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Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria
Schönbrunn Palace began its life as a hunting ground for Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II. Eleanora Gonzaga loved hunting there and spent much time at the palace. It was bequeathed to her as her...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Birth of Maria Carolina
On 12 January 1740, a third daughter was born to Maria Theresa and her husband Duke Francis of Lorraine. The child was named Maria Carolina and was born at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. The birth of...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Birth of Maria Elisabeth
On 5 February 1737 Maria Theresa gave birth to her first child, named Maria Elisabeth. The birth of a daughter was a great disappointment as a son and heir would have solidified her mother’s position...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: Marriage to Francis of Lorraine
On 12th February 1736, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria married Duke Francis Stephan III of Lorraine. The pair had known each other since childhood and were distant cousins. Maria Theresa’s family...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: Birth of Maria Amalia
As a continuation of our series regarding “The Year of Maria Theresa,” we take a look at the birth and life of her daughter, Maria Amalia. On 26 February 1746, Maria Theresa gave birth to her eighth...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: Battle of Mollwitz
The Battle of Mollwitz occurred on 10 April 1741 between Prussia and Austria. At this point, Austria was in the beginning stages of the War of the Austrian Succession. It took place in Mollowitz,...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Pragmatic Sanction 1713
On 19 April 1713 Maria-Theresa’s father, Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor and head of the House of Hapsburg, issued his Pragmatic Sanction, an imperial decree designed to ensure that his hereditary lands...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Coronation as Queen of Bohemia
In 1740, Maria Theresa should have succeeded her father as ruler of Bohemia as part of her hereditary claim. The accession did not go as planned. Doubts over Maria Theresa’s right to rule, as a woman,...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Birth of a future Empress
On 13 May 1717, Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina, the future Holy Roman Empress, was born to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in the early morning...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Maria Theresa contracts smallpox
In May 1767 Maria Theresa celebrated her 50th birthday but an epidemic was coming to the household. Maria Josepha of Bavaria, her daughter-in-law, was the first one to fall ill and Maria Theresa was...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: Birth of Ferdinand
The fourth son and fourteenth child of Maria Theresa and her husband Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor was born on 1 June 1754. The baby Archduke was named Ferdinand Karl. As one of the last children of...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Coronation as Queen of Hungary
When Maria Theresa inherited the Habsburg lands in 1740 on the death of her father, the only part of her empire that seemed secure was Hungary. The Hungarian Diet (parliament) had previously agreed to...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: The Ceding of Lorraine
The marriage of Maria Theresa and Francis of Lorraine came with quite a few consequences. Francis had succeeded his father as Duke of Lorraine in 1729, but as part of a solution to the War of the...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: The death of Francis Stephen
On 18 August 1765, Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor died. The fifty-six-year-old Emperor who was in good health at the time and he had been in Innsbruck with his court celebrating the marriage of his son...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: The Exhumation Order
Maria Theresa was very much her father’s daughter and one of the things she inherited from him was her fascination concerning the exhumation of her distant ancestors. The remains of Elizabeth of...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Holy Roman Empress
When Maria Theresa’s father, Emperor Charles VI died in 1740; Maria Theresa’s sex meant that she was barred from becoming Holy Roman Empress in her own right. However, she did inherit many of her...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: the second Maria Carolina
In continuation of our “Year of Maria Theresa” series, we take a look at the birth of (the second) Maria Carolina. Born on 17 September 1748, Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria was born to Maria...
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The Year of Maria Theresa: Maria Anna – The Learned Abbess
Archduchess Maria Anna or Marianna) of Austria was born on 6 October 1738 at the Hofburg Palace as the eldest surviving daughter of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis of Lorraine. As the eldest...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: The tragic death of Maria Josepha
Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria (Maria Josepha Gabriela Johanna Antonia Anna), the twelfth child of Maria Theresa I, Holy Roman Empress and Francis of Lorraine, was born on 19 March 1751 in...
View ArticleThe Year of Maria Theresa: Death of her father – Charles VI
On 20 October 1740, Archduchess Maria Theresa suffered the loss of her father – Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor. When Maria Theresa was born on 13 May 1717, the Holy Roman Emperor was quite disappointed...
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