Maria Antonia of Austria

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Maria Antonia of Austria, wife of Elector Max Emanuel (painting by Benjamin von Block , 1684)

Maria Antonia Theresia Josepha of Austria (born January 18, 1669 in Vienna ; † December 24, 1692 there ) was the only surviving daughter of Emperor Leopold I and his niece (and cousin) Margarita Theresa of Spain . By marriage she was Electress of Bavaria from 1685 .

Life

Maria Antonia was already rather quiet and shy as a girl. Although she was loved by her father, Leopold I still intended to marry her for reasons of state . Since her maternal uncle, Charles II , the last Spanish king from the House of Habsburg , was unlikely to be able to father any offspring, Maria Antonia was the only living child of Margarita Theresa and had a claim to the Spanish inheritance. In 1676 the Viennese court achieved the conclusion of a marriage contract for Karl II. And Maria Antonia in order to establish a connection between the Austrian and Spanish branches of the Habsburgs. The prospect of this marriage was not realized due to the fact that other European countries also exerted influence.

In 1684, Elector Maximilian II Emanuel of Bavaria applied for the hand of the emperor's daughter for purely political reasons. The suitor promised that he would not enter into an alliance with France and that he would continue to support the emperor against the Ottomans . In return, the elector was granted permission to marry Maria Antonia. The future spouses had to renounce their claims to the Spanish inheritance beforehand; Maximilian Emanuel should be entitled to inheritance only for the Spanish Netherlands . The current waiver did not cause the elector to worry because Maria Antonia was still a Spanish infanta and the marriage contract, which granted the emperor's daughter a financial endowment of 200,000 guilders, was legally contestable.

The wedding of Maria Antonia and Maximilian Emanuel took place on July 15, 1685 in Vienna. The couple moved into Munich on October 9, 1685 . As a result, numerous festivals were held; the opera Servio Tullio by the Italian composer Agostino Steffani based on a libretto by Ventura Terzago was also on the program. The Bavarian elector had already arranged for the Lustheim Palace to be built for his wife, but his marriage to her was very unhappy. Maria Antonia was cautious, while her husband was much more lively and associated with mistresses. The Electress suffered from constant supervision and eavesdropping by the Chief Chamberlain. Her husband paid little attention to her and only fathered a first son with her after four years of marriage (born May 22, 1689), who died three days after birth. A second son (born November 28, 1690) was stillborn. The couple became more and more estranged.

In 1691, Elector Maximilian II. Emanuel was elected governor of the Spanish Netherlands and moved there in the spring of 1692, while Maria Antonia returned to Vienna with her father, pregnant and alone. There she gave birth to a third son - Joseph Ferdinand Leopold  - on October 28, 1692  . Exhausted and suffering from depression , she lost all courage to face life. She died of childbed fever in Vienna on December 24, 1692 and was buried in the imperial crypt next to her mother, who died prematurely. Her heart was buried separately and is in the heart crypt of the Habsburgs in the Loreto Chapel of the Augustinian Church in Vienna ; the entrails in the ducal crypt of St. Stephan .

In her will, Maria Anna renounced the claim to the Spanish crown for herself and her heirs, disinherited her husband and transferred her private property to her son. She had also decreed that in the event of the premature death of her son, her father, Emperor Leopold I, and his relatives should inherit.

Joseph Ferdinand Leopold died in the Netherlands on February 6, 1699. This event helped spark the War of the Spanish Succession .

progeny

  • Leopold Ferdinand (* May 22, 1689 - † May 25, 1689), Prince Elector of Bavaria
  • Anton (* / † November 28, 1690), Prince Elector of Bavaria
  • Joseph Ferdinand Leopold (born October 28, 1692 - † February 6, 1699), Prince Elector of Bavaria, Prince of Asturias

literature

Web links

Commons : Maria Antonia von Österreich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ^ A b c d e Karl Möckl:  Maria Antonia, Archduchess of Austria. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 16, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-428-00197-4 , p. 180 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ^ Karl Möckl: Maria Antonia . In: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 304.
  3. ^ Karl Möckl: Maria Antonia . In: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, pp. 304–305.
  4. ↑ a b c Karl Möckl: Maria Antonia . In: Brigitte Hamann (Ed.): Die Habsburger , 1988, p. 305.
predecessor Office successor
Henriette Adelheid Electress of Bavaria
1685–1692 		Therese Kunigunde
personal data
SURNAME Maria Antonia of Austria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maria Antonia Theresia Josepha of Austria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Electress of Bavaria
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1669
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 1692
Place of death Vienna