The enlightened rule of the Empress Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa: Empress: The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment Richard Bassett

Yale, pp.520, 25

The role of personality and charm in running a state is one theme of Richard Bassett’s superb book, the first English biography of the Empress Maria Theresa since Edward Crankshaw’s in 1969. The different parts of the Habsburg monarchy – Austria, Tyrol, Bohemia, Hungary, Croatia and Milan – had little in common except dynasty, geography and Catholicism.

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Tagged18th-century european history, Austria, bohemia, Enlightenment, Habsburgs, Hungary, public audiences, serfdom, the Balkans, the Ottomans, Torture, Trieste

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The enlightened rule of the Empress Maria Theresa

‘She hates to see anyone put to death’, said one contemporary of the monarch who abolished torture and serfdom and pioneered the practice of open weekly audiences with the public

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