Maria Amalia, Österreich, Erzherzogin

Archduchess Marie-Amélie of Austria, whose full name was Maria Amalia Josephe Johanna Catherine-Thérèse, was born in Florence on October 15, 1780, and died in Vienna on December 25, 1798. By birth, she was an archduchess of Austria and belonged to one of Europe’s most prominent ruling families. Marie-Amélie was a daughter of the future Emperor Leopold II and his wife, Maria Ludovika of Spain. At the time of her birth, her father was still ruling as Grand Duke of Tuscany, whose capital was Florence. Leopold II was a son of Empress Maria Theresa, who died six weeks after the birth of her granddaughter. Marie-Amélie’s mother was a daughter of the Spanish King Charles III. Her godparents included Ferdinand, Duke of Parma, a cousin of her mother, and his wife, Marie-Amélie of Austria, who was also her father’s sister. Through her family, Marie-Amélie was closely connected to several European ruling houses. She was a niece of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples and Sicily and of the French Queen Marie-Antoinette. She spent her childhood with numerous brothers and sisters in an environment that was comparatively unusual for a royal child. The children were not raised primarily by a large circle of servants, but by their parents themselves. They were also kept largely apart from the elaborate ceremonial life of the court. They were meant to become familiar with a simple, natural, and modest way of life. The family’s circumstances changed when Marie-Amélie’s elder brother Franz continued his education in Vienna. Franz had married Elisabeth of Württemberg in 1788, but the young princess died in 1790 while giving birth to her first child. Shortly afterward, Emperor Joseph II, Franz’s uncle and the person he had originally been expected to succeed, also died. Marie-Amélie’s father, Leopold, then became emperor, and the family left Tuscany to move to Vienna. Franz soon married again, this time to a cousin who was the daughter of the King and Queen of Naples. The marriage quickly produced several children and strengthened the family’s dynastic position. Emperor Leopold II died at the beginning of 1792. Franz succeeded him as emperor at the age of 24. This period coincided with a dramatic crisis that shook all of Europe. A revolution had broken out in France, and after France declared war on Austria, the French monarchy was overthrown in 1792. For Marie-Amélie, these developments had an immediate family significance. Her aunt and uncle, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, were imprisoned together with their children and the king’s sister. Their conditions of detention grew increasingly harsh. The king, the queen, and the king’s sister were sentenced to death and executed between 1793 and 1794. The son of the royal couple later died of tuberculosis while in captivity. The daughter of the deposed French rulers was only a few months older than Marie-Amélie. In 1795, she was released in an exchange for French prisoners and arrived in Vienna. There, the young princess refused to marry one of Marie-Amélie’s brothers because she regarded him as an enemy of her country. That same year, Marie-Amélie’s family suffered another serious loss: her brother, Archduke Alexander Leopold, was accidentally killed while preparing a fireworks display. Another brother, Archduke Charles Louis, gained a military reputation through his campaigns against revolutionary France. Marie-Amélie herself never married. She died in Vienna on December 25, 1798, at only 18 years of age. Her short life was shaped by her privileged yet unusually family-centered upbringing in Florence, the rise of her father and brother to the imperial throne, and the upheavals of the French Revolution.