The 18th-century reign of Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress, was a blend of crafty statesmanship, ugly anti-Semitism and cultural patronage ...

The Empress is based on the collapse of the Austrian ... Austria, after the Holy Roman Empire ended in 1806, wanted to build a powerful central monarchy to consolidate its power.

Agrippina was also the most public empress the Romans had ever seen ... Today, it is the fourth most populous city in Germany and retains its Roman roots in its name: Cologne.

Female members of the imperial family, the wives, daughters - and particularly - mothers of Roman emperors are some of the most colourful characters of Rome in the early imperial age; as described ...