But the claim of the Emperor was barred by no renunciation.

The rival pretensions of the great Houses of Bourbon and Habsburg furnished all Europe with an inexhaustible subject of discussion.

Plausible topics were not wanting to the supporters of either cause.

The partisans of the House of Austria dwelt on the sacredness of treaties; the partisans of France on the sacredness of birthright.

How, it was asked on one side, can a Christian king have the effrontery, the impiety, to insist on a claim which he has with such solemnity renounced in the face of heaven and earth?
How, it was asked on the other side, can the fundamental laws of a monarchy be annulled by any authority but that of the supreme legislature?
The only body which was competent to take away from the children of Maria Theresa their hereditary rights was the Comes.