page_title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Maria Leopoldina of Austria / Early life
context_page_description: Dona Maria Leopoldina of Austria was an archduchess of Austria, Empress consort of Brazil and Queen consort of Portugal.
  She was born Caroline Josepha Leopoldine Franziska Ferdinanda of Habsburg-Lorraine in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, and his second wife, Maria Teresa of Naples and Sicily. Among her many siblings were Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and Marie Louise, Duchess of Parma, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
context_section_description: Leopoldina was born on 22 January 1797 in Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria. She was given the name Caroline Josepha Leopoldine Franziska Ferdinanda, according to her biographer Carlos H. Oberacker, and confirmed by Bettina Kann in her work "Cartas de uma Imperatriz", who mentioned a contemporary source: the Austrian newspaper Wiener Zeitung of 25 January 1797, who gave the news of the birth of the Archduchess three days before with her full name. According to Oberacker, the name "Maria" wasn't present in the preserved baptismal record of the Archduchess, and she began to use it only during her journey to Brazil, where she began to be named Maria Leopoldina in all documents, including the Constitutional oath of 1822. According to another theory presented by Oberacker, the Archduchess probably began to use the name "Maria" due to her great devotion to the Virgin Mary and because all her sisters-in-law used this name.
  She was raised in accordance with the educational principles laid down by her grandfather, Emperor Leopold II. Among these was the habit of exercising her handwriting by writing the following text:
  Do not oppress the poor. Be charitable. Do not complain about what God has given you, but improve your habits. We must strive earnestly to be good.
  In addition, she and her sisters were taught to speak French and Latin. They were also educated in drawing, piano, riding and hunting. Her mother died when she was ten years old and her father went on to remarry Maria Ludovika of Austria-Este. Her late mother was a soprano and Leopoldina had the chance of meeting Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in 1810 and 1812, when she went to Carlsbad with her stepmother. Her passions included natural sciences, especially botany and mineralogy. She was formed according to the three Habsburg principles: discipline, piety and a sense of duty.
  Although Maria Theresa of Naples and Sicily was her birth mother, Leopoldina always considered Maria Ludovika d'Este, her stepmother, to be her mother and she grew up with Ludovika as her "spiritual mother".
caption: Leopoldina in her youth, 1800s
exif: {}