Born: 13 May 1717, Austria
Died: 29 November 1780
Country most active: Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Netherlands
Also known as: Maria Theresia Walburga Amalia Christina
This biography, written by Gabby Storey, is shared with permission from Team Queens, an educational history blog run by a collective of historical scholars. All rights reserved; this material may not be republished without the author’s consent.
Maria Theresa was ruler of the Habsburg dominions, thus archduchess of Austria, queen of Hungary and Croatia, lady of the Netherlands, from 1740-1780. She was also Holy Roman Empress from 1745-1780 and queen of Bohemia from 1743-1780. Born to Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel on 13 May 1717, she replaced her cousin Maria Josepha as heir presumptive owing to the Pragmatic Section of 1713 which elevated Charles’ daughters in the line of succession. Her education was reportedly poor in comparison with her contemporaries, as it is noted that Charles did not prepare her well for the succession.
Maria Theresa was married to Francis Stephen, duke of Lorraine, on 12 February 1736. She acceded to the throne on 20 October 1740 upon the death of her father. Maria initially followed the guidance of her father’s advisers and her husband, a decision she came to regret. She was unable to be elected Holy Roman Empress initially, and made Francis co-ruler of Austria and Bohemia to enable him to vote for her elevation. Despite this, Maria barred Francis from state decisions.
The first decade of her reign saw Maria facing war, initially with the Austrian succession and then with the Seven Years’ War. Francis was elected Holy Roman Emperor on 13 September 1745, thus elevating Maria to Holy Roman Empress. The wars were ultimately resolved with the Treaty of Hubertusburg and the Treaty of Paris in 1763, with Austria ceding occupied Prussian territories and Maria turned her attentions to domestic matters.
From 1737-1757 Maria bore sixteen children, of whom thirteen survived infancy, including Marie Antoinette. She was active in networking and ensuring suitable marital alliances for her children, with several going on to be queens, archduchesses, and duchesses. Maria was active in encouraging inoculation against smallpox, with members of the royal family contracting it, some fatally.
Maria Theresa was also an advocate for reform across several forums, particularly with regards to Austrian military and bureaucracy. However, her conservatism can be seen in some spheres, notably the censorship of books and learning in certain topics.
The death of Francis on 18 August 1765 changed Maria completely. She withdrew from court life, however she declared their successor, Joseph, as co-ruler on 17 September 1765. They frequently disagreed and both threatened to abdicate at certain points. Warfare erupted again in the 1770s and decreased the Austrian treasury. Maria Theresa died on 29 November 1780 after a short illness, and she is buried in the Imperial Crypt, Vienna, next to Francis.
Recommended Reading
Barbara Stollberg-Rillinger, Maria Theresia: Die Kaiserin in ihrer Zeit. Eine Biographie (Munich: C. H. Beck, 2017)
Barbara Stollberg-Rillinger, Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022)
Charles Ingrao, The Habsburg monarchy, 1618-1815 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Elena Teibenbacher, “Maria Theresia and Catherine II: The Bodies of a Female Ruler in Propaganda, Criticism, and Retrospect,” in Memorialising Premodern Monarchs. Medias of Commemoration and Remembrance, ed. Gabrielle Storey, 221-243 (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)
Steven Beller, A Concise History of Austria (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).
The following is excerpted from A Cyclopædia of Female Biography, published 1857 by Groomsbridge and Sons and edited by Henry Gardiner Adams.
Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Empress of Germany, born in 1717, was the eldest daughter of Charles the Sixth of Austria, Emperor of Germany. In 1724, Charles, by his will, known as the Pragmatic Sanction, regulated the order of succession in the house of Austria, declaring that in default of male issue, his eldest daughter should be heiress of all the Austrian dominions, and her children after her. The Pragmatic Sanction was guaranteed by the diet of the empire, and by all the German princes, and by several powers of Europe, but not by the Bourbons. In 1736, Maria Theresa married Francis of Lorraine, who, in 1737, became Grand-duke of Tuscany; and in 1739, Francis, with his consort, repaired to Florence.
Upon the death of Charles the Sixth, in 1740, the ruling powers of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, France, Spain, and Sardinia, agreed to dismember the Austrian monarchy, to portions of which each laid claim. Maria Theresa, however, went immediately to Vienna, and took possession of Austria, Bohemia, and her other German states; she then repaired to Presburg, took the oaths to the constitution of Hungary, And was solemnly proclaimed queen of that kingdom in 1741. Frederic of Prussia offered the young queen his friendship on condition of her giving up to him Silesia, which she resolutely refused, and he then invaded that province. The Elector of Bavaria, assisted by the French, also invaded Austria, and pushed his troops as far as Vienna. Maria Theresa took refuge in Presburg, where she convoked the Hungarian diet; and appearing in the midst of them with her infant son in her arms, she made a heart-stirring appeal to their loyalty. The Hungarian nobles, drawing their swords, unanimously exclaimed, “Moriamur pro Rege nostro, Maria Theresa!” “We will die for our queen, Maria Theresa.” And they raised an army and drove the French and Bavarians out of the hereditary states. What would have been. their reflections could those brave loyal Hungarians have foreseen that, in a little over a century, a descendant of this idolized queen would trample on their rights, overthrow their constitution, massacre the nobles and patriots, and ravage and lay waste their beautiful land! Well would it be for men to keep always in mind the warning of the royal psalmist, “Put not your trust in princes.”
In the meantime, Charles Albert, Elector of Bavaria, was chosen Emperor of Germany, by the diet assembled at Frankfort, under the name of Charles the Seventh.
Frederic of Prussia soon made peace with Maria Theresa, who was obliged to surrender Silesia to him. In 1745, Charles the Seventh died, and Francis, Maria Theresa’s husband, was elected emperor. In 1748, the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle terminated the war of the Austrian succession, and Maria Theresa was left in possession of all her hereditary dominions, except Silesia. In 1756 began the Seven Years’ war between France, Austria, and Russia, on the one side, and Prussia on the other. It ended in 1763, leaving Austria and Prussia with the same boundaries as before. In 1765, Maria Theresa lost her husband, for whom she wore mourning till her death. Her son Joseph was elected emperor. She however retained the administration of the government.
The only act of her political life with which she can be reproached is her participation in the first partition of Poland; and this she did very unwillingly, only when she was told that Russia and Prussia would not regard her disapproval, and that her refusal would endanger her own dominions.
The improvements Maria Theresa made in her dominions were many and important. She abolished torture, also the rural and personal services the peasants of Bohemia owed to their feudal superiors. She founded or enlarged in different parts of her extensive dominions several academies for the improvement of the arts and sciences; instituted numerous seminaries for the education of all ranks of people; reformed the public schools, and ordered prizes to be distributed among the students who made the greatest progress in learning, or were distinguished for propriety of behaviour, or purity of morals. She established prizes for those who excelled in different branches of manufacture, in geometry, mining, smelting metals, and even spinning. She particularly turned her attention to agriculture, which, on a medal struck by her order, was entitled the “Art which nourishes all other arts;” and founded a society of agriculture at Milan, with bounties to the peasants who obtained the best crops. She took away the pernicious rights which the convents and churches enjoyed of affording sanctuary to all criminals without distinction, and in many other ways evinced her regard for the welfare of the people. She was a pious and sincere Roman Catholic, but not a blind devotee, and could discriminate between the temporal and spiritual jurisdiction. She put a check on the power of the Inquisition, which was finally abolished during the reign of her sons. She possessed the strong affections of her Belgian subjects; and never was Lombardy so prosperous or tranquil as under her reign. The population increased from 900,000 to 1,130,000. During her forty years’ reign she showed an undeviating love of justice, truth, and clemency; and her whole conduct was characterized by a regard for propriety and self-respect.
Maria Theresa was the mother of sixteen children, all born within twenty years. There is every reason to suppose that her naturally warm affection, and her strong sense, would have rendered her, in a private station, an admirable, an exemplary parent; and it was not her fault, but rather her misfortune, that she was placed in a situation where the most sacred duties and feelings of her sex became merely secondary. While her numerous family were in their Infancy, the empress was constantly and exclusively occupied in the public duties and cares of her high station; the affairs of government demanded almost every moment of her time. The court physician. Von Swietar, waited on her each morning at her levée, and brought her a minute report of the health of the princes and princesses. If one of them was indisposed, the mother, laying aside all other cares, immediately hastened to their apartment. They all spoke and wrote Italian with elegance and facility. Her children were brought up with extreme simplicity. They were not allowed to indulge in personal pride or caprice; their benevolent feelings were cultivated both by precept and example.
Maria Theresa had long been accustomed to look death in the face; and when the hour of trial came, her resignation, her fortitude, and her humble trust in heaven never failed her. Her agonies during the last ten days of her life, were terrible, but never drew from her a single expression of complaint or impatience. She was only apprehensive that her reason and her physical strength might fail her together. She was once heard to say, “God grant that these sufferings may soon terminate, for otherwise, I know not if I can much longer endure them.”
After receiving the last sacraments, she summoned all her family to her presence, and solemnly recommended them to the care of the Emperor Joseph, her eldest son. “My son,” said she, “as you are the heir to all my worldly possessions, I cannot dispose of them; but my children are still, as they have ever been, my own. I bequeath them to you; be to them a father. I shall die contented if you promise to take that office upon you.” She then turned to her son Maximilian and her daughters, blessed them individually, in the tenderest terms, and exhorted them to obey and honour their elder brother as their father and sovereign. After repeated fits of agony and suffocation, endured to the last, with the same invariable serenity and patience, death, at length, released her, and she expired on the 29th. of November, 1780, in her sixty fourth year. She was undoubtedly the greatest and best ruler who ever swayed the imperial sceptre of Austria; while, as a woman, she was one of the most amiable and exemplary who lived in the eighteenth century.