Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa, empress, the daughter of the Emperor Charles VI., was born at Vienna, 13th May 1717. By the Pragmatic Sanction (q.v.), for the fulfilment of which the principal European powers became sureties, her father appointed her heir to his hereditary thrones. In 1736 she married Francis of Lorraine, afterwards Grand-duke of Tuscany, to whom she gave an equal share in the government when, on the death of her father, 21st October 1740, she became queen of Hungary and of Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria. At her accession the monarchy was exhausted, the finances embarrassed, the people discontented, and the army weak; whilst Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, and Sardinia, abetted by France, put forward claims to the whole or to portions of her dominions. Frederick II. of Prussia claimed Silesia, and poured his armies into it; Spain laid hands on the Austrian dominions in Italy; and the Bavarians, assisted by the French, invaded Bohemia, and, passing on into the archduchy of Austria, threatened Vienna, the Elector of Bavaria being crowned king of Bohemia and emperor as Charles VII. (1742). The young queen was saved by the chivalrous fidelity of the Hungarians, to whose loyalty she appealed, with her infant son in her arms, in a stirring speech at the diet held in Presburg, and she was supported by the assistance of Britain, but most of all by her own resolute spirit. The war of the Austrian succession, after lasting more than seven years, was terminated by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. The empress-queen lost Silesia and Glatz to Prussia, the duchies of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla to Spain, and some Milanese districts to Sardinia. On the other hand, her titles were fully recognised, as well as that of her husband, who had been nominated emperor (1745), Charles of Bavaria having in the meantime died. During the years of peace that ensued Maria Theresa instituted important financial reforms, did her utmost to foster agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and improved and nearly doubled the national revenues, whilst the burdens were diminished. At the same time she charged Marshal Daun to reorganise and rediscipline her armies. In Kaunitz (q.v.) she had a minister possessed of wisdom and energy, and in his hands she left for the most part the management of the foreign relations of the empire. But the loss of Silesia, especially the conduct of Frederick the Great, which had brought upon her that loss, rankled deeply in her mind; and, France having been gained as an ally through the address of Kaunitz, she renewed the contest with the Prussian king. But the issue of the Seven Years' War (q.v.) was to confirm Frederick in the possession of Silesia. On the conclusion of hostilities the empress renewed her efforts to promote the national prosperity, ameliorating the condition of the peasantry, mitigating the penal code, founding schools, organising great charitable societies, in short promoting the welfare of her subjects by all the wise arts of peaceful progress. Her son Joseph, elected king of the Romans in 1764, she associated, after the death of her husband (1765), with herself in the government of her hereditary states, but in reality committed to him the charge only of military affairs. She joined with Russia and Prussia in the first partition of Poland (1772), whereby Galicia and Lodomeria were added to her dominions. She also obtained from the Porte Bukovina (1777). On the death of the childless Elector of Bavaria Austria successfully asserted her claim to the 'quarter of the Inn' and one or two other districts. Maria Theresa died 29th November 1780. Personally a woman of majestic and winning appearance, she was animated by truly regal sentiments and an undaunted spirit; and by this rare union of feminine tact with masculine energy and restless activity, she not only won the affection and even enthusiastic admiration of her subjects, but she raised Austria from a most wretched condition to a position of assured power. Her reign marks the transition of Austria from a medieval to a modern state; and by her efforts the beginning was successfully made of fusing into one sovereignty the heterogeneous lands ruled over by the House of Hapsburg. Although a zealous Roman Catholic, Maria Theresa maintained the rights of her own crown against the court of Rome, and endeavoured to correct some of the worst abuses in the church. Of her ten surviving children, the eldest son, Joseph II., succeeded her; Leopold, Grand-duke of Tuscany, followed his brother on the imperial throne as Leopold II.; Ferdinand became Duke of Modena; and Marie Antoinette was married to Louis XVI. of France. See History by Arneth (10 vols. 1863-79, an Austrian version), other works by the same writer, by Duller, Ramshorn, and A. Wolf, the series begun by Duc de Broglie in 1882 (Eng. trans. 1883), and the works quoted under FREDERICK II.