by the declaration that the clause referred to in the will of Ferdinand I. had reference to legitimate heirs, not male merely, and that, consequently, it did not set aside female descendants.  In proof of this, Maria Theresa had the will exhibited to all the leading officers of state, and to the foreign ambassadors.  It appeared that legitimate heirs was the phrase.  And now the question hinged upon the point, whether females were legitimate heirs.  In some kingdoms of Europe they were; in others they were not.  In Austria the custom had been variable.  Here was a nicely-balanced question, sufficiently momentous to divide Europe, and which might put all the armies of the continent in motion.  There were also other claimants for the crown, but none who could present so plausible a plea as that of the Duke of Bavaria.

Maria Theresa now waited with great anxiety for the reply she should receive from the foreign powers whom she had notified of her accession.  The Duke of Bavaria was equally active and solicitous, and it was quite uncertain whose claim would be supported by the surrounding courts.  The first response came from Prussia.  The king sent his congratulations, and acknowledged the title of Maria Theresa.  This was followed by a letter from Augustus of Poland, containing the same friendly recognition.  Russia then sent in assurances of cordial support.  The King of England returned a friendly answer, promising cooeperation.  All this was cheering.  But France was then the great power on the continent, and could carry with her one half of Europe in almost any cause.  The response was looked for from France with great anxiety.  Day after day, week after week passed, and no response came.  At length the French Secretary of State gave a cautious and merely verbal declaration of the friendly disposition of the French court.  Cardinal Fleury, the illustrious French Secretary of State, was cold, formal and excessively polite.  Maria Theresa at once inferred that France withheld her acknowledgment, merely waiting for a favorable opportunity to recognize the claims of the Duke of Bavaria.