03843cam a2200361 i 4500 509087019 TxAuBib 20211021120000.0 210112s2021||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 9780316449335 HRD 32.00 0316449334 HRD 32.00 TxAuBib rda Goldstone, Nancy Bazelon. In the shadow of the empress [BOOK] : the defiant lives of Maria Theresa, mother of Marie Antoinette, and her daughters / Nancy Goldstone. First edition. New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2021. xxi, 616 pages, [8] unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references (pages 553-591) and index. Introduction -- Maria Theresa. An imperial decree ; Archduchess of Austria ; Queen of Hungary ; Queen of Bohemia ; Holy Roman Empress ; Imperial affairs ; The Sisterhood of the Three Petticoats -- Three Imperial princesses: Maria Christina, Maria Carolina, and Marie Antoinette. The favorite ; An archduchess in love ; The understudy ; Queen of Naples ; The little one ; Dauphine of France ; An imperial divide ; The Queen takes control ; Queen of France ; Diamonds and debt -- In the shadow of the Empress. Betrayal in Brussels ; The Queen takes a stand ; A desperate gamble ; Terror and tragedy ; A death in Vienna ; The lady, the Lord Admiral, and the Queen ; The Corsican and the Queen -- Epilogue. Out of the thrilling and tempestuous eighteenth century comes the sweeping family saga of beautiful Maria Theresa, a sovereign of uncommon strength and vision, the only woman ever to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg Empire in her own name, and three of her remarkable daughters: lovely, talented Maria Christina, governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands; spirited Maria Carolina, the resolute queen of Naples; and the youngest, Marie Antoinette, the glamorous, tragic queen of France, and perhaps the most famous princess in history. Unfolding against an irresistible backdrop of brilliant courts from Vienna to Versailles, embracing the exotic lure of Naples and Sicily, this epic history of Maria Theresa and her daughters is a tour de force of desire, adventure, ambition, treachery, sorrow, and glory. Each of these women’s lives was packed with passion and heart-stopping suspense. Maria Theresa inherited her father’s thrones at the age of twenty-three and was immediately attacked on all sides by foreign powers confident that a woman would to be too weak to defend herself. Maria Christina, a gifted artist who alone among her sisters succeeded in marrying for love, would face the same dangers that destroyed the monarchy in France. Resourceful Maria Carolina would usher in the golden age of Naples only to face the deadly whirlwind of Napoleon. And, finally, Marie Antoinette, the doomed queen whose stylish excesses and captivating notoriety have masked the truth about her husband and herself for two hundred and fifty years. Provided by publisher. 20211021. Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 1717-1780. Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, 1717-1780. Family. Maria Christine, consort of Albrecht Kasimir, Duke of Saxe-Teschen, 1742-1798. Maria Carolina, Queen, consort of Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, 1752-1814. Marie Antoinette Queen, consort of Louis XVI, King of France 1755-1793. Europe Kings and rulers Biography. Europe History 18th century. Biographies.