Categotry Archives: History
Ah Maria, The Filial Son in Action
Queen Maria Theresa took the death of her husband hard, maybe harder than anyone else. “ No human being is capable of adequately expressing the acute feelings with which the heart of a son is overwhelmed, who loses forever a father, by whom he is convinced he was loved….He was my teacher, my friend. I am now twenty-four years old. Providence has given me the cup of sorrow in my early days.” So wrote Joseph to his mom shortly after […]
Ah Maria, The Widow
The death of her husband, the Emperor Francis Stephen, was a hard blow for Queen Maria of Austria to endure. At age forty-eight, she had been running the kingdom without much in the way of input from her husband. That was the way Maria liked it, and Francis was happy to oblige. While she had little need of Francis in an official capacity, she had an overwhelming emotional need for him. It wasn’t only that she loved him; she adored […]
Ah Maria, If I Can’t Have Her, Then… I Take The Other One
After Prince Joseph of Austria’s lovely, lesbian wife died, he was forced to turn to another. But who could match such a nonpareil? Before leaving the subject of Joseph and his marriage to the stunning Isabella of Parma, a post script. Not long after her death, he announced that if he had to re-marry, he would like his bride to be Isabella’s younger sister, Louise. If he could not have his beloved, he would have someone kinda like her. There […]
Ah Maria, It’s Love Most Discerning
Maria Theresa of Austria didn’t get along very well with her eldest son. The problem with Prince Joseph was not that he disagreed with his mom on nearly everything, he disagreed with everyone on nearly everything. And it wasn’t only that he disagreed, he HAD to be right. And is wasn’t only that he had to be right, he knew he was right. All the time. About everything. Because of his position, the only person who could disagree with him […]
Ah Maria, She’s Such a Sweet Mother
For the last several weeks, Mr. Al has been recounting the political difficulties that beset Maria Theresa of Austria when, starting as a young woman, the task of saving the country fell to her shoulders. To see more, click on the History by Mr. Al tab. It is worth a moment to pause here and look at Maria’s home life. She was the Mother of her country. She was also the mother of twelve children by the time the Seven […]
Ah Maria, Yes It’s War, But Besides That…
On August 29th, 1756, Frederick the Great invaded Saxony. It wasn’t his intention to start a Europe-wide war. He needed Saxony as a buffer for Silesia and as a jumping-off for an invasion of Bohemia. He did these things not to provoke Austria, but because he believed Austria intended to strike at him. With a Franco-Austrian treaty signed and sealed, he sounded out Austria as to her intentions. The answers he received were evasive and, to Frederick’s way of thinking, […]
Ah Maria, Stuck in the Middle with Who?
In order to save Austria, Queen Maria Theressa entrusted her diplomat, Kaunitz, with a lot of power, even encouraging his partying. Meanwhile she turned her attention to the shambles of her empire. As late as 1754 all of Europe wanted peace. Kaunitz knew that a war would be required to recover Silesia, but not right away. The ground had to be prepared. As long as France was allied with Prussia, attacking the Prussians in Silesia was out of the question. […]
Ah Maria, She Must Direct Society Too
When we left off, Mr. Al had just explained the ins and outs of Queen Maria Theresa’s expectations for her diplomat, Kaunitz. Although the faults in Kaunitz’s foreign affairs logic would take some time to become evident,other matters closer to home quickly showed, or should have, that a command from the Queen didn’t necessarily fix problems. Maria had gotten a bee in her bonnet concerning public morals. It wasn’t that public morals had suddenly declined, but her husbands bad habits […]
Ah Maria, Long Range Plans Can Be Obscure
Queen Maria Theressa of Austria put a lot of faith in her diplomat, Count Kaunitz. She fully expected the impossible from him, and he was eager to give it. Arriving in Paris, Count Kaunitz settled in to play the roll of courtier/diplomat. Sparing no expense, he surrounded himself with “the utmost splendor.” He was careful to invite all the right people to his extravagant dinner parties. On one point, Kaunitz’s realistic assessment of the situation stood him in good stead; […]
Ah Maria, How Badly Do You Want It?
In order to save Austria, Queen Maria Theressa was willing to part ways with centuries of tradition. Witness what happened when she made Wenzel Anton Kaunitz a diplomat. Wenzel Anton Kaunitz was a native Austrian. The sixth of sixteen children to an aristocratic father who served the crown as an ambassador. Raised in Morovia, where the family estates were located, young Wenzel was groomed for a career in the church. After giving it a go he decided on a different […]
Ah Maria, There’s always a Right Man for the Job
When you think about it, Queen Maria Theresa of Austria had a truly uncanny knack for delegation. As important as the military reforms were, Haugwitz’s civil reforms were at least as significant. He abolished the separate chancelleries of Bohemia and Austria, which had up till that point been fighting one another tooth and nail for royal recognition. The judiciary separated from regular government administration. The judiciary became a branch of government embracing most of the empire. Judicial matters in Hungary […]
Ah Maria, That’s How to Raise an Army
In order to save Austria, Queen Maria Theressa had to humble herself to the Hungarian. She gladly thumbed her nose at her own nobles. Then peace came. Peace. For the first eight years of her reign all had been war. Things had not gone particularly well in that department. Overall though, things hadn’t gone particularly badly either. Only a small bit of Silesia remained in Austria’s hands. As bitter a pill as this was to swallow, she had the consolation […]
Ah Maria, How to Run a Court
In order to save Austria, Queen Maria Theressa had to take the job of “queen” much more seriously than her predecessors. For instance, she chose a wise courtier to teach her the ropes, and another to run her Imperial Court, stunning them both. As Count Tarouca found himself in the unenviable position of having to take charge of the Queen’s personal life, an equally important job needed doing. Running the Imperial Court. This became the job of Count Khevenhuller-Metsch. He […]
Ah Maria, Welcome to Prague
Hey, I haven’t said a word to him about all the battle stuff he’s been covering. Honest. If it seems that I have been focusing on the wars that Maria fought to the exclusion of all else, that is because, alas for Maria, that is what she was forced to deal with in the first years of her reign. As we have seen, defeat was far more common than victory. She never regained Silesia, she finally did get the crown […]
Ah Maria, From the Brink of Ruin
In the first few month of Queen Maria Theresa of Austria’s reign, she faced invasion, world war, and noble Hungarians. She cut a deal with king Frederick of Prussia that would have allowed her to defeat her enemies, if not for her husband’s military incompetence. How does Frederick respond? If Maria had few illusions as to what a tricky “friend” Frederick could be, his behavior after their deal, the Klineschnellendorf Convention (Yes, I had to spell check that BY HAND!) […]
