Archduchess Maria Christina, Duchess of Teschen

Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria, Duchess of Teschen, Selfportrait

Marie Christine Johanna Josephe Antonie of Austria (born Maria Christina Johanna Josepha Antonia) (13 May 1742 - 24 June 1798), (→Family Tree) called "Mimi", was the fourth daughter and fifth child of Maria Theresa of Austria and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Christina was her mother's favourite child. The doting partiality that the Empress showed towards her caused intense jealousy in her siblings, especially the Emperor Joseph II, whose first wife (Isabella of Parma) also seemed to prefer Christina's company to her husband's. It was rumoured that Isabella and Christina were lesbian lovers, although the allegation was never proven. Christina was a very intelligent woman who knew how to manipulate her parents, especially her mother. The sudden death of her father, the Emperor Francis, and the depression that overcame Empress Maria Theresa following her widowhood meant that Christina was able to convince her vulnerable and sentimental mother into permitting her to marry for love rather than for reasons of state — the only child allowed to do so. She chose Prince Albert of Saxony and the couple was appointed joint governors of the Austrian Netherlands. Naturally, Christina's luck in being permitted to marry the man she loved, while another daughter - Maria Amalia, also in love with a minor Prince, Charles of Zweibrucken - was forcibly married off to Ferdinand of Parma rather than to her sweetheart, embittered Maria Theresa's other daughters, who already resented their mother's favouritism. Maria Amalia, the daughter most affected, remained estranged from her mother for the rest of the Empress's life.

Monarchical styles of Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria
Reference style	Her Imperial and Royal Highness
Spoken style	Your Imperial and Royal Highness
Alternative style	Sir

Mimi had only one child, Princess Maria Theresia of Saxony, who died on May 17, 1767, the day after her birth, and she was unable to have other children. The couple then became the adoptive parents of Archduke Charles of Austria. Her siblings - especially her sisters - never mended fences with her, even after their mother passed on. Queen Marie Antoinette of France, her youngest sister, pointedly ignored her during her visit to France and considered her as just another state guest when she visited Versailles. Christina's request to see the Petit Trianon, Antoinette's private retreat, was ignored. When Antoinette was guillotined in 1793, Christina was reported to have remarked drily that she (Antoinette) ought never to have married. Christina stands testimony to the damaging, long-term effects of parental favourtism and the subsequent (and devastating) sibling rivalry. She is buried in the Tuscan Vault of the Imperial Crypt in Vienna, along with her husband and daughter. The famous and moving monument her husband erected to her memory is in the Augustinerkirche.

Ancestry