Maria Amalia of Austria was born on 22 October 1701 as the youngest child of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and his wife, Wilhelmine Amalie of Brunswick-Lüneburg. She was born three months after the death of her only brother Leopold Joseph, and so the disappointment in her gender was great. However, her elder sister Maria [read more]
Read part one here. On 13 May 1717, Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina, the future heiress, was born. Although her father certainly loved her, he could never bring himself to see her as his inevitable heir. Another daughter, named Maria Anna, was born in 1718 but then, it would be quite a while before Elisabeth [read more]
Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel is perhaps best known as the mother of the famous Habsburg ruler Maria Theresa but she was also the longest-serving Holy Roman Empress consort. Elisabeth Christine was born on 28 August 1691 as the eldest daughter of Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and his wife Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen. She [read more]
Read part one here. With Charles still in Spain, Eleonore Magdalene was appointed as regent in his absence. She quickly vented her dislike at Joseph’s mistress and demanded that she return all the jewellery he had given her. She was also forbidden from appearing in her or Wilhelmine Amalie’s presence and she was eventually compelled [read more]
Read part one here. In 1685, Eleonore Magdalene’s stepdaughter Maria Antonia married Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria and Maria Antonia remained in Vienna at first, as Maximilian was away fighting. As a condition of the marriage, Leopold had made Maria Antonia secretly renounce her rights to the Spanish throne in favour of her father’s [read more]
Tragedy struck the house of Habsburg again on 8 April 1676 when Empress Claudia Felicitas died at the age of just 22. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, had been widowed for the second time, and he had just one surviving daughter from his first marriage to Margaret Theresa of Austria. There were not a lot [read more]
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