WIOW (continued): Marie Antoinette feat. Maria Theresa

Understanding Marie Antoinette by way of her powerhouse mother

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That moment, as a young adult, when you visited the home of a friend, a close friend, and met their parents spending time alongside their familial unit observing and enjoying seeing your friend in, perhaps, one of their most comfortable environments. Do you recall any of these moments? I do. I recall many of these moments as a tween, teen and university student, and they were always fascinating. Observing your dear friend in the bosom of their family sparring with their parents and siblings, verbally of course, was always…what is the word I am looking for? Enlightening. Yes, it was enlightening. 

We are delivering similar enlightenment for your relationship with Marie Antoinette today on

21st & 18th

, and we will begin in the only logical place: with her mother, Maria Theresa.

Maria Theresa: The Powerhouse of Europe

Who was she?

Marie Antoinette’s mum and Empress. One of these facts is true while the other could be challenged, and to be clear, we are not questioning Marie Antoinette’s parentage.

Yes, the most powerful and one of the most remembered Empresses of all time was not actually, despite her birth and position as heir to her Emperor father, Empress in her own right. We will tuck into the minutiae in a moment, but effectively her would be husband, Francis, is elected Holy Roman Emperor¹, a title secured for him by Maria Theresa herself, becoming Francis I and due to her marriage to the Emperor, position, birth and the power she possessed Maria Theresa was Empress throughout her life, even after the death of Francis and when her son took up the post as Holy Roman Emperor she continued to wield imperial power. The woman was, indeed, a powerhouse.

Erzherzogin Maria Theresia, Andreas Möller, c. 1727, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria