Monday, August 24, 2009

Young Maria Theresa

Lauren has a post about the youth of the great Empress Maria Theresa.
Early on Maria Theresa was taught several languages. Most importantly she learned to speak Latin fluently. As a ruler she would learn not to trust translators who may have alternative motives, and this gives an idea of the spectrum of languages the little girl learned. Her teachers were the most notable persons at the time, and she learned liberal arts such as religion, history, math, painting, music etc.
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4 comments:

May said...

What a lovely portrait of her! It seems Marie-Antoinette looked alot like her mother?

elena maria vidal said...

Yes, I believe that even at her birth it was remarked that M-A resembled her mother the Empress.

MadMonarchist said...

Undoubtedly one of the all time greats of European monarchy. All too often she is portrayed as the "superstitious reactionary" in contrast to her more liberal son while forgetting all of the things she did to improve the lives of her subjects.

tubbs said...

This woman was a Titan, yet she seems to be almost ignored by historians in the English-speaking world.(a woman? an RC?)

And are we aware of her major influence as a patron of the arts? Music, for example: She was not only a talented vocalist herself, she had 'talent scouts' comb the countryside, keeping an ear out for talented youth to patronize.

I could go on and on --- because even to this day, her name is revered by the German side of my family.