Editing Maria Theresa (section)

===Illnesses and deaths===
[[File:Franz Anton Maulbertschl - deceased children of Maria Theresa (Riesensaal).jpg|left|thumb|Mural by [[Franz Anton Maulbertsch]] in the Hofburg, [[Innsbruck]], commissioned by Maria Theresa in remembrance of her daughters who died in childhood: Maria Johanna (1750–1762), Maria Elisabeth (1737–1740), Maria Carolina (1740–1741) and Maria Carolina (1748)]]

Four of Maria Theresa's children died before reaching adolescence. Her eldest daughter Maria Elisabeth died from stomach cramps at the age of three. Her third child, the first of three daughters named Maria Carolina, died shortly after her first birthday. The second Maria Carolina was born feet first in 1748. As it became evident that she would not survive, preparations were hastily made to baptize her while still living; according to traditional Catholic belief, unbaptized infants would be condemned to eternity in [[limbo]]. Maria Theresa's physician [[Gerard van Swieten]] assured her that the infant was still living when baptized, but many at court doubted this.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=306–310}}

Maria Theresa's mother, Empress Elisabeth Christine, died in 1750. Four years later, Maria Theresa's governess, Marie Karoline von Fuchs-Mollard, died. She showed her gratitude to Countess Fuchs by having her buried in the [[Imperial Crypt, Vienna|Imperial Crypt]] along with the members of the imperial family.{{sfn|Mahan|1932|p=22}}

[[Smallpox]] was a constant threat to members of the royal family. Maria Theresa's daughter Maria Christina survived a bout of the disease in July 1749, as did Maria Theresa's eldest son Joseph in January 1757.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=507}} In January 1761, the disease killed her second son Charles at the age of fifteen.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=507, 935 n193}} In December 1762, her twelve-year-old daughter Johanna likewise died in agony from the disease.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=507}} In November 1763, Joseph's first wife, [[Isabella of Parma]], died from the disease.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=497, 508}} Joseph's second wife, [[Maria Josepha of Bavaria]], likewise caught the disease in May 1767 and died a week later. Maria Theresa ignored the risk of infection and embraced her daughter-in-law before the sick chamber was sealed to outsiders.{{sfn|Crankshaw|1970|p=273}}{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=508}}

Maria Theresa in fact contracted smallpox from Maria Josepha. Throughout the city prayers were made for her recovery, and the sacrament was displayed in all churches. Joseph slept in one of his mother's antechambers and hardly left her bedside. On 1 June, Maria Theresa was given the [[Anointing of the Sick (Catholic Church)|last rites]]. When the news came in early June that she had survived the crisis, there was huge rejoicing at the court and amongst the populace of Vienna.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=508f}}

In October 1767, Maria Theresa's sixteen-year-old daughter Josepha also showed signs of the disease. It was assumed that she had caught the infection when she went with her mother to pray in the [[Imperial Crypt]] next to the unsealed tomb of Empress Maria Josepha. Archduchess Josepha started showing smallpox rash two days after visiting the crypt and soon died. Maria Carolina was to replace her as the pre-determined bride of King [[Ferdinand IV of Naples]]. Maria Theresa blamed herself for her daughter's death for the rest of her life because, at the time, the concept of an extended incubation period was largely unknown and it was believed that Josepha had caught smallpox from the body of the late empress.{{efn|It takes at least a week for the smallpox rash to appear after a person is infected. Since the rash appeared two days after Josepha had visited the vault, the Archduchess must have been infected much before visiting the vault.{{harvnb|Hopkins|2002|p=64}}.}}{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=511}} The last in the family to be infected with the illness was the twenty-four-year-old Elisabeth, Maria Theresa's sixth child. Although she recovered, she was badly scarred with pock marks from the illness.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|p=511}} Maria Theresa's losses to smallpox, especially in the epidemic of 1767, were decisive in her sponsoring trials to prevent the illness through [[Variolation|inoculation]], and subsequently insisting on members of the imperial family receiving inoculation.{{sfn|Stollberg-Rilinger|2017|pp=504–515}}