MARIA THERESA MARIANA 



687 



Versailles. Maria Theresa concluded now (May 1) 

 the union with France against Frederic the Great, 

 which occasioned the seven years' war (q. v. ; also 

 Frederic II.). After the conclusion of this unfortu- 

 nate war, Maria Theresa's son, the archduke Joseph, 

 was chosen Roman king, March 27, 1764, by which 

 means the imperial queen confirmed her family in 

 the possession of the German imperial dignity. Her 

 husband, the emperor Francis, died Aug. 28, 1765, 

 and his death caused her deep and lasting distress. 



Joseph II. was now emperor, but, although de- 

 clared by his mother, her colleague in his hereditary 

 possessions, he mingled as little as his father had 

 done in the internal government. Only the direc- 

 tion of the army was given to him. Maria Theresa 

 founded and improved schools, universities, and 

 academies, and granted prizes to the students. She 

 rewarded also those who made any important im- 

 provements in the arts, and turned her attention 

 particularly to agriculture, which was denominated, 

 upon a medal that she caused to be struck, the sup- 

 port of all the arts. Still greater was her merit in 

 the abolition of many abuses of the church. She 

 forbade the presence of the clergy at the making of 

 wills, deprived the church and the convents of their 

 right of sanctuaries, and suppressed the inquisition 

 at Milan. She abolished the order of Jesuits, and 

 prohibited the admission of individuals of both sexes 

 as members of convents before the age of twenty-five 

 years. She also abolished the rack in all her states. 

 Apparently through the influence of Kaunitz, she 

 concluded at Petersburg (Aug. 5, 1772), with Russia 

 and Prussia, the agreement for the partition of Po- 

 land. In this partition, she received Galicia and 

 Lodomiria (27,000 square miles, with 2,500,000 

 inhabitants). To induce her to abstain from farther 

 demands, the Porte was compelled to give up Buko- 

 wina to her (Feb. 25, 1777). Austria was now in a 

 prosperous situation. It had 260,000 troops, and an 

 income exceeding its expenditures. The politic 

 Choiseul therefore sought, by the marriage of the 

 dauphin with the daughter of Maria Theresa (1770), 

 the afterwards so unfortunate Maria Antoinette, to 

 form a closer union between France and Austria ; and 

 the court of Vienna acceded to the proposal, hoping, 

 on the accession of Louis XVI. to the throne, to 

 obtain a powerful influence over the cabinet of Ver- 

 sailles. About this time, the death of the elector of 

 Bavaria (Dec. 30, 1777) produced the Bavarian war 

 of succession. (See Tesc/ien, Peace of.) Austria 

 received, on this occasion, the Innviertel ; but the 

 decline of her influence over Germany was percep- 

 tible. After this peace, the court of Vienna sought 

 to unite Britain as well as Russia more firmly to 

 itself, in order to procure for the archduke Maxi- 

 milian the electoral dignity of Cologne and the 

 bishopric of Munster, which was at last effected, in 

 spite of the opposition of Frederic II. Thus had 

 Maria Theresa obtained for her three younger sons 

 the government of important states: for Leopold, the 

 grand duchy of Tuscany ; for Ferdinand, by a mar- 

 riage with the daughter of the duke of Modena, the 

 succession to that duchy ; and for Maximilian, the 

 dignity of elector and bishop of Cologne and Munster. 

 Of her six daughters, the two younger were united to 

 kings, namely, of France and Naples ; and the house 

 of Austria, which, in 1740, seemed on the brink of 

 ruin, was now, by the internal situation of its states, 

 as well as by its foreign family and other connex- 

 ions, at the very summit of power. 



Maria Theresa died Nov. 29, 1780, at the age of 

 sixty-three. As a ruler, she was unceasingly active. 

 She loved her children with the deepest tenderness. 

 To her servants she was very kind. The welfare of 

 her subjects was her highest aim. But she lent an 



ear too easily to spies and informers, and endeav- 

 oured to introduce them into the privacy of families. 

 Her great piety bordered upon enthusiasm, and made 

 her intolerant ; hence the pernicious restraint of the 

 press, &c. She wrote two or three books of devo- 

 tion, of which one was published at Vienna (1774). 

 She sometimes gave way to her passions, yet knew 

 how to control herself quickly. When young, she 

 was one of the handsomest women of her time. In 

 advanced age, she became very corpulent. The 

 small-pox, in 1767, and, soon after, a fall from a 

 carriage, which nearly deprived her of sight, de- 

 stroyed her beauty. After the death of her husband, 

 she appeared to be sunk in deep melancholy, and 

 neglected her appearance entirely. She deserves to 

 be recorded as an instance of conjugal love. Of 

 sixteen children, which she bore the emperor, ten 

 survived her. The four sons and the two younger 

 daughters, we have noticed above. Of the four 

 elder ones, the first was abbess of Prague and Kla- 

 genfurt ; the second, Marie Christine (the favourite 

 of her mother), was married to duke Albert of Saxe- 

 Teschen, a son of Augustus III., king of Poland ; 

 the third was abbess of Innspruck, and the fourth, 

 wife of the duke of Parma. 



MARIANA, JUAN, or JOHN, one of the first Span- 

 ish historians, was born at Talavera, 1536, devoted 

 himself to the clerical profession, and entered the 

 society of the Jesuits. At the university of Alcala, 

 he acquired that pure taste and that eloquence which 

 are found in his writings. He then journeyed, and 

 taught theology, for thirteen years, with distinction, 

 in Rome, Sicily, and Paris. The climate of the lat- 

 ter city, however, and still more his indefatigable 

 industry, undermined his health, so that he returned, 

 in 1574, into the Jesuits' college at Toledo. He now 

 wrote his Historia de Rebus Hispanice (first ed. , Toledo, 

 1592), in elegant Latin, that the great deeds of his 

 countrymen might become known to all nations. His 

 tone is impartial, though he ardently loves Spain, and 

 admires Spanish virtue. Though a Jesuit, he com- 

 plains of pope Alexander VI., and says that he caused 

 Cffisar to leave the clerical order contra fas, contra 

 auspicia, contra omnia a-quitatis jura. Though a 

 Spaniard, he is not blindly prejudiced for his king. 

 He describes, with sorrow, the conquest of Naples ; 

 and his censure of Ferdinand is moderated only by 

 considering his good qualities as personal, his bad 

 ones as common to all princes. His style is elegant, 

 and often beautiful and concise. His freedom ex- 

 cited the suspicions of the inquisition. He lias not, 

 however, much claim to originality. Ranke, in his 

 Zur Kritik neuerer Geschichtschreiber (Leipsic and 

 Berlin, 1824), says that, having made excerpts of 

 Mariana and Zurita throughout, he hardly found a 

 single instance in which Mariana followed sources 

 peculiar to him. Every thing important appears to 

 have been taken from Zurita, because they agree 

 entirely ; and Zurita 's work preceded Mariana's con- 

 siderably, having been dedicated to the deputies of 

 Arragon, in 1579, while the five last books of Mari- 

 ana's History appeared in 1605. Ranke concludes, 

 therefore, that Mariana cannot maintain a place 

 among the sources of modem history, but admits that 

 his nature, and spirit will always render him worth 

 reading. The great success of Mariana's work, and 

 the fear of seeing it badly translated, induced the 

 author to translate it into the Castilian idiom himself, 

 with those improvements which the progress of years 

 had suggested to him. Four editions of the transla- 

 tion appeared during his lifetime, each with correc- 

 tions and additions. Excellent editions of the Spanish 

 work appeared at Valencia (1785 to 1796, nine vols., 

 folio) and at Madrid (1819, eight vols.) An English 

 translation was made by captain Stephens, the conti- 



