Maria Theresia of Austria

Maria Theresa of Austria – Francis’s election as Holy Roman Emperor

When Maria Theresa’s father, Emperor Charles VI died in 1740; Maria Theresa’s sex meant that she was barred from becoming Holy Roman Empress in her own right. However, she did inherit many of her father’s family dominions which he had secured for her during his lifetime by pushing through an act called the Pragmatic sanction in [read more]

Austria

Maria Elisabeth of Austria – Abbess of the Convent for Noble Ladies

Born as the sixth child of Maria Theresa and Francis of Lorraine, Maria Elisabeth Josepha, called Liesl by family, was born on 13 August 1743 in Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire. She was born during a time of unrest. The Treaty of Breslau had just been signed a year earlier, and her mother crowned herself as Queen of Bohemia a few [read more]