Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria
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Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen
Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Duchess of Teschen
Spouse	Albert, Prince of Saxony
Father	Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria
Born	April 13, 1742(1742-04-13) Vienna, Austria
Died	June 24, 1798 (aged 56) Vienna, Austria

Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia von Habsburg-Lothringen (13 May 1742 - 24 June 1798), (→Family Tree) called "Mimi", was the fourth daughter and fifth child of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

Life

Maria Christina

Maria Christina was her mother's favourite child, because they shared the same birthday. Mimi was not only beautiful but she was also highly intelligent and artistically gifted. The doting partiality that the Empress showed her caused intense jealousy in her brothers and sisters, especially the Emperor Joseph II. His first wife, Isabella of Parma, shared in this partiality.

Maria Christina was a very intelligent woman who knew how to manipulate her parents, especially her mother. The sudden death of her father, the Emperor Francis, and the depression that overcame Empress Maria Theresa following her widowhood meant that Maria Christina was able to convince her vulnerable and sentimental mother into permitting her to marry for love rather than for reasons of state — the only child allowed to do so. She chose her cousin second degrees Prince Albert of Saxony, who neither had great wealth nor a throne to offer, and the couple was appointed joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands.

Cenotaph to Maria Christina of Austria in the Augustinerkirche, by Canova

One of her sisters, the Archduchess Maria Amalia, was also in love with a minor prince, Charles of Zweibrucken, but was forcibly married off to Ferdinand of Parma rather than to her sweetheart. Maria Christina's luck in being permitted to marry the man she loved embittered Maria Theresa's other daughters, who already resented their mother's favouritism. Not only was she able to marry her prince of choice, but her mother also provided for a huge dowry and presented the couple with the Duchy of Teschen. Maria Amalia, the daughter most affected, remained estranged from her mother for the rest of the Empress's life. Although Marie-Antoinette wrote her letters later on from France, Mimi did not enjoy the same closeness Marie-Antoinette accorded to her other sisters, Maria Amalia and Maria Carolina, who all exchanged not only letters but also dresses, portraits and other gifts. It is interesting to note that it wasn't only her sisters who were affected by their mother's favouritism. Their brother Leopold also disliked Mimi for her's colding ways, her sharp tongue and above all, her habit of telling everything to the Empress', clearly indicating that Mimi used her paramount influence with their mother to tell on her siblings, make trouble, and treated her siblings unkindly.

Maria had only one child, Princess Christina of Saxony, who died on May 17, 1767, the day after her birth, and she was unable to have other children. The couple then became the adoptive parents of Mimi's nephew - son of her brother Leopold and Maria Ludovika of Two Sicilies (both died 1792 very young) - Archduke Charles of Austria.

Issue

Maria Christina's siblings, especially her sisters, never reconciled with her, even after the death of their mother. Queen Marie Antoinette of France, her youngest sister, pointedly ignored her during her visit to France and considered her as just another state guest when she visited Versailles.

Maria Christina's request to see the Petit Trianon, her sister's private retreat, was ignored. When Marie Antoinette was guillotined in 1793, Maria Christina was reported to have remarked that her sister ought never to have married.

Arms of Maria Christina of Austria and Albert of Saxony, Dukes of Teschen

Maria Christina is buried in the Tuscan Vault of the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, along with her husband and daughter. The famous and moving monument her husband erected to her memory is in the Augustinerkirche.

Titles, honours and arms

Titles

• Her Imperial and Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria; Princess Maria Christina of Hungary and Bohemia; Princess Maria Christina of Tuscany; Duchess Maria Christina of Teschen (1766–1798); Governor of the Austrian Netherlands (1781–1793)

Arms

The personal coat of arms of the Duchess of Teschen impales Consort’s shield, the arms of King Augustus II of Poland – Quarterly, I and IV gules, a eagle argent, armed, beaked, langued, liée, and crowned Or (for Poland); II and III Gules, a knight armed cap-à-pie mounted on a horse salient argent, brandishing a sword proper and maintaining a shield azure charged with a cross of Lorraine Or (for Lithuania); overall and inescutcheon barry sable and Or, a crancelin vert (for Saxony); - enté en point azure a eagle or (for Teschen) (her husband's shield) to the dexter (viewer's left) with her brother’s shield, the arms of Holy Roman Emperor Joseph II – Quarterly, I barry of eight, gules and argent, impaling gules a patriarchal cross argent on a trimount vert (for Hungary); II gules a lion rampant argent, queue fourchée crossed in saltire, armed, langued, and crowned Or (for Bohemia); III bendy of six Or and azure, a bordure gules (for Burgundy); IV Or, in annulo six torteaux, the torteau in chief replaced by a roundel azure charged with three fleurs-de-lis Or (for the Medici family); overall and inescutcheon gules a fess argent (for Austria) impaling Or a bend gules three alerions argent (for Lorraine); - enté en point azure a eagle or (for Teschen).

Resources

• Friedrich Weissensteiner, Die Töchter Maria Theresias, Heyne 1999 (German Book)

Ancestry

External links

• Media related to Archduchess Marie Christine, Duchess of Teschen at Wikimedia Commons