During the centuries of Habsburg dominion, there was just one ruling woman. There were plenty of female consorts, of course, but only Maria Theresa claimed the throne, such was the dynasty’s skill – as they saw it – in providing male heirs. Even when the archduchess acceded in 1740, the Catholic Church couldn’t countenance giving her the concomitant crown of the Holy Roman Empire. 

The life of Maria Theresa provides a fascinating case study of female supremacy in a doggedly masculine world. She commands a vital position in Austria’s mythology – a new musical about the ‘mother of the nation’ will open in Vienna in October – as well as a significant chunk of Habsburg bibliography. Three years ago, Barbara Stollberg-Rilinger’s massive account of her life appeared in English. A review in these pages stated that it was destined to be ‘the basic reference point for studies of Maria Theresa for decades to come’. Evidently, Richard Bassett was undeterred. Calling Stollberg-Rilinger’s book ‘indispensable’ but ‘formidably dense’, he offers this entertaining, if occasionally lopsided, alternative.

His book’s subtitle, ‘The Making of the Austrian Enlightenment’, reveals much. The reader may wonder what role a devout absolutist could have in engendering the Enlightenment, yet Bassett is determined to describe its dawning in tandem with the empress’s life. Indeed, only about half the book is dedicated to Maria