Stollberg-Rilinger, Barbara Maria Theresia

Die Kaiserin in ihrer Zeit

Women's rule was not unusual in the 18th century, but what was unusual was that Empress Maria Theresa took the business of governing so seriously as her personal responsibility and carried it out with extreme meticulousness. This set her apart from many European monarchs, who preferred to pursue their own interests and gladly left the affairs of state to others. This impressive biography shows that Maria Theresa was an extraordinary woman in more ways than one. In her account, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger brings to life the conditions at the Habsburg court, in the city of Vienna, in the Holy Roman Empire and in the many countries that made up the monarchy. Her major political actions, such as the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748) and the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) against her arch-enemy Frederick the Great of Prussia, are described just as vividly as her relationship to marriage, sexuality and pregnancy, the upbringing of her many children, the divertissements at court, the bitter conflicts with her son and co-regent Joseph II, and, last but not least, the ruthless religious policy of the uncompromisingly Catholic empress, who in the end seemed out of step with the times. Based on countless, sometimes little-known sources, a unique portrait of Maria Theresa emerges. It is free of hagiographic traits and shows a matriarch with an extreme sense of duty who subjected herself, her family and her subjects to a strict regime.