MARIA LOUISA 



3650 



MARIE ANTOINETTE 



broke out, because of the ambitious designs of 

 Ferdinand's brother, Don Carlos, who aspired 

 to the throne. The queen mother took very 

 Kttle interest in the affair, preferring to bestow 

 her attentions upon one of her royal body- 

 guard, whom she married in 1833. Because of 

 this she became exceedingly unpopular, and was 

 obliged to flee to France. In 1848 she returned, 

 but her actions became so distasteful to the 

 patriotic party in Spain that in 1854 a revolu- 

 tion expelled her from the country. In 1864 

 she again returned, only to be driven into exile 

 again four years later. She died at Le Havre 

 in 1878. See ALFONSO XIII. 



MARIA LOUISA, mari'a loe'za (1791-1847), 

 the second wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, was 

 the daughter of Emperor Francis I of Austria. 

 Her marriage with Napoleon was solemnized 

 in 1810, after his 

 divorce of Jo- 

 sephine (see JO- 

 SEPHINE, MARIE 

 ROSE). In 1811 

 she bore him a 

 son, who was 

 hailed as king of 

 Rome. This 

 prince, who is 

 known in history 

 by the empty title 

 of Napoleon II, 

 died at the age of 

 twenty -one. On 

 the overthrow of 



Napoleon, not be- poleon Bonaparte for reasons 

 ing permitted to entirely politicaL 

 follow him into exile, Maria Louisa and her 

 son took up their residence at Schonbrunn, 

 near Vienna. In 1816 she received the Italian 

 duchies of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla, 

 which she governed till her death. 



Consult Guerber's Empresses of France; Cuth- 

 ell's An Imperial Victim. 



MARIA THERESA, mari'a tehre'sa (1717- 

 1780), one of the most important figures in 

 European wars and politics during a critical 

 period of the eighteenth century. She was the 

 daughter of Emperor Charles VI, the last male 

 heir in the direct line of the House of Haps- 

 burg. By the Pragmatic Sanction, a settlement 

 which was guaranteed by the principal states 

 of Europe, her father appointed her heiress to 

 his hereditary dominions. Upon his death, in 

 1740, she became queen of Hungary and Bo- 

 hemia and Archduchess of Austria. Later she 

 declared her husband, Francis of Lorraine, joint 



Na . 



ruler. On her accession Prussia, Spain, Bavaria 

 and France claimed portions of her dominions, 

 which resulted in the War of the Austrian Suc- 

 cession (see SUCCESSION WARS). The young 

 queen fled to Pressburg, where she threw herself 

 upon the sympa- 

 thy of her Hun- 

 garian subjects. 

 The war contin- 

 ued over seven 

 years, terminating 

 with the peace of 

 Aix - la - Chapelle 

 in 1748, whereby 

 Silesia was ceded 

 to Frederick II 

 of Prussia. How- 

 ever, the titles of 

 ,, MARIA THERESA 



the queen were One of the most influent ial 

 fully recognized, of eighteenth-century Euro- 

 and in 1745 her peans " 



husband was elected Holy Roman emperor. 

 See FRANCIS (Holy Roman Emperors), subhead 

 Francis I. 



During the peace which followed, Maria 

 Theresa, with the aid of her husband and her 

 able minister, Kaunitz, introduced many finan- 

 cial reforms, greatly diminishing the burdens 

 of her subjects, while agriculture, manufacture 

 and commerce were encouraged. But the loss 

 of Silesia rankled deep in her mind, and in 1756, 

 with France as an ally, she renewed her contest 

 with Prussia, bringing on the Seven Years' War 

 (which see). This again reduced Austria to a 

 state of exhaustion, and Maria failed to re- 

 cover her lost province of Silesia, but on its 

 conclusion she successfully renewed her efforts 

 to promote national prosperity. Her son Jo- 

 seph was elected Holy Roman emperor in 1765, 

 upon the death of her husband, and to him she 

 gave the management of the military affairs 

 of her realm. In 1772 she joined in the dis- 

 memberment of Poland, obtaining Galicia for 

 Austria, and in 1777 she also obtained Buko- 

 wina from Turkey. Of her sixteen children, ten 

 survived her, one of whom was the beautiful 

 Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France. 



Consult Bright's Maria Theresa; Moffatt's 

 Maria Theresa. 



MARIE ANTOINETTE, mahre' aN twah 

 net', JOSEPHE JEANNE (1755-1793), a beautiful 

 queen of France, whose tragic fate is a part of 

 the story of the French Revolution. She was 

 the youngest daughter of the Emperor Francis I 

 and Maria Theresa of Austria. From the cra- 

 dle her ambitious mother destined her to be the 



