Summary

Maria Theresa of Habsburg (Vienna, May 13, 1717 - Vienna, November 29, 1780) was reigning archduchess of Austria, apostolic queen of Hungary, reigning queen of Bohemia and Croatia and Slavonia, reigning duchess of Parma and Piacenza, reigning duchess of Milan and Mantua, and also grand duchess consort of Tuscany and empress consort of the Holy Roman Empire as wife of Francis I, formerly duke of Lorraine under the name Francis III Stephen.

By virtue of the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, issued by her father, Emperor Charles VI, in 1740 she was the first (as well as only) woman in the House of Austria to inherit the government of the vast possessions of the Habsburg monarchy. Maria Theresa's legacy was not recognized by several German states, which, backed by France and Spain, plunged central Europe into what became known as the War of Austrian Succession. In the end, thanks largely to the loyalty shown to her by Hungary, Maria Theresa emerged victorious and was recognized as the legitimate ruler of her hereditary possessions, but she could not be elected to the imperial throne and was content to be the empress consort, having her own husband elected emperor. She had as her own main opponent in the clashes that affected her reign the figure of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.

Together with her husband, she was founder of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine, the dynasty that ruled the fortunes of the Austrian dominions until World War I. She was the mother of Emperors Joseph II and Leopold II, as well as Marie Antoinette, queen of France, and Maria Carolina, queen of Naples and Sicily.

Her personal rule is remembered as a period rich in economic and social reforms as well as great cultural development throughout the empire. Maria Theresa was able to draw on such outstanding advisers from the Enlightenment era as Wenzel Anton von Kaunitz-Rietberg, Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz, and Gerard van Swieten. He largely promoted trade and the development of modern agricultural techniques, reorganized the imperial army and strengthened Austria's international prestige. On the other hand, she was traditionalist in religious policy, expelling Jews and Protestants from her lands, advancing the principle of the state church, and refusing to recognize religious pluralism, which is why some contemporaries criticized her.

Childhood and inheritance issues

Born on the morning of May 13, 1717, the second-born and eldest surviving daughter of Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg and his wife Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, she was baptized the same evening having as godmothers her aunt Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg and her grandmother Eleanor Magdalena of the Palatinate-Neuburg.

During the baptism, Maria Theresa was brought before her cousins, Maria Joseph of Austria and Maria Amalia, the daughters of the now deceased emperor, Joseph I. This was the first sign that her father would not follow the succession pact and would put his daughter before the daughters of her brother, Joseph I.

Indeed, Emperor Charles VI, although disappointed by the lack of male heirs who could continue the dynasty, issued the Pragmatic Sanction in 1713 by which he disinherited his brother Joseph's daughters and appointed Maria Theresa as heir.

In any case, the Prammatica Sanzione was accepted by the other European powers only after difficult negotiations that forced the emperor to accept certain conditions: in fact, Great Britain demanded as a quid pro quo for acceptance the dismantling of the Ostend Company while Spain and France demanded certain quid pro quos in Italy. So, the Prammatica Sanzione was accepted by only a few states, Britain, France, Spain, Saxony, Poland, the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, the Papal States, Russia and Denmark, Prussia and Bavaria. In fact, when the time came, France, Spain, Saxony, Bavaria and Poland would renege on the recognition.

Maria Theresa had very influential kinships among European monarchs that stemmed first and foremost from her being a Habsburg, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, and from a shrewd marriage policy among her close relatives. Through her mother's sister who had married the heir to the Russian throne Aleksej Petrovič Romanov, Maria Theresa was in fact a first cousin of Tsar Peter II of Russia as well as the German Duke Ferdinand Albert II of Brunswick-Lüneburg. Her other cousins were Charles Albert of Bavaria (briefly emperor in dispute with Maria Theresa herself), Joseph I and Peter III of Portugal. Her cousin Maria Joseph of Austria, was queen consort of Poland (as wife of Augustus III) and electrix consort of Saxony.

Youth

Before Maria Theresa Charles VI had a first-born son who, however, died before he was a year old. After Maria Theresa's birth, the imperial family had two more daughters, Maria Anna and Maria Amalia, who, however, died at the age of six. Physically, Maria Theresa had large blue eyes, blond hair, a slight blush to her cheeks, a wide mouth, and a strong body; moreover, because her parents were not closely related, Maria Theresa did not suffer the nefarious effects of marriages between close blood relatives that had characterized many of her ancestors.

Characteristically, Maria Theresa was extremely serious and reserved; she loved singing, archery, and would have liked to learn at least the basics of horseback riding but her father, fearing she might injure herself, prevented her from doing so; she also took part in opera productions, often conducted directly by Emperor Charles VI.

Her education was supervised by the Jesuits who, although they managed to teach her good Latin, were unable to correct her unconventional spelling and punctuation nor did they pass on to her the oratorical skills of her predecessors, to such an extent that Maria Theresa herself became accustomed to speaking and writing in the Viennese dialect. Her father, who still awaited a male heir, did not instruct her in the affairs of state nor give his daughter the preparation proper to an heir to the throne, although he did allow her to attend council meetings from the age of fourteen; for this reason, in fact, Maria Theresa, like her younger sister, received exclusively notions of drawing, painting, music and dancing, disciplines typical for a role of a princess or queen consort.

Wedding

From childhood, Maria Theresa became the subject of marriage negotiations between the different courts of Europe. Her father decided to betroth his daughter to Prince Leopold Clement who was supposed to meet Maria Theresa in Vienna in 1723 but died of smallpox; the emperor then fell back on Prince Leopold Clement's younger brother, Francis Stephen of Lorraine, and invited him to live in Vienna.

In any case, Charles VI considered other possibilities: he thought of marrying his daughter off to the crown prince of Prussia, Frederick, so as to create a strong German state, but the latter was a Protestant and religious differences proved to be insurmountable; later, he promised his daughter in marriage to Charles of Spain but the European powers objected and forced him to renounce, fearing that such a marriage would upset the European balance. Maria Theresa, who in the meantime had become good friends with Francis Stephen of Lorraine, was greatly cheered by the negative conclusion of these negotiations.

In 1729, upon the death of his father Leopold, Francis Stephen ascended the throne of Lorraine and left Vienna; finally, on January 31, 1736, during negotiations for the conclusion of the War of Polish Succession, Louis XV of France agreed that Francis Stephen should be betrothed to Maria Theresa, on the sole condition that he would renounce the Duchy of Lorraine in favor of the deposed King of Poland, Stanislaus Leszczyński, and receive in return the right to succeed the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Gian Gastone de' Medici, who had no male heirs. Francis Stephen accepted the arrangements and married Maria Theresa on February 13, 1736.

Maria Theresa's love for her husband was strong and possessive: in letters she expressed her desire to see him and only him while her husband's replies appeared very formal. Extremely jealous, she had over the years strong disagreements with her husband over his infidelities, especially with Maria Wilhelmina von Neipperg, princess of Auersperg, his best-known mistress.

When Gian Gastone died on July 9, 1737, Francis Stephen became grand duke of Tuscany. The following year, Charles VI invited his daughter and son-in-law to make their formal entry into Tuscany: for the occasion, a triumphal arch was erected at Porta San Gallo, where it remains to this day; however, the stay was brief as the emperor recalled his daughter, by then his designated heir, to Vienna. In the Danubian capital, in fact, a very complex situation awaited them: since the summer of 1738, the Austrian Empire had been at war with the Ottoman Empire, but the conflict was turning to disaster; continual defeats and territorial losses had led the Viennese to revolt, and Francis Stephen, sent to the front, became the object of general scorn by virtue of his French origins, which made them fear his loyalty; finally, in 1739, the war ended with the Treaty of Belgrade.

Ascent to the throne

Charles VI died on October 20, 1740, probably from mushroom poisoning; the emperor left a very precarious situation at his death: having ignored the advice of Prince Eugene of Savoy, he had diplomatically obtained the adherence of the other powers to his successor plans, but he had not guarded himself against possible volte-faces by the other monarchs and thus had not foreseen the threat of a war of succession. Indeed, the treasury contained barely 100,000 florins, the army had in service just 80,000 men who, although devoted to the dynasty, were discouraged because of the defeat against the Turks suffered the year before.

Moreover, Maria Theresa was unprepared for her role as reigning queen: she was uninformed about affairs of state, did not know her ministers, had no relations with other monarchs, and the only advice left to her by her father had been to keep her advisors in office and rely on her husband. She herself described in the "Political Testament" the circumstances of her rise to power: "I found myself without money, without credit, without an army, without experience and knowledge of myself, and, finally, also without counsel, since each of its members, at first, wanted to wait and see how the situation would develop."

From the moment she ascended the throne, she rejected the possibility that other countries could obtain by right or by force some of her territories and immediately took steps to obtain the dignity of Empress of the Holy Roman Empire; however, since women were not allowed to enter the imperial throne, she therefore had to favor her husband's ascension to that position, retaining for herself the title of Empress Consort (Maria Theresa would still continue to hold the role of queen over all the territories of the Habsburg monarchy, ruling them directly).

Francis Stephen, however, although he regularly held the title of grand duke of Tuscany (as well as duke of Teschen and count of Falkenstein), did not, however, have the title of prince-elector and therefore could neither vote nor be elected emperor. Therefore, in order to ensure a sufficient political base for her husband, Maria Theresa decided to formally confer on him the co-regency of the hereditary Habsburg dominions so that he could attend meetings of the Imperial Diet as prince-elector of Bohemia. In any case, it took over a year before the Diet of Hungary accepted Franz Stephen in his role as associate ruler.

Finally, it should be added that Maria Theresa, although she felt a strong feeling of love for her husband and as much as she associated him with her in government, always prevented Franz Stephen from taking an interest in state affairs and often went so far as to dismiss him from council meetings when the two disagreed. Her accession to the throne was then formalized on November 22, 1740, when Maria Theresa obtained, at the Hofburg-the city residence of the court-the homage of the nobility of the hereditary estates of Lower Austria.

War of Austrian Succession

Soon after her accession to the throne, a number of European sovereigns, who had at first recognized Maria Theresa's succession, broke their promises: in fact, Charles Albert of Bavaria, husband of Maria Amalia of Habsburg, Maria Theresa's cousin, with the support of France and Spain, demanded part of the Habsburg possessions; in December, Frederick II of Prussia invaded Silesia and demanded that Maria Theresa agree to hand it over to him, or else she would support her opponents. At the same time, Maria Theresa obtained the support of Charles Emmanuel III of Savoy, a state that had not accepted the Prammatica Sanzione during her father's lifetime, in November 1740.

Buoyed by this success, Maria Theresa refused to surrender Silesia, fearing that any violation of the Prammatica Sanzione might invalidate the entire document; Francis Stephen himself exclaimed to the Prussian ambassador, "Better the Turks at the gates of Vienna, better the surrender of the Netherlands to France, better any concession to Bavaria and Saxony, than the surrender of Silesia!" The Silesian invasion, moreover, was the beginning of a long enmity with the King of Prussia, whom Maria Theresa referred to as "the evil man."

Short of experienced officers, Maria Theresa released Marshal Wilhelm Reinhard von Neipperg, whom Charles VI had imprisoned for his poor performance in the war against the Turks.

In April 1741 the Austrians suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Mollwitz, following which Frederick II entered Olmütz and France agreed with Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Spain on a plan to partition the Habsburg possessions. In such a compromised situation, Francis Stephen tried to induce his wife to accept a compromise with Prussia, and Maria Theresa reluctantly agreed to the negotiations. Contrary to expectations, however, Maria Theresa managed to garner considerable support in Hungary: she had herself crowned on June 25, 1741 (after honing her equestrian skills necessary for the coronation ceremony), then, to appease those who regarded her gender as the most serious obstacle, she assumed the male titles of archduke and king.

In July, attempts at conciliation with Prussia collapsed; the Elector of Saxony, until then an ally of Maria Theresa, changed sides, while the Elector of Brunswick-Lüneburg declared himself neutral; therefore, Maria Theresa was forced to request aid from Hungary. In order to achieve this end, she spared no means: she granted favors to the nobility, donated the port city of Rijeka to Hungary (until then part of the Austrian possessions), and finally, triumphantly displayed her son and heir before the assembled nobles, securing their sympathy even more.

In 1741, Austrian authorities informed Maria Theresa that the Bohemian people would have preferred Charles Albert as their ruler; in any case, Maria Theresa refused to give ground. However, on October 26, Charles Albert, having conquered Prague, obtained the appointment as King of Bohemia; on January 24, he was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire with the name Charles VII, a fact that was considered a catastrophe.

After a few setbacks, thanks to Hungarian reinforcements and taking advantage of their opponents' divisions, Austrian troops managed to take Munich, the capital of Charles Albert of Bavaria.

Finally, in June 1742, the Treaty of Breslau ended hostilities between Austria and Prussia, allowing Maria Theresa to concentrate all her forces on the reconquest of Bohemia: in the winter of that year, French troops abandoned Prague; finally, on May 12, 1743, Maria Theresa was crowned Queen of Bohemia in St. Vitus Cathedral.

In 1745 the death of Charles Albert of Bavaria made the imperial throne vacant, and despite some French successes in the Austrian Netherlands, the German princes elected Francis Stephen as emperor on September 13; Frederick II accepted the proclamation after Maria Theresa acknowledged the loss of Silesia in December 1745.

The war dragged on for another three years, until the Treaty of Aachen recognized Maria Theresa's succession in the hereditary possessions of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary and Francis Stephen's position as emperor, in exchange for recognition of the Prussian conquest of Silesia and the cession of the Duchy of Parma to Prince Philip of Spain.

Seven Years' War

Maria Theresa conceived her reforms in very different fields as a means of strengthening the empire in preparation for a conflict with her main rival, Frederick II of Prussia.

In August 1756, after lengthy diplomatic skirmishes, Frederick II of Prussia invaded Saxony, beginning the conflict known as the Seven Years' War in which Austria, allied with Russia and France (a true diplomatic reversal orchestrated by Maria Theresa and Chancellor Kaunitz), faced Britain and Prussia.

Maximilian Ulysses Browne was in command of Austrian troops. After the inconclusive Battle of Lobositz in 1756, he was replaced in command by Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine, Maria Theresa's brother-in-law, appointed more for his family connections than for his military abilities, which in fact proved to be a fiasco. This was shortly thereafter replaced by Leopold Joseph von Daun, Franz Moritz von Lacy and Ernst Gideon von Laudon.

If on the seas and in the colonies British superiority was almost always absolute, the European front was far more uncertain: at first, Frederick II captured some successes, later the Battle of Kolín marked a real reversal of fortunes in favor of Austria, since Frederick II, having lost a third of his forces, was unable to maintain an offensive demeanor.

In 1758, the fortunes of the conflict began to balance: in that year, in fact, the French suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Krefeld and were forced to retreat to the Rhine; finally, upon the death of Empress Elizabeth of Russia in 1762, her successor, Peter III, an admirer of Frederick II, withdrew the Russian forces from the conflict, leaving Austria virtually alone. In 1763, the disputants, by then at the exhaustion of their forces, entered into the Treaties of Hubertusburg and Paris, by which France was forced to give up most of its colonies in favor of the British, while Austria had to be content with the status quo ante bellum, giving up its dream of regaining Silesia.

Widowhood and co-regency with Joseph

Emperor Franz died on August 18, 1765, while he and the court were in Innsbruck celebrating the marriage of Archduke Leopold. Maria Theresa was devastated by grief: she renounced jewelry and other ornaments, cut her hair short, placed black curtains on her rooms, wore black clothes for the rest of her life, and finally withdrew from public life, to the point that she spent the entire month of August and the eighteenth day of every other month each year reclining alone in her rooms; she herself wrote that she barely recognized herself and had become, without her husband's love, like an animal, deprived of reason.

The emperor's death also opened the way for the succession of his eldest son Joseph, who was elected emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and took, on September 17, 1765, the role of co-regent of the archduchy of Austria that had been Francis's, in order to keep the Habsburg dominions intact and, upon the death of Marshal Leopold Joseph Daun, also the supreme command of the armed forces.

According to the historian Robert A. Kann, Maria Theresa was a monarch of above-average qualifications, but intellectually inferior to Joseph and Leopold: the queen possessed a warm heart, practical mind, firm determination and perspicacity; she was ready to recognize the mental superiority of some of her advisors and to accept their advice, but in any case the relationship with her son was complicated.

Indeed, although Maria Theresa and Joseph did not lack intelligence and human warmth, their personalities were quite divergent and they rarely saw each other in public, a fact that often created sharp contrasts in the state administration, to the point that both resorted to the threat of abdicating their roles.

One of the most notorious incidents of conflict between mother and son was the partition of Poland: the hypothesis, in fact, agreed upon by Joseph and Kaunitz together with Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine II of Russia, saw the firm opposition of Maria Theresa, who considered it dishonorable and unjust; only after long discussions, Maria Theresa, convinced by her son that Prussia and Russia would move even without Austrian support, decided to accept the annexation of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria; cynically, Frederick II commented, "The more she cries, the more she takes."

Death

For much of her life Maria Theresa enjoyed excellent physical health (even in the middle of winter she kept her windows open), until, in 1767, she was struck down by a severe attack of smallpox. From this, according to many historians, she never fully recovered, and in her later years she began to suffer from asthma, asthenia, a persistent cough, necrophobia, insomnia and, finally, edema.

Surprised by an autumn thunderstorm, on November 24, 1780, Maria Theresa began to suffer from the effects of a pneumonia that had struck her, and it was soon understood, based on the diagnoses of the court archiatrician, Dr. Störk, that her condition had now become particularly critical. Over the next four days she grew weaker and weaker and then asked for last rites. She passed away at nine o'clock in the evening of November 29, surrounded by her loved ones. According to her wishes, she was buried in Vienna in the Imperial Crypt, next to her husband.

Frederick the Great, for a long time his rival, upon learning of the sovereign's passing said that Maria Theresa by her presence had given honor and luster to his throne, to all the women of the world, and that although he had fought her in three wars, he never considered her his enemy. With her death, the House of Habsburg also died out and was replaced by the House of Habsburg-Lorraine. Emperor Joseph II, already co-ruler of the Habsburg dominions, became its sole ruler, ushering in a new era of profound reforms.

Historical judgment

The archduchess had inherited a state in crisis due to diplomatic failures and military defeats, now nearing decline. After forty years of reign, she left her son Joseph, first of the Habsburg-Lorraine, a revitalized state with an efficient military, economic, and administrative system. The acquisition of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomiria and the privileges granted to the Hungarian nobility, however, accentuated its multinational character, and, conversely, the introduction of compulsory schooling as a means of spreading German culture also triggered, as a reaction, the revival of Czech culture and the awakening of various nationalisms.

Maria Theresa understood in her lifetime the importance of her public persona and was able to gain esteem and affection from her subjects. Her rule has been judged by historians as an unprecedented success, particularly when compared to that of her predecessors. His reforms significantly transformed the Holy Roman Empire and Austria above all into a modern state with a significant international role. He centralized and modernized all institutions, and his reign is regarded as the beginning of the era of "enlightened absolutism" in Austria with a new way of conceiving government: the measures taken by the ruler became more modern and rational, in the interest of all the people.

Institutions

Although of rather conservative views (especially compared to those of her son and successor, Joseph), she implemented major reforms in the administrative and legal spheres so as to strengthen Austria's economic and military capabilities: first, Maria Theresa commissioned Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz to establish a permanent standing army of 108,000 soldiers, subject directly to the control of the central government, to pay for which Haugwitz rationalized the tax system, establishing a land registry system and also requiring the clergy and nobility to pay taxes.

With this reform, therefore, the principle of legal equality with respect to the state and public functions, between the patriciate and the bourgeoisie was essentially affirmed: in fact, if everyone was required to contribute according to a percentage of their wealth, the assumption of a privileged status for the nobility fell away; the criterion of entrusting tax administration to "corps" or the "firm" (contracting out collection to private individuals), was replaced by a new subject, the taxpayer, in direct relationship with the state.

As a result, between 1754 and 1764, Maria Theresa was able to double tax revenues and raise the 14 million annual florins needed for the army, and although the extension of tax liability to clergy and nobility as well was only a partial success, nevertheless, the reform had a positive outcome on the economy.

In May 1749, Maria Theresa oversaw the unification of the chancelleries of the Austrian and Bohemian dominions, while the central administration of judicial affairs was entrusted to a separate body; finally, in 1760, she established the Council of State, consisting of a chancellor and six members (three representing the high aristocracy and three representing the petty nobility), which, although it had only advisory functions, highlighted the difference with other "enlightened" despots (among them Frederick II) who exercised their prerogatives directly and personally.

Medicine and hygiene

Following the death of her sister, Archduchess Maria Anna, Maria Theresa recruited physician Gerard van Swieten to serve at court as her personal physician and to reform the health care system by building a hospital in Vienna and revamping medical studies; thereafter, Maria Theresa entrusted Van Swieten with the task of studying the problem of infant mortality in Austria, and on the doctor's recommendation, the queen sanctioned that the hospital in the city of Graz (Austria's second-largest city) should perform autopsies for all deaths that occurred, so as to ensure adequate data for medical research.

Then, Maria Theresa banned the construction of cemeteries without prior government permission, thus countering wasteful and unhygienic burial customs; finally, the decision in 1767 to subject one's children to vaccination was essential to overcome the opposition to the practice, repeatedly expressed by the academic community. It was Maria Theresa herself who inaugurated vaccination by hosting a dinner for 65 children at Schoenbrunn Palace.

Justice

In matters of law, Maria Theresa oversaw the compilation of the Codex theresianus, begun in 1752 and finished in 1766, which regulated personal rights, real rights and obligations.

The text of the code, which was divided into three books, consisted of 8,000 articles that were originally intended to become the sole legal source; however, opposition from Chancellor Kaunitz, who considered the code to be too closely aligned with common law and local rights, as well as overly verbose, prevented its promulgation.

In addition, in 1776, at the urging of her son, Joseph, she outlawed the practice of witch hunting, reduced the criminal offenses punishable by capital punishment, and abolished torture; the slow and severe travail with which Austria practiced these reforms has been explained by many historians by the fact that Maria Theresa, born and raised in the late Baroque age, adapted with extreme difficulty and reluctance to the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Education and schooling

Realizing the inadequacy of the bureaucracy in Austria, Maria Theresa in 1774 issued her Allgemeine Schulordnung für die deutschen Normal-, Haupt und Trivialschulen in sämmtlichen Kayserlichen Königlichen Erbländern (General School Regulations for German Normal, Upper and Elementary Schools in all Imperial and Royal Hereditary Lands), thus reforming the school system. This regulation stipulated that every child between the ages of six and 12 should compulsorily attend school. This regulation was met with strong hostility in many areas and did not have the desired outcome for the sovereign. Indeed, in some areas of Austria, half the population was still illiterate in the 19th century, but the regulation was important because it established the principle of the value of free, public education.

He also allowed non-Catholic students the right to attend the university and reorganized its courses of study, promoting the introduction of law subjects and making sure that professors were chosen with special reference to professional ability; finally, in order to ensure uniform preparation, it was sanctioned that only universities would be able to guarantee the degree, depriving professional colleges or those reserved for the nobility.

Censorship

Maria Theresa's government also became notorious for the censorship it systematically applied to publications. English author Sir Nathaniel Wraxall wrote in one of his letters from Vienna, "The insulting bigotry of the Empress is particularly to be attributed to a deficiency of her culture. It is hard to believe but there are many books and productions of every kind, in every language, which have been forbidden by her. Not only Voltaire and Rousseau are among those included in the list, because of the immoral tendencies and licentious nature of their writings, but even authors whom we consider absolutely harmless have been given such treatment." The censorship particularly affected those works that the sovereign considered to be contrary to the Catholic religion and its principles. Ironically, for this purpose, Maria Theresa was assisted by Gerard van Swieten, considered an "enlightened" man.

Economy

Maria Theresa was particularly committed to improving the standard of living of her people, mainly because she saw in this reform a link between the standard of living of the poorest classes of workers (the peasants) and the productivity and income of the state. The Theresian government also attempted to strengthen the industrial sector through government intervention. After the loss of Silesia, Maria Theresa increased subsidies and trade barriers to encourage the movement of Silesian textile industries to northern Bohemia. Instead, she countered ancient guild privileges (of medieval origin) and internal duties on trade (particularly on the Austro-Bohemian axis).

Another point of economic reform during Maria Theresa's reign was undoubtedly the regulation of the peasantry's relationship with the state. As reluctant as the Empress was initially to have her government intervene in this regard, she eventually became convinced that the operation of a bureaucracy closer to the common citizen would greatly benefit the state ultimately and reduce peasant protests and the abuse of feudal rights by aristocrats. In 1771-1778 a series of Robotpatenten were signed by Maria Theresa to regulate and restrict the working hours of peasants in Germany and Bohemia. The aim was to ensure that peasants could not only support themselves and their families, but also that they could ensure that they could contribute in the event of war to the welfare of the state. However, these reforms were strenuously opposed by the Hungarian aristocracy.

Maria Theresa and Lombardy

One of the territories that most benefited from Maria Theresa's rule was the Duchy of Milan, whose economic and social conditions in the early 1700s were quite precarious, due to the effects of the wars and plagues of the previous century as well as the inefficient Spanish administration that had been unable to manage the economic stagnation and the severe crisis in Lombard manufacturing sectors.

As for the cadastre, completed by Pompeo Neri at the Empress's behest (which precisely from her took the name Catasto Teresiano), its importance lies in the particular mechanism of its operation: of each landed estate, an annuity of four percent was presumed, which thus became the fixed taxable base for calculating the land tax; income above four percent, as well as any profit from an increase in income, was exempt.

The introduction of the cadastre had two positive effects: first, it called for social strata that had hitherto paid no taxes to contribute; second, it made it convenient to increase agricultural rents, since such increases would in any case be tax-free; it was precisely this second factor that spurred the nobility to take better care of their estates, entrusting them to a new figure, that of the tenant farmer, who, upon payment of a fee, assumed the management of the estate in such a way as to achieve a profit, particularly through the transformation of open fields and properties cultivated by sharecroppers into pastures for obtaining meat and dairy products.

Next came administrative reform, which resulted in both the abolition, in stages, of the procurement of public services (salt, customs, post, transportation, tobacco) and the reform of administrative districts and local public bodies: each municipality was recognized as having a "convenor," i.e., a council composed of the leading landowners, who would elect both the mayor of the municipality and an advisory delegation to the provincial constituency (at the top was retained the Senate of Milan, which, however, lost its administrative functions to a second body, the Council of Government chaired by the Chancellor, the actual head of the entire public administration.

Equally important was the gradual abolition of internal duties and guilds (replaced by the Supreme Economic Council and later by a full-fledged department), as, by breaking down all the prohibitions that hindered the free movement of labor, it enabled entrepreneurs to take advantage of the surplus labor from the countryside to hire more and more workers on a permanent basis so that they could work textile yarns in the establishments and operate the employer's looms; in essence, albeit at the cost of widespread proletarianization of the artisan class, there was a shift from artisan manufacturing activities to full-fledged industrial activities.

In ecclesiastical matters, Maria Theresa's initiative saw the abolition of the tax exemptions enjoyed by churches and monasteries and the suppression of religious censorship; finally, in the cultural sphere, the Palatine Schools in Milan were reorganized and the reconstruction of the old ducal theater was decreed; thus the Teatro alla Scala was born.

Reforms in the religious field

Like all members of the House of Habsburg, Maria Theresa was an ardent Catholic and believed that religious unity was necessary to ensure a peaceful public life, so much so that she several times explicitly rejected the idea of guaranteeing a form of religious tolerance; in any case, Maria Theresa also steadfastly rejected the Church's meddling in her prerogatives as monarch and personally controlled the selection of archbishops, bishops and abbots.

For these reasons, her approach to religion differed from that of her predecessors: influenced by Jansenist ideas, she supported conversion to Catholicism by granting economic subsidies to the newly converted and tolerated the Greek Orthodox Church, which she considered equal to the Catholic Church. Finally, she herself was known for an extremely austere and ascetic life, especially during her long widowhood. Relations with the Apostolic See were of greater continuity with Clement XIII's successor, Clement XIV, who suppressed the Jesuit Order, whose property Maria Theresa forfeited for her own state, was a promoter of the Orders of Chivalry, including the Military Order of Maria Theresa and the Order of Charles III (the latter Spanish), and was an orthodox and austere promoter of Church unity and knowledge: Clement XIV composed "the history of the Benedictine Order and directed the laborious edition of the liturgical books of the Eastern Church; he was consulter of the Holy Office in Rome." Within three months of his election, the pontificate began with Decet Quam Maxime, his first encyclical, which called clerics back to the Council of Trent, particularly with respect to episodes of simony. In the same years, the Empress of Austria completed the building of the Benedictine library in Admont.

The relationship between Maria Theresa and the Society of Jesus was very complex: in fact, members of the order had been the queen's educators and confessors since before her accession to the throne, governesses to the crown prince and influential figures in the country's ecclesiastical and political life.

The Jesuits remained a particularly powerful order during the early part of Maria Theresa's reign; however, later the empress's ministers managed to convince her that the Jesuits could become a danger to monarchical authority; not without hesitation, Maria Theresa decided to remove them from public office, then exiled them.

Although she eventually gave up trying to convert her non-Catholic subjects to Roman Catholicism, Maria Theresa regarded both Jews and Protestants as dangerous to the state and actively sought to expel them.

Maria Theresa, in fact, had very strong anti-Jewish prejudices, stating that they were a real plague because of their banking and therefore should be shunned and expelled. In 1777 the Empress wrote: "I know that there is no greater plague than this race, which by its deceit, usury and avarice is driving my subjects to misery. Therefore as far as possible the Jews must be avoided and kept away from my people." To undermine Jewish business in Vienna, he even accepted the presence of the well-known Protestant financier and businessman Johann Fries (Swiss by birth), while trying to impose heavy taxation on Jewish communities.

In December 1744, Maria Theresa ordered her ministers to expel Jews from Austria and Bohemia by the following month; her initial idea was to deport the empire's entire Jewish community from January 1, but on the advice of her ministers who calculated that this might mean moving 50,000 people, she extended the timeline until June 1745. The order to expel the Jews had to be revised in 1748 under pressure from other countries, including in particular Britain where the main Austrian communities had poured in. Instead, Maria Theresa succeeded in deporting 20,000 Jews from Prague on charges of infidelity at the time of the Franco-Bavarian occupation during the War of Austrian Succession. The order was later extended to all Jews in Bohemia and to all communities in the major cities of Moravia.

At the same time, she had the Protestant population transferred from Austria (there were 2,600 in Upper Austria alone) to Transylvania, but she preferred to abandon the idea of relocating Protestants "en masse" because this would have had too many practical, demographic and economic complications. It was not until 1777, after her son, Joseph, had threatened to abdicate in protest of his mother's decisions, that Maria Theresa renounced the policy of converting religious minorities and agreed that the non-Catholic population could perform religious rites privately. Nevertheless, her son Joseph regarded his mother's religious policy as "unjust, impious, impossible, harmful and ridiculous."

Finally, in the last decade of the reign, influenced by her son and a Jewish courtier Abraham Mendel Theben, Maria Theresa softened her anti-Jewish stances: in 1762, she banned the forced baptism of Jewish children; the following year, she ordered the clergy to cease all patrimonial exactions against Jews; in 1764, she ordered the release of Jews unjustly accused in the village of Orkuta; and finally, she supported Jewish commercial and industrial activity.

The policies of Maria Theresa's government toward the Orthodox were marked by a certain special interest, not only because of the particular and complex religious situation in the eastern regions of the Habsburg monarchy, inhabited by Orthodox Christians such as Serbs and Romanians, but also because of the Habsburg court's political aspirations for the neighboring lands of southeastern Europe, still subject to a now-decaying Ottoman Empire, but inhabited precisely by a population with a majority Orthodox faith.

Maria Theresa reconfirmed (1743) and continued to uphold the ancient privileges granted to her subjects of the Orthodox faith granted at the time by her predecessors (Leopold I, Joseph I, and Charles VI), but at the same time she proposed new reforms, for example by establishing tighter state control over the Karlovci metropolitanate. These reforms were initiated through royal patents known as Regulamentum privilegiorum (1770) and Regulamentum Illyricae Nationis (1777), and concluded in 1779 by the publication of the Declaratory Act of the Illyrian Nation, an all-encompassing document regulating the main aspects of the religious life of the Orthodox subjects of the Karlovci metropolitanate. This last act of Maria Theresa remained in use until 1868.

Over the course of twenty years, Maria Theresa gave birth to sixteen children, thirteen of whom survived infancy. After a year of marriage, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Habsburg-Lorraine (who died at just 3 years of age) was born, then Maria Anna and Maria Carolina, who, however, died at just 1 year of age. Finally, during the War of the Austrian Succession, at the most critical time for the survival of the dynasty, the long-awaited heir, Joseph, was born. In the course of the conflict, Maria Christina (the favorite daughter), who came into the world on the queen's 25th birthday, was also born, then Maria Elisabeth, Archduke Charles, Maria Amalia, Leopold, and again Maria Carolina who died on September 17, 1748.

Five children were born during the peace between the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years' War: Maria Giovanna, Maria Josephine, Maria Carolina, Ferdinand and Maria Antonia. The last child, Maximilian Franz, was born during the Seven Years' War. Maria Theresa herself stated that if she had not always been busy with her pregnancies, she would have participated directly in the battles.

In 1750 her mother, the widowed Empress Elisabeth Christine, died, followed four years later by her housekeeper, Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, who, by Maria Theresa's express order, was buried along with members of the imperial family in gratitude for her service.

With her children, Maria Theresa was extremely devoted and affectionate but often sacrificed their personal happiness in advantageous dynastic marriages, and even when they were settled, she did not fail to send weekly letters to bring them advice and criticism: she often accused Leopold of coldness, Maria Carolina of being too concerned with political matters, Ferdinand of having poor gifts as an administrator, Maria Amalia for haughtiness, and finally Maria Antoinette who, even after her marriage to Louis, Dauphin of France, received long letters of criticism regarding frivolous and idle pastimes and for the lack of an heir.

Her family life was affected not only by the death of her husband in 1765 but also by the death of her daughter Maria Josephine: in fact, in May 1767, Maria Theresa contracted smallpox from her daughter-in-law, the wife of Emperor Joseph. When her daughter-in-law died, she forced her daughter Maria Joséphine to follow her for a prayer before the unsealed tomb of the deceased; after a few days, Maria Joséphine began to show symptoms of smallpox and soon died. For Maria Theresa, this was a very hard loss since throughout her life she believed that her daughter had caught smallpox in the course of the prayer she had forced on her (in fact, today it can be said, considering the incubation time of the virus, that the archduchess was most likely infected a few weeks before her visit to the tomb).

Francis Stephen and Maria Theresa had sixteen children, of whom four boys and six girls reached adulthood.

Sources

1. Maria Theresa
2. Maria Teresa d'Austria
3. ^ Members of the Habsburg dynasty often married their close relatives; examples of such inbreeding were uncle-niece pairs (Maria Theresa's grandfather Leopold and Margaret Theresa of Spain, Philip II of Spain and Anna of Austria, Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria, etc). Maria Theresa, however, descended from Leopold I's third wife who was not closely related to him, and her parents were only distantly related. Beales 1987, pp. 20–1.
4. ^ Rather than using the formal manner and speech, Maria Theresa spoke (and sometimes wrote) Viennese German, which she picked up from her servants and ladies-in-waiting. Spielman 1993, p. 206.
5. ^ Formalmente Maria Teresa ebbe il titolo di Rex al maschile in quanto la monarchia magiara non riconosceva la successione femminile al trono.
6. ^ Formalmente Maria Teresa fu soltanto l'imperatrice consorte, così come lo erano state sua madre e tutte le sue antenate. Nella pratica, in realtà, fu lei a gestire le redini del comando, non solo dei domini ereditari asburgici, di cui era l'autonoma sovrana riconosciuta, ma anche dell'impero. Le corti e le cancellerie estere si riferivano spesso a lei con il titolo congiunto di “Imperatrice regina”. Si vedano ad esempio le pubblicazioni ufficiali dopo la sua morte: Funerali in morte dell'augusta imperatrice regina Maria Teresa d'Austria, madre della Maestà della nostra regina celebrati nella real chiesa di S. Lorenzo dall'eccellentissima e fedelissima città di Napoli, nel dì 15 di gennajo 1781 (Napoli, 1781), il primo in quanto consorte dell'imperatore, il secondo in quanto regina regnante di due Stati (Boemia e Ungheria).
7. Kapuzinergruft. «Erzherzogin Maria Karolina: Kapuzinergruft - Wien». kapuzinergruft.com (en alemán). Consultado el 16 de diciembre de 2020.
8. Wolfsspur Magazin (Hrsg.): Eine Frau in männlichen Zeiten. Nr. 2/2017, S. 30 - 33.
9. a b c Walter Pohl, Karl Vocelka: Die Habsburger. Eine europäische Familiengeschichte. Herausgegeben von Brigitte Vacha. Graz 1992, S. 288.