Maria Theresa of Austria 1638-1683

Timid, patient, naive, sweet-natured and very pious, she kept her distance from the social whirlwind of the Court and had trouble learning French. She surrounded herself with Spanish ladies-in-waiting, but the death of her aunt and godmother Anne of AustriaAnne of Austria (1601-1666), Infanta of Spain, Queen of France, wife of Louis XIII, mother of Louis XIV and regent from 1643 to 1651 at the start of her son’s reign., in 1666, deprived her of a precious ally. A great admirer of her husband, she was hurt by his serial infidelityLouis XIV had many mistresses, the most famous are certainly Madame de Montespan and Madame de Maintenon....

Maria Theresa of Austria placed great importance on her duties as a mother, collaborating with Bossuet to oversee the Dauphin’s education, as can be seen from their correspondence: “Do not accept anything, Dear Sir, in the behaviour of my son, which might offend the sanctity of the religion to which he belongs, or the majesty of the throne for which he is destined.”

Although Louis XIV appointed her as regent in 1672, during the Franco-Dutch WarPutting an end to the Dutch War (1672-1678), the Treaty of Nijmegen consolidated the boundaries of the Kingdom of France, although the majority of the territory conquered by the French army was returned, and established Louis XIV as the most powerful monarch in Europe., she showed no natural inclination to pursue political ambitions. She accompanied the King on all of his official visits. In 1667 she travelled to the Spanish Netherlands, then in the grip of the War of DevolutionLouis XIV’s first foreign war, fought in 1667-1668 to recover the Spanish throne following the death of his father-in-law. Culminating in the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, this conflict paved the way for the Franco-Dutch War. , waged largely to defend her claim on the Spanish throne. But in 1683 she returned exhausted from a tour of Burgundy and Alsace. Back at Versailles she soon fell ill, and died suddenly from complications linked to an abscess. The King welcomed the news with a cold quip which demonstrated just how little he cared for his wife: “This is the first time she’s caused me any bother.”