therealcalicali reblogged
therealcalicali reblogged
historicwomendaily celebration week: Favourite Matriarch
Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina (German: Maria Theresia; 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780) was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.
Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, had sixteen children, including the Queen of France (Maria Antonia/Marie Antoinette), the Queen of Naples and Sicily (Maria Carolina), the Duchess of Parma (Maria Amalia) and two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II. Out of the sixteen, nine of them did not make it to adulthood. She had eleven daughters and five sons. Though she was expected to cede power to Francis and Joseph, both of whom were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled by the counsel of her advisers. Maria Theresa promulgated financial and educational reforms, with the assistance of Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz and Gerard van Swieten, promoted commerce and the development of agriculture, and reorganised Austria’s ramshackle military, all of which strengthened Austria’s international standing.
Pictured: Maria Theresia (Ausschnitt), Werkstatt des Martin van Meytens (1745)