On this day in history, June 7th, in 1740, Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria died.
Born Maria Elisabeth Amalia Antonia Josepha Gabriele Johanna Agathe, she was the first of sixteen children born to Maria Theresa and Francis I. Maria Elisabeth was said to have been a very lively and pretty little girl, and became a favourite of her parents and grandfather, who nicknamed her Leisl.
On June 7th, she was suddenly taken by stomach cramps and vomiting. She died at the age of 3, in her father’s arms, as he reported here:
At eight o'clock I was summoned and handed over to me a letter of the doctor, from which I deduced that it is time to take my wife away, for the child will not live longer. I walked away a little confused, and found my wife completely burst in tears when I arrived. I took them by the hand and took them to her apartments. Then I went back with the sick child. I had only been for a while when she sat up, looked at me, and said with a clear voice, “I commend myself, O my God!”. Then she fell back and died in my arms.
She was buried in Tomb 48 in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna., and a younger sister, born three years after her death, was named in her honour.
At the time of her death, her parents hadn’t yet had a son, so she had been heiress presumptive to the throne. When she died, the next eldest daughter Maria Anna became heiress in her place. Maria Theresa became pregnant shortly after her daughter’s death, and gave birth to her first son and heir, the future Joseph II, just over 9 months later.
Little Maria Elisabeth would be the first of Maria Theresa and Francis’ children to die, with the last being Maria Carolina, 74 years later, in 1814.
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