For the earlier archduchess of the same name, see Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria.
Archduchess Maria Elisabeth Josepha of Austria (13 August, 1743 – 22 September, 1808) was the sixth child of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
She was very attractive during her early youth and was considered the most beautiful of her sisters. The recently widowed Louis XV of France considered marrying he...
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For the earlier archduchess of the same name, see Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria.
Archduchess Maria Elisabeth Josepha of Austria (13 August, 1743 – 22 September, 1808) was the sixth child of Maria Theresa, Queen of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor.
She was very attractive during her early youth and was considered the most beautiful of her sisters. The recently widowed Louis XV of France considered marrying her. However, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth's chances of becoming Queen of France were destroyed by smallpox which terribly scarred her face, making her unfit for marriage.
Her elder sister Archduchess Maria Anna was also ineligible for marriage to the future Louis XVI of France due to physical disability.
The archduchess Maria Elisabeth lived in the Imperial and Royal Convent for Noble Ladies in Prague from 1781 until 1805, when the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte forced her to leave and return to Vienna. She eventually came to Linz, where...
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