Maria Theresa
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [1]
empress of Austria and Germany. the daughter of Charles VI, was born at Vienna May 13, 1717, and succeeded to the throne, by the "Pragmatic Sanction," Oct. 21, 1740. With her secular history we have nothing to do here, but as to her influence on the interests of Romanism and Protestantism, we must add here a few particulars to the article on Austria. Although herself a zealous Roman Catholic, she maintained the rights of her 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 Milan, and in 1773 the Order of Jesuits. She also forbade that any person, male or female, should take monastic vows before the age of twenty-five years. She did nothing, however, to ameliorate the treatment of the Protestants in her dominions. She professed personal sympathy with their oppressed condition, but pretended to be unable to do anything for them on account of her coronation oaths and the laws of the country. This was especially the case in Hungary. Alaria Theresa died Nov. 29,1780, leaving as her successor to the throne Joseph II, who is noted for his generous efforts in behalf of his Protestant subjects. See Duller, M. Theresia u. Joseph II (Wiesbaden, 1844); Ramshom, M. Theresia u. ihre Zeit (Lpz. 1859 sq.); Wolf, Oestereich unter Maria Theresa (1855); Coxe, House of Austria, 3:189 sq., 241 sq.; Vehse, Memoirs Of The Court Of Austria, 2:164 sq. (See Austria); (See Bohemia); (See Hungary).
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [2]
Empress of Austria, daughter of the Emperor Charles VI., a queenly woman; was in 1736 married to Francis of Lorraine; ascended the throne in 1740 on the death of her father, associating her husband with her in the government under the title of Francis I.; no sooner had she done so than, despite the Pragmatic Sanction ( q. v .), which assured her of her dominions in their integrity, she was assailed by claimants one for this and one for another portion of them, in particular by Frederick the Great, who by force of arms wrenched Silesia from her and kept it fast; the war thus occasioned is known as the war of the Austrian Succession, which lasted seven years, and was concluded by the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748; this peace, however, was soon broken, and Maria, backed by France and counselled by Kaunitz, renewed hostilities in the hope of compelling Frederick to restore what he had taken; all in vain, for the end of this war, known as the Seven Years' War, was to leave Frederick still in possession of the territory which he had sliced from her empire as in the former; in the interim of these wars Maria devoted her attention to the welfare of her subjects, who were conspicuously loyal to her, and before the end of her reign she saw what she had lost made up to her in a measure by the partition of Poland, in which she took part (1717-1780).
