Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs, Pt. 3: Prague Castle

On a clear summer night, the illuminated Prague Castle shines dramatically behind the Charles Bridge.

At about 750,000 square feet, the historic complex on a hill doesn't go unnoticed at any other time of day, either.

Imagine how insurmountable this ancient fortress must have seemed 275 years ago in late 1741, when a small French force stormed Prague on behalf of Charles Albert of Bavaria.

Bohemians, however, felt little loyalty to the young Habsburg woman who had only inherited the crown a year earlier.  Maria Theresa's husband Francis Stephen, already in command of troops in Bohemia, had responded too slowly, possibly having assumed the imposing fortress would discourage attack by their newly allied enemies. 

Prussian King Frederick William I had actually passed away just a few months before the Habsburg monarch, but he had a son as his heir.

King Frederick II seized the opportunity of Austria's crisis to invade Silesia, exposing the temporary weakness of the once mighty foe during their troubled transition.

Emboldened by Prussia's impressive Silesian Campaign, France stepped out from the shadows where it had secretly schemed to divide Habsburg kingdoms and sent troops to support its allies Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Spain, attacking them on multiple fronts, including Prague, the capital of Bohemia.

In breaking its peace treaty with Austria, France had shocked Emperor Charles VI's council, who his daughter and heir Maria Theresa hoped would advise her young husband wisely as he learned the ropes of ruling multiple kingdoms.

As far as they were concerned, Maria Theresa had already done about as much as a mere woman could do.

She was pregnant, possibly with a male heir which might prevent this situation recurring for the next generation... if they survived the War of Austrian Succession with a country to rule.

She had also prepared for the coronation ceremony in Hungary scheduled for June 25, 1741, which would require expert equestrian skills to perform regally before a country that prided themselves as being the "riding nation."

Maria Theresa spent months mastering horseback riding, something her father had prohibited her to do as a child because of it being too dangerous for a girl.

She surprised the Magyars (Hungarians) with her skills with her horse, showing deep respect for their traditional ceremony and culture.  Maria Theresa chose to be crowned as King of Hungary, as there was no rule prohibiting her from claiming a masculine title.

Make no mistake; her appearance and riding style remained ladylike as befitted a Queen, and the Hungarians loved every aspect of how she presented herself. 

After she returned to Vienna, awaiting the birth of her child in an uncertain world, Maria Theresa's advisers brought the sad news that the Bohemians would prefer to be ruled by her Bavarian cousin Charles rather than her.

Maria Theresa simply refused to accept this.

"My mind is made up. We must put everything at stake to save Bohemia."

Her commander in Silesia, General Neipperg, negotiated a peaceful surrender of the final fortress held by Austria with terms that allowed his troops to retreat unmolested, probably because Frederick II thought they may be brothers in arms when Austria fell.

But they were not laying down arms.

The Austrian troops from Silesia marched to Prague to join other Austrian forces to defend Bohemia, unsure whether that show of strength would be sufficient to stem the tide.

Fortunately, Hungary, still enchanted by the coronation performance, sent 60,000 heroic troops to support their new King Maria Theresa's efforts to retain Bohemia.

The combined forces were successful.

Spoiler alert: Maria Theresa rebuilt war-damaged Prague Palace to be grander than ever, though she actually only went to this luxuriously refurbished palace three times during her forty-year reign.

Maria Theresa and the Habsburgs, Pt. 2

Maria Theresa's Schonbrunn Summer Palace in Vienna

By the time Maria Theresa ascended to the throne in 1740, her Habsburg family line had already ruled Austria for centuries.

The family name had been initiated in about 1020 when Count Radbot built a new family home in what is now Switzerland that they called Habichtsburg, or "Hawk's Castle."

A "hawk's beak" nose was a defining hereditary trait of the Habsburgs.

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna

Radbot, the Bishop of Strasbourg, oversaw construction of his grand new home which became a primary landmark in the region.

Count Radbot's grandson, Otto II, began calling himself Otto von Habichtsburg, which morphed into von Habsburg and then simply Habsburg.

By the time their name was established, the family had already been powerful within the Holy Roman Empire for decades.

In those Medieval times, noble families practiced primogeniture, whereby the first-born son inherited the bulk of ancestral lands and family leadership.

St. Stephen's Church Interior

The second son in such a family went into the clergy, like Count Radbot, meaning the Habsburgs were not the preeminent branch of the family tree from which they emerged.

In 1273, Rudolf von Habsburg was elected King of the Romans, a title Austrian Habsburg heirs would hold off-and-on --- mostly on --- until the Holy Roman Empire dissolved in 1806 after military defeat at the hands of Napoleon.

While Rudolf I took center stage in the Holy Roman Empire, however, his family was forced to leave their home in Habichtsburg.

An uprising of Swiss farmers seeking freedom from the aristocratic rule of the Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire overpowered the armor-clad nobles by sheer number and desire for liberty in a new, free Switzerland, foreshadowing our American Revolution.

The fact that the freedom fighters wore red crosses on their chests brings to mind my theory about the transition of Knights Templar from their initial limited quest of recapturing Jerusalem to more far-reaching goals that would encompass the entire world, perhaps the lofty goal of transitioning to the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.

Hungarian Parliament Building from deck of our gateway to history, AmaCerto

Sorry, got a little carried away there for a moment.

In any case, the Habsburgs already controlled vast regions, so when they unceremoniously fled their beloved Habichtsburg in around 1279, they headed east on the Danube River to the eastern frontier of the Holy Roman Empire, near the border with Hungary.

They settled among the beautiful forests in Vienna, which became the family's seat of power from which they ruled the kingdom of Austria and sometimes the Holy Roman Empire.



By the time Maria Theresa took the family reigns, the Habsburgs had ruled Austria for 460 years.

Wes on road about halfway in Schonbrunn garden with gateway in the distance

Nonetheless, you may not be surprised to learn that Charles VI's advisers weren't too keen on having a 23-year-old woman unexpectedly become their ruler.

Her French husband had already been defamed as a coward or spy by unfounded rumor and innuendo, which obviously didn't help.

What you might call a "Never Maria Theresa" movement spread through the royals, including  her father's trusted advisers who should have been her support system but, while perhaps not treacherous, were at a minimum lacking faith in this presumably frivolous young woman being up to the job.

Church on the Danube from AmaCerto's port Vienna

As Maria Theresa wrote ten years later, "I found myself without money, without credit, without army, without experience and knowledge of my own and finally, also without any counsel because each one of them at first wanted to wait and see how things would develop."

Charles VI had devoted much of his energy to the "Pragmatic Sanction" needed to allow his daughter to inherit his kingdoms.

Critics say being too devoted to gathering royal signatures came at the expense of his treasury and military prowess.

Engraving Outside St. Patrick's Church, Vienna

The Habsburg way of plotting strategic marriages rather than war to acquire territories had served them well, but power abhors a vacuum, and as a woman, Maria Theresa could not ever become Emperor of Rome, no matter how many individual kingdoms she inherited.

By the way, while we refer to "the Holy Roman Empire," that is simply a convenient designation for historians to differentiate this Central Europe branch from the original Roman Empire and the Byzantines.

At the time, citizens of the realm simply called themselves Romans, even though Rome was not always part of the kingdom.

Habsburg heirs had held the position of King of the Romans since March 19, 1452, 40 years before Christopher Columbus "discovered" America.  That date was when Frederick III, having won the Electoral College, was crowned by Pope Nicholas V.

St. Patrick's Church at Hofburg complex, Vienna

The groundwork for the family's ascent had been laid by Habsburg Duke Albert V, who in 1438 vaulted to the position of King of the Romans as a result of having previously married Elisabeth of Luxembourg, who was not only the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund but also ruler of Bohemia and Hungary.

That marriage resulted in Albert essentially inheriting the position King of the Romans when his father-in-law passed away, but King Albert II of the Holy Roman Empire, as he became known, was never crowned Emperor by the Pope.

In 1439, Albert II gallantly lost his life in battle with the Turks (which I guess would send him to Valhalla if he were a Viking, but that's a different show).

As a widow of the King, who had received that title as a result of his marriage to her, Elisabeth nonetheless lost rule of Bohemia and Hungary, because they became national kingdoms ruled by warlords rather submit to rule by a mere widow.

Pool On AmaCerto, refreshing rest spot on sunny day in Vienna

When King Albert II died, Elisabeth was pregnant with his son.

Their son was crowned ruler of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, but he died as a baby in 1440, which could have been suspicious if not for the fact that infant mortality was not that unusual back then.  Elisabeth was not allowed to reclaim her crown.

Ergo, you may better understand the considerable risk taken by Maria Theresa when one month after her father's death, she made her husband Stephen Francis co-ruler of Austria, Bohemia and finally Hungary, in order to strengthen his claim to be King of the Romans.

Yes, the Habsburgs had managed to regain rule of both Bohemia and Hungary over time.

Maria Theresa, however, never allowed her co-ruler and beloved husband to make any decisions for her ancestral kingdoms.

Arsenal Historic Military Complex in Vienna

Sensing weakness in a country ruled by a young woman, King Frederick of Prussia invaded the Duchy of Silesia, in modern day Poland.

King Frederick offered to support Maria Theresa's right to rule the rest of her lands if she would cede Silesia to him.

Her husband Stephen Francis advocated this pragmatic course, but Maria Theresa refused to cede "the jewel of the House of Austria."

In the meantime, France secretly drew up plans to split up the lands of Austria among other kingdoms.  So much for deal sweeteners to be named later.

The War of Austrian Succession was ON!