Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (1740–1741)

Archduchess Maria Carolina
Extract from a portrait of Martin van Meytens, who represented the three daughters of Maria Theresa who died in infancy
Born	(1740-01-12)12 January 1740 Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Died	25 January 1741(1741-01-25) (aged 1) Vienna, Archduchy of Austria, Holy Roman Empire
Burial	Imperial Crypt, Capuchin Church, Innere Stadt, Vienna, Republic of Austria
Full name Maria Carolina Ernestina Antonia Joanna Josepha
House	Habsburg
Father	Prince Francis, Duke of Lorraine
Mother	Empress Maria Theresa I, Holy Roman Empress

Archduchess Maria Carolina of Austria (full German name: Maria Carolina Ernestina Antonia Johanna Josefa; 12 January 1740 – 25 January 1741), was the third child and daughter of Archduchess Maria Theresa of Austria, later Holy Roman Empress and Duke Francis of Lorraine.

In Maria Theresa's third pregnancy expectations for a male heir were intense. The disappointment was correspondingly great when, on 12 January 1740, a third daughter was born. She was inmediately baptized in the evening of her birth.

After the death of her older sister Maria Elisabeth on 7 June, she became in the second in line of succession, preceded only by her other older sister Maria Anna. Five months later, on 20 October, her grandfather Emperor Charles VI died and her mother inherited the Austrian and Bohemian lands, and with this began the War of the Austrian Succession.

On 24 January 1741 the young Archduchess suddenly became gravely ill with violent seizures, dying around noon of the next day. The cause of death was now known believed that was either tetany or spasmophilia; however, at the time of her death an autopsy was carried out on the corpse, but no explanation was given for her demise. She was buried in the Maria Theresa Vault at the Imperial Crypt, Vienna.

Two other sisters were named after her: another short-lived one (born and died in 1748) and another (born in 1752), later Queen of Naples and Sicily.