General Notes

Maria Theresa (1717-80), archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and
Bohemia (1740-80), who strengthened and unified the Austrian monarchy in the
18th century. Born in Vienna on May 13, 1717, she was the daughter of Holy
Roman Emperor Charles VI. In 1736 she married Francis Stephen of Lorraine
(later Holy Roman Emperor Francis I), and the couple eventually had 16
children, including two future emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II, and Marie
Antoinette, later queen of France.

Succession and Rule
Charles VI's efforts to guarantee Maria Theresa's succession as ruler of the
Habsburg dominions led to the War of the Austrian Succession (see Austrian
Succession, War of the). The war lost her Austrian Silesia, but she was able
to retain her other dominions, and in 1745 she acquired the title of Holy
Roman emperor for her husband. In the years after the war Maria Theresa
accomplished sweeping internal reforms that strengthened her central
administration and revitalized the army. With her state chancellor, Wenzel
Anton von Kaunitz, she also drastically reordered Austria's foreign policy,
abandoning the traditional alignment with Great Britain in favor of
collaboration with France and Russia against Prussia. After trying without
success to reconquer Silesia in the Seven Years' War (1756-63), she turned to
a more pacific policy. On the advice of Kaunitz and her son Joseph, however,
she participated in the first partition of Poland (1772), thereby acquiring
Galicia.
After Francis's death in 1765 Maria Theresa recognized Joseph as coregent but
retained ultimate authority for herself. She largely resisted her son's
desires for further internal reforms, although she did abolish serfdom on
crown lands. Often pondering abdication, she always demurred because she
considered Joseph too rash, particularly in his religious policies. She died
on November 29, 1780, in Vienna.

Evaluation
Pious and faithful but unfriendly toward the Enlightenment, Maria Theresa has
often been dismissed as a traditional dynast. Her actions derived from a
conviction that she held a trust from God and from a maternalistic conception
of her responsibilities. She was, however, intensely pragmatic, conscious of
the obligations of power, and a shrewd judge of her ministers.