Maria Theresa
b. 1717, Vienna; d. 1780, Vienna
Archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740–80), Maria Theresa succeeded to the Habsburg domain and the title of Holy Roman empress in 1740. The early years of her rule were marked by war with Prussia (1740–48), which contested her claims to the Habsburg territories, but in the end she preserved the bulk of her inheritance. She and her husband, Francis Stephen, ruled jointly until his death in 1765, at which point she became supreme sovereign. The couple had sixteen children, ten of whom survived to adulthood. Although not an advocate of Enlightenment ideals, many of Maria Theresa’s domestic policies paved the way for a new age. She centralized government administration, curbed the power of the church in secular affairs, modernized the university system through which she introduced a rudimentary public health service, established a type of poor law and limited the use of forced labor, reformed the legal system, and laid the foundations for compulsory primary education.
Related Place Setting
Related Heritage Floor Entries
- Anna Sophia
- Anne Bacon
- Catherine II
- Catherine of Aragon
- Georgiana Cavendish
- Christina of Sweden
- Jeanne D’Albret
- Elizabeth Danviers
- Maria de Coste Blanche
- Penette de Guillet
- Isabella de Joya Roseres
- Maria-Christine de Lalaing
- Catherine Fisher
- Kenau Hasselaer
- Elizabeth Hoby
- Isabella of Castile
- Jadwiga
- Jane of Sutherland
- Sarah Jennings
- Helene Kottauer
- Lilliard
- Isabella Losa
- Elizabeth Lucar
- Margaret of Austria
- Margaret of Desmond
- Margaret of Navarre
- Margaret of Scandinavia
- Mary of Hungary
- Gracia Mendesa
- Grace O’Malley
- Catherine Pavlovna
- Elizabeth Petrovna
- Philippa of Hainault
- Oliva Sabuco
- Mary Sidney
- Sophia of Mechlenberg
- Elizabeth Talbot
- Jane Weston