At the age of just twenty-three Empress Maria Theresa succeeded to the Habsburg domains only to find them contested by almost every European power. Over the next forty years she became a fierce leader and opponent, as well as a devoted wife and mother to sixteen children.
Her radical reforms transformed central Europe and her lasting legacy continues to reverberate to this day.
Our lecturer: Richard Bassett, former Times correspondent in Eastern Europe and author of the widely acclaimed Last Days in Old Europe first travelled to Prague as an architectural historian. He later spent nearly ten years covering events in communist Czechoslovakia including the Velvet Revolution. An expert on Central Europe, he taught at many European universities and is a Bye-Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. His latest book is Maria Theresa: Empress, Yale University Press, £25.
Tickets include a glass of wine.
EVENT ORGANISED WITH THE COOPERATION OF THE EMBASSY OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC.
All proceeds raised go towards the care and conservation of Czech heritage.
Image: Empress Maria Theresa by Martin van Meytens (1759), Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, via Creative Commons Wikimedia
