The Royal Purple

The Royal Purple: about women and power

  • Becoming Allies with France

    Part ten of our series on Maria Theresa. Welcome to another installment of the Stately Quadrille! Prior to Maria Theresa becoming Empress of Austria and Frederick becoming King of Prussia, it was unthinkable that France and Austria would be allies. Frederick used this longstanding enmity to his advantage: he often brought France into his battles with…

  • Strengthening Austria

    Part nine of our series on Maria Theresa. Now that the wars of Austrian succession are complete, Maria Theresa’s main goal is to put her country on sound footing. She’d inherited a country without a lot of money and a military that wasn’t up to the job. Both of these made Austria weaker. Even when she…

  • Another round of the Stately Quadrille

    Part eight of our series on Maria Theresa. I’m pausing our story for a moment because I want to talk about the stately quadrille. Throughout the 18th century (so, the 1700s) the great powers of Europe kept making deals and alliances with each other, and then breaking them in favor of something more immediately beneficial. The…

  • More of the Wars of Austrian Succession

    Part seven of our series on Maria Theresa. Maria Theresa has gained a smidge of breathing room, having become Queen of Hungary. Now, she can get troops from them, to continue to try to secure her throne and strengthen Austria. But, before she gets a chance to ask for them, France starts massing troops in the…

  • Maria Theresa becomes Queen of Hungary

    Part six of our series on Maria Theresa. Now that we are back from learning about Frederick the Great and the piece of work he was… So, Maria Theresa has become ruler of Austria, she’s calmed down her people and gotten all of the major powers (except France) to either endorse her rule or at…

  • Meet Frederick, the villain to Maria Theresa’s hero

    Part five of our series on Maria Theresa. We’re taking a quick break from Maria Theresa to introduce the person who will be the villain in her story: Frederick the Great of Prussia. I don’t want to go into a huge big thing about Frederick, so here are the things you need to know. First,…

  • Maria Theresa, how does the succession go?

    Part four of our series on Maria Theresa. To sum up our story so far: Maria Theresa’s father, Charles, became Emperor of Austria by promising to allow his older brother’s daughters to inherit the throne over his own. But then he decided: what if I let my daughters inherit? I am emperor, after all. And…

  • Maria Theresa, not quite the empress

    Maria Theresa, not quite the empress

    Part three of our series on Maria Theresa. We last left our heroes, Maria Theresa and Francis, freshly married. Maria Theresa knew that Francis was angry and upset that he’d had to give up Lorraine to marry her, and she genuinely felt guilty about it. I mean, not guilty enough to try to change it.…

  • Finding a husband for Maria Theresa

    Finding a husband for Maria Theresa

    Part two of our series on Maria Theresa. Last time, we situated Maria Theresa of Austria in time: what was going on in the royal courts of Europe at the time, and specifically the way in which her father decided to shoehorn her higher into the line of succession. Spoiler alert: that shoehorning is going…

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