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 hadn’t changed and she had to take it out on somebody.

He was, for a time, more circumspect. He never really flaunted his girlfriends, but he didn’t tie himself in a knot hiding them either. He didn’t think that he needed to. It’s a good thing he loved their kids, otherwise Maria might have arranged a “hunting accident” for him. According to one historian, “Francis was hers and she turned a fiercely jealous eye on all company which might make him forgetful of this fact, more indirectly on all influences that might conduce to lowering the moral tone in the company that Francis kept.”

A pretty tall order considering that “He enjoyed relaxing in the company of rakes and debauchees.” What can you do with a fellow like that? The answer, considering that he was Holy Roman Emperor was…not much.

She could do something about the moral tone in the rest of the empire. Or she thought she could. One of the problems was that Francis had a taste for dancers and…gasp…opera singers! The best of these groups came from Italy and entertained at court. Very convenient for Francis. Not that he was adverse to going to the opera house to check out the talent. He had his own, very private, box.

Very well then. In the fall of 1747 Maria set up the Chastity Commission. As it’s name suggests, it was empowered to go after the un-chaste. And how far could it go to apprehend these scofflaws? “The commissioners were empowered to search houses on suspicion, to arrest any man found entertaining an opera singer, a dancer or any other woman of presumed loose morals.”

Least you, gentle readers, feel sorry for the fellows, you should know that the commissioners could also arrest the ladies and have them locked up in a convent, of which there were many in Austria at that time, or they could be “banished from the realm.”

The commission was not a popular idea. It lasted all of six months before Her Majesty was prevailed upon to disband it. From tiny acorns however. Many years down the road, Maria used the commission template to set up the 18th century equivalent of the CIA. Among other duties, it was charged with keeping an eye on high-born ladies to make sure that they didn’t consort with the wrong sorts of fellows. At least, the ladies that were silly enough to allow their shenanigans to become grist for the gossip mill.

Maria was a woman of her age and place. The Viennese were, like Regency Londoners of a later time, happy to look the other way on affairs of the heart, or any other part of the anatomy, provided the affairees obeyed the unwritten rules for such conduct. Women as well as men could, and did, take lovers with no fear of censure. In fact, it was expected among the Better Sorts that a woman would marry for position, and then fall in love with someone else.

The hubbies were expected to do the same. And it was not in the least uncommon to find lovers and spouses becoming good friends and openly socializing. After all, they all came, or were supposed to come, from the same strata of society. Everybody knew everyone else, and it was all in the family.

Maria, like her contemporaries, was willing to look the other way. Unlike anyone else though, she was expected to do something about those who breached The Code. Maria was not only Queen. In Viennese society Maria Theresa was considered the Head of the Family. This was because in Vienna, family life and social life were largely one and the same. There were outings to the opera house and things like that, but for the most part house parties with close friends were the apex of socializing.

Foreign visitors were taken aback by how chummy the upper crust Viennese were with one another, how, upon going out to visit, would totally make themselves at home. Help themselves to whatever, play with the kids, pop into the kitchen to make themselves a snack, put their feet up on the furniture, so to speak. Appalling!

At those times when The Code was breached, the Better Sorts expected Maria to deal with it. And she did. Offenders could find themselves banished to the worst backwaters of the empire. And when you consider that the empire included places like Transylvania, this was no small threat.

Alas for Maria and Austria, the peace she had enjoyed for those short few years was rapidly running out. The reasons for what became know as The Seven Years War are many. Nothing, least of all war and diplomacy in 18th century Europe, was straightforward. For Maria Theresa, it was the time that she learned, very, very much to her later regret, that she could use her reputation for honesty and fair dealing to lie, cheat, steal and wage war with the worst of them.

She found herself behaving like Frederick.

— Mr. Al