)(ARIA THERESA, Empress of Germany, the daughter of the emperor Karl VI., was b. at Vienna, May 13, 1717. By the pragmatic sanction (q.v.) her father appointed her heir to his hereditary thrones. In 1736 she married Francis Stephen, grand duke of Tuscany, to whom she gave an equal share in the government when she became queen of Hungary and of Bohemia, and archduchess of Austria, on the death of her father, Oct. 21, 1740. She found the monarchy exhausted. the finances embarrassed, the people discontented, and the army weak; whilst Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony, Naples, and Sardinia, stirred up by France, put forward claims to portions of her dominions, chiefly founded on the extinction of the male line of the house of Hapsburg. Frederick II. of Prussia soon made himself master of Silesia; Spain and Naples laid hands on the Aus. trian dominions in Italy; and the French, Bavarians, and Saxons conquered some of the .liereditary Austrian territories. The yohng queen was in the utmost danger of losing all her possessions, but was saved by the chivalrous fidelity of the Hungarians, the assistance of Britain, and most of all by her own resolute spirit. Her enemies also. quarreled amongst themselves; and the war of the Austrian succession, after lasting more than seven years, terminated in her favor by the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. She lost only Silesia and Glatz, and the duchies* of Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, whilst, on the other hand, her husband was elected emperor. During the time of peace. she made great financial reforms; agriculture, manufactures, and commerce flourished, the national revenues greatly increased, and the burdens were diminished. The empresa availed herself of the increase of the revenue for the increase of her military power. She held the reins of government herself, but was much guided by her husband and her ministers. She found at last in Kaunitz (q.v.) a minister possessed of the wisdom and energy requisite for the conduct of affairs, and in him she placed almost unlimited confidence. The seven years' war (q.v.) between Austria and Prussia again reduced
Austria to a state of great exhaustion; but when it was concluded, the empress mnewed her efforts to promote the national prosperity, and made many important reforms, ameliorating the condition of the peasantry, and mitigating the penal code. Her sou Joseph was elected king of the Romans in 1764; and on 'the death of her husband, in. 1765, she associated him with herself in the government of her hereditary states, but in reality committed to liba the charge only of military affairs. She joined with Russia and Prus.la in the partition of a third part of Poland (1,772), after the death of Augustus III., although she at first abjected to the proposed spoliatien, aud thought it necessary to satisfy her conscience by obtaining the approval of the pope. Galicia and Lodo meria were added to her dominions at this time. She also compelled the porte to give up Bukowina to her (1777). The brief Bavarian war of succession ended in her acqui sition of the Innthal, but led to the formation of the fiirstenbund or league of German princes, which set bounds to the Austrian power in Germany. 3Iaria Theresa died Nov. 29, 1780. Throughout her reign she displayed a resolute and masculine character, and raised Austria from deep depression to a height of power such as it had never previously attained. Although a zealous Roman Catholic, she maintained the rights of her own crown against the court of Rome, and endeavored to correct some of the worst abuses in the church. She prohibited the presence of priests at the making of wills, abolished the right of asylum in churches and convents, suppressed the inquisition in 3Iilan, and in 1773 the order of Jesuits. She also forbade that any person, male or female, should take monastic vows before the age of 25 years. She did nothing, how ever, to ameliorate the condition of the Protestants in her dominions. She had three .sons and six daughters. Her eldest son, Joseph II., succeeded her.