Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (1724-1730)

Archduchess Maria Amalia of Austria (Vienna, 5 April 1724 – Vienna, 19 April 1730) was an Archduchess of Austria and the younger sister of Empress Maria Theresa. She was the aunt of Queen Marie Antoinette of France, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, Duchess Maria Amalia of Parma, Duchess Maria Christina of Teschen, Duke Ferdinand and two Holy Roman Emperors, Joseph II and Leopold II.

Biography

Maria Amalia was born at the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. She was the last daughter of Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, and Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Like her sister, Maria Anna, her birth was not well received by her father. After the death of her elder brother, Archduke Leopold, his sister Maria Theresa, replaced him as heiress presumptive to the Habsburg realms; Charles VI had issued the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713 which had placed his nieces behind his own daughters in the line of succession.

She died at 19 April 1730, in Vienna. Maria Amalia was the last member of the Austrian Habsburgs. After the death of her father, who had no male heirs, the imperial crown passed to Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, as the husband of Maria Theresa. The Habsburg dynasty of Austria became extinct in the male line with the death of Charles VI, and Maria Theresa and Francis began the dynasty of Habsburg-Lorraine.

Titles and styles

• 5 April 1724 – 19 April 1730 Her Imperial and Royal Highness, Archduchess Maria Amalia

Ancestry