World-Noted Women, Or, Types of Womanly Attributes of All Lands and Ages (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1858. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... MARIA THERESA. Maria Theresa was an embodiment of executive regality. She had the promptitude, forethought, and vigilance of a detective officer; and discharged duty with the rigid precision of a policeman. She was essentially practical, and thoroughly industriousminded. She was ready in an emergency, equal to a difficulty, and sturdy for order and regulation. She met reverses with boldness and fortitude, and used prosperity for instituting reforms. She was greatly remedial; remedying sudden mischances by encountering them firmly; and remedying existing evils with the strong hand of eradication. She was daughter of Charles VI. of Austria, Emperor of Germany, and Elizabeth Christina, of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel. In default of male issue, Charles VI. appointed that his daughter, Maria Theresa, should be heiress of all the Austrian dominions; and, consent to this appointment--entitled the Pragmatic Sanction --was obtained from the Diet of the empire, all the German princes, and several of the European powers. At the age of nineteen, Maria Theresa married Francis, of Lorraine; who became Grand Duke of Tuscany the year after his nuptials; and accompanied by his consort, repaired to Florence. Upon her father's death, in 1740, Maria Theresa lost no time in returning to Vienna, that she might assert her rights, and take possession of those dominions bequeathed as her inheritance. She had to maintain her patrimony against the various claimants that arose to dispute her succession: for the Elector of Bavaria, and of Saxony, the Kings of Spain, France, and Sardinia, each advanced pretensions to certain portions of the Austrian Monarchy, which they agreed to dismember, and divide among them in respective shares; while Frederick II. of Prussia, surnamed the Great, ass...