On 13 May 1717, in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the first daughter of Emperor Charles VI and Empress Elisabeth Christine was born. The newborn princess was baptised Maria Theresa Walpurga Amalia Christina — after the Virgin Mary, St Theresa of Ávila, St Walpurga, and the Empress herself. Besides being an Archduchess of Austria from birth, she also bore the title of Infanta of Spain, as Charles VI had never officially renounced his claim to the Spanish throne.
Vienna greeted the Imperial baby with celebrations that were sufficiently splendid, yet still rather restrained compared to those that would have accompanied the birth of a boy. No one, including her parents, foresaw a remarkable future for her. And why should they have? The Imperial couple were young — Charles VI was thirty-one and Elisabeth Christine twenty-five — and had every reason to expect more children, especially sons, in the years to come.
As we know, history took a different course, and the young Maria Theresa, growing up within a harmonious family circle, was to become the most prominent ruler of the Habsburg dynasty. And yet there is something deeply touching in her parents’ hope for a male heir, a hope they clung to long after reason suggested it should be abandoned.
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