Maria Anna was born at the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, the center of the vastly powerful Austro-Hungarian empire. She was heiress presumptive between 1740 and 1741, until her younger brother Joseph (later to be the Holy Roman emperor, Joseph II) was born. Close to her younger sister Archduchess Maria Elisabeth, the two would later live together in the same convents till their deaths. Known as Marianna, she was one of 16 children.
Maria Anna was intelligent but physically disabled. Unable to find a royal husband, she was made the abbess of the Imperial and Royal Convent for Noble Ladies in Prague with the promise of 80,000 florins per year. Later, she gave up the Prague position and became an abbess in Klagenfurt with a smaller provision.
Being disabled, her existence was often denied by the imperial family. Also while Marie Antionette was traveling on her way to Versailles she stayed at the abbey for one night.
Generations are numbered by male-line descent from Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor. Later generations are included although Austrian titles of nobility were abolished and outlawed in 1919.
Marie Anne
Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor with Marie Anne and Archduchess Maria Elisabeth
Marie Anne's family
Marie Anne as Abbess Xaveria Gasser
