10

THE PRAGMATIC SANCTION

Two and a half centuries passed before Europe felt the impact of another female sovereign the likes of Queen Isabella of Castile. This time, the formidable force emerged not from the far corner of the Iberian Peninsula but from central Europe—Austria, to be exact. There, in Vienna, the capital of the Habsburg Empire, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI and his wife, Elisabeth-Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, awaited the birth of their second child. Since their infant son, Leopold, had died the year before, much anticipation attended this birth. The emperor, head of the illustrious house of Habsburg, was at Laxenburg Palace, his hunting lodge some thirteen miles from Vienna, on the morning his wife went into labor, May 13, 1717. Upon hearing about the impending birth, Charles rode hastily to his capital. When the announcement was made that the empress had given birth to a girl, disappointment pervaded the populace, but nowhere was the disappointment more palpable than in the emperor himself. Charles VI—who held the titles Archduke of Austria, King of Hungary, King of Bohemia, and Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire—had dearly hoped that this child would be another son. At his daughter’s baptism on the evening of her birth, she was given the name Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina. The emperor put on a brave face, but witnesses noticed his cheerless countenance.

The birth of a male heir remained a paramount goal for many reigning monarchs, as it had been for England’s King Henry VIII, and Emperor Charles VI was no exception. Charles was especially preoccupied with this lack of sons because he was the last surviving male of his line. A son was highly coveted, not simply to carry on the family name and line but also because a male on the throne would likely mean more stability. Female succession, by contrast, might lead to wars that would disturb Europe’s equilibrium and result in the deaths of countless people.

Hence, the newborn archduchess seemed in no way destined for fame or greatness. Her parents, at thirty-one and twenty-five years of age, still held out hope for a male to inherit the Habsburg dominions of the emperor. Only time would tell whether this latest addition—Archduchess Maria Theresa—to Europe’s most illustrious dynasty would fade into the shadows of history or take up the mantle of power to make her mark.

The Habsburg dynasty at the time was a major sovereign house of Europe, having dominated many parts of the Continent through the centuries. This dominion began with the dynasty’s founder, Rudolph of Habsburg, Holy Roman emperor from 1273 to 1291. In the sixteenth century, the Habsburgs under emperor Charles V, son of Juana la Loca and grandson of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, claimed significant portions of Europe as hereditary domains, thanks to wars and judicious marriages. Charles V’s territories, however, proved too vast to maintain, even for this dynasty adept at territorial aggrandizement. So in 1556 he divided the Habsburg territories between his brother and his son. Charles’s brother became Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, and Ferdinand’s heirs became rulers of Austria and kings of Bohemia, Croatia, Germany, and Hungary. To Charles V’s son, Philip II, and his heirs went Spain, Naples, Milan, Sicily, and the Netherlands and far-flung lands in the Americas and the Philippines.

Rivalry between the Habsburg Emperor Charles V and King Francis I of France initiated the Habsburgs’ long-standing animosity toward their French counterparts. For nearly two hundred years, the Habsburgs ruled Spain, until 1700, when at the death of the childless King Charles II, the throne passed on, as Charles had wished, to Philippe, Duc d’Anjou, grandson of France’s King Louis XIV. With Philippe’s accession as King Philip V, just seventeen years before Archduchess Maria Theresa was born, Spain had effectively passed from the Habsburg dynasty to the ruling Bourbon dynasty of France, thus shaking up Europe’s status quo.

The prospect of France’s royal family holding the reins of power in Spain dismayed a number of the European powers, because it made France, under the rule of the Sun King, Louis XIV, suddenly even more powerful. An attempt to counter French hegemony and contest Philip V’s accession, therefore, soon became the goal of Europe’s powers. In order to stifle France’s ambition, the Dutch King William III of Orange created the Grand Alliance in 1701. Joining the Netherlands in this alliance were England and Austria, whose Habsburg rulers refused to cede the Spanish crown. The Grand Alliance precipitated a thirteen-year conflict known as the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). During the course of the war, famous battles such as Blenheim, Malplaquet, and Ramillies were fought under two celebrated generals, the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy.

In an attempt to keep Spain in Habsburg hands, Maria Theresa’s paternal grandfather, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, encouraged his son Charles to be crowned King of Spain in 1703 in Vienna. Charles traveled to Spain, where he lived for some years. Charles had actually left Spain in 1711, when he succeeded his brother, Joseph, as the ruler of Austria’s territories and settled back in Vienna as Charles VI. Charles had grown to love his adopted country and was bitterly disappointed to find himself no longer king after the Peace of Utrecht settled the War of the Spanish Succession in favor of the Bourbons in 1713. In place of Spain, the Austrians gained Mantua, Milan, Naples, the Spanish Netherlands, and Sardinia (later exchanged for Sicily), yet Maria Theresa’s father never considered these territories adequate compensation for the loss of Spain. The extinction of the Spanish branch and loss of the Spanish dominions did not, however, keep the Habsburg dynasty from having a major impact on Europe. On the contrary, from their capital in Vienna, the Austrian branch of the Habsburgs was to make its mark on history until the early twentieth century.

Responsibility for the Habsburg Empire and anxiety drove Charles VI. Much as Charles would have preferred a son to succeed him, he did not wait to secure the Habsburg succession for his daughter. As early as 1713, even before Maria Theresa was born, the emperor had wrestled with the succession question and promulgated a law affecting the house of Habsburg, one that overturned his father’s own house law. Charles VI’s new statute, the Pragmatic Sanction, declared that the Habsburg territories would be indivisible and stipulated that the succession issue would pass first upon Charles’s death to his descendants in primogeniture and then to his dead brother, Joseph’s daughters. The Pragmatic Sanction paved the legal way for Maria Theresa to succeed her father in the event that he never had sons.

This brief review of Charles VI’s background and the War of the Spanish Succession sheds light on the deep-seated antagonism between the two great dynastic powers, Bourbon France and Habsburg Austria—an antagonism that greatly affected European history for centuries. It also illuminates what is arguably one of the Habsburg rulers’ most persistent and deeply held features, their “iron determination to stay in power, a determination which was upheld by every generation, which never suffered a break. History for the Habsburgs was centered on the Family. Nothing else mattered, or existed, for them. Paraphrasing Louis XIV’s ‘l’État c’est moi,’ the Habsburgs might well have said, ‘l’État c’est la Famille.’”¹

When Maria Theresa’s father returned to Vienna from Spain in 1711, he clung to Spanish ways. Emperor Charles VI adopted Spanish dress during court functions, where it was not unusual to find him sporting a plumed hat, red stockings and shoes, and a coat trimmed with lace. In Vienna, Charles also promoted the strict Spanish etiquette that was one of the distinguishing features of the Habsburg court. However, this “Spanish” style was in actuality more a distinctive Habsburg style, which amounted to “a conscious rejection of the dominant French model.”²

What truly distinguished the Roman Catholic Habsburg court was its emphasis on piety. More rigorous in religious observance than the French court, the Viennese court could make life stressful for those unaccustomed to its practices, as the French Duc de Richelieu found in 1726. As Richelieu wrote to Cardinal Polignac after undergoing a particularly trying forty days of Lent: “I have led a pious life here during Lent, which has not left me free for a quarter of an hour; and I avow that if I had known the life that an ambassador leads here, nothing in this world would have determined me to accept this embassy … . Only a Capuchin with the most robust health could endure this life during Lent. In order to give your Eminence some idea, I have spent altogether between Palm Sunday and Easter Wednesday, 100 hours at church with the Emperor.”³ Vienna’s inhabitants undertook extraordinary displays of penitence that included posting notices of their sins on their chests as well as whipping themselves. “These fervent displays of public sorrow echoed Holy Week as celebrated in Spain … rather than anything native to the city.”⁴

Archduchess Maria Theresa was raised with this Baroque piety, marked by its theatricality, and steeped in religious observances. Such displays were “an external expression of the inner spiritual life … the reflection of a deep and turbulent belief. The brilliant colors and elaborate decoration of the churches and shrines seem best suited to the expression of joy, but there was a gloomier strain, a persistent awareness of mortality and judgment. Maria Theresa’s religious training instilled in her a full measure of faith, and piety became for her a natural attribute. In her youth it gave her meaning; in her mature years it gave her strength, then comfort. In times of joy it sobered her; in times of sorrow it sustained her.”⁵

The heavily religious atmosphere found in the Viennese court encouraged Archduchess Maria Theresa in her devotions. Her very name, given to her in honor of the famed Castilian saint Teresa of Ávila, evoked one of the Catholic Church’s most admired individuals. The namesake gave Maria Theresa an unusual link with her devout ancestor Queen Isabella, whom the Venerable Juan de Palafox had associated with the saint.

Not surprisingly, the imperial family undertook pilgrimages to shrines, “preferably those of the Virgin, the magna mater Austriae, as she was spoken of in a singular blend of reverence and familial claim.”⁶ The shrine to the Virgin Mary at Mariazell in the forested mountains of Styria embodied the close bond the Habsburgs always felt with their faith. There, nine-year-old Maria Theresa received her First Communion. The young girl gazed at “the miracle-working Madonna of that fame [who] wore a replica of the dynasty’s crown. A life-size effigy of the lamented son of Charles VI, wrought of solid gold reposed at the feet of that statue.”⁷ Though Maria Theresa may have lived “in the age of cynicism, she always remained a sincere believer, who carried out the forms prescribed by her Church because they meant something to her, and not because these devotional exercises were the proper and expected gestures.”⁸ Maria Theresa’s devotion was reminiscent of the intensely pious Queen Isabella of Castile and her daughter Catherine of Aragon, Queen of England.

Unlike Isabella and Catherine, Maria Theresa did not have a mother who was as devoted to the Catholic faith. Empress Elisabeth-Christina had been a Lutheran. Before her marriage, she had to be coaxed through tears into converting to Catholicism. Doubts persisted about the empress’s attachment to her adopted faith, with a rumor as late as 1747 that she was “secretly reading Protestant books.”⁹ She was widely admired for her beauty, endowed with an exquisite physique, unusual violet-blue eyes, and blond hair. Elisabeth-Christina also possessed endearing charm and an easy manner.

Two more daughters—Archduchess Maria Anna, born in 1718, and Archduchess Maria Amalia, born in 1724—augmented the imperial family. After Maria Amalia, who died at five years of age, there were no more children. Elisabeth-Christina always felt the burden of not giving her husband another son. As the years passed the empress’s vivacity and sweetness disappeared, replaced by aloofness. This change might account for the somewhat distant relationship between her and Maria Theresa. They never enjoyed the mother-daughter bond that had united Isabella of Castile and Catherine of Aragon.

Life for the imperial family revolved around their various palaces. The stiff etiquette and ponderous atmosphere at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna contrasted with the more relaxed and casual existence at the Laxenburg and Favorita palaces outside the capital, to which the family periodically migrated. Never taught to ride a horse, Maria Theresa instead enjoyed another outdoor pursuit, shooting targets, on the palaces’ wide lawns. Back at Hofburg, “the most strictly measured grandezza reigned paramount. It was a strange medley of Olympian revelry, of Spanish monastic severity, and the rigorous discipline of a barrack … . The court costume was Spanish, the predominant hue being black … . All the court carriages were black.”¹⁰ Maria Theresa thus became flexible, able to observe the formal court and religious life under highly rigid rules but equally at home with the relaxed country life.

Antagonism toward France abided, whether in Vienna or in the country. At the Viennese court, the “prohibition on French influence was absolute. In the French dress—especially the white stockings [the Habsburgs always wore red, with red shoes]—even during the time of Charles VI no one dared to show himself at the Hofburg. The Emperor, as often as he saw anyone attired in that way, would at once cry out ‘Here is one of those confounded Frenchmen.’”¹¹

As a child, Maria Theresa was robust, a blessing she was to enjoy for years to come. She inherited her mother’s blond hair and pretty features, while from her father the archduchess inherited the most distinguishing feature of the Habsburgs, a protruding lower lip. An early portrait of her shows a charming looking child with a hint of fierce determination shining forth. She could also be impulsive, such as the time six-year-old Maria Theresa was dazzled by her father’s appearance in stately robes during the Corpus Christi procession. Marveling at his majestic bearing, the little archduchess clapped delightedly and exclaimed, “Oh, what a fine papa! Come here, papa, and let me admire you.”¹²

Charles VI could be a demanding father who may have been disappointed at his daughters for not having been sons, but he was never cruel to his children. However much Maria Theresa’s father loved his eldest daughter, though, he could not accept her completely as his heir. He kept hoping that Elisabeth-Christina would give him the son he so desired. If she had passed the point where she could not, perhaps she would die, and Charles VI could remarry and still father a male child. But Elisabeth-Christina lived, and the emperor never remarried. It became increasingly evident that Maria Theresa was the likely heir.

Preparing Maria Theresa to rule the most complicated inheritance in all Europe, with its myriad lands and peoples, should have been a priority, but the emperor never educated her for this auspicious role. The ever-present shadow of the hoped-for son clouded his thinking. Charles ordered Jesuit priests to tutor Maria Theresa. But the Jesuits, though renowned for giving excellent education, could not teach her to her full potential because the emperor did not instruct them to educate her as he would have a male heir. Instead, he wanted his daughter to become an accomplished woman who would make a good wife and consort. Even when it came to foreign languages, no great effort was made to train her. Maria Theresa’s native German remained peppered with spelling and grammatical errors. She was fluent in French, had a good grasp of Italian and some knowledge of Spanish, but her Latin never met the standard of Catherine of Aragon. Unlike Catherine, who was subjected to intense intellectual activity from an early age, Maria Theresa received a far less ambitious education, to some degree the kind her ancestor Isabella of Castile received. Charles VI’s eldest child would have to rely on her instincts and natural intelligence to pick up what she could about statesmanship and politics.

The archduchess did, however, excel in music, not surprising considering that her father liked to compose. Maria Theresa became accomplished at the harpsichord; she possessed a fine singing voice and was a good dancer. The young archduchess was also a born diplomat. “‘Always,’ [Signor] Foscari, the Venetian ambassador in Vienna once wrote of her, ‘she says and does the right thing.’”¹³ Otherwise, Maria Theresa’s childhood was uneventful. To ensure the Pragmatic Sanction’s implementation, the emperor worked diligently to obtain solidarity from as many countries as possible. With claims to Habsburg territories, Bavaria held out from giving its promise, as did France. From the mid-1720s until the early 1730s, Charles VI secured the guarantees of Spain, Russia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Prussia, and Saxony—though at a high price for Austria. Great Britain, for one, had done exceedingly well in its deal with the Habsburg emperor. In exchange for British support of the Pragmatic Sanction, Maria Theresa’s father abolished, in 1731, the lucrative Ostend East India Company, which had challenged British trade in that region.

Charles VI hoped that securing these numerous guarantees would protect the Habsburg succession after his death, keep the dynasty’s territories intact, and avert war. Guarantees to the Pragmatic Sanction made Maria Theresa’s inheritance seem inviolable. However, Charles VI’s lifework was soon to be shredded.