December 8, 1708: Birth of Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, Franz Stefan of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, House of Habsburg, House of Habsburg-Lorraine, King Carlos III of Spain, King Friedrich II of Prussia

Franz I (French: François Étienne; German: Franz Stefan; December 8, 1708 – August 18, 1765) was Holy Roman Emperor (1745–1765), Archduke of Austria (1740–1765), Duke of Lorraine and Bar (1729–1737), and Grand Duke of Tuscany (1737–1765).

Franz Stefan was elected Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire because his wife, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, (daughter of Emperor Charles VI) was unable to be elected Empress in her own right due to the Empire went by the Salic Law which bared women from holding the Imperial title in her own right.

Emperor Franz was the last non-Habsburg monarch of both the Empire and Austria, which were effectively governed by Maria Theresa. The couple were the founders of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty, and their marriage produced sixteen children, among them was Archduchess Marie Antoinette the wife of King Louis XVI or France and Navarre.

Franz I Stefan, Holy Roman Emperor, Grand Duke of Tuscany

Franz Stefan was the fourth (but oldest surviving) son of Leopold, Duke of Lorraine, and the French princess Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans.

Paternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s father Leopold was the son of Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, and his wife Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, a half-sister of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Franz Stefan’s Paternal grandmother, Archduchess Eleonora Maria of Austria, was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III and his wife, Eleanora of Mantua.

Archduchess Eleanor Maria Anna of Austria was a Habsburg. However, she also had strong Habsburg ancestry through her descent from her great-grandfather, Albrecht V, Duke of Bavaria who’s own mother, Archduchess Anna of Austria, who was the third of fifteen children of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–1564) from his marriage with the Jagiellonian princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary (1503–1547).

Archduchess Anna of Austria’s siblings included: Elizabeth, Queen of Poland, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, Catherine, Queen of Poland, Eleanor, Duchess of Mantua, Barbara, Duchess of Ferrara, Charles II, Archduke of Austria and Johanna, Duchess of Tuscany.

Maternal Ancestry

Franz Stefan’s mother, Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans, was the daughter of Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, (brother of King Louis XIV of France and Navarre) and of his second wife Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine.

Franz Stefan’s maternal grandmother, Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatine, was the daughter of Charles I Ludwig, Elector Palatine and his wife Charlotte of Hesse-Cassel. Elizabeth Charlotte was named after her paternal grandmother Elizabeth Stuart and her own mother.

Charles Ludwig of the Palatinate was the second son of Friedrich V of the Palatinate, the “Winter King” of Bohemia, and of Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I-VI of England and Scotland and sister of Charles I of England of England and Scotland. This demonstrates how the House of Habsburg-Lorraine descends from the Kings and Queens of England and Scotland.

The Paternal and Maternal Ancestry of Emperor Franz I demonstrates a very strong Habsburg ancestry and connection. Though the House of Habsburg ceased in the male line with the death of Emperor Charles VI, his descendants through his daughter Archduchess Maria Theresa and her husband Franz Stefan of Lorraine have continued the Habsburg dynasty.

Although the dynasty is officially named Habsburg-Lorraine we can see that the House of Habsburg still exists because of Franz Stefan’s many paths of descent from the House of Habsburg

Duke Leopold died in 1729, and was succeeded by his son, under the French spelling of François Étienne, and became the Duke of Lorraine and Bar.

Emperor Charles VI favoured the family, who, besides being his cousins, had served the house of Austria with distinction. He had designed to marry his daughter Maria Theresa to Franz’s older brother Leopold Clement. On Leopold Clement’s death, Charles adopted the younger brother as his future son-in-law.

Archduchess Maria Theresa, Queen of Bohemia Hungary and Croatia, Archduchess of Austria and Holy Roman Empress

Prior to accepting Franz Stefan as the husband for his daughter, the Emperor considered other possibilities. Religious differences prevented him from arranging his daughter’s marriage to the Protestant prince Friedrich of Prussia the future King Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, his wife’s future rival. In 1725, he betrothed her to Infante Carlos of Spain (Carlos III of Spain) and her sister, Maria Anna, to Infante Felipe of Spain (The reigning Duke of Parma).

Other European powers compelled him to renounce the pact he had made with the Queen of Spain, Elisabeth Farnese. Maria Theresa, who had become close to Franz Stefan, was relieved.

On January 31, 1736 Franz agreed to marry Maria Theresa. He hesitated three times (and laid down the feather before signing). Especially his mother Élisabeth Charlotte d’Orléans and his brother Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine were against the loss of Lorraine.

On February 12, 1736 Franz married Maria Theresa. In 1738, he left the Duchy of Lorraine and Bar for the deposed Polish king Stanisław Leszczyński in exchange for the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, as one of the terms ending the War of the Polish Succession.

Following the death of his father-in-law Charles VI in 1740, Franz was elected Emperor and his wife became the ruler of the hereditary Habsburg domains. Maria Theresa gave her husband responsibility for the empire’s financial affairs, which he handled well.

Though she was expected to cede power to her husband, Emperor Franz I, and later her eldest son, Emperor Joseph II, who were officially her co-rulers in Austria and Bohemia, Maria Theresa was the absolute sovereign who ruled with the counsel of her advisers.

Franz was a serial adulterer; many of his affairs well-known and indiscreet, notably one with Princess Maria Wilhelmina of Auersperg, who was thirty years his junior. This particular affair was remarked upon in the letters and journals of visitors to the court and in those of his children.

Franz died suddenly at the age of 56 in his carriage while returning from the opera at Innsbruck on August 18, 1765. He is buried in tomb number 55 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia

Franz was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her dominions until her own death in 1780.

The new Emperor was made co-regent (Co-Ruler) by his mother in the hereditary Austrian dominions. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

With the death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 Emperor Joseph II also became King of Bohemia, Hungary and Croatia and was free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all.

May 5, 1747: Birth of Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Grand Duke of Tuscany, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, King Carlos III of Spain, Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Leopold II (Peter Leopold Josef Anton Joachim Pius Gotthard; May 5, 1747 – March 1, 1792) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria from 1790 to 1792, and Grand Duke of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790.

He was a son of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduchess of Austria in her own right and her husband, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I.

Leopold was also and the brother of Marie Antoinette, Queen of France and Navarre as the wife of King Louis XVI of France and Navarre; Maria Carolina of Austria, Queen of Naples and Sicily as the wife of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies; Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma by her marriage to Ferdinand, Duke of Parma; and Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor.

Leopold, Grand Duke of Tuscany (left) with his brother Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Leopold was a moderate proponent of enlightened absolutism. He granted the Academy of Georgofili his protection. Despite his brief reign, he is highly regarded. The historian Paul W. Schroeder called him “one of the most shrewd and sensible monarchs ever to wear a crown”.

Unusually for his time, he opposed capital punishment and abolished it in Tuscany in 1786 during his rule there, making it the first nation in modern history to do so.

As his parents’ third son, he was initially selected for a clerical career, he received education with focus on theology.

In 1753, he was engaged to Maria Beatrice d’Este, heiress to the Duchy of Modena and the eldest child of two monarchs, Ercole III d’Este, Duke of Modena and Maria Teresa Cybo-Malaspina, reigning duchess of Massa and princess of Carrara.

As heiress to four states (Modena, Reggio, Massa and Carrara), she was a very attractive wedding partner. Empress Maria Theresa sought to arrange a marriage between Maria Beatrice and Archduke Leopold, but this never materialised. Instead she married Leopold’s brother, Archduke Ferdinand Charles bof Austria, in a union through which the Austrians aimed to expand their influence in Italy.

Upon the early death of his older brother Archduke Charles in 1761, the family decided that Leopold was going to succeed his father as Duke of Tuscany. Tuscany had been envisioned and designated as a Secundogeniture, a territory and title bestowed upon the second born son, which was greater than an Appanage.

Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain

On August 5, 1765 Leopold married the Infanta Maria Luisa of Spain, daughter of Carlos III of Spain and Maria Amalia of Saxony. Upon the death of his father, Franz on August 18, 1765, he became Grand Duke of Tuscany.

Leopold, during his government in Tuscany, had shown a speculative tendency to grant his subjects a constitution. When he succeeded to the Austrian lands he began by making large concessions to the interests offended by his brother’s innovations.

He recognized the Estates of his different dominions as “the pillars of the monarchy”, pacified the Hungarians and Bohemians, and divided the insurgents in the Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium) by means of concessions. When these failed to restore order, he marched troops into the country and re-established his own authority, and at the same time the historic franchises of the Flemings.

Young Leopold as the Grand Duke of Tuscany

Yet he did not surrender any part that could be retained of what Maria Theresa and Joseph had done to strengthen the hands of the state. He continued, for instance, to insist that no papal bull could be published in his dominions without his consent (placetum regium).

One of the harshest actions Leopold took to placate the noble communities of the various Habsburg domains was to issue a decree on May 9, 1790 that forced thousands of Bohemian serfs freed by his brother Joseph back into servitude.

Leopold lived for barely two years after his accession as Holy Roman Emperor, and during that period he was hard pressed by peril from west and east alike. The growing revolutionary disorders in France endangered the life of his sister Marie Antoinette, the queen of Louis XVI, and also threatened his own dominions with the spread of subversive agitation. His sister sent him passionate appeals for help, and he was pestered by the royalist émigrés, who were intriguing to bring about armed intervention in France.

From the east he was threatened by the aggressive ambition of Empress Catherine II of Russia and by the unscrupulous policy of Prussia. Catherine would have been delighted to see Austria and Prussia embark on a crusade in the cause of kings against the French Revolution.

While they were busy beyond the Rhine, she would have annexed what remained of Poland and made conquests against the Ottoman Empire. Leopold II had no difficulty in seeing through the rather transparent cunning of the Russian empress, and he refused to be misled.

To his sister, he gave good advice and promises of help if she and her husband could escape from Paris. The émigrés who followed him pertinaciously were refused audience, or when they forced themselves on him, were peremptorily denied all help.

Leopold was too purely a politician not to be secretly pleased at the destruction of the power of France and of her influence in Europe by her internal disorders. Within six weeks of his accession, he displayed his contempt for France’s weakness by practically tearing up the treaty of alliance made by Maria Theresa in 1756 and opening negotiations with Great Britain to impose a check on Russia and Prussia.

Leopold put pressure on Great Britain by threatening to cede his part of the Low Countries to France. Then, when sure of British support, he was in a position to baffle the intrigues of Prussia. A personal appeal to King Friedrich Wilhelm II led to a conference between them at Reichenbach in July 1790, and to an arrangement which was in fact a defeat for Prussia: Leopold’s coronation as king of Hungary on November 11, 1790, preceded by a settlement with the Diet in which he recognized the dominant position of the Magyars.

Leopold II. Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria, and Grand Duke of Tuscany

He had already made an eight months’ truce with the Turks in September, which prepared the way for the termination of the war begun by Joseph II. The pacification of his eastern dominions left Leopold free to re-establish order in Belgium and to confirm friendly relations with Britain and the Netherlands.

During 1791, the emperor remained increasingly preoccupied with the affairs of France. In January, he had to dismiss the Count of Artois (afterwards Charles X of France) in a very peremptory way. His good sense was revolted by the folly of the French émigrés, and he did his utmost to avoid being entangled in the affairs of that country.

The insults inflicted on Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, however, at the time of their attempted flight to Varennes in June, stirred his indignation, and he made a general appeal in the Padua Circular to the sovereigns of Europe to take common measures in view of events which “immediately compromised the honour of all sovereigns, and the security of all governments.” Yet he was most directly interested in negotiations with Turkey, which in June led to a final peace, the Treaty of Sistova being signed in August 1791.

On August 25, 1791, he met King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia at Pillnitz Castle, near Dresden, and they drew up the Declaration of Pillnitz, stating their readiness to intervene in France if and when their assistance was called for by the other powers.

The declaration was a mere formality, for, as Leopold knew, neither Russia nor Britain was prepared to act, and he endeavored to guard against the use which he foresaw the émigrés would try to make of it. In face of the reaction in France to the Declaration of Pillnitz, the intrigues of the émigrés, and attacks made by the French revolutionists on the rights of the German princes in Alsace, Leopold continued to hope that intervention might not be required.

When Louis XVI swore to observe the constitution of September 1791, the emperor professed to think that a settlement had been reached in France. The attacks on the rights of the German princes on the left bank of the Rhine, and the increasing violence of the parties in Paris which were agitating to bring about war, soon showed, however, that this hope was vain.

Leopold meant to meet the challenge of the revolutionists in France with dignity and temper, however the effect of the Declaration of Pillnitz was to contribute to the radicalization of their political movement.

Mozart’s opera La clemenza di Tito was commissioned by the Estates of Bohemia for the festivities that accompanied Leopold’s coronation as king of Bohemia in Prague on September 6, 1791.

Leopold died suddenly in Vienna, in March 1792.

His mother Empress Maria Theresa was the last Habsburg. His brother Joseph II died without any surviving children, but Leopold in turn had also 16 children, just like his mother, and became the founder of the main line of the House of Habsburg-Lorraine.

The eldest of Leopold II’s eight sons being his successor, Emperor Franz II, the last Holy Roman Emperor and first Emperor of Austria. Some of his other sons were prominent personages in their day. Among them were: Ferdinand III, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen, a celebrated soldier; Archduke Johann of Austria, also a soldier; Archduke Joseph, Palatine of Hungary; and Archduke Rainer, Viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia.

October 6, 1738: Birth of Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria

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Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria, Archduchess Marie Antoinette of Austria, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Maria Theresa of Austria, Princess-Abbess of the Theresian, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia and Archduchess of Austria

Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria (Maria Anna Josepha Antonia; October 6, 1738 – November 19, 1789) was the second child of Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia Archduchess of Austria. As a child, and for a time the eldest surviving child, she was heiress presumptive, but she suffered from ill health and physical disability, and did not marry. In 1766 she became abbess of the Frauenstift in Prague. Soon thereafter she moved to Klagenfurt and remained there for the rest of her life. Her palace in Klagenfurt, the Mariannengasse, now houses the Episcopal Palace.

Biography

Early life

Archduchess Maria Anna was born on October 6, 1738 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the center of the vastly powerful Habsburg Monarchy. As the second but eldest surviving daughter of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia Archduchess of Austria, and Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor, she was heiress presumptive of the hereditary lands of the Austrian Habsburgs between 1740 and 1741, until her younger brother Joseph (later to be the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II) was born.

Her mother gave her the customary education of the princely courts at that time. Maria Anna’s musical talents were highly encouraged, but not her humanities talents. Maria Anna was the child least respected and loved by Maria Theresa—her younger brother Joseph and sisters Maria Elisabeth and Maria Christina always received the attention and care of the Empress: Joseph because he was the male heir, Liesl because she was considered the most beautiful of the daughters, and Mimi because she was the undisputed favorite child of her mother.

Reign of Maria Theresa

Maria Anna was highly intelligent but physically disabled. She suffered from bad health, worsened by the drafty and cold rooms of the Hofburg Palace. In 1757 she contracted pneumonia and almost died, the last rites being called for her. Although she survived, her breathing capacity was permanently damaged, and she also developed a fusion of her spine which caused her to have a lump on her back.

After that time, she began to have a close relationship with her father, and reportedly became Franz I’s favourite child. She shared his interest in science and conducted experiments in chemistry and physics. Despite being disabled, Maria Anna often played important roles in major events of state, including acting as sponsor at the christening of her youngest sister Marie Antoinette.

In July 1765 the whole Imperial family traveled to Innsbruck for the wedding of the second-oldest son, Leopold. They halted in Klagenfurt, where Maria Anna visited the small monastery that belonged to the Order of Saint Elisabeth, established there in 1710.

The encounter with the sisters was to be a turning point in Maria Anna’s life. Thea Leitner explains that the Archduchess became enthusiastic for the monastic life because the nuns didn’t care about appearances and Maria Anna always lived with the fear of being ridiculed because of her hump.

The death of Emperor Franz I on August 18, 1765 was a devastating blow for Maria Anna. Because her mother was unable to find a royal husband for her, in 1766 Maria Anna was made Princess-Abbess of the Theresian Imperial and Royal Convent for Noble Ladies (Frauenstift) in Prague with the promise of 80,000 florins per year.

Despite the opposition of her mother, she decided to give up the Prague position and became an abbess in Klagenfurt with a smaller provision. A palace for her was built by Nicolò Pacassi near the monastery as her residence, the construction of which was completed in 1771.

To the abbess of the convent, she wrote:

“God has given me the grace to know the world and its vanity, and thereby given me the strength to close my life not as a nun, but in solitude and in the service of neighbors. I have thus selected Klagenfurt, specifically you and your pious sisters, hoping that—my imperfect value spurred on by your good examples—my salvation is certainly assured to me.“

During the time prior to her final move to Klagenfurt, Maria Anna completed her father’s coin collection (which later became part of the Vienna Museum of Natural History) with the help of her mentor Ignaz von Born, and established her own mineral and insect collection. She financed social projects, archaeological exhumations, artists and scientists.

Maria Anna also wrote a book about her mother’s politics. Her watercolors and drawings were praised in the professional world. Maria Anna was made an honorary member of the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 1767 and elected member of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Firenze in 1769.

Despite her talents and intelligence, Maria Anna was disliked by high society because her scientific interests were considered unsuitable for her gender, but she was appreciated by the scientific and art world.

Reign of Joseph II

Empress Maria Theresa died on November 29, 1780, and four months later, Maria Anna moved permanently to Klagenfurt. She quickly developed a deep friendship with Xaveria Gasser, Abbess of the convent. Thanks to the generous financial support of the Archduchess the monastery hospital could soon be extended, and her own personal physician supervised the patients of the hospital. She also provided welfare assistance in the municipality of Klagenfurt.

Her friends were nuns, artists, scientists, and nobles, including the Carinthian iron industrialist Maximilian Thaddäus von Egger. Some of them belonged to the Freemasons. In 1783, the Klagenfurt Masonic Lodge was founded with a dedication “to charitable Marianna” (Zur wohltätigen Marianna) as she was called. Maria Anna devoted herself in Klagenfurt to her scientific interests. She discovered her love for archeology: she donated 30,000 florins for excavations at Zollfeld and also took part in the excavations herself.

Close to her younger sister Maria Elisabeth, the two lived together in the same convents until their deaths. While her youngest sister, Marie Antoinette, was traveling on her way to Versailles in 1770, she stayed at Klagenfurt for one night.

From the winter of 1788 Maria Anna’s health deteriorated further. Her shortness of breath became worse and she could hardly move without a wheelchair. She died on November 19, 1789 in the presence of her closest friends.

Reportedly, her last words were:

“It is indeed a good country, I’ve had always loved it. There are good people with whom I lived happily and I leave them reluctantly.“

Maria Anna left her entire inheritance (amounting to more than 150,000 guilders) to the monastery of Klagenfurt. Her brother, Emperor Joseph II, deducted the inheritance tax from the income. Her palace is now home to the Prince Bishop’s residence, in the Mariannengasse.

May 13,1779: Treaty of Teschen, ending the War of the Bavarian Succession

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Bavaria, Charles IV Theodore of Bavaria, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Prince-Elector of Bavaria, Duke Charles II August of Zweibrücken, Frederick II of Prussia, Frederick the Great of Prussia, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Maria Theresa of Austria, Treaty of Teschen, War of the Bavarian Succession

The Treaty of Teschen, i.e., “Peace of Teschen”; was signed on May 13, 1779 in Teschen, Austrian Silesia, between the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and the Kingdom of Prussia, which officially ended the War of the Bavarian Succession.

Background

When the childless Wittelsbach Elector Maximilian III Joseph of Bavaria died in 1777, the Habsburg Holy Roman Joseph II sought to acquire most of the Electorate of Bavaria and the Upper Palatinate, and incorporating into his hereditary Austrian lands. The basis for the claims on these lands was his marriage with the late elector’s sister, Maria Josepha, who had died in 1767.

Maximilian III’s direct heir was his distant cousin Charles IV Theodore, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Prince-Elector of Bavaria (1724–1799). Charles IV Theodore united both electorates through prior succession agreements between the Bavarian and Palatinate branches of the Wittelsbach dynasty.

Charles IV Theodore was amenable to an agreement with Emperor Joseph II that would allow him to acquire parts of the Austrian Netherlands in exchange for parts of his Bavarian inheritance. From January 16, 1778 Austrian troops moved into the Lower Bavarian lands of Straubing. Ultimately, both parties envisioned a wholesale exchange of the Bavarian lands for the Austrian Netherlands, but the final details were never concluded by treaty due to outside intervention.

Charles IV Theodore too had no legitimate heir despite two marriages. On January 17, 1742 he married Elisabeth-Auguste, daughter of Count Palatine Joseph-Charles of Sulzbach and his consort Countess Palatine Elizabeth-Augusta of Neuburg. There was one child of this marriage who died in infancy, Franz-Ludwig (June 28 – June 29, 1761).

Charles IV Theodore, Count Palatine of the Rhine and Prince-Elector of Bavaria

On February 15, 1795, in Innsbruck, he married Archduchess Maria-Leopoldine of Austria-Este, the fourth child and third (but second surviving) daughter of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Este and of his wife, Princess Maria Beatrice Ricciarda d’Este. Her father was the second youngest son of Empress Maria Theresa, and therefore brother of Emperor Joseph II. She and her mother were the founders of the House of Habsburg-Este. There were no children of this marriage.

Charles IV Theodore’s his prospective successor was his Palatine cousin, Duke Charles II August of Zweibrücken (1746–1795), the oldest of five children of Friedrich-Michael, Count Palatine of Birkenfeld-Bishwiller-Rappoltstein and Countess Palatine Maria Franziska of Sulzbach. He inherited the duchy of Zweibrücken from his paternal uncle, Duke Christian IV, in 1775.

Duke Charles II August objected to the agreement between Charles-Theodore and Emperor Joseph II because the arrangement would deprive him of the Bavarian inheritance. In an effort circumvent the arrangement Duke Charles II August appealed to the Imperial Diet in Regensburg. His cause was taken up by the Prussian king, Friedrich II the Great, who refused any increase in Austrian territory, and by Saxony, whose Wettin electoral house had married into the Wittelsbach family and therefore had allodial claims to parts of the inheritance.

Duke Charles II August of Zweibrücken

The War of the Bavarian Succession broke out with the invasion of the Prussian Army into Bohemia on July 5, 1778, after Austria and Prussia could not negotiate a solution to their differences. Due to difficulties in supplying the troops, the war became a stalemate: the Prussians were not able to advance far into the Bohemian lands, but the Austrians were unwilling to invade Saxony or Prussia.

This was due in part because Empress Maria-Theresa (the mother of Joseph II and his co-ruler as Queen of Bohemia and Archduchess of Austria) firmly opposed the war after it became clear that a stalemate prevailed. She dispatched peace initiatives to King Friedrich II of Prussia and forced her son to accept mediation by France and Russia. The peace came at the initiative of the Russian Empress Catherine II the Great and was guaranteed by both Russia and France.

Maria-Theresa, Holy Roman Empress, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria

The accord dictated that the Habsburg Archduchy of Austria would receive the Bavarian lands east of the Inn river in compensation, a region then called “Innviertel”, stretching from the Prince-Bishopric of Passau to the northern border of the Archbishopric of Salzburg.

However, one of the requirements was that Austria would recognize the Prussian claims to the Franconian margraviates of Ansbach and Bayreuth, ruled in personal union by Margrave Christian-Alexander a member of the House of Hohenzollern. Prussia finally purchased both margraviates in 1791. The Electorate of Saxony received a sum of six million guilders (florins) from Bavaria in exchange of its inheritance claims.

King Friedrich II of Prussia

With the accession of Elector Charles IV Theodore, the electorates of Bavaria and the County Palatine of the Rhine (i.e. the territories in the Rhenish Palatinate and the Upper Palatinate) were under the united rule of the House of Wittelsbach. Their electoral votes were combined into one per a provision in the earlier Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, thereby reducing the number of electorates in the Holy Roman Empire to eight. The Innviertel, except for a short time during the Napoleonic Wars, has remained with Upper Austria up to today.

Aftermath

In 1785 Maria-Theresa’s son and successor Emperor Joseph II made another try at attaching the Bavarian lands to his Habsburg possessions, and even contracted with Elector Charles IV Theodore to swap it for the Austrian Netherlands. However, Joseph II again did not agree to a full exchange of all provinces within the Austrian Netherlands and the agreement collapsed amidst tacit French opposition and overt Prussian hostility.

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

These plans were however once again frustrated by King Friedrich II of Prussia, who raised the opposition by the Fürstenbund, an association of several Imperial princes. The War of the Bavarian Succession, along with the War of the Austrian Succession, placed Austria and Prussia in anlong-standing rivalry for supremacy of German lands in Central Europe until 1866 when the outbreak of the Austro-Prussian War which resulted in Prussian dominance over the German states.

May 10, 1794: Execution of HRH Madame Élisabeth de Bourbon, Princess of France and Navarre. Part I.

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Élisabeth de Bourbon, Clothilde de Bourbon, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, King Carlo-Emanuele IV of Sardinia, Louis the Dauphin, Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, Princess of France and Navarre, Queen Maria Leszczyńska

Élisabeth of France (Élisabeth Philippe Marie Hélène de France; May 3, 1764 – May 10, 1794), known as Madame Élisabeth, was a French princess and the youngest sibling of King Louis XVI. She remained beside the king and his family during the French Revolution and was executed at Place de la Révolution in Paris during the Terror. She is regarded by the Roman Catholic Church as a martyr and is venerated as a Servant of God.

HRH Madame Élisabeth de Bourbon, Princess of France and Navarre

Élisabeth was born in the Palace of Versailles, the youngest child of Louis, Dauphin of France and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, daughter of Augustus III, Prince-Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria, the eldest child of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and Princess Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Élisabeth’s paternal grandparents were King Louis XV of France and and Queen Maria Leszczyńska. As the granddaughter of the king, she was a Petite-Fille de France.

Louis, Dauphin of France (son of Louis XV), Father of Élisabeth de Bourbon.

Maria Josepha of Saxony, Dauphine of France, Mother of Élisabeth de Bourbon.

At the sudden death of her father in 1765, Élisabeth’s oldest surviving brother, Louis-Auguste (later to be Louis XVI) became the new Dauphin (the heir apparent to the French throne). Their mother, Marie Josèphe died in March 1767 from tuberculosis. This left Élisabeth an orphan at just two years old, along with her older siblings: Louis-Auguste, Louis-Stanislas, Count of Provence, Charles-Philippe, Count of Artois and Clotilde, (“Madame Clotilde”).

Élisabeth and her elder sister Clothilde were raised by Madame de Marsan, Governess to the Children of France. The sisters were considered very dissimilar in personality. While Elisabeth was described as “proud, inflexible, and passionate”, Clothilde was in contrast estimated to be “endowed with the most happy disposition, which only needed guiding and developing”.

They were given the usual education of contemporary royal princesses, focusing upon accomplishments, religion and virtue, an education to which Clothilde reportedly willingly subjected herself. They were tutored in botany by M. Lemonnier, in history and geography by M. Leblond, and in religion by Abbé de Montigat, Canon of Chartres, and they followed the court among the royal palaces, with their days divided between studies, walks in the Park, and drives in the forest.

Young Princess Élisabeth playing the harp.

While Clothilde was described as a docile pupil “who made herself loved by all who approached her”, Élisabeth long refused to study, saying that “there were always people at hand whose duty it was to think for Princes”, and treated her staff with impatience. Madame de Marsan, who was unable to handle Élisabeth, preferred Clothilde, which made Elisabeth jealous and created a rift between the sisters.

Their relationship improved when Élisabeth fell ill and Clothilde insisted upon nursing her, during which time she also taught Élisabeth the alphabet and gave her an interest in religion, which prompted a great change in the girl’s personality; Clothilde soon came to be her sister’s friend, tutor, and councillor.

In 1770, her eldest brother, the Dauphin, married Archduchess Marie-Antoinette of Austria, youngest daughter of Archduchess Maria-Theresa and Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor. Marie-Antoinette found Élisabeth delightful, and reportedly demonstrated too openly that she preferred her to her sister Clothilde, which caused some offence at court.

On May 10, 1774, her grandfather Louis XV died, and her elder brother Louis Auguste ascended the throne as Louis XVI.

HRH Madame Clothilde de Bourbon, Princess of France and Navarre.

In August 1775, her sister Clothilde left France for her marriage to her cousin the Crown Prince of Sardinia, the future King Carlo-Emanuele IV of Sardinia, the eldest son of Vittorio-Amadeo III, King of Sardinia and of his wife Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda of Spain. Infanta Maria Antonia Ferdinanda was the youngest daughter of King Felipe V of Spain and Elisabeth Farnese. Felipe V of Spain was born Philippe de Bourbon of France, Duke of Anjou, son of Louis, le Grand Dauphin of France.

The farewell between the sisters was described as emotionally intense, with Élisabeth hardly able to tear herself from Clothilde’s arms.

On May 17, 1778, after the visit of the court to Marly, Madame Élisabeth formally left the children’s chamber and became an adult when she, upon the wish of the king her brother, was turned over to the king by her governess and given her own household, with Diane de Polignac as maid of honour and the Bonne Marie Félicité de Sérent as lady-in-waiting.

Several attempts were made to arrange a marriage for her. The first suggested partner was Jose, Prince of Brazil. She made no objections to the match, but was reportedly relieved when the negotiations were discontinued.

HRH Madame Élisabeth de Bourbon, Princess of France and Navarre

Next, she was offered a proposal by the Duke of Aosta (future Vittorio-Emmanuele I of Sardinia), brother of the Crown Prince Carlo-Emanuele of Savoy and brother-in-law of her sister Clothilde. The court of France, however, did not consider it proper for a French princess to be married to a prince of lower status than that of a monarch or an heir to a throne, (although Vittorio-Emmanuele later became King of Sardinia he was not expected to at the time). The marriage was refused on her behalf.

Finally, a marriage was suggested between her and her brother-in-law Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor, who had a good impression of her from his visit to France the previous year, and commented that he was attracted by the “vivacity of her intellect and her amiable character.”

However, the anti-Austrian party at court viewed another alliance between France and Austria as contrary to the interests of France, and by 1783 the plans were finally discontinued and no further suggestions of marriage were made.

Élisabeth herself was content not to marry, as it would have been to a foreign prince, which would force her to leave France: “I can only marry a King’s son, and a King’s son must reign over his father’s kingdom. I should no longer be a Frenchwoman. I do not wish to cease to be one. It is far better to stay here at the foot of my brother’s throne than to ascend another.”

March 13, 1741: Birth of Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

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Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, Empress Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II, Holy Roman Empire, Isabella of Parma, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

Joseph II (German: Joseph Benedikt Anton Michel Adam; March 13, 1741 – February 20, 1790) was Holy Roman Emperor from August 1765 and sole ruler of the Habsburg lands from November 1780 until his death. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Emperor Franz I, and the brother of Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France and Navarre. He was thus the first ruler in the Austrian dominions of the House of Lorraine, styled Habsburg-Lorraine. Joseph was a proponent of enlightened absolutism; however, his commitment to modernizing reforms subsequently engendered significant opposition, which resulted in failure to fully implement his programs.

Joseph married Princess Isabella of Parma in October 1760, a union fashioned to bolster the 1756 defensive pact between France and Austria. (The bride’s mother, Princess Louise Élisabeth, was the eldest daughter of King Louis XV of France and Navarre. Isabella’s father was Philip, Duke of Parma.) Joseph loved his bride, Isabella, finding her both stimulating and charming, and she sought with special care to cultivate his favor and affection. Isabella also found a best friend and confidant in her husband’s sister, Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen.

The marriage of Joseph and Isabella resulted in the birth of a daughter, Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria (1762–1770), Just a few months short of her eighth birthday, Archduchess Maria Theresa became ill with pleurisy. Her father, by that time Holy Roman Emperor, did everything in his power to save her and attended her bedside even at night. However, the medicine in those days was highly undeveloped and Archduchess Maria Theresa died on January 23, 1770 from a very high fever.

Princess Isabella of Parma

In November 1763, while six months pregnant, Isabella fell ill with smallpox and went into premature labor, resulting in the birth of their second child, Archduchess Maria Christina, who died shortly after being born. Progressively ill with smallpox and strained by sudden childbirth and tragedy, Isabella died the following week. The loss of his beloved wife and their newborn child was devastating for Joseph, after which he felt keenly reluctant to remarry.

For political reasons, and under constant pressure, in 1765, he relented and married his second cousin, Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria, the daughter of Charles VII, Holy Roman Emperor, and Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Joseph I and Wilhelmine Amalia of Brunswick-Lüneburg. This marriage proved extremely unhappy, albeit brief, as it lasted only two years. Though Maria Josepha loved her husband, she felt timid and inferior in his company. Lacking common interests or pleasures, the relationship offered little for Joseph, who confessed he felt no love (nor attraction) for her in return.

Princess Maria Josepha of Bavaria

Four months after the second anniversary of their wedding, Maria Josepha grew ill and died from smallpox. Joseph neither visited her during her illness nor attended her funeral, though he later expressed regret for not having shown her more kindness, respect, or warmth. Joseph never remarried.

On the death of his father, Holy Roman Emperor Franz I in 1765, he was succeeded as Emperor by his eldest son, Joseph II, and as Grand Duke of Tuscany by his younger son, Peter Leopold (later Emperor Leopold II). Maria Theresa retained the government of her hereditary dominions, Austria, Hungary and Bohemia until her own death in 1780. As emperor, he had little true power, and his mother had resolved that neither her husband nor her son should ever deprive her of sovereign control in her hereditary dominions.

Joseph II (right) with his brother Peter Leopold, then Grand Duke of Tuscany, later Emperor Leopold II, by Pompeo Batoni, 1769, Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

The death of Maria Theresa on November 29, 1780 left Joseph free to pursue his own policy, and he immediately directed his government on a new course, attempting to realize his ideal of enlightened despotism acting on a definite system for the good of all. He undertook the spread of education, the secularization of church lands, the reduction of the religious orders and the clergy, in general, to complete submission to the lay state, the issue of the Patent of Tolerance (1781) providing limited guarantee of freedom of worship, and the promotion of unity by the compulsory use of the German language (replacing Latin or in some instances local languages)—everything which from the point of view of 18th-century philosophy, the Age of Enlightenment, appeared “reasonable”.

Despite making some territorial gains, his reckless foreign policy badly isolated Austria. He has been ranked, with Catherine II the Great of Russia and Friedrich II the Great of Prussia, as one of the three great Enlightenment monarchs. His reputation as an enlightened monarch was somewhat legendary, leading to false, but influential letters depicting him as a radical philosopher. His policies are now known as Josephinism. He was a supporter of the arts, and most importantly, of composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri.

In November 1788, Joseph returned to Vienna with ruined health and was left abandoned. His minister Kaunitz refused to visit his sick-room and did not see him for two years. His brother Leopold remained at Florence. At last, Joseph, worn out and broken-hearted, recognized that his servants could not, or would not, carry out his plans.

Joseph died on February 20, 1790. He is buried in tomb number 42 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. He asked that his epitaph read: “Here lies Joseph II, who failed in all he undertook.” Joseph was succeeded by his brother, Leopold II.

On this date in History: May 16, 1770. Marriage of Louis XVI of France and Navarre to Marie Antoinette of Austria.

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Austria, Holy Roman Emperor, Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, Holy Roman Empire, King Louis XV of France, King Louis XVI of France, Kings of france, Louis XV, Marie Antoinette, Marriage, Seven Years War, Versaille

The future King Louis XVI of France and Navarre was born on August 23, 1754 in the Palace of Versailles. Christened Louis-Auguste and created Duc de Berry he was one of seven children, and the third surviving son, of Louis, the Dauphin of France, and Marie-Josèphe of Saxony, (daughter of Prince-Elector Friedrich-August II of Saxony, King of Poland).

King Louis XVI of France and Navarre

Louis-Auguste’s two elder brothers died young, they were: Louis-Joseph of France, Duke of Burgundy (September 13, 1751 – March 22, 1761). Xavier of France, Duke of Aquitaine (September 8, 1753 – February 22, 1754), died in infancy. Louis-Auguste was the grandson of Louis XV of France and Navarre and his consort, Maria Leszczyńska of Poland (daughter of King Stanislaw I of Poland [later Duke of Lorraine] and Catherine Opalińska).

Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on December 20, 1765, the eleven-year-old Louis-Auguste became the new Dauphin. His mother never recovered from the loss of her husband and died on March 13, 1767, also from tuberculosis.

Maria-Antonia of Austria was born on November 2, 1755 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. She was the youngest daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Franz I and his wife, the Empress Maria Theresa (Queen of Hungry and Bohemia, Archduchess of Austria in her own right). Her godparents were King Joseph I and Queen Mariana Victoria (born an Infanta of Spain) of Portugal; Archduke Joseph of Austria and Archduchess Maria Anna of Austria acted as proxies for their newborn sister.

Archduchess Maria-Antonia of Austria

During the Seven Years’ War* Empress Maria Theresa decided to end hostilities with her longtime enemy, King Louis XV of France and Navarre. Their common desire was to destroy the ambitions of Prussia and Great Britain and to secure a definitive peace between their respective countries. This common goal led them to seal their alliance with a marriage: on February 7, 1770, Louis XV formally requested the hand of Maria Antonia for his eldest surviving grandson and heir, Louis-Auguste, Duke of Berry and Dauphin of France.

Maria-Antonia formally renounced her rights to the Habsburg domains, and on April 19, 1770 she was married by proxy to the Dauphin of France at the Augustinian Church in Vienna, with her brother Archduke Ferdinand standing in for the Dauphin. On May 14, she met her husband (and her second cousin once removed) in person at the edge of the forest of Compiègne. Upon her arrival in France, she adopted the French version of her name: Marie Antoinette. A further ceremonial wedding took place on May 16, 1770 in the Palace of Versailles and, after the festivities, the day ended with the ritual bedding for the fifteen-year-old, Louis-Auguste and the fourteen-year-old Marie-Antoinette.

The initial reaction to the marriage between Marie Antoinette and Louis-Auguste was mixed. On the one hand, the Dauphine was beautiful, personable and well-liked by the common people. Her first official appearance in Paris on June 8, 1773 was a resounding success.

Marie-Antoinette, Dauphine of France

However, because of France’s alliance with Austria which had pulled the country into the disastrous Seven Years’ War, in which France was defeated by the British and the Prussians, both in Europe and in North America; the French people generally disliked the Austrian alliance, and Marie-Antoinette was seen as an unwelcome foreigner.

For the young couple themselves the marriage was initially amiable but distant. Louis-Auguste’s shyness and, among other factors, the young age and inexperience of the newlyweds, coupled with the fact, as mentioned earlier, that they were were nearly total strangers to each other: having met only two days before their wedding, meant that the 15-year-old bridegroom failed to consummate the union with his 14-year-old bride. His fear of being manipulated by her for imperial purposes caused him to behave coldly towards her in public. Over time, the couple became closer, though while their marriage was reportedly consummated in July 1773, it did not actually happen until 1777.

Marie-Antoinette ‘s brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, came to France incognito, using the name Comte de Falkenstein, for a six-week visit during which he toured Paris extensively and was a guest at Versailles. He met his sister and her husband on April 18, 1777 at the château de la Muette, and spoke frankly to his brother-in-law, curious as to why the royal marriage had not been consummated, arriving at the conclusion that no obstacle to the couple’s conjugal relations existed save the queen’s lack of interest and the king’s unwillingness to exert himself. In a letter to his brother Leopold, Joseph described them as “a couple of complete blunderers.”

His Imperial Majesty The Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II, King of Germany, Jerusalem, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia, Slavonia, Galicia and Lodomeria, Archduke of Austria, etc.

Suggestions that Louis suffered from phimosis, which was relieved by circumcision, have been discredited. Nevertheless, following Joseph’s intervention, the marriage was finally consummated in August 1777. Eight months later, in April 1778, it was suspected that the queen was pregnant, which was officially announced on May 16, 1778 (the couple’s eight Wedding Anniversary). Marie Antoinette’s daughter, Marie-Thérèse Charlotte, Madame Royale, was born at Versailles on December 19, 1778.

* The Seven Years Warrior was a global conflict fought between 1756 and 1763. It involved every European great power of the time and spanned five continents, affecting Europe, the Americas, West Africa, South Asia, and the Philippines. For this reason the Seven Years War is often called World War 0 by some historians.