In 1741, the Austrian authorities informed Maria Theresa that the Bohemian populace would prefer Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, to her as sovereign. Maria Theresa, desperate and burdened by pregnancy, wrote plaintively to her sister: "I don't know if a town will remain to me for my delivery." She bitterly vowed to spare nothing and no one to defend her kingdom when she wrote to the Bohemian chancellor, Count Philip Kinsky: "My mind is made up. We must put everything at stake to save Bohemia." On 26 October, the Elector of Bavaria captured Prague and declared himself king of Bohemia. Maria Theresa, then in Hungary, wept on learning of the loss of Bohemia. Charles Albert was unanimously elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VII on 24 January 1742, which made him the only non-Habsburg to be in that position since 1440. The Queen, who regarded the election as a catastrophe, caught her enemies unprepared by insisting on a winter campaign; the same day he was elected emperor, Austrian troops under Ludwig Andreas von Khevenhüller captured Munich, Charles Albert's capital.
In 1741, the Austrian authorities informed Maria Theresa that the Bohemian populace would prefer Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, to her as sovereign. Maria Theresa, desperate and burdened by pregnancy, wrote plaintively to her sister: "I don't know if a town will remain to me for my delivery." She bitterly vowed to spare nothing and no one to defend her kingdom when she wrote to the Bohemian chancellor, Count Philip Kinsky: "My mind is made up. We must put everything at stake to save Bohemia." On 26 October, the Elector of Bavaria captured Prague and declared himself king of Bohemia Maria Theresa, then in Hungary, wept on learning of the loss of Bohemia. Charles Albert was unanimously elected Holy Roman Emperor as Charles VII on 24 January 1742, which made him the only non-Habsburg to be in that position since 1440. The Queen, who regarded the election as a catastrophe, caught her enemies unprepared by insisting on a winter campaign; the same day he was elected emperor, Austrian troops under Ludwig Andreas von Khevenhüller captured Munich, Charles Albert's capital.