Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria

This article is about the daughter of Maria Theresa. For the daughter of Ferdinand I, see Joanna of Austria, Grand Duchess of Tuscany.

Johanna Gabriela
Archduchess of Austria
Johanna by Jean-Étienne Liotard, 1762
Born	(1750-02-04)4 February 1750 Hofburg Palace, Vienna
Died	Hofburg Palace, Vienna
Burial	Imperial Crypt
Full name Maria Joanna Gabriella Josepha Antonia
House	House of Habsburg-Lorraine
Father	Francis I Stephen
Mother	Maria Theresa

Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria (English: Marie Joanna Gabrielle Josepha Antonia, German: Maria Johanna Gabriele Josefa Antonia; 4 February 1750 – 23 December 1762) was an Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Tuscany, Hungary and Bohemia as the eleventh child and ninth daughter of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa. She was described as likeable and good-natured, but died aged 12 of smallpox.

Early life and education

Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela Josepha Antonia, commonly called Johanna or Johanna Gabriela, was born at the Vienna Hofburg on 4 February 1750 as the eleventh child and ninth daughter of Francis Stephen of Lorraine, Holy Roman Emperor and Maria Theresa, Archduchess of Austria and Queen of Hungary and Bohemia. One year later, she was joined by a sister, Archduchess Maria Josepha.

Johanna's tomb in the Imperial Crypt.

Johanna Gabriela was part of a string of children born soon after one another and was thus placed in the Kindskammer (the imperial nursery) along with her siblings Maria Josepha, Maria Carolina, Ferdinand Charles, Maria Antonia and Maximilian Francis; they were mainly looked after by ladies-in-waiting and their attendants. At the age of five, Johanna received her own suite of rooms in the imperial palace and some additional tutors. She had a good relationship with her siblings, albeit with the regular fraternal quarrels, as Maria Theresa encouraged her children to get along.

Johanna was very close to her sister Maria Josepha; the two were educated together and had the same aios and aias, as the male and female tutors were called in the imperial family. The girls enjoyed a varied education which was closely monitored by their parents. Due to her untimely death, Johanna's education covered only one phase of the two that Maria Theresa had created for her children: she studied reading, writing, Latin, foreign languages, history, geography, land surveying, military architecture, mathematics, music, dancing and gymnastics, as well as religion from the age of three.

Additionally, Johanna was highly educated in making music and dancing, both subjects her mother loved and had excelled at in her own childhood. While the boys were taught to play different instruments, Johanna and her sisters were given singing lessons. A special theatre was built at Schönbrunn especially for the children; Johanna and her siblings gave frequent musical performances. Another very important part of the Archduchess's education was art: she was educated in drawing and painting, a field where the girls excelled particularly. All in all, Johanna and Josepha "developed satisfactory, worked hard at their lessons and were involved in numerous festivities in which they participated enthusiastically."

Engagement and death

Maria Theresa pursued a deliberate marriage policy to which all of her children had to submit. Thus, she married most of her children off throughout Europe. She and King Charles III of Spain agreed that Maria Theresa's fourth daughter, Archduchess Maria Amalia, to marry Charles III's son, King Ferdinand III of Sicily and IV of Naples; but Charles later wanted to break off the engagement due to Maria Amalia being five years older than Ferdinand. Maria Theresa then turned her attention to Johanna, the closest sister who was just one year older than Ferdinand, so she betrothed Johanna to Ferdinand instead.

In the second half of the eighteenth century, smallpox was ravaging the Holy Roman Empire. Leopold Mozart, father of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, wrote that "in the whole of Vienna, nothing was spoken of except smallpox. If 10 children were on the death register, 9 of them had died from smallpox." Johanna's older brother Karl Joseph died of smallpox in 1761 and Maria Theresa became a strong supporter of inoculation, a primitive way of immunization. In order to set a strong example, the Empress ordered the inoculation of all her remaining children. Although without incidents for the other children, Johanna became ill after the inoculation and died shortly thereafter. She was buried in the Imperial Crypt in Vienna.

Ancestry

Family of Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria

16. Nicholas II, Duke of Lorraine               8. Charles V, Duke of Lorraine                       17. Claude-Françoise of Lorraine               4. Leopold, Duke of Lorraine                             18. Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor               9. Eleonora Maria Josefa of Austria Queen Dowager of Poland-Lithuania                       19. Eleanor Gonzaga of Mantua               2. Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor                                   20. Louis XIII of France               10. Philippe de France, Duke of Orléans                       21. Anne of Austria               5. Élisabeth Charlotte d'Orléans                             22. Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine               11. Elizabeth Charlotte of the Palatinate                       23. Landgravine Charlotte of Hesse-Kassel               1. Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria                                         24. Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (= 18)               12. Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor                       25. Maria Anna of Spain               6. Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor                             26. Philip William, Elector Palatine               13. Eleonore Magdalene of the Palatinate                       27. Landgravine Elisabeth Amalie of Hesse-Darmstadt               3. Maria Theresa of Austria Queen of Hungary & Bohemia                                   28. Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel               14. Louis Rudolph, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel                       29. Duchess Elisabeth of Schleswig-Holstein-Sønderburg-Norburg               7. Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel                             30. Albert Ernest I, Prince of Oettingen-Oettingen               15. Princess Christine Louise of Oettingen-Oettingen                       31. Duchess Christine Frederica of Württemburg

Titles, styles, honours and arms

Titles and styles

• 4 February 1750 – 23 December 1762 Her Royal Highness Archduchess Maria Johanna Gabriela of Austria, Princess of Hungary and Bohemia, Princess of Tuscany