The German Question, Part Twenty-Nine

"An Empress & Queen Of The Germans" Part Two of Two

When Frederick the Great first invaded Silesia, he offered a deal to Maria Theresa, that if she would give up most of the province to him, he would then side with her to defend her rights as a female ruler. Maria Theresa was advised to accept the offer, even initially by her husband, but she declined, preferring to fight for her territory. Her husband then went along steadfastly with her decision. While she did not succeed in recovering Silesia from Prussia, her determination showed that she was a force to be reckoned with, and that she would not just let her lands be taken over without a fight because she was a woman. She attempted, without success, to regain her lost Silesian territory even after the war ended (see Part 26 for a brief sketch of the "Seven Years' War," which included Maria Theresa's unsuccessful attempt to regain control over Silesia. Here is the link to Part 26: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty-six.html ).

If you think enduring war showed Maria Theresa's character, she had SIXTEEN children (three died in infancy, far from uncommon in those times), which meant that during most of the crises of more than the first half of her rule, she was in some stage of pregnancy. Two of her sons, Joseph and Leopold, became German emperors, her daughter Maria Carolina became what was then called Queen of Naples and Sicily, and her most famous offspring, daughter Marie Antoinette, became Queen of France, a position which cost her life, as she was taken prisoner and then beheaded as a consequence of the French Revolution (as was her husband, King Louis XVI).

Maria Theresa pushed for reform of the army and of the government itself, instituting a substantial standing army that showed she was ready for war with any would-be invader, and imposing taxes on the rich and the nobility, which although not entirely successful, showed that she was not afraid of society's rich and powerful. The additional revenues more than helped balance her treasury, and the surplus further helped discourage other rulers from aggressive acts, as she had cash to support her army. She brought learned and experienced people into government to advise her on all sorts of matters, demonstrating that she was not so insecure in her position that she feared such advice. She survived an attack of smallpox in the 1760s, making her determined to try to prevent large outbreaks of this serious disease which often had a mortality rate of 25%-30%, in its most virulent form. This was before Jenner's vaccine, but there was a form of inoculation (using powdered scabs blown up the nose) used to literally give people a mild form of the disease (usually a slight rash), thus preventing further, more serious, or even fatal, infection.* She had her own children inoculated and pressed others to do the same, and her example helped propel the number of inoculated children in her territories, mainly in what is now modern Austria. Maria Theresa also tried to make it mandatory for children to attend school, but the very nature of the geography (mountains, valleys, and many isolated areas), made it virtually impossible to enforce, although she wanted parents arrested and punished for non-compliance. She also tried to force her many non-German speaking subjects to learn German to "Germanize" all of her lands. Not only did this not succeed, it had the opposite effect with many non-Germans, bringing about a certain "nationalism" or "ethnic pride," especially among the Czechs.

While obviously "enlightened" in some matters, Maria Theresa was a very devout Roman Catholic, and she was not tolerant of other religious beliefs, except Eastern Orthodox believers. She openly believed that her lands should be uniform in Roman Catholicism, and even tried harsh measures to convert non-Catholics, but interestingly, at the same time, she reserved the right of appointment of all Catholic authorities in her lands for herself, and not for the Church. She had a substantial number of Austrian Protestants relocated to Transylvania, then a part of her Kingdom of Hungary. A blot on her legacy was her commitment to extreme measures against Jews living in her territories, especially during the first half of her rule. She issued exorbitant taxes on Jews, had Jewish children forcibly converted to Catholicism, and had many Jews expelled from various parts of her lands. Later, under the influence of her son Joseph, who was far more tolerant of differing religions, she began to ease her anti-Jewish measures, even eventually offering Jews some protections, and abandoning the practice of forcible conversion of Jewish children.

Upon the death of her husband, German Emperor Franz I, in the summer of 1765, Maria Theresa lost her title as "German Empress and Queen of the Germans." Their son Joseph (Josef, in German) was then elected German Emperor as Joseph II. Maria Theresa also made Joseph her co-ruler in the Habsburg lands; he thus replaced his late father. Joseph was more "enlightened" than his mother, and the two did not see eye-to-eye on many matters, but while he had an influence on some of her ideas, she prevailed in overall matters, often even regarding policies of the German Empire, although HE was the emperor! Maria Theresa died in 1780, leaving Joseph in full control of both the German Empire and the Habsburg lands. Frederick the Great, Maria Theresa's frequent military opponent, commented that Maria Theresa's achievements were as great as many men, which was quite a compliment to a woman in those days.

*This was obviously a bit risky, as some people came down with more serious infections, but from what I've read, it seems such cases were relatively rare, and the risk of death from an outbreak of the more serious form of smallpox was eventually seen as far greater (as was the risk of severe scarring for those who survived).

WORD HISTORY:
Mesh-This word seems to go back to Indo European "mezg," with the idea of "knitted or twisted." This gave the Old Germanic offshoot "masko/mesko," which in turn gave Anglo-Saxon (Old English) "masc/max," which meant "net," plus Old English had the word "maescre," seemingly derived from the same source, which seems to have actually meant "mesh." All of these forms seem to have "meshed" together (I couldn't resist that!), later giving English "mesche," before moving on to the modern spelling. Relatives in the other Germanic languages include German "Masche," Low German "Masch," Dutch "maas," Icelandic "möskvi," Norwegian and Danish "maske," Swedish "maska." Notice that the North Germanic languages of Icelandic, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish all use the harder "k" sound, as compared to the West Germanic languages of English, German, Low German and Dutch using the softer sounding "sh/sch/s." I could not find a modern form in Frisian.