The Eighteenth-Century State System 393When Charles VI died without amale heir, his twenty-three-year-old
daughter Maria Theresa (ruled
1740-1780) assumed the Habsburg
throne. While Maria Theresa could,
as a woman, be archduchess of Aus
tria and queen of Hungary and
Bohemia, she was barred from
becoming Holy Roman empress,
thus opening up the question of
imperial succession. The young
queen had little money, no army,
almost no bureaucracy, and bad
advisers, and hence was in a poor
position to defend her throne
against aggressive hostile powers.
France and Prussia, despite having
pledged to uphold the Pragmatic Frederick the Great, King of Prussia.
Sanction, were each preparing to
dismember the Habsburg Empire.
The immediate threat to Maria Theresa came from the Prussian King
Frederick II (ruled 1740-1786). As a young man, Frederick had little in
common with his raging father, Frederick William I. The royal son was
intelligent, played the flute, enjoyed reading, preferred French to his
native German, and as a boy expressed little interest in the army. At the age
of eighteen, he tried to run off to England to catch a glimpse of his
intended English bride. When young Frederick’s scheme, planned by his
best friend—and perhaps his lover—was foiled, the furious Frederick
William decided to have his son executed. When dissuaded by his officials,
Frederick William made the young prince watch from a prison cell the
decapitation of his friend. Forced by his father to serve in the royal bureau
cracy and as an army officer, Frederick became an aggressive absolute
monarch.
Frederick, called “the Great” by his subjects, worked twelve hours a day
lovingly overseeing minute details of army administration. His own physi
cal courage was legendary—six times horses were killed beneath him in
battle. At the same time, he eschewed an extravagant court life.
Frederick the Great’s “enlightened” reforms (see Chapter 9) made Prus
sia a more efficient absolutist state. He improved the state bureaucracy by
introducing an examination system. Talented commoners could be awarded
positions in the courts of law. “Old Fritz” strengthened the Prussian economy
by establishing state-operated iron- and steelworks, ordering the construc
tion of more canals to haul goods, and encouraging the establishment of
workshops in Berlin to produce textiles, glass, clocks, and porcelain.
Because he ordered officials to accumulate stocks of grain in good times,