biography
| sex:
| female
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| lived:
| (1717–80)
|
| biography:
| Archduchess of Austria, and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia (1740–80), born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Emperor Charles VI (ruled 1711–40). In 1736 she married Francis, Duke of Lorraine, and in 1740 succeeded her father in the hereditary Habsburg lands. Her claim, however, led to the War of the Austrian Succession, during which she lost Silesia to Prussia. She received the Hungarian crown (1741), and in 1745 her husband was elected Holy Roman Emperor. Although her foreign minister, Kaunitz, tried to isolate Prussia by diplomatic means, military conflict was renewed in the Seven Years' War, and by 1763 she was finally forced to recognize the status quo of 1756. In her later years she strove to maintain international peace, and reluctantly accepted the partition of Poland (1772). Of her 10 surviving children, the eldest son succeeded her as Joseph II. |
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