Maria Theresa
Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was the archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740-1780), who strengthened and unified the Austrian monarchy in the 18th century. Born in Vienna in 1717, she was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI. In 1736 she married Franz Stephen of Lorraine (later Holy Roman Emperor Franz I), and the couple eventually had sixteen children, including two future emperors, Josef II and Leopold II, and Marie Antoinette, later queen of France.
Karl VI's efforts to guarantee Maria Theresa's succession as ruler of the Habsburg dominions led to the War of the Austrian Succession. The war lost her Austrian Silesia, but she was able to retain her other dominions, and in 1745 she acquired the title of Holy Roman emperor for her husband. In the years after the war Maria Theresa accomplished sweeping internal reforms that strengthened her central administration and revitalized the army. With her state chancellor, Kaunitz, she also drastically reordered Austria's foreign policy, abandoning the traditional alignment with the United Kingdom in favor of collaboration with France and Russia against Prussia. After trying without success to reconquer Silesia in the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), she turned to a more pacific policy. On the advice of Kaunitz and her son Josef, however, she participated in the first partition of Poland (1772), thereby acquiring more territory.
After Franz's death in 1765 Maria Theresa recognized Josef as coregent but retained ultimate authority for herself. She largely resisted her son's desires for further internal reforms, although she did abolish serfdom on crown lands. Often pondering abdication, she always demurred because she considered Josef too rash, particularly in his religious policies. She died on in 1780, in Vienna.
Pious and faithful but skeptical toward the Enlightenment, Maria Theresa has often been considered a prime example of a traditional dynast. Her actions derived from a conviction that she held a trust from God and from a maternalistic conception of her responsibilities. She was, however, intensely pragmatic, conscious of the obligations of power, and a shrewd judge of her appointees.