Maria Magdalena, Archduchess of Austria (Maria Magdalena Josefa; 26 March 1689 – 1 May 1743) was a governor of
Tyrol and daughter of
Emperor Leopold I and his third wife
Eleonore Magdalene of the Palatinate. She died unmarried.
Biography
Born at the
Hofburg Palace in
Vienna she was the ninth child of
Emperor Leopold I and
Eleonore Magdalene of the Palatinate. Shortly before the
War of the Spanish Succession, there was the question of the new king of Spain,
Philip V of Spain
Philip V ( es, Felipe; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724, and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign of 45 years is the longest in the history of the Spanish mona ...
, marrying the archduchess, but
Louis XIV of France
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Ve ...
was opposed to this match for political reasons, and the official reason given was that none of the archduchesses offered pleased his grandson. In 1708, her older sister
Archduchess Maria Anna married
John V of Portugal; plans for a second union between Austria and Portugal were discussed when Maria Magdalena was proposed as a bride for
Infante Francis, Duke of Beja, brother of John V. Negotiations failed in the early stages and, as such, both candidates died unmarried. Again after the war the question of her becoming queen of Spain to replace the now deceased Luisa Maria of Savoy was floated. However, again it came to naught and Philip married
Elisabeth Farnese instead.
After the failed marriage, she lived a life of seclusion and remained unmarried and died without issue. She had a close relationship to her niece
Maria Theresa, the daughter of her brother Emperor
Charles VI and future Empress and also with her sister
Archduchess Maria Anna. She died of
pneumonia at the age of 54. She was buried at the
Imperial Crypt
The Imperial Crypt (german: Kaisergruft), also called the Capuchin Crypt (''Kapuzinergruft''), is a burial chamber beneath the Capuchin Church and monastery in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632, and located on the Neu ...
s in Vienna.
Ancestors
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Magdalena Of Austria, Archduchess
1689 births
1743 deaths
17th-century House of Habsburg
18th-century House of Habsburg
17th-century Austrian women
18th-century Austrian women
Austrian princesses
Burials at the Imperial Crypt
Deaths from pneumonia in Austria
Daughters of emperors
Governors of Tyrol
Children of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
Nobility from Vienna
Daughters of kings