Maria Theresa inherited an empire of promises and almost nothing else
Charles VI spent his whole reign collecting foreign signatures pledging that his daughter could inherit the Habsburg lands. When he died in October 1740, France, Prussia, Bavaria and Saxony tore up their promises. Maria Theresa, just 23, found an empty treasury, a shrunken army and ministers waiting to see which way things would fall.
The document at stake was the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, which put Charles's own daughters ahead of his nieces in the succession. Winning recognition cost him dearly; Britain, for one, demanded that Austria shut down its Ostend trading company. Prince Eugene of Savoy had warned that a full treasury and strong army mattered more than monarchs' autographs. He was right. The treasury held only 100,000 florins, and those went to the widowed empress, while the army had dwindled from 160,000 to about 108,000 poorly drilled men. Years later Maria Theresa wrote that she had begun with no money, no credit, no army, no experience and no counsel.
Her father had never prepared her. He let her sit in on council meetings from age 14 but did not discuss affairs of state with her, and her Jesuit tutors left her spelling famously erratic. She loved singing, archery and the family opera productions her father often conducted. Her birth itself had disappointed him, since he wanted a son to save the dynasty.
She proved tougher than anyone expected. Frederick the Great seized wealthy Silesia at once, but she rallied Hungarian support and held on to nearly all her other lands through eight years of war. Because a woman could not be elected emperor, she made her husband, Francis Stephen, co-ruler so he could take the imperial title, then routinely sent him out of council meetings when they disagreed. With advisers such as Kaunitz, Haugwitz and van Swieten she overhauled finances, the army, education and medicine.
Her reign lasted 40 years and 16 of her children survived infancy. She was also a devout Catholic who loathed Protestants, Jews and Freemasons, at times ordering their expulsion to remote regions.
Source: Maria Theresa
