Archduchess Maria Josepha of Austria or Marie Josefa (German: Maria Josepha von Habsburg, Erzherzogin von Österreich, Polish: Maria Józefa Habsburżanka); (Vienna, December 8, 1699 – November 17, 1757 in Dresden) was Archduchess of Austria; after her marriage, Electress of Saxony and Queen of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Family
She was born an Archduchess of Austria as a daughter of Joseph I, Holy Roman Emperor and Wilhelmina Amalia of Brunswick. She and her sister were excluded from the Habsburg succession in favour of their cousin Maria Theresa by the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713.
Marriage and children
On August 20, 1719, Maria Josepha married Frederick Augustus II, Elector of Saxony (1733-1763), who became King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as August III the Saxon. Through this marriage between the Houses of Wettin and Habsburg, Frederick Augustus II's father, August II the Strong, hoped to place Saxony in a better position should there arise a war of succession to the Austrian territories. The couple's eldest surviving son, Frederick Christian, eventually succeeded his father as Elector of Saxony.
The children of Maria Josepha and August were:
- Friedrich August (1720-1721);
- Joseph (1721-1728);
- Frederick Christian (1722-1763), Elector of Saxony;
- Maria Amalia Christina (1724-1760), who married Charles III of Spain;
- Maria Margaretha (1727-1734);
- Maria Anna Sophia (1728-1797), who married Maximilian III, Elector of Bavaria;
- Franz Xaver (1730-1806), Regent of Saxony, 1763 – 1768;
- Marie-Josèphe (1731-1767), who married Louis, Dauphin of France (1729-1765), son of King Louis XV of France (1710-1774), and became the mother of Louis XVI of France;
- Carl Christian (1733-1796), Duke of Courland;
- Maria Christina Anna (1735-1782), Reigning Abbess of Remiremont;
- Maria Elisabeth Apollonia (1736-1818);
- Albert Kasimir August (1738-1822);
- Clemens Wenzeslaus (1739-1812), Elector and Archbishop of Trier; and
- Maria Kunigunde Dorothe (1740-1826), Reigning Abbess of Thorn and Essen.
See also
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