In late eighteenth-century Vienna a remarkable coterie of five
aristocratic women, popularly known as the "five princesses," achieved
social preeminence and acclaim as close associates of the reforming
Habsburg Emperor Joseph II. They were Princess Maria Josepha Clary
(1728-1801); Princess Maria Sidonia Kinsky (1729-1815); Princess Maria
Leopoldine Liechtenstein (1733-1809); Countess, subsequently Princess,
Maria Leopoldine Kaunitz (1741-1795); and Princess Maria Eleonore
Liechtenstein (1745-1812). The group assumed a stable form by 1772, by
which time Joseph II and two of his closest male associates, Field
Marshal Franz Moritz Lacy and Count Franz Xavier Orsini-Rosenberg, had
become accepted members of the circle as well. During the Viennese
social season, members of the group made their way several times each
week to the inner city palace of one of the "Dames," as members of the
group called themselves. During the summer months, when the women
dispersed to visit country estates in Bohemia and Moravia or to travel,
group members corresponded regularly. These were exciting, restless
years in the Habsburg monarchy, as reforms were implemented to help the
monarchy withstand threats to its stability and international stature
from without and within. With assured access to the emperor and his
closest advisors, the Dames enjoyed both a unique view of events and a
chance to participate in public affairs (albeit informally and
discreetly) as steadfast, acknowledged friends of the emperor. Through
analysis of the correspondence of these women and of the published and
unpublished commentaries of their contemporaries, this study scrutinizes
the activities of this select group of women during the co-regency
period (1765-1780) when Joseph shared responsibility with his mother,
Maria Theresia, and during Joseph's decade as sole ruler (1780-1790)
after Maria Theresia's death--years during which the women enjoyed their
special position.
