Maria Leopoldina, Archduchess of Austria
Maria Leopoldina Josepha Caroline of Habsburg, archduchess of Austria, was born in 1797 in Vienna, Austria. She was the daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor and his second wife, Maria Theresa of Bourbon-Two Sicilies. Among her many siblings were Emperor Ferdinand I of Austria and Marie Louise, wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1817 she married Peter, heir to the throne of Portugal. Leopoldine was very cultured, and she took many researchers and biologists (including Johann Natterer) with her to Brazil, where the Portuguese Court lived in exile during the Napoleonic Wars. Leopoldine gave Peter 7 children: She died in 1826, after a miscarriage. The biggest railway station in Rio de Janeiro, is named Imperatriz Leopoldina after her.
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