You know Marie Antoinette. But history rarely tells you about her mother. Maria Theresa of Austria ruled one of Europe’s largest empires while pregnant sixteen times. She took the throne at just 23 years old — and within months, rival powers invaded, convinced a woman could not hold the Habsburg lands together. She was already expecting her first child. She ruled through war, through childbirth, through recovery, and through loss. She negotiated treaties, reformed government, strengthened the mi