Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria

Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie of Austria (7 July 1878 – 13 March 1960) was a daughter of Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria and his third wife Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal. 

She was the mother of Franz Joseph II, Prince of Liechtenstein, and the paternal grandmother of Hans-Adam II, Prince of Liechtenstein.

Family and early life

Elisabeth was born in Reichenau on 7 July 1878. She was born the youngest of a large family, as her father Archduke Karl Ludwig of Austria married three times and had children with two of his wives. With his first wife Princess Margaretha of Saxony, he had no children. With his second wife Princess Maria Annunciata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, Karl Ludwig fathered Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, who became heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, as well as three other siblings. Elisabeth and her older sister Archduchess Maria Annunciata of Austria (later Abbess of the Theresia Convent in the Hradschin, Prague) were the product of his third marriage to Infanta Maria Theresa of Portugal, a daughter of the deposed King Miguel I of Portugal.

In addition, her father was a younger brother of Franz Joseph I of Austria, the reigning emperor at the time of her birth. He was also a sibling of Maximilian I of Mexico, who became Emperor of Mexico for a short period of time.

Marriage

On 20 April 1903, in Vienna, Archduchess Elisabeth Amalie married Prince Aloys of Liechtenstein. There had been some debate as to whether this was an equal union. Emperor Franz Joseph I attended the wedding with the intention of making it clear he regarded the House of Liechtenstein as a legitimate reigning dynasty. As the House of Liechtenstein had become sovereign, the couple were ruled equal in birth, and the Emperor was happy to see a member of his family making a dynastic marriage, after the morganatic marriage of her half-brother Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Later, the Emperor also became the godfather of the couple's eldest son, Franz Joseph, who was named after him.

Sometime after their marriage, Princess Catherine Radziwill commented that Elisabeth "is very pretty and resembles her mother more than the Habsburgs, whose lower lip she has not inherited by some kind of miracle, for which, I suppose, she feels immeasurably grateful". Elisabeth and Aloys lived in various castles within Austria, including Gross-Ullersdorf Castle. Their eldest son was born in Frauenthal Castle.

The couple had eight children together: