marie antoinette the journey by antonia fraser

It lay south-west of the internal courtyard known as In Der Burg.

It was rebuilt following a fire, then greatly renovated by Maria Teresa herself. The Habsburgs had lived in the Hofburg since the late thirteenth century, but this wing had originally been constructed by the Emperor Leopold I in 1660. The Empress's suite of apartments was on the first floor of the so-called Leopoldine wing of the extensive and rambling Hofburg complex. Perhaps it was the small size of the baby, perhaps it was the therapeutic effect of working at her papers throughout the day, but Maria Teresa had never looked so well after a delivery. Other courtiers, including Khevenhuller, were permitted the privilege on 8 November, and a further set the next day. It was not until four days later that those ladies of the court who by etiquette would formerly have been in the bedchamber were allowed to kiss the Empress. As it was they had to content themselves with congratulating the happy father. Maria Teresa had firmly ended the practice, so distasteful to the mother in labour (but still in place at the court of Versailles), by which these courtiers were actually present in the delivery room. In the Mirror Room next door the ladies and gentlemen of the court who had the Rights of Entry were waiting.

He left his wife's bedroom, after the usual Te Deum and Benediction had been said.

The announcement was made by the Emperor Francis Stephen. Or, as the Court Chamberlain, Count Khevenhuller, described the event in his diary: 'Her Majesty has been happily delivered of a small, but completely healthy Archduchess.' As soon as was practical, Maria Teresa returned to work, signing papers from her bed. For the responsibilities of government were not to be lightly cast aside in her own words: 'My subjects are my first children.' Finally, at about half past eight in the evening in her apartments at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Maria Teresa gave birth. Since the experience of childbirth was no novelty, and since Maria Teresa, Queen of Hungary by inheritance, Empress of the Holy Roman Empire by marriage, hated to waste time, she also laboured in another way at her papers. On 2 November 1755 the Queen-Empress was in labour all day with her fifteenth child. 'Her Majesty has been very happily delivered of a small, but completely healthy Archduchess.'Ĭount Khevenhuller, Court Chamberlain, 1755

Marie antoinette the journey by antonia fraser