Maria Anna of Austria (1718-1744)

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Maria Anna Eleanor Wilhelmina Josepha of Austria (Vienna, September 18, 1718 - Brussels, December 16, 1744) was archduchess of Austria and duchess of Lorraine.

She and Maria Theresa of Austria were the only surviving children of emperor Charles VI of Austria and Elisabeth of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. The two sisters were raised in the Kaiserhof in Vienna.

She fell in love with Charles Alexander of Lorraine , the younger brother of Maria Theresa's husband, Francis Stephen. There was a lot of resistance against a marriage, not in the least the wish of her father for a politically more important son-in-law.

It was only after their father's death that Maria Theresa gave the approval for the marriage, which was concluded in the Augustiner church in Vienna on January 7, 1744.

The couple were appointed governors of the Austrian Netherlands in succession of their aunt Maria Elisabeth of Austria, who had died in 1741.

Charles Alexander went to war against Prussia, while Maria Anna, pregnant with their first child, remained in Brussels. Mother and daughter died on December 16, 1744.

Both were buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna. Charles Alexander never married again.

Preceded by Count Friedrich August von Harrach-Rohrau

Governor of the Austrian Netherlands 1744-1744

Succeeded by Charles Alexander of Lorraine