Enlightenment · Europe · Politics

1738

Treaty of Vienna Ends Polish Succession War

November 18, 1738

Stanislaw Leszczynski gave up the Polish throne but received the Duchy of Lorraine, which would revert to France on his death. Austria got Parma. Spain's Don Carlos got Naples and Sicily. The marriage market of European princes had rearranged half the continent. Eighteenth-century diplomacy at its most characteristic: polite, cynical, and thorough.