Catriona Seth

Catriona Seth is the Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at Oxford and a fellow of All Souls.

Both wish to rule: Empress Maria Theresa

Catriona Seth, 3 November 2022

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christine, as she was baptised in Vienna in 1717, did not expect to become queen – or ‘female king’ (rex femina) as she was known in several of her many lands. After observing the ravages of the War of the Spanish Succession, Charles VI issued the Pragmatic Sanction, an edict which aimed to ensure that his (as yet unborn) children –...

Maria Theresa: The Habsburg Empress in Her Time
by Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger, translated by Robert Savage.

Family and state were bound up together. Maria Theresa portrayed herself as a mother to her peoples so successfully that even subjects in far-flung possessions were willing to lay down their lives for her. She was also adept at countering accusations (many of them true) of her political naivety, ensuring that prints circulated showing her engaged with matters of state.

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