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Maria Theresa of Austria

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Maria Theresa (Vienna, May 13 1717 – November 29 1780 in Vienna) was the first and only ruling Empress of the Habsburg dynasty. She was Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and ruler of other territories from 1740 until her death. She also became the Holy Roman Empress when her husband was elected Holy Roman Emperor. She was one of the so-called "enlightened despots" . She was one of the most powerful rulers of her time, ruling over much of central Europe.

Contents

Personal life

Family Life

Her Royal Highness Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Princess Royal of Hungary and Bohemia was the eldest daughter of Elisabeth Christine von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel and Charles VI, whose sole male heir - his son Leopold Johann - died as an infant in 1716. In 1713 Charles issued the Pragmatic Sanction which guaranteed his daughter the right to succeed to the Austrian throne and inherit his united lands on his death. Initially, many European monarchs agreed to the Pragmatic Sanction when it was issued. However, soon after Maria Theresa assumed the throne upon Charles' death on October 20, 1740, the War of Austrian Succession began.

Maria Theresa was married to Francis Stephen, Duke of Lorraine. In the end, she had 16 children by him, with 11 daughters (all of whom had the first name "Maria") and 5 sons surviving to adulthood. Her youngest daughter was Maria Antonia (better known under her French name Marie Antoinette) who would be promised in marriage to Louis, heir apparent to the king of France, later King Louis XVI. After her husband's death, she made her son Joseph II co-regent of her Austrian dominions, but she actually kept most of the power to herself, which led to tension between her and her son. It was not until her death that he could fully exercise his powers.

Her children were:

Relationship with her family

Many people believe that Maria Theresa was the archetypical mother (indeed, many see her as a mother of the nation still today), loving but stern. Most agree that she had a very loving and caring attitude towards her husband, forgiving his many affairs. From the early years of their marital life, a number of anecdotes survive, one of which says that during their honeymoon, they managed to break a bed in one of the places they stayed. It is also said her husband had the staircases in Bratislava Castle built with a shallow slope at her request so she could ride her horse up and down them.

Another said that, when she received news that she had become a grandmother, she ran into the royal theater, only dressed in a nightgown, interrupted the play and shouted, in Viennese dialect, to the audience: "Denkt's enk, der Poldl hat an Buam, und grad auf mein' Hochzeitstag - alstern der is galant, is net wahr?" (which can be roughly translated to: "Can you imagine it, Leopold has a little boy, and just on my wedding anniversary – that's quite polite of him, isn't it`?"

.

Reign

First years: wars during her reign

Maria Theresa's father had assumed that she would yield the true power to her husband. Because of this, her father hadn't given Maria Theresa any information on the workings of the government, leaving her to learn the job on her own. Additionally, the army was weak and the treasury depleted due to two wars near the end of her father's reign.

The War of the Austrian Succession began with Frederick II of Prussia invading and occupying Silesia. While Bavaria and France also invaded Austrian western territories, it was Frederick (later known as Frederick the Great) who became Maria Theresa's main foe during her reign. Therefore she focused her internal and external policies on defeating Prussia and regaining the lands that had been taken from Austria.

In 1748, France gave the Austrian Low Countries that it conquered back to Maria Theresa. In exchange, Maria Theresa ceded Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to the Infante Felipe of Spain. She increased the number of troops in the army by 200%, changed taxes to guarantee a steady annual income to support the government and military. She centralized the government by combining the Austrian and Bohemian chancelleries, formerly separate, into one administrative office. Before this, justice and administration were overseen by the same officials, but she created a supreme court with the sole responsibility for upholding justice in her lands. These reforms strengthened the economy. She dropped the Kingdom of Great Britain as an ally on the advice of her state chancellor, Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz, and allied with Russia and France. In 1752 she established a military academy (the first worldwide), and in 1754 she established an academy of engineering science. She also demanded that the University of Vienna be given the money to make the medical faculty more efficient. When she felt her army was strong enough, she prepared to attack Prussia in 1756. Frederick II attacked first however, invading Saxony, another ally of Austria, beginning the Seven Years' War. The war ended in 1763 with Maria Theresa signing the Treaty of Hubertusberg which recognized Prussian ownership of Silesia.

Maria Theresa I of Austria
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Maria Theresa I of Austria

Her husband died two years later. Her devotion to him was so great that she dressed in mourning clothes until her own death 15 years later. During this time, she became more closeted to her people. Her focus changed from attempting to regain Silesia, to maintaining the peace. She also recognized Joseph II, her eldest son, as coregent and emperor. She allowed him only limited powers because she felt he was too rash and arrogant.

Later years: civil reforms

In the later years of her reign, she focused on reforming laws and some see her as being relatively progressive for her time. However, many agree that she did not do this out of genuine care for their population (at least not directly), but for the greater good of the state.

In the 1760s, smallpox claimed a few victims in the royal family. Even Maria Theresa got infected and she did receive the last rites in 1767, but she recovered. Afterwards, she became an outspoken supporter of vaccination and made sure that all of her children received vaccinations against small pox.

In 1771, she issued the Robot Patent, a reform that regulated the serf's labor payments in her lands, providing them some relief.

Other important reforms included the outlawing of witch-burning and torture, and for the first time in Austrian history, capital punishment was taken off the penal code, it was replaced with forced labor. However, the death penalty was later reintroduced. Historians mostly agree that Maria Theresa did not solely act out of care for her population, but rather to strengthen the economy of the Habsburg territories, especially after the loss of Silesia.

This was also the main reason for the introduction of mandatory education in 1774 - the goal was to form an educated class from which civil servants could be recruited.

Another installation of hers was a decency police which was to patrol everywhere, especially Vienna and apprehend anyone suspected of doing something that could be deemed indecent (some say this was due to her husband's supposed infidelity). Arrested prostitutes, for example, would be sent into villages in the eastern parts of the realm which led some contemporary writers to note that these villages had 'exceptionally beautiful women' living there.

She died in 1780, the only female to rule during the 650-year-long Habsburg dynasty. She is buried in tomb number 56 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Her son Joseph II succeeded her.

Titles from birth to death

Names in other languages

See also:

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" rowspan="6" | Preceded by:
Charles VI | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Queen of Hungary
1741-1780 | width="30%" rowspan="3" | Succeeded by:
Joseph II |- | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Queen of Bohemia
1743-1780 |- | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Archduchess of Austria
1740-1780 |- | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Duchess of Parma
1740-1748 | width="30%" style="text-align: center;" rowspan="3"| Succeeded by:
Philip |- | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Duchess of Piacenza
1740-1748 |- | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" | Duchess of Guastalla
1740-1748

External links

  1. redirect [[Template:Commonscat]]

 

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