Maria Elisabeth of Austria
Encyclopedia
Linz
Linz is the third-largest city of Austria and capital of the state of Upper Austria . It is located in the north centre of Austria, approximately south of the Czech border, on both sides of the river Danube. The population of the city is , and that of the Greater Linz conurbation is about...
13 February 1680 – Mariemont, Morlanwelz
Morlanwelz
Morlanwelz is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut. On January 1, 2006 Morlanwelz had a total population of 18,595. The total area is 20.26 km² which gives a population density of 918 inhabitants per km²...
26 August 1741), was the governor of the Austrian Netherlands between 1725 and 1741.
Maria Elisabeth was a daughter of Emperor Leopold I
Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor
| style="float:right;" | Leopold I was a Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia. A member of the Habsburg family, he was the second son of Emperor Ferdinand III and his first wife, Maria Anna of Spain. His maternal grandparents were Philip III of Spain and Margaret of Austria...
and Eleonore-Magdalena of Pfalz-Neuburg. She well educated and fluent in Latin, German, French and Italian.
She never married. In 1725, she was appointed Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy
Prince Eugene of Savoy , was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history, rising to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna. Born in Paris to aristocratic Italian parents, Eugene grew up around the French court of King Louis XIV...
's successor as the regent governor of the Austrian Netherlands by her brother, Charles VI
Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor
Charles VI was the penultimate Habsburg sovereign of the Habsburg Empire. He succeeded his elder brother, Joseph I, as Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia , Hungary and Croatia , Archduke of Austria, etc., in 1711...
.
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 East India Company
East India Company
The East India Company was an early English joint-stock company that was formed initially for pursuing trade with the East Indies, but that ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and China...
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
Jean-Joseph Fiocco was a Flemish composer of the high and late Baroque period.His father was the Venetian composer Pietro Antonio Fiocco , and his brothers included the violinist Joseph-Hector...
, her maestro di cappella who dedicated several oratorums to her between 1726 and 1738. The architect Jean-Andre Anneessens designed the palace Mariemont for her, where she spent her summers.
She died suddenly and 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 Crypte
Imperial Crypt, Vienna
The Imperial Crypt in Vienna, Austria lies below the Capuchin Church and monastery founded in 1618 and dedicated in 1632. It is on the Neuer Markt square of the Innere Stadt, near the imperial Hofburg Palace...
next to her brother Charles.