Today is the 300th anniversary of the birth of the future Empress Maria Theresa in 1717.
Empress Maria Theresa
Portrait by Martin van Meytens 1759
Image: Wikipedia
There is an illustrated online biography of the Empress-Queen at Maria Theresa which covers not only the issues she faced and dealt with as ruler of the Habsburg lands but also her complex character - forceful and down-to-earth but also sentimental, not always logical or consistent and not infrequently quixotic, and emphatically feminine ( or should one say feminist today?)
The news service Royal Central had a post about the commemorations of this tercentenary a couple of months ago:
This year marks the 300th
anniversary of the birth of one of Austria’s most important figures. A
major exhibition open until 29 November will be hosted this year at
Schönbrunn Palace and across three sites in Vienna and Lower Austria,
entitled “Maria Theresa, Strategist, Mother, Reformer”,
to mark the tercentenary of her birth, each of which opens to the
public on 15 March. The exhibition will explore the monarch's life and
legacy, her political achievements and works, allowing us a rare insight
into the many facets of her personality and also the darker periods of
her reign.
Such
was the power of her personality and legacy that she still can dominate
today: she stands in the form of the great monument on the square in
Vienna that bears her name, the Maria-Theresien-Platz. This monument
does much to symbolise the many ways in which she has come to leave her
mark on popular culture, showing her synonymously as both powerful
Empress and unmistakable woman, which was part of the cult that Maria
Theresa consciously cultivated. And then there is the depiction of her
as Austria’s ‘Great Mother’, as a monarch ruling over her subjects as
her first children - a remark which Maria Theresa actually made -
meaning that in equal reverse, her children were first ruled like
subjects, to whom she was devoted but who she nevertheless expected to
be compliant when it came to their personal futures, which were decided
by way of dynastic marriages to strengthen the Franco-Austrian alliance
for the ultimate benefit of the state. Maria Theresa promoted many
reforms during her reign which would help to modernize the state - for
which reason she is justly remembered today - although it is important
to remember that she rather receives the credit for these as they took
place during her reign, although her ministers and co-regent and
successor Joseph II were more probably responsible for them.
She
was born the eldest surviving child of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles
VI and his bride, Elisabeth Christine of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, on
17 May 1717 at the Hofburg Palace, the Imperial residence in Vienna,
being christened later that day with the names Maria Theresa Walburga
Amalia Christina. Her sex was a source of disappointment at her birth.
Charles VI had issued a variation of Leopold I’s Pact of Succession -
the so-called Pragmatic Sanction in 1713 - which meant that his children
could succeed before the daughters of his elder brother. Charles VI was
deeply concerned that the Sanction should be recognised by the European
Great Powers, although it was issued during the wait for the longed-for
male heir to arrive, as the Sanction pre-dated Maria Theresa’s birth
by four years. It seems to have been made as the last strategy at the
end of a long-held hope: ultimately, with Maria Theresa’s recognition
as his heir, marriage negotiations would eventually follow which would
enable the Imperial elective throne of Holy Roman Emperor to be given to
her future husband, Francis Stephan of Lorraine in 1745, thus making
her Holy Roman Empress herself, albeit by marriage. On the sudden death
of Charles VI, Maria Theresa found herself inexperienced and vulnerable
to the attacks which soon followed: Shortly afterwards, several of the
European powers that had acknowledged the Sanction repudiated their
recognition of her rights, notably Prussia, with Frederick II’s invading
of Austria’s hereditary territory of Silesia, thereby striking the
match for what would become known as the War of the Austrian Succession.
The loss of Silesia during this War meant that it would remain a bone
of bitter contention, as it belonged to the inherited body of her
dominions and was something which - despite the great Austrian victory
at the battle of Kolin - was not recovered during the subsequent Seven
Years’ War.
Maria
Theresa fought in another way too. To achieve the dynastic marriages
so desired by the state, she was prepared to make a personal sacrifice
by way of her children. Among these were the future Emperors Joseph II,
Leopold II, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Queen Marie Antoinette of
France, who all made dynastic marriages negotiated by Maria Theresa’s
State Chancellor, Prince von Kaunitz. The main aim of these state
marriages was to support a volte-face in Austrian foreign policy: the
rapprochement between the Hapsburg and Bourbon monarchies, underpinned
by the 1756 Treaty of Versailles. The Roman Catholic Maria Theresa’s
clever embracing of her sex in the form of a ‘Great Mother’ has meant
that this is largely as she is remembered today, something which she
promoted during her own lifetime.
The Maria-Theresa-Denkmal in Vienna
Image: Wikimedia
Image: Wikimedia
Typical
of the time in which she was born, Maria Theresa does, in fact, embody
an era’s gradual dawning in transition, viewing reform with a caution
which her natural conservatism could never entirely overcome. The many
modernising advances introduced during her reign were essentially for
the betterment of the state and not because of her philosophical
convictions, along the lines of what has become known as 'enlightened
absolutism'. It was her son, Joseph II, who better personified a
enlightened attitude in the next generation with the abolition of
torture in 1776, for example.
Arguably the greatest legacy of her reign was the renovation of the Imperial palace of Schönbrunn. A major exhibition in Vienna will be hosted this year at Schönbrunn and across other sites, entitled “Maria Theresa, Strategist, Mother, Reformer”, to mark 300 years since her birth. Her other main residence in Vienna was the Hofburg Palace where she was born and the wing in which she lived – the Leopoldinischer Trakt – is today the Chancellery of the Austrian President. The President’s Salon is presided over by an enormous portrait of Maria Theresia, in her former bedroom: The Empress has her place in Vienna’s future, as well as its past.
To this the Clever Boy would add that she exemplified many of the best qualities of successful female hereditary rulership and of the traditions of her dynasty. Edward Crankshaw's biography, though dating from the 1960s is still very readable, and she displayed an energy and commitment, a confidence and a directness that is striking and engaging. A formidable women in all things.
Arguably the greatest legacy of her reign was the renovation of the Imperial palace of Schönbrunn. A major exhibition in Vienna will be hosted this year at Schönbrunn and across other sites, entitled “Maria Theresa, Strategist, Mother, Reformer”, to mark 300 years since her birth. Her other main residence in Vienna was the Hofburg Palace where she was born and the wing in which she lived – the Leopoldinischer Trakt – is today the Chancellery of the Austrian President. The President’s Salon is presided over by an enormous portrait of Maria Theresia, in her former bedroom: The Empress has her place in Vienna’s future, as well as its past.
To this the Clever Boy would add that she exemplified many of the best qualities of successful female hereditary rulership and of the traditions of her dynasty. Edward Crankshaw's biography, though dating from the 1960s is still very readable, and she displayed an energy and commitment, a confidence and a directness that is striking and engaging. A formidable women in all things.
