story - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 2010 - 65 Euro Cent

Maria Theresa of Austria (1717-1780), princess of the house of Habsburg, ruling archduchess of Austria and queen of Hungary and Bohemia, is undoubtedly one of the formative monarchs of the era of enlightened absolutism. She was the wife of the Roman-German Emperor Franz I. Stephan and mother of the later Roman-German Emperor Josef II, whom she raised as co-regent in 1765, and his successor Leopold II Archduchess Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina of Austria, so her more complete Name, came on May 13, 1717 as the second child of Emperor Charles VI. and his wife Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel in Vienna. During a carefree childhood with her family, Maria Theresa soon developed into a self-confident young woman. After the death of her father in 1740, her successor was not secured despite the Pragmatic sanction, at the beginning of her reign, she initially relied on her father's advisory staff. Taking advantage of Maria Theresa's insecure position as heir to his throne, Frederick the Great of Prussia began in the year of Charles VI's death. with the invasion of Silesia ("Austrian War of Succession") and conquered a prosperous land of the Bohemian crown for Prussia. Although the Bavarians and the French invaded the western areas of Austria, Frederick became the main enemy of Maria Theresia. Both its domestic and its foreign policy were geared to beat the Prussians in the field and to regain possession of the annexed territories. It therefore doubled the strength of its army and decided on additional taxes for the government and military. As a result, she put together the court chancelleries of Austria and Bohemia and thus centralized the government. Sustainable measures during their reign included the creation of a uniform criminal law as well as the introduction of compulsory education for all normal, main and trivial schools in all K.K. Ancestral lands. Keyword marriage policy: Maria Theresa, who saw herself primarily as the ruler of the multiethnic state of Austria, tried to marry her 14 children as advantageous as possible and hoped that the marriage would increase the power of the house of Austria. For her sons and daughters it was necessary to subordinate their own will to the welfare of the state and to marry persons whom their mother had chosen for them. As part of this marriage planning, she focused mainly on the expansion of family ties with the Bourbons ruling in France and Spain. The imposing brand image shows one of the most famous portraits of Maria Theresa, created by the Viennese court painter Martin van Meytens around 1750.