Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria
1743 – 1808 · Generation XVII · Archduchess of Austria · Habsburg-Lorraine
Maria Elisabeth (1743 – 1808). Archduchess of Austria. Daughter of Maria Theresa; never married. The sixth of the empress’s sixteen children, she was frail as an infant but grew into a lively, teasing girl, reckoned the loveliest of the archduchesses, and vain about it. Her beauty made her a prize in dynastic bargaining, yet proposed matches with Charles III of Spain, Stanisław II August of Poland and her cousin the Duke of Chablais all came to nothing. In 1768 a contract to marry the widowed Louis XV of France was nearly concluded when smallpox struck; she recovered, but reports that it had ruined her looks ended the plan. Made a canoness of her mother’s Innsbruck foundation for noble ladies, she was pushed from court by Joseph II and from 1781 lived at Innsbruck as abbess until 1806. Known for a sharp wit, she opened the Tyrolean diet for Leopold II in 1790. When Bavaria took Tyrol she fled to Linz, where she died.
Place in the family
- Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria was a daughter of Maria Theresa.
- Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria was the third of 9 children of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa recorded in this archive.
One of 24 people of Habsburg-Lorraine (from 1736) in this archive. Maria Theresa’s marriage carried the inheritance into a new name, which its heirs still bear.
Line of descent: Rudolf I of Germany → Albert I of Germany → Albert II, Duke of Austria → Leopold III, Duke of Austria → Ernest, Duke of Austria → Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor → Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor → Philip I of Castile → Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor → Charles II, Archduke of Austria → Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor → Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor → Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor → Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor → Maria Theresa → Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria.
Parents
- Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor (1708 – 1765)
- Maria Theresa (1717 – 1780)
Siblings
- Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor (1741 – 1790)
- Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen (1742 – 1798)
- Maria Amalia, Duchess of Parma (1746 – 1804)
- Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (1747 – 1792)
- Maria Carolina of Austria (1752 – 1814)
- Ferdinand Karl, Archduke of Austria-Este (1754 – 1806)
- Marie Antoinette (1755 – 1793)
- Archduke Maximilian Francis of Austria (1756 – 1801)