Then she quietly and calmly bestowed a maternal blessing upon each of her children, absent as well as present. Deeply moved, they gave way to their grief in sobs and tears, which affected Maria Theresa most painfully, but she controlled herself and said to them firmly:
“I think it would be better for you to go into the next room and compose yourselves.”
Even at that solemn moment she was still busy with affairs of government, and she signed several state documents with her own hand. She thanked her faithful Kaunitz for his loyal service to her, and also charged the Hungarian chancellor, Esterhazy, to convey her thanks to his people for all their loyalty, devotion, and help in time of need, at the same time bidding the Emperor Joseph ever to bear this in mind.
Joseph never left her side. She suffered greatly from distress for breath, and at eight o’clock cried out: “Open the window!” at the same time rising from her chair. The Emperor supported her gently in his arms, and asked, “Where does Your Majesty wish to go?”
Looking upward, she cried, “To thee! I come!” and with these last words sank back and expired.
Her death occurred November 29, 1780, in the sixty-fourth year of her age. Four days afterward she was laid by the side of her husband in the imperial vault of the Capuchins in Vienna. Her death plunged the whole country into mourning. Few have departed from life so beloved and so honored.
Frederick the Great wrote of her: “The death of the Empress has grieved me much; she honored her throne and her sex. I have made war upon her, but I have never been her enemy!”
Footnotes
[1]The term “Pragmatic Sanction” was first used in the case of decrees issued by Byzantine emperors with reference to the affairs of their provinces. It was next applied to the limitations of the spiritual authority of the Pope in European countries. In the sense in which it is used above it is applied to the succession of sovereignty. The Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VI is the most famous of all. It had three provisions, (1) that the lands belonging to the house of Austria should remain indivisible; (2) that in the absence of male heirs they should devolve upon Charles’ daughters, the oldest of whom was Maria Theresa; and (3) that in case of the extinction of the line, the inheritance should pass to the daughters of Joseph I and their descendants. Charles issued this Sanction in 1713.
[2]Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Empress of Germany, was the daughter of Charles VI of Austria and Elizabeth Christina of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. After the death of Archduke Leopold, her only brother, she became sole heiress of the Austrian dominions in 1724, married Francis Stephen of Lorraine in 1736, came to the throne in 1740, her husband being declared co-regent. She died in 1780. Of her sixteen children, ten reached maturity. Her sons were Joseph II, who succeeded his father as Holy Roman Emperor in 1765; Emperor Leopold II; Ferdinand, Duke of Modena, and Maximilian, Elector of Cologne. Her most famous daughter was Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI of France, one of the many victims of the French Revolution.