Friday, April 8, 2011

Death of an Archduchess

April 8, 1961

The Reuters news agency is reporting the death of Archduchess Maria Annunziata of Austria, who died "last night" of a heart attack in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.  She was 85 years old.

The archduchess was a half-sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 was the catalyst for the outbreak of World War II.   For many years, Maria Annunciata lived at Schloss Vaduz, the home of Prince Franz Josef of Liechtenstein.

Maria Annunciata was one of two daughters of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria, younger brother of Emperor Franz Josef,  and his third wife, Infanta Maria Teresa of Portugal. She was named for her father's second wife, Princess Maria Annunziata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies,  who died in 1871 from tuberculosis.  

Her older sister,  Archduchess Elisabeth, was married in 1903 to Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein.  Franz Josef was the eldest of Elisabeth's eight children.


Archduchess Maria Annunziata, a devout Roman Catholic, never married, although she was briefly engaged to Duke Siegfried in Bavaria.  She became the Abbess of the Theresia Convent in the Hradschin, Prague.


Earlier posts on Maria Annunciata




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