What Maria Theresa Taught Me About Ruling

In the Shadow of the Empress is a long Kindle read that moves from the Austrian queen Maria Theresa's life to those of her daughters in France and Italy and then back again to royalty's doings in Austria. Besides some dense historical background up front, the story is immersive and turns these figures from the past into warm human beings. So I'm glad I soldiered through and learned what it took to be in charge back in the 1700s.

1. It's possible to take your job seriously as a monarch. Somewhere, I got the impression that monarchs pretty much hung out in the castle, used up the national treasure on exquisite objects, languished as sickly heirs, did cruel stuff, contracted syphilis, went insane, beheaded people on trumped-up charges, and had mistresses. Power and riches just went to their heads. And I wasn't wrong; all this did happen. However, there was actually important work to be done, and kings and queens undertook these tasks to varying degrees.

Maria Theresa, for instance, although she started out as a lover of all-night dancing parties, changed course when she was still young, asking a man she respected to be her closest advisor and requesting that he boldly point out any character flaws she displayed. He took her up on this, and set up a schedule for her that started early in the morning and had her working all day. She had not the time for partying after that. She attended to the memos and made the hard calls and strategized for the survival and good of her kingdom.

2. Have as many children as possible, and try to bear sons. Then go on with your day. Giving birth to heirs and having daughters to marry off is part of your job. Maria Theresa had sixteen children and would be involved in state affairs soon before the next big event like it was no big deal. By the way, keep the same names circulating amongst your children. "Maria" seemed to be a favorite. Maybe she just ran out of names.

3. As much as you love your daughters, they have to help the family via advantageous royal marriages. So flighty little 14-year-old Marie Antoinette was married off to a stolid French prince. (The film Marie Antoinette is accurate in its depiction of how life went for that raw teenager, down to the individuals that attended her at court. But you wouldn't know that, nor would you be able to follow those cinematic vignettes unless you'd read a book like this first.) Maria Theresa's oldest daughter got a say in her life partner; for several others, the queen strategized great political matches. I would have felt betrayed by this otherwise loving mother. One daughter married a childish, spoiled king in Italy and ended up running that kingdom (she was allowed a seat as soon as she had a son. Once that requirement was fulfilled, there was no stopping her). You would think that Maria Theresa had enough work to do, but she wrote letters advising her daughters from afar.

4. Splendid royal residences are important. The Austrian royal family occupied at least two beautiful palaces. I realized while reading this that these ornate living quarters served to demonstrate the power and majesty of the monarchy, thus preserving the kingdom by communicating might to potential conquerors. Elaborate building projects weren't always about taking from the poor to feed the rich.

5. Humane, reasonable rule was possible before our modern democracies. Maria Theresa did not seem power-hungry. Her energies were focused on survival and defense of the kingdom, but she also tried to pass laws that would help the common people. Her daughter, the one who got to marry the man she loved, conscientiously governed parts of the kingdom with her husband. This daughter also collected and preserved art.

6. Be open to new ideas. Tax the nobility and clergy to fund your needs, not just the poor? Yeah, why not? They don't like it? Well, that's too bad.

7. Keep the kingdom you inherited from your father. Maria Theresa went to war, not to conquer, but to save or take back territory that her father had fought to have for her, even though she wasn't the son he'd anticipated. She used more than one approach. For example, instead of taking Hungary for granted, she went to the Hungarians and completed their traditional coronation ceremony. This pleased them and gave them a queen they could be proud of. Then when Prussia's Frederick the Great schemed to invade territory early in her rule, she fought him for years. She learned to ally herself with convenient friends--one minute, France was her enemy and the next, it pledged to help her (working through the king's favorite mistress was a great help). Alliances morphed and shifted over the years, with different countries offering aid, soldiers, and promises, helping me see that perhaps the same dynamics were at work all the way up to the two world wars. England, Russia, France, and Prussia were the big players, with other tiny kingdoms caught in the fray. Wars seemed to be sparked by an ambitious aggressor, with monarchs and their allies rising in defense.

8. Be prepared to lose random children from smallpox. Every few years, it seemed, an illness would swoop down and take one or two of the children. And that disease was smallpox. It never seemed to be a plague that decimated that palace's residents--no, it would quietly arrive, show its rash credentials, and leave a dead child. The queen's most beautiful daughter was permanently scarred after her bout with the disease. Surprisingly, given the contagiousness of smallpox, dedicated family members maintained vigils in the rooms of the dying.

9. Less attractive daughters aren't marriageable. Two daughters, including the pock-marked one, never married. Instead they hung around the palace in spite of their mother making comfortable arrangements for them as heads of convents. However, once their brother took charge, he insisted they take their posts. The previously beautiful princess had the most dull life thereafter, as evidenced by her correspondence. So if you're not pretty, you don't get a grand wedding to a dimwit of a prince. But neither are you allowed a quiet, normal life. You get no one, okay? Nothing in the way of a family of your own will be allotted to you.

10. Watch out for the Jacobins. The same ideology that had helped bring about the disastrous French Revolution seeped out of France and spread through the small kingdoms where Maria Theresa's daughters reigned, bringing its turmoil to those places. Although Maria Christina and Maria Carolina seemed benign in their governance, the Jacobins influenced the populace, making them discontent and ready to overturn their rulers.

11. Throw your husband a bone now and then. I don't know--encourage him to become the Grand Duke of Tuscany or the Holy Roman Emperor or something.

12. Being queen is hard. After missteps in war, decades of diligent, detail-oriented oversight, heartbreak over a philandering husband you still love, tough decisions involving sending your daughters away into the arms of dysfunctional strangers, a son who thinks Frederick the Great is cool, a previously faithful advisor that now counsels an unconscionable invasion, and the repeated nightmare of smallpox taking the lives of your children, you might be a little tired. Toward the end of your life, you try to maintain control, but you're sounding a bit unreasonable to those around you. Don't be surprised if you die before you reach your 70s. But also know that your diligence and loyalty will resonate through the centuries.