Marie Anne of Austria (Maria Anna Franziska Theresia Josepha Medarde; 8 June 1804 – 28 December 1858) was an Archduchess of Austria as the daughter of Franz II, Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. She never married or had any children due to her being intellectually disabled with a severe facial deformity and having to spend the rest of her life in Hetzendorf Palace.
Biography
A young Marie Anne (1800)
Marie Anne was born on 8 June 1804 at the Hofburg palace in Vienna. She was the tenth child born to her parents, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II by his second wife, Princess Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily. Her mother died after seven days after giving birth to her only younger sister, Archduchess Amalie Theresa, who died three days after her birth in 1807.
She is said to have been intellectually disabled (like her eldest brother, Emperor Ferdinand I) and to have a severe facial deformity.[1] probably linked to the genetic inbreeding within her family; her parents were double first cousins.
After living in the Schönbrunn Palace, she was moved in 1835 to Hetzendorf Palace,[2] where she spent the rest of her life, and where she died on 28 December 1858 at the age of 54.[3]
^Palmer, Alan (1997). Twilight of the Habsburgs. Atlantic Monthly Press. p. 4. ISBN978-0871136657.
^Ottillinger, Eva (1997). Kaiserliche Interieurs: die Wohnkultur des Wiener Hofes im 19. Jahrhundert und die Wiener Kunstgewerbereform. Böhlau. p. 219. ISBN3205986806.
^Hawlik-Van de Water, Magdalena (1996). Das kaiserliche Lustchloss Hetzendorf : die Modeschule der Stadt Wien. Böhlau. p. 61. ISBN3205986016.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919.
