Alice Audrey

Maria Theresa’s response to her growing infirmities was to push herself even harder. When she was told that these exertions would be her undoing, she redoubled her efforts. These were not the actions of a woman who was denying her mortality; they were the actions of a woman who knew she was dieing and wanted to get it over with. There was very little in the world that frightened Maria Theresa. Nothing frightened her personally. Certainly not the thought of her own death.

If she could no longer write, no longer walk, no longer discharge her duties to the Empire, the Church, and the dynasty, then she was ready to go. Besides, she knew, knew in her heart and soul, that Francis was waiting for her. In the autumn of 1780, Maria went out with Joseph on one of the hunting parties that both he and his father loved so much.

Continue reading Ah Maria, The End

So many people became embroyled in the stalemate between Marie Antoinette and the King’s mistress, Madame Dubarry – starting with the king’s daughters and ending with, of course, Mom; Maria Theressa of Austria.

Marie Antoinette’s continued slighting of Madame Dubarry had finally been pushed to it’s logical, or perhaps I should say illogical conclusion. France and Austria were facing the possibility of war. This was not Marie’s fault alone. Brother Joseph’s connivance in the partition of Poland was the event that was causing the most strain between the two countries., but his little sister’s unbelievably gauche behavior was not putting King Louis in a good mood. Add to this the undeniable strain between Marie and her husband, the fact that not only were there no babies forthcoming but the young couple didn’t even seem to be trying to make them, what was up with that?

The only person in all of Europe who really could speak to Marie, to tell her what she needed to to be told, was mom. Mom didn’t like this because she was more than aware that she was going to order her daughter to be nice to a whore, but, that’s life. Sometimes you have to find a way to get your gay husband to impregnate you, sometimes you have to kiss and make up to your father-in-laws favorite A-number one “girlfriend.”
Continue reading Ah Maria, It’s a Royal Dressing Down

Emperor Joseph wasn’t Queen Maria Theressa of Austria’s only wayward child. In fact, he wasn’t even the best known of the lot.

In the great mass of official business that Maria had to attend to, she still found time to correspond with family and friends. After the death of Francis, Maria took, not surprisingly, a great interest in the family affairs of her married children. There were a lot of them. By 1774, only two children remained at home; daughters Marianne, who’s health was poor, and Elizabeth, who was so disfigured by smallpox that she was apparently considered un-marriageable.

Joseph, of course, was the main recipient of the bulk of the writing Maria sent to her kids. Considering her propensity to go on,page after page, with advice to her head-strong co-regent, it is highly probable that he read very little of his mom’s correspondence. The fact that mom ordered him to attend an audience, solely for the purpose of reading to him a letter she considered very important, says much about how he treated the usual letter from her.

Her letters to her children must have numbered in the thousands. Most of these, but not all, were burned, as Maria had requested, by the recipients. Maria destroyed all the letters she received from her children, except for those from Joseph and Marie Antoinette, which were considered by her to be state documents.

While the letters to Joseph and Marie Antoinette were filled with advice neither would take seriously, her letters to her other children were more relaxed and informal. Much was made of grandchildren. Inquires after their health as well as urgent requests for the latest portraits produced mixed results. This excerpt is from a letter to Marie Beatrix;
Continue reading Ah Maria, What of Marie Antoinette?

We left off with Empress Maria Theresa of Austria butting heads with her Emperor son, and that’s where we resume with week.

“If I conversed only with my equals, I should have to spend my days in the imperial vault.” So wrote the Emperor Joseph. The truth was, while he believed that of himself, he didn’t think that anyone else was worthy of their positions. Time and again he lambasted those whom he felt held their positions because no one “below” them was allowed to have the job. “The title of Privy Councilor cannot be denied him, no matter how much a fool, simply because once upon a time there was a sensible and honest individual in his family….If the court and ministers would not only withhold honors from all these vapid and useless members, but would regard them with contempt, there would soon be a change.”

Mom pointed out that what was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander. If merit was all, then where would he, a Hapsburg, be? His case was different. He accepted his hereditary privilege without question; much as he accepted without question that his every idea of reform must have naturally been based on the firmest logic for no other reason than he thought of it.

It was an extremely exasperated Maria who wrote. “You are an intellectual cocotte.(18th century spelling) You chase after what seem to you clever ideas without the least shadow of discrimination. You catch onto any idle word-play, any telling phrase you read in a book or overhear in conversation and come out with it yourself at the first opportunity, without asking whether it is relevant or not.”

Continue reading Ah Maria, Who is Truly Enlightened?

Sometimes history hands us the unhappy combination of a juvenile and selfish mind full of arrogance in a position of power. Woe betide the fool who challenges the worth of such an individual. Witness Marie Antoinette’s brother in action.

Joseph considered the reputations of some of his peers in the “running an empire” business, and was not happy when he compared his own to theirs. What did they do to be considered “Great?” Catherine in Russia. Great Scot, the woman wasn’t even Russian! And she got the job by murdering her dim-witted husband. (Not that anyone in Russia got terribly upset over that.)

There was Frederick, in Prussia. Yes, he had many battlefield victories. But was he the only man who could do those things? No! Joseph was convinced that the time was ripe for someone else to be the next “Great.” Someone like…himself.

Battlefield victories. That was the sort of thing that made an emperor’s reputation. His mother was appalled. It was bad enough that he was thinking like Frederick, but he was thinking like Frederick without actually possessing the capacity to win the battles he was so anxious to start. This was exactly the sort of thing she didn’t want Austria involved in.

Joseph’s brother-in-law, Maximilian, elector of Bavaria, died without a male heir. Joseph may have had no use for his wife while she was alive, but now the marriage itself would come in handy for laying claim to choice parcels of Bavarian real estate.

Continue reading Ah Maria, How Can He Measure Up?