![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Though she was expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Francis I, and her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the counsel of her advisers. Maria Theresa later unsuccessfully tried to recover Silesia during the Seven Years' War. During the course of the war, Maria Theresa successfully defended her rule over most of the Habsburg monarchy, apart from the loss of Silesia and a few minor territories in Italy. In defiance of the grave situation, she managed to secure the vital support of the Hungarians for the war effort. Frederick II of Prussia (who became Maria Theresa's greatest rival for most of her reign) promptly invaded and took the affluent Habsburg province of Silesia in the eight-year conflict known as the War of the Austrian Succession. Moreover, upon his death, Saxony, Prussia, Bavaria, and France all repudiated the sanction they had recognised during his lifetime. Eventually, Charles VI left behind a weakened and impoverished state, particularly due to the War of the Polish Succession and the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739). He neglected the advice of Prince Eugene of Savoy, who believed that a strong military and a rich treasury were more important than mere signatures. Charles VI paved the way for her accession with the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 and spent his entire reign securing it. Maria Theresa started her 40-year reign when her father, Emperor Charles VI, died on 20 October 1740. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina ( German: Maria Theresia – 29 November 1780) was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure (in her own right). Maximilian Francis, Archbishop-Elector of CologneĮlisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel.Maria Carolina, Queen of Naples and Sicily.Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla.The empress did not practise the sublime virtue of tolerance for what is called illegitimate love. In his memoirs he wrote:Ī legion of vile spies, who were decorated with the fine title of Commissaries of Chastity, were the merciless tormentors of all pretty girls. The famous Venetian author and adventurer Giacomo Casanova was wholly undeterred by the criminalization of adultery. The estimated number of prostitutes in Vienna at this time was of the order of 10,000 ‘common’ and 6,000 ‘high-class’ prostitutes. It is rumoured that Maria Theresa reacted so severely on matters of adultery because of the infidelities of her husband Franz Stephan. Women could be confined to convents for years at a time. Men were subject to large fines and even to the possible forfeiting of their military career. She established a Chastity Commission which existed in Vienna from 1751 to 1769 and spied on the activities of particularly libidinous noblemen. In her battle against unchaste conduct Maria Theresa did not even spare the upper classes. There were also the notorious ‘Temesvarer Wasserschübe’, where whores, criminals and antisocial elements were deported by boat to the Banat region. ‘Incorrigible females’ were sentenced to forced labour in penitentiaries and ‘prison factories’ where they were set to work at spinning frames. Harsh penalties for prostitution were also to be found in the Constitutio Criminalis Theresiana, Maria Theresa’s code of law. Prostitution was punished with fines, whipping and public pillorying in the ‘ Narrenkötterl’ (‘Fools’ Cage’). In previous centuries, for example in the time of Emperor Ferdinand II (1619 – 1637), ‘wanton females’ had been persecuted.
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