Death of Emperor Joseph I

April 17, 1711

Smallpox took the Habsburg emperor at thirty-two, leaving his brother Charles, the allied claimant to Spain, now heir to Austria as well. Suddenly the war to keep a Bourbon off the Spanish throne threatened to recreate Charles V's empire. England began writing a separate peace. The irony was complete: the allies had fought to prevent one family from holding too much, and now faced exactly that from the other side.