For the earlier archduchess of the same name, see Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria

Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria

Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria may refer to:* Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria * Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria...

.

Archduchess Maria Elisabeth Josepha of Austria (13 August 1743 – 22 September 1808) was the sixth child of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia

Maria Theresa of Austria

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominions and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands and Parma...

 and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor

Francis I was Holy Roman Emperor and Grand Duke of Tuscany, though his wife effectively executed the real power of those positions. With his wife, Maria Theresa, he was the founder of the Habsburg-Lorraine dynasty...

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Biography

Maria Elisabeth was born on 13 August 1743. She was very attractive during her early youth and was considered the most beautiful of her sisters. In 1768, the recently widowed Louis XV of France

Louis XV of France

Louis XV was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1 September 1715 until his death. He succeeded his great-grandfather at the age of five, his first cousin Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, served as Regent of the kingdom until Louis's majority in 1723...

 considered marrying her. However, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth's chances of becoming Queen of France were destroyed by smallpox

Smallpox

Smallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"...

 which terribly scarred her face, making her considered unfit for marriage.

Her elder sister Archduchess Maria Anna was also ineligible for marriage due to physical disability.

After the death of their mother in 1780, Joseph II

Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor

Joseph II was Holy Roman Emperor from 1765 to 1790 and ruler of the Habsburg lands from 1780 to 1790. He was the eldest son of Empress Maria Theresa and her husband, Francis I...

 appointed his sister Maria Elisabeth an abbess of the Convent for Noble Ladies in Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

. Here - or rather in Innsbruck's Imperial Castle - Maria Elisabeth resided from May 1781 until January 1806, when the province of Tyrol

Tyrol (state)

Tyrol is a state or Bundesland, located in the west of Austria. It comprises the Austrian part of the historical region of Tyrol.The state is split into two parts–called North Tyrol and East Tyrol–by a -wide strip of land where the state of Salzburg borders directly on the Italian province of...

 was taken over by Napoleon Bonaparte's ally, the Kingdom of Bavaria

Kingdom of Bavaria

The Kingdom of Bavaria was a German state that existed from 1806 to 1918. The Bavarian Elector Maximilian IV Joseph of the House of Wittelsbach became the first King of Bavaria in 1806 as Maximilian I Joseph. The monarchy would remain held by the Wittelsbachs until the kingdom's dissolution in 1918...

. Maria Elisabeth first left for Vienna and later on moved to Linz

Linz

Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...

, where she died on 22 September 1808.

Ancestry

See also