Maria Theresa (1717–1780) was once the most powerful woman in Europe. At the age of twenty-three, she ascended to the throne of the Habsburg Empire, a far-flung realm composed of diverse ethnicities and languages, beset on all sides by enemies and rivals. Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger provides the definitive biography of Maria Theresa, situating this exceptional empress within her time while dispelling the myths surrounding her.
Drawing on a wealth of archival evidence, Stollberg-Rilinger examines all facets of eighteenth-century society, from piety and patronage to sexuality and childcare, ceremonial life at court, diplomacy, and the everyday indignities of warfare. She challenges the idealized image of Maria Theresa as an enlightened reformer and mother of her lands who embodied both feminine beauty and virile bellicosity, showing how she despised the ideas of the Enlightenment, treated her children with relentless austerity, and mercilessly persecuted Protestants and Jews. Work, consistent physical and mental discipline, and fear of God were the principles Maria Theresa lived by, and she demanded the same from her family, her court, and her subjects.
A panoramic work of scholarship that brings Europe’s age of empire spectacularly to life, Maria Theresa paints an unforgettable portrait of the uncompromising yet singularly charismatic woman who left her enduring mark on the era in which she lived and reigned.
Author(s): Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Year: 2021
Language: English
Pages: 1104
City: New Jersey
Tags: LCSH: Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 1717–1780. | Austria—Kings and rulers—Biography. | Austria—History—Maria Theresa, 1740–1780.
CONTENTS
Translator’s Note xi
Map of Habsburg Territories xv
1 Prologue 1
Monumental History 1
Male Fantasies 6
An Extraordinary Ordinary Case 15
2 The Heiress Presumptive 19
Rituals and Relics 19
Theatrum Europaeum 30
Back Stage and Front Stage 35
Courtly Curriculum 39
Dynastic Chess Moves 43
The Wedding 50
The Court Cosmos 59
The Logic of Favor 63
Broker of Imperial Patronage 69
The Hapless Husband 76
Plate Section 1
3 The War of Succession 79
A Change of Rule 79
Loyal and Disloyal Hungarians 93
The Queen Is Naked 108
Waging War from Afar 127
Waging War Up Close 137
Pandurentheresl 141
4 Empress, Emperor, Empire 156
Imperial Coronation 156
Francis I 161
Imperial Politics 167
Loyal Clients 177
5 Reforms 187
The Machinery of State 187
Old Customs 194
A New System 202
“I Am No Longer What I Was …” 221
Change of Favorites 229
Another New System 245
The Legacy of Reform 250
Plate Section 2
6 Body Politics 253
Beauty 254
Love and Libertinage 259
Chastity Campaign 273
Rumors 278
Disciplining Subjects 288
Births 295
7 Distinctions and Refinements 320
Audiences 320
Commoners at Court 334
Distinctions and Refinements 351
The Lord of the Signs 355
Court Timetable 361
Work on Charisma 366
Solemnities and Diversions 376
Knights of the Round Table 389
8 The Seven Years’ War 399
Revenge 399
Seven Years’ War 413
Imperial War, Religious War 434
Media War, Information War 440
Disastrous Balance 451
9 Dynastic Capital 455
Little Lords and Ladies 455
Princely Pedagogy 463
Victims of Politics 477
Isabella of Parma 481
Another Victim 490
God and van Swieten 495
10 Mother and Son 507
Death in Innsbruck 507
An Emperor without a Country 519
How Enlightenment Came to the Court 523
Trials of Strength 530
The Regency Dilemma 543
Cutting Up the “Polish Cake” 552
Plate Section 3
11 The Religion of Rule 563
On Earth as It Is in Heaven 563
Rational Religion 569
Public and Private Religion 575
Church Policy 585
Vampires, Faith Healers, and Calendar Makers 596
Freethinkers and Fashionable Philosophers 605
12 Strangers Within 612
Unity and Diversity 613
“Fear and Loathing”: The Jews 617
“Incurable Mangy Sheep”: Crypto-Protestants 627
Our Good Turks 648
13 Subjects 661
Our Loyal Subjects 661
Information Overload 669
Diligence and Discipline 678
New Schools 685
Iustitia et Clementia 693
Rebellion in Bohemia 704
The Last War 720
14 The Autumn of the Matriarch 728
Fallen into the Sere 729
Alter Ego Maria Christina 736
Model Sons, Model States 742
Recalcitrant Daughters 751
Carolina of Naples 754
Amalia of Parma 762
Marie Antoinette 771
Maximilian 784
Stay-at-Homes 788
Bad Weather for a Great Journey 797
Plate Section 4
15 Epilogue 805
Princely Virtues 805
Control Fantasies 816
Out of Step 819
Acknowledgments 825
Abbreviations 827
Notes 829
References 963
Genealogical Tables 1022
Illustration Credits 1029
Index of Names 1033
