Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (born 1740)

Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (Maria Carolina Ernestina Antoina Johanna Josefa; 12 January 1740 – 25 January 1741) was the third child and daughter of Maria Theresa, Holy Roman Empress, and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.

This article is about the infant daughter. For her sister, the Queen of Naples and Sicily, see Maria Carolina of Austria. For her stillborn sister, see Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (stillborn 1748).
Archduchess Maria Carolina
Extract from a mural by Franz Anton Maulbertsch in the Hofburg (Innsbruck), representing the four daughters of Maria Theresa who died in childhood
Born(1740-01-12)12 January 1740
Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died25 January 1741(1741-01-25) (aged 1)
Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial
Imperial Crypt
Names
English: Mary Caroline Ernestine Antonia Joanne Josephine

German: Maria Carolina Ernestina Antonia Joanna Josepha

French: Marie Caroline Ernestine Antoinette Jeanne Josèphe
HouseHabsburg-Lorraine
FatherFrancis I, Holy Roman Emperor
MotherMaria Theresa

Biography

In Maria Theresa's third pregnancy, expectations for a male heir were intense. The disappointment was correspondingly great when, on 12 January 1740,[1] a third daughter was born. She was immediately baptized on the evening of her birth.

After the death of her older sister Maria Elisabeth on 7 June, she became second in the line of succession, preceded only by her older sister Maria Anna. Five months later, on 20 October, her grandfather Emperor Charles VI died and her mother inherited the Austrian and Bohemian lands, and with this began the War of the Austrian Succession.

On 24 January 1741, the young Archduchess suddenly became gravely ill with violent seizures, dying around noon of the next day.[2] The cause of death was believed to be either tetany or spasmophilia; however, at the time of her death an autopsy was carried out on the corpse, but no explanation was given for her demise.[3] She was buried in the Maria Theresa Vault at the Imperial Crypt, Vienna.

Two other sisters were named after her: another short-lived one (born and died in 1748) and another (born in 1752), later Queen of Naples and Sicily.

Ancestry

References
  1. Dienstag/den 12. Januarii in: Wiener Zeitung, 13 January 1740, p. 38. (online via ANNO)
  2. Dito Vor – mittag in: Wiener Zeitung, 28 January 1741, p. 83. (online via ANNO)
  3. Maria Theresia und ihre Kinder – Teil 3: Maria Karoline und die Fraisen in: imperial-austria.at (archive) [retrieved 7 January 2016].
  4. Genealogie ascendante jusqu'au quatrieme degre inclusivement de tous les Rois et Princes de maisons souveraines de l'Europe actuellement vivans [Genealogy up to the fourth degree inclusive of all the Kings and Princes of sovereign houses of Europe currently living] (in French). Bourdeaux: Frederic Guillaume Birnstiel. 1768. p. 1.

Bibliography
  • Elfriede Iby: "Marie-Thérèse, biographie d'une souveraine".
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