Editing Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (section)

===Death and legacy===
[[File:Kapuzinergruft Wien2.JPG|thumb|right|200px|Tomb of the emperor in the [[Imperial Crypt, Vienna]]]]The Emperor, after a hunting trip across the Hungarian border in "a typical day in the wettest and coldest October in memory",<ref>Edward Crankshaw: ''Maria Theresa'', A&C Black, 2011. And also: «[...] after a day of hunting, the emperor fell ill with a cold and fever. Upon his return to his hunting lodge, Charles requested his cook to prepare him his favorite dish of mushrooms. Soon after eating them, he fell violently ill. His physicians bled him but to no avail» (Julia P. Gelardi: ''In Triumph's Wake: Royal Mothers, Tragic Daughters, and the Price They Paid for Glory'', Macmillan, 2009).</ref> fell seriously ill at the [[Palais Augarten|Favorita Palace]], Vienna, and he died on 20 October 1740 in the [[Hofburg]].<ref>In the first days of October 1740, in a cold day of pouring rain Emperor Charles VI, «in spite of the warnings of his physicians» (Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell: ''Littell's Living Age'', Volume 183, T.H. Carter & Company, 1889, pg. 69), went to hunting ducks on the shores of Lake Neusiedl, close to the Hungarian border and he had come back chilled and soaked through to his little country palace at La Favorita; on his return, though he was feverish and suffering from colic, the Emperor persisted in eating one of his favourite dishes, a Catalan mushroom stew («a large dish of fried mushrooms» for the Littell brothers), prepared by his cook. He spent the night between 10 and 11 October vomiting. The following morning he was gravely ill, brought down by a high fever. Carried slowly to Vienna in a padded carriage, he died in the Hofburg nine days after.</ref> In his ''Memoirs'' Voltaire<ref>«Charles the Sixth died, in the month of October 1740, of an indigestion, occasioned by eating champignons, which brought on an apoplexy, and this plate of champignons changed the destiny of Europe» (Voltaire: ''Memoirs of the Life of Voltaire'', 1784; pp. 48–49).</ref> wrote that Charles died after consuming a meal of [[death cap]] mushrooms.<ref name="wasson">Wasson RG. (1972). The death of Claudius, or mushrooms for murderers. ''Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University'' '''23'''(3):101–128.</ref> Charles's life opus, the Pragmatic Sanction, was ultimately in vain. Maria Theresa was forced to resort to arms to defend her inheritance from the coalition of Prussia, Bavaria, France, Spain, Saxony and Poland—all party to the sanction—who assaulted the Austrian frontier weeks after her father's death. During the ensuing [[War of the Austrian Succession]], Maria Theresa saved her crown and most of her territory but lost the mineral-rich [[Duchy of Silesia]] to Prussia and the [[Duchy of Parma]] to Spain.<ref>Browning, Reed: ''The War of the Austrian Succession'', Palgrave Macmillan, 1995, {{ISBN|0-312-12561-5}}, 362.</ref>

At the time of Charles's death, the Habsburg lands were saturated in debt; the exchequer contained a mere 100,000 florins; and desertion was rife in Austria's sporadic army, spread across the Empire in small, ineffective barracks.<ref name="Crankshaw33">Crankshaw, 33.</ref> Contemporaries expected that Hungary would wrench itself from the Habsburg yoke upon his death.<ref name="Crankshaw33" />

Emperor Charles VI has been the main motif of many collectors' coins and medals. One of the most recent samples is high-value collectors' coin the Austrian [[Euro gold and silver commemorative coins (Austria)#2006 coinage|Göttweig Abbey commemorative coin]], minted on 11 October 2006. His portrait can be seen in the foreground of the reverse of the coin.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Nonnberg Abbey coin |url=http://www.austrian-mint.at/silbermuenzen?l=en&muenzeSubTypeId=109&muenzeId=341 |publisher=Austrian Mint |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100924094232/http://www.austrian-mint.at/silbermuenzen?l=en&muenzeSubTypeId=109&muenzeId=341 |archive-date=24 September 2010 |access-date=7 July 2008 }}</ref>