Tea at Trianon: Empress Maria Theresa

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Empress Maria Theresa

The Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780) was Marie-Antoinette's mother. I believe Maria Theresa can be counted among the greatest of Christian monarchs. She was born an Archduchess of Austria and became Queen of Hungary and Queen of Bohemia when her Habsburg fat h er died, but held the title of Holy Roman Empress because her husband, Francis Stephen of Lor raine, had been elected Emperor. The marriage was a love match, although not without problems, and produced sixteen children. Here is a list of her children:

Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1737-1740). Maria Theresa's heiress presumptive between 1737 and 1740.
Archduchess Maria Anna (1738-1789). Maria Theresa's heiress presumptive between 1740 and 1741.
Archduchess Maria Caroline (1740-1741).
Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II (1741-1790), married Infanta Isabel of Spain (1741-1763), then Princess Marie Josephe of Bavaria (1739-1767); no surviving issue. Holy Roman Emperor from 1765; Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia and from 1780.
Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (1742-1798), married Prince Albert of Saxony, Duke of Teschen (1738-1822); no surviving issue
Archduchess Maria Elisabeth (1743-1808)
Archduke Charles Joseph (1745-1761)
Archduchess Maria Amalia (1746-1804), married Ferdinand, Duke of Parma (1751-1802); had issue
Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II (1747-1792), married Infanta Maria Louisa of Spain (1745-1792); had issue. Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 (abdicated 1790); Holy Roman Emperor from 1790; Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia from 1790.
Archduchess Maria Caroline (1748)
Archduchess Johanna Gabriela(1750-1762)
Archduchess Maria Josepha (1751-1767)
Queen Maria Caroline of Naples and Sicily (1752-1814), married King Ferdinand IV of Naple s and Sicily (1751-1825); had issue
Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este, Duke of Breisgau (1754–1806), married Maria Beatrice d'Este, heiress of Breisgau and of Modena; had issue (Austria-Este). Duke of Breisgau from 1803.
Queen Marie Antoinette of France and Navarre, born Maria Antonia (1755-1793); married Louis XVI of France (1754-1793)
Archduke Maximilian Francis (1756-1801), Archbishop-Elector of Cologne: 1784

People have accused Maria Theresa of betraying her motherhood by marrying her children all over Europe in order to forge alliances, but she was not doing anything different f

rom other royal parents. Furthermore, she was the mother of her people as well, and allying the empire with foreign nations was a way to promote peace. Especially it was important to cement an alliance with France, the traditional enemy of Austria. (Marie-Antoinette was the sacrificial lamb for that project, but that is what it was to be a princess, an Archduchess of Austria.)

One noblewoman described being presented to Empress Maria Theresa:

Her Majesty entered followed by the three princesses. My husband and myself each sank upon the left knee and kissed the noblest, the most beautiful hand that has ever wielded a scepter. The Empress gently bade us rise. Her face and her gracious manner banished all the timidity and embarrassment we naturally felt in the presence of so exalted and beautiful a figure as hers. Our fear was changed to love and confidence.

The Emperor and Empress made occasional pilgrimages to the Marian shrine of Mariaz ell in the Austrian alps, accompanied by their numerous offspring. They once left two gold hearts, symbolic of the hearts of Maria Theresa and Francis Stephen, at the feet of the miraculous statue of the Virgin.

When Francis died in 1765, Maria Theresa was inconsolable, but she kept herself busy governing the Empire and writing letters to all of her daughters, telling them what to do. She was worried about Marie-Antoinette, and when she was dying, wept as she mentioned her youngest daughter's name. Maria Theresa passed away on November 29, 1780. Her nemesis, Frederick the Great of Prussia, who had given her no end of trouble, upon hearing of her death, said: "She has done honor to the throne and to her sex; I have warred with her but I have never been her enemy." (New Advent)

Maria Theresa was buried in the Capuchin crypt in Vienna, the traditional burial place of the Habsburgs. I visited the crypt in 1995 and was able to pray at her tomb. My heart was touched in a way which is difficult to describe. It was shortly after my return from Austria that I found in the cellar the beginning of a novel about Marie-Antoinette that I had begun writing about a decade earlier. I decided to finish the book and called it Trianon.
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