Empress Maria Theresia of Austria

Empress Maria Theresia of Austria

During the era of constantly changing political power and international affair, the Austrian Habsburg faced a succession problem after the death of Charles VI who had no sons. The succession of a women emperor in Europe was generally rare during the early modern period. Although the imperial law, which was based on the Salic Law, officially prohibited the emperorship passing to a woman, Charles managed to issue a Pragmatic Sanction, allowing his eldest daughter, Maria Theresa, to inherit (Weisner-hanks, 351). However, despite the fact that a number of states within the Empire and most other European countries agreed on the imperial decree, several breached their promises, attacked Austria and tried to claim parts of the territory of Maria Theresa (Weisner-hanks, 351). The social norm of having a male emperor and the conception that woman is weak or incapable of bearing the responsibility of ruling a country put Maria into a vulnerable and dangerous situation. The view of women in the political world is indispensable from the social hierarchical order that women was positioned into. For example, French lawyer sought to exclude both women and heirs who had inherited through the female line during a succession controversy (Weisner-hanks, 351). Moreover, the concept of women being foundationally different and weaker than men is also correlated with humoralism, which considered feminine complexion as fundamentally weaker (Earle, 41). Thus, women should be treated differently, particularly when they were in power, because of the inherent weakness they had. The contrasting reaction of the initial agreement and later breaking their promises of the European countries once Charles VI died make it even more obvious that the power of women was considered less authoritative compared to men’s.

Martin van Meytens

Meytens, Martin van. Empress Maria Theresia of Austria. 1759. https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Kaiserin_Maria_Theresia_%28HRR%29.jpg.

1759

Changlan Wang

Public Domain