Maria Theresa: Story, Cast and Series Facts

Story and premise

The 18th century is a time of absolute monarchies, political intrigue and diplomacy through marriage. Love is a word that is not used frequently and certainly not associated with everyday life, let alone a marriage.

At many European courts, life is at least joyful and enjoyable. At Vienna's Hofburg, however, it is cold, boring and uptight, dominated by Jesuit morals. A ruling Empress is not even imaginable. The beautiful blue-eyed blonde Maria Theresa is brought up for the usual fate of getting married for political reasons, being beautiful and giving birth to many children, perferably male ones. Ever since she was six years old, she has had a crush on Francis Stephen, the duke of Lorraine, not much different from a modern girl's feelings for a rock star or a movie star.

Even according to today's standards Maria Theresa's and Francis Stephen's marriage is extremely modern: Maria Theresa was in charge of the affairs of state, while Francis Stephen spent much of his time with his children. Over the course of twenty years, Maria Theresa gave birth to sixteen children, thirteen of whom survived infancy.

After several diplomatic failures and military defeats, Austria seemed to be declining, or even on the verge of collapse. After her forty-year reign, Maria Theresa left a revitalised empire that influenced the rest of Europe throughout the 19th century. She gave the Habsburg dominions an efficient administrative system that allowed it to remain a great power in its own right.

Series details

• Title: Maria Theresa
• Format: Scripted
• Language: Slovenian
• Genres: Drama, History
• Premiere date: 2017-12-27
• Final broadcast date listed: 2022-01-06
• Status in TVmaze: Ended
• Network listed by TVmaze: ORF 1
• Network country: Austria
• Typical episode runtime: 100 minutes
• TVMaze ID: 31423
• IMDb ID: tt6777286
• TVDB ID: 339965

Seasons in the TVmaze catalogue

• Season 1: premiered 2017-12-27; final listed air date 2017-12-28; episode order: 2.
• Season 2: premiered 2019-01-01; final listed air date 2019-01-02; episode order: 2.
• Season 3: premiered 2022-01-06; final listed air date 2022-01-06.

Source and licence

Adapted from Maria Theresa on TVmaze. The synopsis is reproduced as plain text; catalogue facts, cast and season records are selected and reformatted. This adapted text is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, following the TVmaze API licence. Network and web-channel credits identify the service listed in this source; they do not establish current streaming availability.