Maria Theresa is, perhaps, one of the most formidable and forgotten women who ruled in Europe. However, her place in female history is cemented by certain facts. Maria Theresa was the only female ruler of the Hapsburg dominions (today parts of Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland, and Ukraine). As you can, the dominions were far reaching, but let us take a closer look at the reign of this remarkable woman.
Maria Theresa ascended to the throne when her father, Emperor Charles VI died in 1740. He had originally planned for Maria to take over the throne upon his death, and he created the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 to secure her ascension. When he died, France, Poland, Saxony, and Bavaria repudiated the sanction, and caused the War of Austrian Succession. This conflict allowed Prussia to invade and take Silesia (an affluent state). Maria Theresa would later seek Silesia unsuccessfully during the Seven Years' War. She would hate the Prussian leader for the rest of her reign. Either way, her reign was established and lasted around 40 years.
She married Francis Stephen of Lorraine. This meant that in addition to her hereditary Hapsburg titles, she was also Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany, and Holy Roman Empress. Together, they would have sixteen children that would include Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, and two Roman Emperors. Though she was expected to give much of her power over to her husband, she was an absolute sovereign and disapproved/criticized many actions taken by her significant others. While doing this, she was also able to inspire confidence and even affection from her subjects because of her vast understanding of the public persona.
During her reign, Maria Theresa supported educational reforms. She also promoted commerce and the development of agriculture. All of this strengthened Austria's position on the international stage. By the time of the Seven Years' War, Austria was a formidable foe. However, when its allies France and Russia pulled out of the war, it was left defenseless against the Prussians and British. Fortunately, the peace talks soon began, and an invasion of Austria proper was avoided. The peace following the war extracted harsh penalties from the French, but Austria was given a status quo ante bellum (or it was given the same status as it had before the war).
One criticism of Maria Theresa was that she did not support religious toleration. Contemporary visitors of her lands often described her reign as being very bigoted and superstitious. While some may call this criticism an exaggeration, almost all sources agree that she was a bigoted individual.
In the end, Maria Theresa was a successful monarch who inspired the love of her people. She promoted reforms that kept Austria an active player on the world stage. She also kept a lot of her power, and she did not yield to any man. In her early years, she often thought that the way of the world was that her subjects should embrace any cause that she deemed important. However, towards the end of her reign, she felt that the people's cause should be the causes of the monarch. Also, her impressive lineage of children are almost all important figures throughout the history of Europe.
Maria Theresa likely never fully recovered from a smallpox illness that she got in 1767, but she did recover enough to resume her reign. Regardless, she got sick of a chill in 1780, and she died shortly after. Her son, Joseph (who was already her co-ruler at that time) succeeded her. She left a revitalized empire that became an example for much of 19th Century Europe.
Her Wikipedia Page
Her King's College Page
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