Maria Theresa
ma-ria te-re'sa (1717-1780), empress of Germany. She was the daughter of the Emperor Charles VI of Austria. By a royal decree of 1713, known in history as the Pragmatic Sanction, Charles arranged the order in which his heirs should succeed him. After prolonged negotiations he secured the assent of the nations to the provisions of the act. Maria Theresa's only brother died in 1724. She then became the next heir to the Austrian dominions. In 1736 she married Francis of Lorraine. At her father's death, in 1740, she was crowned ruler of Austria-Hungary and Bohemia. The Emperor chosen by the electors lived but a few years, when her husband was chosen emperor of Germany, with the name of Francis I. Her reign as queen was marked by the attacks of her neighbors and the loss of territory--Silesia to Frederick the Great of Prussia, and Parma and other Italian territory to Spain. A cousin laid claim to the throne, bringing on the War of the Austrian Succession, closed by the famous treaty of Aixla-Chapelle in 1748. Later she engaged in a terrible struggle, known in Europe as the Seven Years' War, in America as the French and Indian War. She acquired territory at the expense of Turkey, however, and fell heir to a considerable portion of Poland at the first partition of that unfortunate country. The strongest supporters of the Queen were the Hungarian nobles to whom she restored many old time privileges.
The queen had sixteen children. One of her daughters was the ill-fated Marie Antoinette of France. By all accounts, Maria Theresa was a beautiful, high-minded, patriotic woman. She ruled her people wisely, encouraging agriculture and higher education. She was a strict Catholic and suppressed the Protestants. In spite of the cares of state, she brought up her children wisely and left them an unblemished reputation.
See Frederick Ii; Poland; Pragmatic Sanction; Marie Antoinette
Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), queen of France. She was the daughter of Francis I and the celebrated Maria Theresa. She was born at Vienna, November 2, 1755, and suffered death under the guillotine in the Place de la Concorde, Paris, on the morning of October 16, 1793. While a mere child she was married to the French dauphin, afterward Louis XVI. She came to maturity under the frivolous influence of the French court. She was handsome and well fitted to be the center of a brilliant drawing-room assembly, but she had no practical knowledge,--no thought for the needs of the French people. Though lovely and high spirited, she was ignorant, and, it would seem, selfish, not to say frivolous. In important matters of state she had no deeper sense of responsibility than to restrain her husband, the king, from needed steps by pouting and joining her influence to that of self-seeking courtiers who feared loss of personal privileges. Turgot and Necker, able finance ministers of the king, found her obstinate, set against concessions to the people, and opposed to their influence with the king. Her scale of expenditure led the financiers to dub her "Madame Deficit."
She consorted with the dissipated element of the court altogether too much and gave opportunity for unfounded reports to get abroad. The people of Paris believed her heartless and worse. Stories of her thoughtless extravagance in the midst of dire starvation reached the hungry women of Paris and made them hate her. While she was squandering the people's money on worthless jewelry their children were in tatters. When the Revolution came on she was believed to be in correspondence with the Austrians with a view to an invasion of France by foreign troops. She encouraged the king to flee from France, and was with him when he was arrested and brought back to Paris. Her execution was delayed nearly a year beyond that of the king.
Speaking of her when she came to Versailles, the bride of the young Louis, says Burke, "Surely never lightened on this orb, which she scarcely seemed to touch, a more delightful vision--full of life, and splendor and joy." Years later, her hair whitened with anguish, and her face seamed with sorrow, she rode in a common cart, but with dauntless bearing, to the place of execution. Screaming fishwives and market women, delirious with joy, ran by her side, and sent up a cheer when the merciless blade of the guillotine fell.
The apartments occupied by Marie Antoinette in the palace of Versailles are still known by her name. Her favorite walks in the great park and the cottage where the ladies of the court played at being peasants are still shown. Her life has been compared with that of Mary, Queen of Scots. Both were well born, high spirited, charming women; fate dealt harshly with both; but here the similarity ends. Marie had less responsibility, less opportunity, less knowledge. Her personal life was free from taint of vice.