Archduchess Maria Anna Josepha Antonia of Austria (6 October 1738 – 19 November 1789) was the second but eldest surviving daughter of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary and Bohemia, and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
Life
Maria Anna was born on 6 October 1738 at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the center of the vastly powerful Austro-Hungarian empire. She was heiress presumptive between 1740 and 1741, until her younger brother Joseph (later to be the Holy Roman emperor, Joseph II) was born. She was known as "Marianna".
Maria Anna was intelligent but physically disabled. Unable to find a royal husband, she was made the abbess of the Imperial and Royal Convent for Noble Ladies in Prague with the promise of 80,000 florins per year. Later, she gave up the Prague position and became an abbess in Klagenfurt with a smaller provision. Close to her younger sister Archduchess Maria Elisabeth, the two lived together in the same convents till their deaths.
Being disabled, her existence was often denied by the imperial family. Also while Marie Antoinette was traveling on her way to Versailles she stayed at the abbey for one night. Maria Anna died on 19 november 1789.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919.
Maria Anna
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor with Maria Anna and Archduchess Maria Elisabeth
Maria Anna's family
Maria Anna as Abbess Xaveria Gasser
