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Queen of Hungary25.6.1741

Wikipedia (05 Jun 2013, 10:12)

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina  (13 May1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions andthe last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereignof Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeriaand Galicia, theAustrian Netherlands and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchessof Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

She started her 40-year reign when herfather, Emperor Charles VI, died in October 1740. Charles VI pavedthe way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 andspent his entire reign securing it. Upon the death of her father, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria,and France all repudiated the sanction they had recognised during hislifetime. Prussia proceeded to invade the affluent Habsburg provinceof Silesia, sparking a nine-year conflict known as the War of theAustrian Succession. Maria Theresa would later unsuccessfully try to reconquerSilesia during the Seven Years' War.

Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, HolyRoman Emperor, had sixteen children, including Queen MarieAntoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, Duchess MariaAmalia of Parma and two Holy Roman Emperors, JosephII and Leopold II. Though she was expected to cede power to Francisand Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria andBohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled by the counselof her advisers. She criticised and disapproved of many of Joseph'sactions. Although she is considered to have been intellectually inferior toboth Joseph and Leopold, Maria Theresa understood the importance of herpublic persona and was able to simultaneously evoke both esteem and affectionfrom her subjects.

Maria Theresa promulgated financial andeducational reforms, with the assistance of Count Friedrich Wilhelm vonHaugwitz and Gerard van Swieten, promoted commerce and thedevelopment of agriculture, and reorganised Austria's ramshackle military, allof which strengthened Austria's international standing. However, she refused toallow religious toleration and contemporary travellers thought herregime was bigoted and superstitious. As a young monarch who fought twodynastic wars, she believed that her cause should be the cause of her subjects,but in her later years she would believe that their cause must be hers.



   
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