Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria (1899–1977)

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria, Princess of Tuscany

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria
Spouse Don Ramón de Orlandis y Villalonga (1896-1936)
Luis Perez Sucre (1899-1950)
House House of Habsburg-Lorraine (by birth)
Father Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria
Mother Infanta Blanca of Spain
Born 13 July 1899
Zagreb, Austria-Hungary[1]
Died 22 October 1977 (aged 78)
Porto Alegre, Brazil

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria German: Maria Antonia, Erzherzogin von Österreich-Toskana (13 July 1899 – 22 October 1977) was a daughter of Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria and Infanta Blanca of Spain. She was member of the Tuscan branch of the Imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine, an Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Bohemia, Hungary, and Tuscany by birth. In 1919, after the fall of the Austro Hungary Empire, she moved with her family to Spain. In 1924 she married Ramón de Orlandis y Villalonga, a Spanish aristocrat. When she became a widow during the Spanish civil war Archduchess Maria Antonia moved permanently to South America were she remarried.

Early life

Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria was born on 13 July 1899 at Zagreb, then part of Austria-Hungary.[1] She was the sixth of ten children of Archduke Leopold Salvator of Austria (1863–1931) and of his wife Infanta Blanca of Spain (1868–1949). She was given the baptismal names Maria Antonia Roberta Blanka Leopoldina Karole Josepha Raphaela Michaela Ignatia Aurelia, but was called Mimi, by her family.

Archduchess Maria Antonia grew up in the last period of Habsburg monarchy. She was raised with her many brothers and sisters in the various properties owned by her parents. While in Vienna, they lived at the Palais Toskana with Schloss Wilhelminenberg as their country state. Vacations were spent in Italy where Infanta Blanca owned a rural property near Viareggio. Theirs was a multi cultural household as Archduchess Maria Antonia's paternal ancestors had reigned in Austria, Tuscany and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Her maternal family had reigned in Spain, Parma, Modena, Portugal and France. The fourth of five sisters, Archduchess Maria Antonia was raise paired with her younger sister Archduchess Assumpta.

Exile

Archduchess Maria Antonia was nineteen years old at the fall of Habsburg monarchy. The end of World War I marked a sharp down turned in her family's prosperity. The republican government of Austria confiscated the properties of the Habsburgs. The family lost all their fortune.[2] Maria Antonia's eldest brothers, Archdukes Rainer and Leopold, remained in Austria and they recognized the new republic. The rest of the family moved to Spain in January 1919. They settled in Barcelona living with simplicity with very limited means. While Maria Antonia's three elder sisters Archduchess Dolores, Inmaculata and Margareta were pliable, Archduchesses Maria Antonia and her younger sister Assunta were more rebellious and clashed often with their mother Infanta Blanca.

While living in Barcelona Maria Antonia turned increasingly towards religion. Although both of her parents were observant Catholics, they found Maria Antonia's religious fervor worrisome particularly because her sister Assunta followed Maria Antonia's lead. Archduchess Maria Antonia wished to become a nun, but her mother thought that Maria Antonia had neither the necessary vocation nor the temperament to follow a religious life. To make her reflect on her decision Maria Antonia's parents took her to the Island of Mallorca. At the same time Infanta Blanca and her husband wanted to see if there were any properties they could claim form Archduke Ludwig Salvador uncle who had died a decade earlier unmarried. The family found out that here was nothing left they could have inherited, but Archduchess Maria Antonia quickly left behind her intentions to become a nun. She fell in love with Ramon Orlandis y Villalonga (1896-1936), who belonged to the minor Spanish nobility, but like the Archduchess lacked personal fortune. His father had lost his title when he failed to pay the taxes of nobility. The marriage took place in Barcelona on July 16, 1924. The couple lived in Mallorca were they were the parents of five children who bore the surname Orlandis y Habsburgo:

Archduchess Maria Antonia's husband died during the Spanish Civil War in 1936. A widow with five children Archduchess Maria Antonia, as the widow de Orlandis, emigrated to South America. In 1942, in Uruguay, she married Argentine-born Don Luis Perez Sucre. Her second husband died eight years later. Archduchess Maria Antonia died in Brazil in 1977.

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Harding, Lost Waltz, p. 20
  2. ↑ McIntosh, The Unknown Habsburgs, p. 48

Bibliography