The Probert Encyclopaedia of People

MARIA THERESA

Maria Theresa was queen of Hungary and German empress. She was born in 1717 at Vienna and died in 1780. For nearly thirty years her father (Charles VI) endeavoured to secure for her the right of succession to the imperial crown. This he did by the Pragmatic Sanction in 1740. She married Francis of Lorraine, whom, when she was crowned at Pressburg in 1741, she nominated joint-regent with herself. Her succession was at once challenged by Charles Albert of Bavaria, supported by the French, by the elector of Saxony, and by the kings of Prussia, Spain and Sardinia. On the success of Charles, who was proclaimed emperor in 1742 as Charles VII, she took refuge in Hungary, and the Magyars helped her to win back her crown in 1748. Silesia, however, during the struggle was taken by the Prussians in 1742 and this gave rise fourteen years later to the Seven Years' War.

In 1772 Poland was partitioned by Catherine II of Russia, Frederick of Prussia and Maria Theresa, who acquired Red Russia. Between 1777 and 1779 Maria Theresa engaged in another war with Prussia. After 1763 the empress instituted many reforms in the army, justice, and education; opened the ports of Trieste and Fiume to trade; expelled the Jesuits and confiscated much church property; and abolished legal torture. With much of her later policy Count Von Kaunitz is associated. In honour of Marshal Leopold Daun's victory over the Prussians at Kolin in 1757, she instituted the military order bearing her name.
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