Maria Theresa

Maria Theresa was the eldest daughter of Emperor Charles VI, who had no sons and spent years getting Europe's rulers to accept that she would inherit his lands. When he died in 1740 and she became ruler at twenty-three, Prussia and others attacked anyway, starting the War of the Austrian Succession. She lost the rich province of Silesia to Frederick the Great but held the rest of her lands, partly by winning the loyalty of the Hungarian nobles. Her husband, Francis Stephen, was elected Holy Roman Emperor. She then reorganized the government, the army and taxation, made primary schooling compulsory in 1774, and reduced the labor peasants owed to their lords. She was a devout Catholic and expelled Jews from Prague for a time. She had sixteen children, among them the emperor Joseph II and Marie Antoinette, queen of France. After her husband's death in 1765 she wore mourning for the rest of her life, and she ruled with her son Joseph until her death in 1780.

Faith: A Catholic empress who defended unity of faith in her state and restricted Protestants. Source: Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)