Archduchess Maria Antonietta of Austria, Princess of Tuscany (''Maria Antonietta Leopolda Annunziata Anna Amalia Giuseppa Giovanna Immacolata Tecla''; 10 January 1858 – 13 April 1883) was a member of the

House of Habsburg-Lorraine The House of Habsburg-Lorraine (german: Haus Habsburg-Lothringen) originated from the marriage in 1736 of Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor, Francis III, Duke of Lorraine and Bar, and Maria Theresa, Maria Theresa of Austria, later successively List ...

. She served as the

Princess-Abbess A prince-abbot (german: Fürstabt) is a title for a cleric who is a Prince of the Church (like a Prince-bishop), in the sense of an ''ex officio'' temporal lord of a feudal entity, usually a State of the Holy Roman Empire. The territory ruled b ...

of the Theresian Royal and Imperial Convent in

Hradčany Hradčany (; german: Hradschin), the Castle District, is the district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic surrounding Prague Castle. The castle is one of the biggest in the world at about in length and an average of about wide. Its history ...

from 1881 until her death in 1883.

Biography

Archduchess Maria Antonietta was born on 10 January 1858 in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

as the first child of Ferdinand, Hereditary Grand Duke of Tuscany and the only child from his first marriage to Princess Anna of Saxony. Her maternal grandparents were King John of Saxony and

Princess Amalie Auguste of Bavaria Amalie Auguste (13 November 1801, in Munich – 8 November 1877, in Dresden) was a Bavarian princess by birth and Queen of Saxony by marriage to King John of Saxony. Biography Amalie was the fourth child of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria a ...

, a daughter of King Maximilian I Joseph of Bavaria. Her mother died in 1859. Later that year her father succeeded her grandfather, Leopold II, as the

Grand Duke of Tuscany The rulers of Tuscany varied over time, sometimes being margraves, the rulers of handfuls of border counties and sometimes the heads of the most important family of the region. Margraves of Tuscany, 812–1197 House of Boniface :These were origin ...

. In 1860 the

Grand Duchy of Tuscany The Grand Duchy of Tuscany ( it, Granducato di Toscana; la, Magnus Ducatus Etruriae) was an Italian monarchy that existed, with interruptions, from 1569 to 1859, replacing the Republic of Florence. The grand duchy's capital was Florence. In th ...

was annexed into the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

. After the annexation her family moved to

Salzburg Salzburg (, ; literally "Salt-Castle"; bar, Soizbuag, label=Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian) is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020, it had a population of 156,872. The town is on the site of the ...

. In 1868 her father married Princess Alice of Bourbon-Parma. In 1881 Maria Antonietta was appointed by

Franz Joseph I of Austria Franz Joseph I or Francis Joseph I (german: Franz Joseph Karl, hu, Ferenc József Károly, 18 August 1830 – 21 November 1916) was Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary, and the Grand title of the Emperor of Austria, other states of the Habsburg m ...

to serve as the

of the Imperial and Royal Theresian Institution of Noble Ladies in

. She was also a 1st class Dame of the

Order of the Starry Cross The Order of the Starry Cross (or Order of the Star Cross/Star Cross Order; German: ''Sternkreuz-Orden'') is an imperial Austrian dynastic order for Catholic noble ladies, founded in 1668. The order still exists under the House of Habsburg-Lorraine ...

. She was a writer, and published works in German under the pseudonym Arno. In November 1882 she moved to Cannes in search of a better climate for her declining health, taking up residence in the Villa Félicie. She died in Cannes on 13 April 1883 unmarried and without issue.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Archduchess Maria Antonietta of Austria (1858-1883) 1858 births 1883 deaths 19th-century Italian women writers Maria Antonia Italian princesses Italian Roman Catholic abbesses Maria Antonia Nobility from Florence Burials at the Imperial Crypt Daughters of monarchs