Maria Theresia Elisabeth von Österreich

Maria Theresia Elisabeth Philippine Luise Josepha Johanna von Habsburg-Lothringen was born in Vienna on 20 March 1762. She was the first child of Archduke Joseph of Austria, the future Holy Roman Emperor and King of Hungary Joseph II, and his wife, Isabella of Parma, a Spanish infanta. Her father was heir to the Habsburg Empire after his mother, Empress Maria Theresa. When Maria Theresia was two years old, Joseph was elected and crowned King of the Romans, making him the designated successor to the imperial title. Maria Theresia was his only child to survive for any significant length of time. Her father showed her great affection from the beginning. Isabella of Parma, by contrast, suffered from severe psychological problems, possibly depression or bipolar disorder, and probably devoted little attention to her daughter. She mentioned Maria Theresia only once in passing in her confidential correspondence and not at all in her personal records. Isabella developed suicidal thoughts and repeatedly predicted that she would not live to see her twenty-second birthday and would soon afterward “take” her daughter with her. In fact, she died three months before her twenty-second birthday. Her writings also reveal progressive ideas about child-rearing: she considered kindness and rational explanations effective, while rejecting authoritarian education and physical punishment. It is not known how she applied these principles in her relationship with her daughter. Isabella’s marriage had been physically and emotionally difficult because of four pregnancies, two of which ended in miscarriages. In November 1763, she died of smallpox after giving birth to a premature daughter, Archduchess Maria Christina, who died the same day. Maria Theresia was then only about a year and a half old. Nevertheless, she grew up surrounded by a large family. At the time of her birth, nine of her father’s siblings lived at court, including the youngest, Archduke Maximilian Franz, who was only seven years older than she was. Her relatives also included her youngest aunt, Maria Antonia, who later became known as Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France. After the death of his beloved wife, Joseph directed all his emotional attachment toward his daughter. However, Empress Maria Theresa expected him to produce a male heir, so in 1765 he married his second cousin, Maria Josepha of Bavaria. The marriage was unhappy. Maria Josepha also died of smallpox in 1767. Nothing is known about her relationship with Maria Theresia. Death accompanied the archduchess throughout her unusually short life. In addition to losing her mother, she lost her paternal grandfather, Emperor Francis I Stephen of Lorraine, at the age of three. After his death, her father himself became emperor. In 1767, her stepmother and then her sixteen-year-old aunt Maria Josepha, who was preparing for her wedding, also died of the same disease. To prevent further illness, Empress Maria Theresa had Maria Theresia and the other family members who had not yet contracted smallpox inoculated against it through variolation in 1768. The measure could not protect the girl from an early death, however. At the age of seven, she developed pleurisy. She would accept neither food nor medicine from anyone else, so her father cared for her himself and scarcely rested. Maria Theresia died in Vienna on 23 January 1770. The archduchess was buried beside her mother and her sister, who had died in infancy, in the Imperial Crypt. Her death devastated Joseph II. In a letter to his father-in-law, Philip of Parma, he wrote that he had ceased to be a father and could scarcely bear the loss. Again and again, he could only think and say: “God, give me back my daughter.” Maria Theresia’s coffin was placed in a late-Rococo sarcophagus created by Balthasar Ferdinand Moll. The sarcophagus bears the archduchess’s coat of arms, incorporating the arms of Hungary, Burgundy, Etruria, Austria, and Lorraine, together with the archducal crown. On its lid lies a representation of a sleeping girl in a long dress. Two crowns are positioned beside her head, while she holds a rosary and a crucifix in her hands. The Latin epitaph praises her piety, noble character, sharp intellect, and the beauty of her spiritual and physical gifts. It describes Maria Theresia as a child more worthy of heaven than of earth.