What We Learned From… The Battle of Mollwitz, 1741
n Oct. 20, 1740, Emperor Charles VI of the Austrian Hapsburg monarchy died, and his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, assumed the throne, with husband Francis Stephen as nominal co-ruler. Two months later Frederick II of Prussia—pouncing on the contentious issue of female succession—demanded Maria Theresa cede him all or part of the Bohemian duchies of Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg to eject him, and the War of the Austrian Succession was on.
