Maria Antonia of Austria
Electress consort of Bavaria
Tenure	15 July 1685 – 24 December 1692
Born	18 January 1669 Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died	24 December 1692(1692-12-24) (aged 23) Hofburg Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	25 December 1692 Imperial Crypt
Spouse	Maximilian II Emanuel ​ ​ (m. 1685)​
Issue Detail	Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria
Names Maria Antonia Josepha Benedicta Rosalia Petronella
House	Habsburg
Father	Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
Mother	Margaret Theresa of Spain

Maria Antonia of Austria (Marie Antonia von Österreich)^[1] (Maria Antonia Josepha Benedicta Rosalia Petronella; 18 January 1669 – 24 December 1692) was the eldest daughter and only surviving child of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife Margaret Theresa of Spain. She became the heiress to Habsburg Spain when her mother died in 1673. She became an electress of the Electorate of Bavaria after marrying Maximilian II Emanuel in 1685, when she was 12 years old. Maria Antonia died of postpartum infections / sepsis, aged 23, after the birth of her third child; all of her children died in infancy or childhood. She did not live long enough to accede to the throne of Spain.^[2]

The early deaths of Maria Antonia and her sons, which were likely indirectly due to generations of inbreeding, left the Kingdom of Spain without a ruler upon the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700. This led to the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), in which 700,000 people died in 13 years.^[2]

Maria Antonia had the highest coefficient of inbreeding in the House of Habsburg; her father was her mother's maternal uncle and paternal first cousin once removed, and her maternal grandparents were uncle and niece.^[2] She did not display any noticeable physical deformities that are normally accompanied by inbreeding, although portraits of her were likely embellished for political purposes and her genetics likely exacerbated the infection that led to her death.^[2]

Archduchess Maria Antonia was born at Hofburg Palace in Vienna on 18 January 1669,^[3] the eldest daughter of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor and his first wife, Infanta Margaret Theresa of Spain, who was also his niece; they were in an avunculate marriage.^[4] Her mother died at age 21 when Maria Antonia was 2 years old and her only older sibling had already died by the time she was born.^[5] She had two younger siblings, both of whom died in infancy,^[6] and twelve half-siblings, six of whom lived into adulthood.^[7]

Maria Antonia was a significant figure in the Viennese court's musical culture and was a patron and enthusiast of Baroque music. However, her music teacher was killed in 1683 in the siege by the Ottoman Empire or the resulting Battle of Vienna.^[2]

Charles II of Spain, king of Spain, the brother of Maria Antonia's mother, never fathered any children due to his severe deformities and illnesses that resulted from inbreeding. Maria Antonia's mother, Empress Margaret Theresa of Spain, died in 1673, and according to the laws of succession in Spain, Maria Antonia would have had the right to inherit Habsburg Spain had she lived long enough, because she was the only surviving child.

During her childhood, for political purposes, she was considered to be sent for marriage to either Charles II of Spain or Victor Amadeus II, the Duke of Savoy.^[8][9][10]

However, on 15 July 1685, at age 12, for political purposes, Maria Antonia was forced to marry Maximilian II Emanuel in Vienna, making her the electress of the Electorate of Bavaria.^[11][12]

Maria Antonia's grandmother, Mariana of Austria, Queen of Spain, wanted the descendants of her daughter Margaret Theresa of Spain, such Maria Antonia and her family, to inherit Habsburg Spain. The marriage gave the Bavarian Wittelsbachs the closer place in succession to the Crown than the Austrian Habsburgs.^[13][14]

However, Maria Antonia's father, Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, wanted Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor, then known as Archduke Charles, a son from his third marriage, to be the heir instead of Maria Antonia.^[15] Leopold I pressured Maria Antonia, at age 12, to sign a document waiving her inheritance rights in order to be granted permission to marry Maximilian II Emanuel.^{[2][16][17][18]} In exchange, he promised to have Maximilian II Emanuel appointed as governor of the Spanish Netherlands.^[19]

The marriage was very unhappy.^[17] The extroverted Maximilian, a military leader, and the introverted and serious Maria Antonia had little in common. Maria Antonia was reportedly offended by Maximilian's constant infidelity. In late 1691, when Maximilian was appointed governor of the Spanish Netherlands and left for Brussels with his mistress, Countess Canozza, despite Maria Antonia being pregnant, Maria Antonia left Munich to her father in Vienna to give birth, and it was widely assumed that the marriage was effectively over and she did not intend to return to Maximilian.^[2]

In December 1692, two months after giving birth to her third child, Maria suffered from melancholia, now believed to be postpartum depression.^[2] She then was infected by streptococcus pyogenes, which had a mortality rate of 50% in the time before antibiotics. She suffered from fever and abdominal pain, which progressed to systemic infection likely exacerbated by her genetic load resulting from inbreeding. Maria Antonia died of postpartum infections / sepsis, at 5:30 AM on Christmas Eve, 24 December 1692, aged 23, at Hofburg Palace.^[2] Per her request, she is buried in an eccentric sarcophagus in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna next to her mother.^[2]

After the death of Maria Antonia of Austria, her only surviving son, Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria, was a claimant to the throne of Spain.^[11][13] However, he died in 1699 at age 6 from typhoid fever or smallpox and the resulting seizures (or allegedly arsenic poisoning by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor). If he had survived, the European powers might have permitted him to accede to the throne of Spain under the terms of the Treaty of The Hague (1698).^[20][21] However, the death of Charles II of Spain in 1700 left Hapsburg Spain without a ruler, triggering the War of the Spanish Succession (1701-1714), in which 700,000 people died in 13 years.^[2][22]

Maria Antonia had the highest coefficient of inbreeding in the House of Habsburg, 0.3053, higher than that of a child born to a parent and offspring, or brother and sister:^[23] her father was her mother's maternal uncle and paternal first cousin once removed, and her maternal grandparents were uncle and niece.^[2] Researchers have described her family tree as "looking less like a tree and more like a circle"; her mother had only 10 great-great grandparents instead of the usual 32.^[2] However, despite this extreme inbreeding, she managed to survive childhood and reach adulthood, although she was the only one among her siblings to do so.^[23] She did not display any noticeable physical deformities that are normally accompanied by inbreeding, although portraits of her were likely embellished for political purposes and her genetics likely exacerbated the infection that led to her death.^[2]

Ancestors of Maria Antonia of Austria
Philip III of Spain[i][ii] 1578–1621 Margaret of Austria[i][ii] 1584–1611 Ferdinand II Holy Roman Emperor[iii] 1578–1637 Maria Anna of Bavaria[iii] 1574–1616 Maria Anna of Spain[iii] 1606–46 Ferdinand III Holy Roman Emperor[iii] 1608–57 Philip IV of Spain[iv] 1605–65 Mariana of Austria[iv] 1634–96 Margaret Theresa of Spain 1651–1673 Leopold I Holy Roman Emperor 1640–1705 Maria Antonia of Austria 1669–1692
Notes: ^ a b Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1861). "Habsburg, Maria Anna von Spanien" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 23 – via Wikisource. ^ a b Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1861). "Habsburg, Philipp IV." . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 122 – via Wikisource. ^ a b c d Wurzbach, Constantin von, ed. (1861). "Habsburg, Maria Anna (Königin von Spanien)" . Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich [Biographical Encyclopedia of the Austrian Empire] (in German). Vol. 7. p. 24 – via Wikisource. ^ a b Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Charles II. (King of Spain)" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

1. Leopold Ferdinand of Bavaria (22 May 1689) – died at birth^[2]
2. Anton of Bavaria (19 November 1690) – died at birth^[2]
3. Joseph Ferdinand of Bavaria (28 October 1692 – 6 February 1699) – heir to the Spanish throne, died at age 6 from typhoid fever or smallpox and the resulting seizures (or allegedly arsenic poisoning by Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor); his death led to the War of the Spanish Succession^[24][2]

• Friedrich Weissensteiner: Liebeshimmel und Ehehöllen - Heyne Taschenbuchverlag 1999 - ISBN 3-453-17853-X
• Frey, Linda; Frey, Marsha (1983). A Question of Empire: Leopold I and the War of Spanish Succession, 1701–1705. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 6, 13, 14. ISBN 0-88033-038-4.
• Langdon-Davies, John (1963). Carlos: The King Who Would Not Die. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Mitchell, Silvia Z. (2013). Mariana of Austria and Imperial Spain: Court, Dynastic, and International Politics in Seventeenth-Century Europe (Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) thesis). Retrieved 21 November 2023.
• Mitchell, Silvia Z. (2019-05-30). Queen, Mother, and Stateswoman: Mariana of Austria and the Government of Spain. Penn State Press. ISBN 978-0-271-08412-1.
• Spielman, John Philip (1977). Leopold I. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-87005-1.
• Wheatcroft, Andrew (1996). The Habsburgs: Embodying Empire. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-023634-7. Retrieved 21 November 2023.