Pragmatic sanction

A pragmatic sanction is a sovereign's solemn decree on a matter of primary importance and has the force of fundamental law. In the late history of the Holy Roman Empire it referred more specifically to an edict issued by the Emperor.

When used as a proper noun, not otherwise qualified, it refers to the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, a legal mechanism designed to ensure that the Austrian throne and Habsburg lands would be inherited by Emperor Karl IV's daughter, Maria Theresa.

• The so-called Pragmatic Sanction of St. Louis X, King of France, purporting to have been issued in March 1269, regarding various clerical reforms, was a forgery fabricated in the fourteenth century.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by King Charles VIII of France, on 7 July 1438, required a General Church Council, with authority superior to that of the pope, to be held every ten years, required election rather than appointment to ecclesiastical offices, prohibited the pope from bestowing, and profiting from, benefices, and limited appeals to Rome.

• The German Pragmatic Sanction of 1439, issued by German ruling princes 26 March 1439, accepted some of the decrees of the Council of Basel with modifications. It has been argued that the name Pragmatic Sanction is not properly applied to this document, as this pragma was issued by princes subordinate to the emperor without the emperor's endorsement.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1548, issued by Charles V, established the Seventeen Provinces as an entity separate from the Empire and from France.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 issued by Emperor Charles VI on 19 April 1713.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of Naples, issued 6 October 1759, by King Charles III of Spain, governed the succesion to the thrones of Naples, Sicily, and Spain, and forbade the union of Naples and the Two Sicilies.

• The Pragmatic Sanction of 1830, issued 29 March 1830 by King Ferdinand VII of Spain, ratified a Decree of 1789 by Charles IV of Spain, which had replaced the semi-Salic system established by Philip V with the mixed succession system that predated the Bourbon monarchy.