Absolute Monarch Maria Theresa: Austria's Powerful Queen

Maria Theresa of Austria was an absolute monarch. She was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. She was also Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress by marriage.

Maria Theresa was a devout Roman Catholic and believed that religious unity was necessary for a peaceful public life. She rejected the idea of religious tolerance and was arguably the most anti-Semitic monarch of her time. She also despised Protestants and on several occasions ordered their expulsion.

Maria Theresa implemented significant reforms to strengthen Austria's military, financial, and bureaucratic efficiency. She doubled the state revenue between 1754 and 1764 and created a standing army of 108,000 men. She also reformed the education system, making education mandatory for children aged 6 to 12.

Maria Theresa was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions

Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. She was also Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress by marriage.

Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. She was born in 1717, six months after the death of her elder brother, Archduke Leopold Johann. Her father was the last surviving prince of his line, and he issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to allow Maria Theresa to succeed him. This royal act, eventually recognised by most powers, allowed female issue to inherit the domains of the Habsburgs.

Maria Theresa married Francis Stephen of Lorraine in 1736. Their marriage was a love match, and they had 16 children, 10 of whom survived into adulthood.

Maria Theresa's father, Emperor Charles VI, died on 20 October 1740, and she started her 40-year reign as ruler of the Habsburg dominions. Her succession was not without conflict, however. The War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) broke out, challenging her inheritance of the Habsburg lands. This was followed by the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and the War of the Bavarian Succession (1778-1779), which further checked Austrian power.

Maria Theresa was a devout Roman Catholic and believed that religious unity was necessary for a peaceful public life. She rejected the idea of religious tolerance and actively tried to suppress Jews and Protestants, whom she considered dangerous to the state. She was also the most anti-Semitic monarch of her time.

Maria Theresa implemented significant reforms to strengthen Austria's military, financial, and bureaucratic efficiency. She centralised and modernised institutions, and her reign marked the beginning of the era of "enlightened absolutism" in Austria. She promoted commerce, agriculture, and reorganised Austria's military, strengthening Austria's international standing.

Maria Theresa was a unique case: she was an absolute monarch but did not renounce her status as a wife and mother. She combined masculinity and femininity and played her three roles of wife, mother, and queen, sometimes at the cost of acute tension and failure. She was a major figure in women's history, reigning as an absolute monarch for 40 years over one of the largest empires in Europe.

She was the last of the House of Habsburg

Maria Theresa was the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the last surviving child of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Elizabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Her father was the only surviving male member of the House of Habsburg.

Maria Theresa was born on 13 May 1717 in Vienna. Her birth was a disappointment to her father, who had been hoping for a son to prevent the extinction of his dynasty and succeed him. Charles VI spent his entire reign securing the succession of his daughter through international diplomacy. He issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which placed his nieces behind his own daughters in the line of succession.

Maria Theresa was the ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Slavonia, Mantua, Milan, Moravia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Dalmatia, the Austrian Netherlands, Carinthia, Carniola, Gorizia and Gradisca, Lusatia, Styria and Parma. She was also Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress by marriage.

Maria Theresa was an absolute monarch. She ruled as an autocratic sovereign, despite being expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Francis I, and her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia.

She was a devout Catholic who rejected the idea of religious tolerance

Maria Theresa was a devout Catholic who believed that religious unity was necessary for a peaceful public life. She was a bigot who rejected the idea of religious tolerance and was criticised by contemporaries for her regime's intolerance and superstition. She despised Jews and Protestants, ordering their expulsion to remote parts of her realm on certain occasions. She also advocated for a state church.

Maria Theresa's religious views influenced her policies. She believed that the Jesuits posed a danger to her monarchical authority, so she removed them from all the monarchy's institutions. She also forbade the publication of Pope Clement XIII's Apostolicum pascendi bull, which was in favour of the Jesuits, and confiscated their property when the order was suppressed. She supported the conversion of Protestants to Catholicism, forming commissions to seek out and intern secret Protestants, giving them the chance to subscribe to approved Catholic statements of faith. If they accepted, they would be allowed to return home, but any sign of a return to Protestant practice was treated harshly, often with exile. She also exiled Protestants from Austria to Transylvania, including 2,600 from Upper Austria in the 1750s.

Maria Theresa's anti-Semitism was such that she was willing to tolerate Protestant businessmen and financiers in Vienna. She wrote of the Jews:

> I know of no greater plague than this race, which on account of its deceit, usury and avarice is driving my subjects into beggary. Therefore as far as possible, the Jews are to be kept away and avoided.

In 1744, she proposed the expulsion of around 10,000 Jews from Prague, which was then expanded to all Jews of Bohemia and major cities of Moravia. The expulsion was executed only for Prague and only retracted in 1748 due to economic considerations and pressure from other countries. In the third decade of her reign, she issued edicts that offered some state protection to her Jewish subjects, such as forbidding the forcible conversion of Jewish children to Christianity and forbidding Catholic clergy from extracting surplice fees from Jews. She also supported Jewish commercial and industrial activity in Austria.

Maria Theresa's son and co-ruler, Joseph, regarded his mother's religious policies as "unjust, impious, impossible, harmful and ridiculous". In 1780, after a group of Moravians publicly declared their faith, he demanded a general freedom to worship, but Maria Theresa refused to grant this for as long as she lived. Freedom of religion was only granted in the Patent of Toleration issued by Joseph immediately after Maria Theresa's death.

She was an absolutist conservative, but her views were tempered by pragmatism

Maria Theresa of Austria was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was an absolutist conservative, but her views were tempered by pragmatism. She was a devout Roman Catholic and believed that religious unity was necessary for a peaceful public life. Consequently, she rejected the idea of religious tolerance. However, she never allowed the Church to interfere with what she considered to be prerogatives of a monarch and kept Rome at arm's length. She was also influenced by Jansenist ideas, which emphasised the freedom of national churches from Rome.

Maria Theresa implemented significant reforms to strengthen Austria's military, financial and bureaucratic efficiency. She employed Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, who modernised the empire by creating a standing army of 108,000 men, paid for with 14 million florins extracted from crown lands. Haugwitz also instituted taxation of the nobility, who had never before had to pay taxes. Maria Theresa centralised administration, a task previously left to the nobility and church, and unified the Austrian and Bohemian chancellories in 1749. She also doubled the state revenue between 1754 and 1764, though her attempt to tax the clergy and nobility was only partially successful. These financial reforms greatly improved the economy.

In 1760, Maria Theresa created the council of state, which served as a committee of experienced people who advised her. The council lacked executive or legislative authority, but it was still distinguishable from the form of government employed by Frederick II of Prussia, who was an autocrat who acted as his own minister. In 1776, Austria outlawed torture, though Maria Theresa was opposed to this reform. Despite her reformist efforts, she did not change her lands' deeply feudal social order based on privileged landlords and oppressive forced labour of the peasantry.

Maria Theresa also invested in public health reforms. She recruited Gerard van Swieten, who founded the Vienna General Hospital and revamped Austria's educational system. She also promoted inoculation, having inoculated herself and two of her children after the smallpox epidemic of 1767. She banned the creation of new burial grounds without prior government permission, countering wasteful and unhygienic burial customs.

Aware of the inadequacy of Austria's bureaucracy, Maria Theresa reformed education in 1775. In a new school system based on the Prussian one, all children of both genders had to attend school from the ages of 6 to 12. Education reform was met with much hostility, particularly from peasants who wanted their children to work in the fields. Maria Theresa crushed the dissent by ordering the arrest of those who opposed. The reforms were not as successful as expected, as there was no state funding, and in many parts of the empire, forcing parents to send their children to school was ineffective. The empress permitted non-Catholics to attend university and allowed the introduction of secular subjects such as law, which influenced the decline of theology as the main foundation of university education.

She was the saviour of the Habsburg dynasty

Maria Theresa of Austria is often regarded as the saviour of the Habsburg dynasty, and for good reason. During her reign, she made significant contributions to the growth and stability of the dynasty, ensuring its survival and influence for generations to come. Through her strategic marriages, political acumen, and dedication to her realm, Maria Theresa played a crucial role in shaping the course of European history.

One of Maria Theresa's most notable achievements was her success in securing the Habsburg throne for her descendants. Upon the death of her father, Emperor Charles VI, in 1740, Maria Theresa faced significant challenges to her right to rule due to the laws of male succession. However, through her father's Pragmatic Sanction, which allowed for female inheritance, and her own determination, she overcame these obstacles and became the first female ruler of the Habsburg domains.

Maria Theresa's marriage to Francis Stephen of Lorraine, later the Holy Roman Emperor, was a strategic move that further solidified her position. This union brought the wealthy and influential Duchy of Lorraine under Habsburg control, strengthening their power and influence within the empire. Additionally, the marriage produced an impressive number of children, many of whom went on to make their own dynastic marriages, securing alliances and strengthening ties across Europe.

The reforms instituted by Maria Theresa also played a pivotal role in stabilizing and modernizing the Habsburg domains. She implemented a range of economic and educational reforms, including the promotion of trade and commerce, the improvement of roads and infrastructure, and the establishment of compulsory primary education for all children, regardless of social status. These reforms not only improved the lives of her subjects but also laid the foundation for the future prosperity and success of the dynasty.

Maria Theresa's foreign policy maneuvers were equally important in securing the Habsburg dynasty's position in Europe. Despite facing numerous wars and conflicts during her reign, including the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War, she successfully defended her territories and maintained the integrity of the empire. Through her diplomatic skills and strategic alliances, Maria Theresa was able to maintain a delicate balance of power, preventing any one rival state from gaining dominance over the others.

In conclusion, Maria Theresa's strong leadership, political savvy, and dedication to her realm undoubtedly saved the Habsburg dynasty from potential collapse. Through her determination and skillful navigation of the complex political landscape of 18th-century Europe, she secured the dynasty's survival, influence, and prosperity. Her legacy can be seen in the continued prominence of the Habsburgs in European history, as well as the lasting impact her reforms had on the territories she ruled. Thus, Maria Theresa rightfully earns the title of saviour of one of Europe's most influential royal houses.

Frequently asked questions