A major new biography of Maria Theresa the formidable Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa was
the single most powerful woman in eighteenth-century Europe. At the age of just twenty-three
she succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every power in
Europe. Over the next forty years she became a fierce leader and opponent as well as a
devoted wife and mother to sixteen children. In this engrossing biography Richard Bassett
traces Maria Theresa’s life and complex legacy. Drawing on hitherto unpublished sources
Bassett reveals her keen sense of moderation and tolerance innovative ideas on free trade and
finance and studied reluctance to resort to policies of territorial expansion. Yet Maria
Theresa’s modernisation policies were not entirely progressive. Antisemitism and an enduring
suspicion of Protestantism greatly affected the lives of her subjects. This is a gripping
study of one of the world’s most influential leaders revealing how Maria Theresa confounded
gendered expectations and left a lasting mark on Europe.
