Archduchess Maria Elisabeth of Austria (13 December 1680 in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

– 26 August 1741 in Mariemont, Morlanwelz), was the governor of the

Habsburg Netherlands Habsburg Netherlands was the Renaissance period fiefs in the Low Countries held by the Holy Roman Empire's House of Habsburg. The rule began in 1482, when the last Valois-Burgundy ruler of the Netherlands, Mary, wife of Maximilian I of Austr ...

between 1725 and 1741.

Life

Maria Elisabeth was a daughter of Emperor Leopold I and Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg. She was well educated and fluent in Latin, German, French and Italian. She never married.

Governor

In 1725, she was appointed Prince Eugene of Savoy's successor as the regent governor of the Austrian Netherlands by her brother, Charles VI. Maria Elisabeth was described as a forceful administrator and a popular regent. Her independent politics, however, were not always appreciated in Vienna. She suspended the

Ostend Company The Ostend Company ( nl, Oostendse Compagnie, french: Compagnie d'Ostende), officially the General Company Established in the Austrian Netherlands for Commerce and Navigation in the Indies () was a chartered trading company in the Austrian Netherl ...

in 1727 and closed it in 1731. She had enough financial means at her disposal to uphold an elaborate court which stimulated culture and music. Among others, she patronized

Jean-Joseph Fiocco Jean-Joseph Fiocco (15 December 1686 – 30 March 1746) was a Flemish composer of the high and late Baroque period. His father was the Venetian composer Pietro Antonio Fiocco (1654–1714), and his brothers included the violinist Joseph-Hector. ...

, her maestro di cappella who dedicated several oratorios to her between 1726 and 1738. The architect Jean-Andre Anneessens designed the palace Mariemont for her, where she spent her summers.

Death

She died unexpectedly at Mariemont, upon which she was displayed at a public Lit-de-parade in Brussels 29 August. When she died at the age of 61, she was first buried in Brussels, but moved to Vienna in 1749, where she lies now in the Imperial Crypt next to her brother Charles.

Ancestors

References

* Cécile Douxchamps-Lefevre : Marie-Élisabeth. In: Nouvelle Biographie nationale de Belgique, Bd. 2 (1990), S. 267–270.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Maria Elisabeth of Austria, Archduchess 1680 births 1741 deaths 17th-century Austrian women 18th-century Austrian women 18th-century House of Habsburg Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands Austrian princesses People from Linz Nobility of the Austrian Netherlands Burials at the Imperial Crypt Burials at St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna 18th-century women rulers Politicians of the Austrian Netherlands Daughters of emperors Women of the Austrian Netherlands Children of Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor Daughters of kings